To promote sustainable regional development and strengthen data-driven decision-making, Vidzeme Planning Region (VPR) continues to develop a regional development monitoring system framework within the PoliRuralPlus project.
Currently, VPR faces challenges in ensuring coherent, comprehensive, and systematic monitoring of regional development, primarily due to a lack of quality data. The absence of a unified development monitoring system presents challenges in data availability, analytical capabilities, and decision-making processes. Therefore, the region seeks solutions to establish a systematic, coherent, and reliable development monitoring mechanism that would also assist local authorities in making data-driven decisions and provide citizens with clear feedback on progress toward their objectives.
Situation Mapping and Main Conclusions
To understand the current development monitoring experience and issues in Vidzeme, a study was conducted in 2024, involving local government specialists, representatives from other Latvian planning regions, and development experts. Experience exchange events and targeted discussions were held to identify municipal needs and opportunities for improving the development monitoring system.
Several key challenges emerged during this process:
- Data availability and fragmentation: Municipalities and regions often lack up-to-date and detailed data on development processes in various territories and sectors. Information is sometimes outdated or incomplete, and available data often do not meet actual needs.
- Incomparable data: Municipalities use different methods to collect and process data, making it challenging to form a comprehensive picture of regional development trends and make informed decisions.
- Lack of systematic monitoring: Decision-making in local authorities is often based on individual cases rather than systematic data analysis. Development monitoring is fragmented, and municipal strategic plans are frequently not based on comprehensive analytical indicators.
- Involvement of citizens and stakeholders: Municipalities indicate the necessity to improve public awareness and involvement in the development planning process to enhance decision-making transparency and inform citizens about development directions and participation opportunities.
Research as the Basis for a New Approach
To address the identified challenges, InnoMatrix, on behalf of VPR, is conducting an in-depth study aimed at summarizing and analysing approaches to developing an economic monitoring system framework in Vidzeme. The study examines existing data collection methods both in Latvia and abroad, analyses digital tools already used to monitor various processes, and proposes a framework for a development monitoring system.
The initial findings of the study highlight several important lessons:
- A common approach to development monitoring processes is needed, allowing local and regional authorities to use comparable data.
- Digital tools and artificial intelligence solutions can significantly improve data processing, but municipalities require support in utilizing them.
- Monitoring regional development must be closely linked to public involvement, ensuring a clear flow of information between local authorities, citizens, and businesses.
To discuss the study results, share experiences, and seek practical solutions, a thematic working group meeting will be held on April 4 in Cēsis. This event will bring together planning, development, and monitoring specialists from municipalities within the Vidzeme planning region. During the discussion, study conclusions will be reviewed, and practical solutions for further improving the development monitoring system will be sought.
Next Steps for Establishing the Monitoring Mechanism Framework
The study results will be presented to partners and the broader public in spring 2025 to stimulate debate on data use in development planning and decision-making. These discussions will significantly contribute to the conceptual design of a regional development monitoring mechanism, building on the lessons learned and challenges identified thus far.
To provide a practical foundation for developing the monitoring framework, the project will organize an Ideas Hackathon in September 2025 to develop concrete proposals for a prototype regional development monitoring mechanism. The hackathon aims to bring together experts from various fields, local government specialists, entrepreneurs, academics, and technology developers to jointly seek solutions for more effective development monitoring in the Vidzeme planning region.
Participants of the Ideas Hackathon will not only propose concrete solutions but also experiment with different models and digital tools that could become the basis for a unified development monitoring system in Vidzeme in the future.
By the end of the PoliRuralPlus project in 2026, best practices from other European regions will be collected, analysed, and adapted to Vidzeme’s needs. Concurrently, the impact of the activities implemented thus far in the project will be evaluated to provide sound recommendations for designing and implementing a regional development monitoring mechanism.
Additionally, opportunities will be explored to develop practical tools to enhance local authorities’ capacity to analyse and use available data more systematically in development planning and decision-making. This will include both methodological solutions and potential digital tools to facilitate information collection and analysis.
