New Stoplight Mobile App
Jul 9, 2026
In this session, Guido Ruiz Díaz and Fabrizio Núñez, members of Fundación Paraguaya’s technology team, presented the new version of Stoplight Mobile, the application designed to conduct Poverty Stoplight assessments in the field using Android and iOS devices, with or without an internet connection.
The session explained why the application needed to be rebuilt, its main improvements, and how the complete process works, from preparation before going into the field to synchronization and generation of the Life Map. The team also conducted a practical demonstration and answered participants’ questions.
AN APPLICATION DESIGNED FOR FIELDWORK
The Poverty Stoplight is implemented in more than 60 countries and across highly diverse contexts. Assessments are not always conducted from offices or urban areas with reliable connectivity. In many cases, facilitators and surveyors work in rural communities, remote territories, or locations where internet access is limited or unavailable.
For this reason, offline functionality remains one of the application’s core features. Information can be stored on the device during the visit and synchronized once connectivity is restored.
The new version maintains this purpose while seeking to provide a more stable, faster, and simpler experience for those who work directly with families.
“The application should support the conversation with the family, not make it more burdensome.”
FROM REACT NATIVE TO FLUTTER
The previous version played an important role for approximately ten years. It made it possible to bring the Poverty Stoplight to many territories and work without an internet connection. Over time, however, it began to show limitations.
The main challenges included:
• Errors that were difficult to resolve permanently.
• Differences in performance between Android and iOS.
• Slower performance when many families were stored.
• Problems with pending assessments and synchronizations.
• Greater difficulty incorporating new features.
• The risk that fixing one issue could affect another part of the application.
One practical limitation was the management of approximately 300 families per user. When this number was exceeded, the device’s temporary storage could become overloaded and affect performance. This was particularly problematic for programs conducting many assessments in a single day.
Given these difficulties, the team decided to rebuild the application using Flutter, a Google-supported technology that allows the same codebase to be used for Android and iOS.
The change offers three main benefits:
• Greater consistency: Improvements and corrections can be implemented simultaneously across both operating systems.
• Better performance: The application runs more smoothly, including on mid-range and low-end devices.
• Greater control: The team can understand, reproduce, and resolve errors more accurately.
The objective was not simply to modernize the technology, but to build a more sustainable foundation that is better prepared for future improvements.
THREE MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS
A smoother assessment process The new process integrates family data, geolocation, socioeconomic questions, indicators, and the Life Map into a more guided flow.
Navigation between screens is faster, and unnecessary steps have been reduced. This allows the surveyor to pay greater attention to the conversation and the family’s responses.
A panel for navigating between indicators has also been added. Users can return directly to a previously answered question without going through the entire assessment again.
This feature is particularly useful when a family wishes to review an answer, when a conversation is interrupted, or when information needs to be corrected.
More reliable offline functionality The new application was designed from the outset to work with limited or no connectivity.
Data is stored locally on the device. If the visit is interrupted or the application closes, the assessment is automatically saved as a draft and can be resumed from where it stopped.
Offline maps can also be managed directly within the application. Users can download the regions they need in advance and delete them later to free up space.
More robust synchronization Synchronization connects the information collected in the field with the central Poverty Stoplight platform.
The new version improves the management of conflicts between devices, helps prevent duplicates, and provides stronger protection for family data.
When a correctable error occurs, the application displays a clearer message and allows the user to edit the draft before attempting synchronization again. In the previous version, some errors could damage an assessment and require it to be repeated.
As an additional measure, users can download a backup in JSON format. This file serves as a contingency mechanism for recovering information if a serious synchronization problem occurs.
“The idea is that the application should not depend on everything going perfectly.”
CHANGES TO THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS
During the demonstration, Fabrizio presented the main stages of an assessment.
Selecting the assessment Organizations may have different assessment definitions available, for example, for different populations, projects, or languages. The user selects the appropriate assessment before beginning.
The application indicates how many socioeconomic questions and indicators it contains, as well as whether there is a minimum number of priorities that must be selected.
Consent and family information The assessment begins with the terms and conditions and privacy policy.
Basic information about the participant and household members is then recorded. These details are used to generate a family code that links assessments and enables follow-up.
The central Poverty Stoplight team works with pseudonymized information. This means that it uses the family code for analysis and does not directly access sensitive personal data.
Geolocation The application requests the family’s location through GPS. When connectivity is unavailable, a previously downloaded map can be used.
Geolocation makes it possible to later analyze indicators by territory, community, or region.
Socioeconomic questions These questions can be customized and help contextualize the Poverty Stoplight colors.
Indicators show whether a condition is red, yellow, or green, while socioeconomic data provides a deeper understanding of the family’s situation, including area of residence, education, housing, employment activity, and income level.
Indicators, priorities, and achievements The new navigation system allows users to move quickly between indicators and return to any question that has already been answered.
At the end, the family can select its priorities. Three elements are recorded for each one:
• Why the family does not yet have that condition.
• What action it will take to achieve it.
• How much time it estimates it will need.
During follow-up assessments, achievements can also be recorded when an indicator turns green. The family can explain what it did and who or what motivated the change.
Life Map The application generates a Life Map containing the results, priorities, and achievements.
This document can be downloaded, printed, emailed, or shared through WhatsApp when contact information has been provided.
The Life Map is not simply a report. It is a tool for speaking with the family, recognizing progress, and defining next steps.
ROLES WITHIN THE APPLICATION
The new version maintains two main user profiles.
Surveyor A surveyor can:
• Conduct assessments.
• Complete indicators.
• Record priorities and achievements.
• Download offline maps.
• Synchronize information.
• Log out securely.
This profile can be used directly by a family when no facilitator is supporting the process.
Facilitator A facilitator has access to all surveyor functions and can also:
• View the list and profile of families.
• Manage multiple assessments.
• Resume drafts.
• Conduct follow-up assessments.
• Record interventions.
• Monitor the support provided.
There is no separate role called “family.” When a family uses the application directly, it does so through a surveyor account.
COMPATIBILITY AND TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
The application is available for Android, iPhone, and iPad.
The technical requirements presented were:
• Android 7.0 or later, with Android 13 or later recommended.
• iOS 13 or later.
• iPadOS 13 or later.
• Approximately 48 MB of storage for installation.
• Around 1 GB of cache space.
• At least 4 GB of RAM on Android, particularly for facilitators managing many families.
The team recommended reviewing these specifications before purchasing devices intended for fieldwork.
CHECKLIST BEFORE GOING INTO THE FIELD
The presenters shared four practical recommendations:
• Log in while connected to the internet: This allows the latest data, assessments, and maps to be downloaded.
• Check the device: Verify the battery level, available storage, and location permissions.
• Update the application: New versions include corrections and improvements.
• Log in again after changes: If indicators, assessments, or geographic data have been modified, the user must log in again to load the updated information.
Although the application works offline, preparation before going into the field is essential to avoid difficulties during the working day.
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You can learn more about the upcoming Cerrito Forum 2026, the annual international global development event that brings together global stakeholders committed to the elimination of poverty from October 12th - 16th by visiting cerrito.com.py.
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