Cities are increasingly turning to data to drive better decision-making, improve service delivery, and respond to complex challenges that impact their residents.
This Data Strategy Toolkit is designed to meet the needs of city officials, data champions, and decision-makers both in South African municipalities and beyond. It’s built around data, digital functions, and technological capabilities, which all play different but important roles in helping cities use data effectively as a resource to make informed decisions.
- Data refers to the raw information cities collect, store, and analyse. This includes census information, traffic patterns, utility usage, crime statistics, environmental sensors, economic indicators, and citizen feedback. Data forms the foundation for understanding how a city functions and what challenges it faces. Cities generate massive amounts of data daily through various sources like IoT sensors, administrative records, and citizen interactions. In an increasingly resource-constrained space, it helps prioritise resources towards solving the most pressing issues to create better lives for residents. Furthermore, in a world where misinformation is rife and interests vary, it helps coordinate work towards facts and what is viewed by data.
- Digital encompasses the systems, platforms, and interfaces that process and present data in accessible formats. This includes city websites, mobile apps for residents, digital payment systems for municipal services, online permitting processes, and digital communication channels. Digital represents the user-facing layer where citizens interact with city services and where data becomes actionable information through dashboards, maps, and applications.
- Technology is the broader infrastructure and tools that enable both data collection and digital services. This includes the physical hardware (servers, fiber optic networks, sensors, cameras), software systems (databases, analytics platforms, operating systems), and emerging technologies like AI, machine learning, and automation. Technology provides the backbone that makes data collection possible and digital services functional.
This toolkit grounds itself in everyday challenges, aligning with existing planning frameworks and focusing on tangible outcomes. You’ll find step-by-step guidance on building a fit-for-purpose data strategy in your city, helping with everything from assessing data maturity to identifying high-impact use cases. A fair warning, though. A data strategy is anything but a strategy or a policy document that is printed and stored in a cabinet, referred to as occasionally. Time and again, the best cities have shown that the strategy is the delivery, coined famously by the UK Digital Services. What this means is that the strategy needs to be actioned via projects or use cases that solve people’s problems. Producing workable code is far important than writing a neat piece of strategy document. Many can write a good paper, but not deliver a service to solve people’s problems.
This resource is most useful to you if you are a civil servant/municipal official or work closely with cities that are:
- Considering developing their own data strategies and want to understand the purpose and business case behind it.
- Deciding to develop a data strategy and want to know how to get started.
- Developing or implementing their data strategy and need some additional guidance along the way.
If that sounds like you, dive in, and start shaping a more resilient, data-driven future for your city.