[CITY] will appoint a Chief Data Officer position, reporting to the city manager, with authority convene and act across the municipality.
Chief Data Officer
Data is critical to the operation of a modern government and this must be reflected in the leadership and governance structures of the city. Around the world, governments have created a Chief Data Officer position and situated it in the top tier of their executive leadership structures with transversal responsibility for data. The appointment of a Chief Data Officer embodies the importance of data as a concern for a modern government. It also separates it from digital and from technology, which are distinct functions in a modern digital government.
Diagram showing how the Chief Data Officer relates to various other stakeholders
This is a model that [CITY] will implement through the appointment of a Chief Data Officer (CDO) reporting to the City Manager.
The [CITY] CDO’s office should be the administrative custodian of city data. They will be responsible for implementing the data strategy and is made up of data experts initially seconded from departments and agencies across the municipality. The CDO’s Data Working Group (DWG) mentioned below will also be responsible for transversal data infrastructure, data analytics, skills programmes and data governance. The CDO will also have “dotted line” responsibility for data officials in [CITY]- essentially, in this case, the CDO will have a secondary reporting relationship with all unit heads to receive guidance and input on data projects running in that unit.
Data Council
The ability of the [CITY] to use data effectively will only be achieved through systematic coordination, and cooperation, of the various departments and systems. To ensure alignment and effective collaboration across the municipality, [CITY] will also appoint a Data Council. It should consist of the heads of all units and agencies with significant data functions e.g. legal, compliance and risk, POPIA and PAIA representatives, technical leads. It should be chaired by the Chief Data Officer.
The role of the Data Council is to monitor and enable the implementation of the data strategy and act as a governance forum for data projects across [CITY]. This includes:
- Agreeing on the adoption of data standards
- Serving as a point of escalation for data access requests between departments
- Monitoring new data-related capital spending
- Reviewing insights that support better governance and planning across the organisation
- Make recommendations to the City Manager on how to use data more effectively and remove inefficiencies and support the delivery of new policy initiatives and services.
- Prioritise the release of public datasets that support social equity research and advocacy.
[CITY]’s Data Council must ensure diverse representation in governance structures, including gender balance and representation of historically marginalised groups.
Data Working Group
The adoption of specific data standards required details work and domain specific knowledge. The Data Working Group (DWG) is a collaborative, transversal practitioner level group responsible for the implementation details of the data strategy. It should consist of data stewards, data custodians and other data experts across the organisation responsible for implementing data-driven objectives such as skills development experts, IT experts, and project managers. It should be chaired by the Chief Data Officer. The DWG’s role is to develop standards and review implementations at the request of the Data Council. [CITY]’s Data Working Group must ensure diverse representation in governance structures, including gender balance and representation of historically marginalised groups.
Building a culture of data leadership
Everyone in a leadership position in [CITY] needs to play a part in facilitating an enabling environment that will create a successful and impactful use of data. It should be an expectation that senior leaders engage in governance processes and consider the full value of the data their units are responsible for. As such, supporting transversal use of data should be considered when setting the performance targets for leaders across the organisation and incorporated into the job descriptions of all leaders. Further, the Office of the Chief Data Officer should develop data training for all senior leaders.
Representation of all groups
The city will establish a Community Data Advisory Panel, allowing local leaders, advocacy groups, and civil society organisations to directly participate in data governance discussions. This participatory approach will ensure that municipal data policies and decisions reflect the lived experiences of all residents, particularly those who have historically faced systemic exclusion.
Action Items
- Appoint a Chief Data Officer (CDO)
- Create a data council
- Create a data working group
- Include data in the performance review process for senior leaders
- Develop data training for senior leaders