Cape Town: The city becomes first African City to launch a data strategy, positioning them for digital age service delivery and transparency. The Residents can now access useful data on Open Data Portal.
The City of Cape Town has initiated a momentous transition to become a data-led organisation. The city has launched its Data Strategy on September 09, 2024. It is first for an African city and will position Cape Town to become a leading city on the continent for use of data driven delivery and planning.
Mayor of the town Geordin Hill-Lewis said that they pledged to take the service delivery into the digital age and to ensure unprecedented levels of data transparency for the public. The Data Strategy sets out the detail of how we are achieving this over time.
The residents and stakeholders can access all sorts of useful data on Open Data Portal. It ranges from data and maps on basic services, demographics and infrastructure to ongoing water quality sampling data for inland and coastal waterbodies.
Mayor Lewis said, “We are also increasingly measuring the services and infrastructure performance so that we can better manage delivery to the public.”
“We have installed the digital tracking systems across the water, sanitation and energy infrastructure and invested in human resources to monitor and dispatch rapid response teams where issues arise,” added the Mayor.
He expressed that they are just getting started and have encouraged the public to continue the working with them as they improve the quality and scope of data to underpin the efforts to build a future-fit City of Hope for all.
In 2018, the City of Cape Town created an internal administrative data strategy. By taking this crucial step, a lot of work has gone into turning the administrative data into useful and pertinent business information that successfully supports the decision-making and boosts the efficiency and transparency.
Moreover, the data strategy will enable better services through the evidence-led decision-making, also inform better planning for the future. The public will also have the assurance that their personal data will be even more safe now, through stronger systems and governance.
According to the city, more data sources of better quality will continuously be available for public viewing and analysis.
Reportedly, Cape Town has secured three-year technical advisory services with the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (UKFCDO), to support the implementation of the first Data Strategy.
The partnership has developed the internal capacity and has established a Data Science team. Some of the projects that have already benefitted from the better use of data are the data-driven approach to the Covid-19 response, informal settlements data collection and data driven infrastructure asset management among others.
Private sector and civil society are also extracting the greater public value from the City Open Data Portal by leveraging data on aspects such as housing, transportation and energy to develop the tools that help the public confidently in making decisions in their everyday lives.
Mayor Lewis thanked the residents for participating in the public participation process last year, as they do hope that businesses, NPOs and residents will engage further with them as they embark on the initiative with the support received from the partners is invaluable and they are starting to see the benefits of it.