Building Data Foundations for Smarter,

Sustainable Cities

World Bank Technical Assistance Initiative

City Planning Labs (CPL)

“Smart is not

necessarily

sensible or

sustainable”

We cannot manage what

we don’t measure

“Data is to this century what oil was to the last one:

a driver of growth and change. Flows of data have

created new infrastructure, new businesses,

new monopolies, new politics and — crucially —

new economics.”

-- The Economist (2017)

Still no happily ever after in sight….

WELCOME

BUT…MISSION

ON DATA?

WE HAVE A

LOT OF DATA…

WHAT’S MORE

TO DISCUSS?

Challenge 1: Lack of data governance frameworks

exacerbate the problem of institutional silos.

Challenge 2: Absence of fundamental shared data-

sets within city line departments fuels data

ambiguities and hinders accurate diagnosis of issues.

Challenge 3: Absence of a single data platform and

institutional arrangements for intra-governmental

coordination intensifies fragmented urban planning

and service delivery.

Challenge 4: Inadequate technical and human

resource capacities hinders organisational

motivation to migrate to advanced technologies and

improved data governance processes.

Data driven development

South Africa’s

Johannesburg

Data Governance

Regulations,

Protocols

Global Benchmarking

+ Partnership with

Singapore Land Authority

Our Flagship Product:

Municipal Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI)

“THIS MSDI SEEMS LIKE A SCARY

GHOST!”

Data as Infrastructure

Operationalizing MSDI:

Ecosystem of 4 interconnected Pillars

I

P

D

S

Institutional

Arrangements

People

Data

Systems

Institutional and Regulatory

Frameworks including Roles

and Responsibilities,

Geospatial Access Protocols

including Data Sharing, Data

Custodianship etc.

Methods to build a shared

vision across agencies and

develop competency of staff

at all levels

Develop data sharing

protocols and enable the

creation of a Fundamental

Dataset, data and metadata

standards

Specify standards and

functionalities of the

Integrated Data Platform,

data warehouse

IMPLEMENTABLE

MSDI ROADMAP

Two mantras:

“Plan big but start

small”

“Start anywhere but

keep an “I” on the

goal”

Multiple Entry Points

“The one who can adapt,

is the one who can survive”

“Bring back the emotion”

“Not just one leader but

many small champions”

“Pray! Because

collaboration is messy”

No one solution

Not one time solution

Process, not products