Smart City and Local Authorities: Leading the Digital Transformation

The content is based on the realities of cities in Africa, the Arab world, Asia and Latin America, but the methodological support has a universal reach.

The questions this guide will endeavour to answer include: how do you achieve the gradual digitalization of one or more sectors of local authority action? How do you stimulate and facilitate innovation on the local territory? How do you act with pragmatism and through a “test-and-learn” process? How do you define the frameworks and regulate data access and openness in an approach that is in the public interest? How do you build urban knowledge through digital tools, that will help define the action of the municipality? How do you start an internal process of digital transformation? How do you boost the capacity of municipal staff in the digital sphere?

Overview of the guide

This guide is designed to raise local authority awareness of the opportunities digital tools offer for their action, but also to emphasise their responsibilities.

It offers an operational perspective by proposing possible directions for action and examples of experience in the use of digital tools all over the world. The guide is not intended as a substitute for any technical assistance that a consulting firm could provide at the request of the local authority.

Structuration of the guide

The guide comprises three main parts:

• Part A proposes a methodological path for making digital technology a lever of sustainable change, and taking into account all the uses and stakeholders concerned by these new tools. The aim is to enable the local authorities to frame and define their general approach.
• Part B concerns the ways digital technology can be mobilised through four major municipal domains: management of urban services, territorial planning and management including the most vulnerable populations, local economic development and improvement of relations between administration and users.
• Part C covers the digitalization of the local authorities themselves and the resulting organisational adjustments. It highlights the fundamentals and components of a municipal digitalization to strengthen leadership and engage the departments in the digital transition. This part cuts across parts A and B.

In the annexes are a glossary explaining the main digital terms and additional online resources and references.

The “Initiatives” part presents examples of the introduction of digital tools all over the world, classified by theme. It will be enriched gradually with contributions submitted online by local authorities who wish to share their experiences.