Transforming local government with an IT enabled strategy - Cape Town’s ‘smart city’ strategy

1. Transforming local government with an IT enabled strategy- Cape Town’s ‘smart city’ strategy Nirvesh Sooful Interim Manager: Information Technology City of Cape Town

2. On December 5th a single Unicity Council which amalgamated the seven separate councils that currently make-up local government in the Cape Metropolitan Area was created. Population: +/- 3 million Budget: +/- R 9 Billion Staff: +/- 27 000 Size: +/- 215 900 ha Share of national GDP: 10.5% (1998) Share of provincial GDP: 75% (1998)

3. Agenda/ Key issues • Challenges facing cities • Globally • Nationally • Cape Town • What these challenges imply for local government and IT? • The emerging agenda for local government and the role of IT within that • What does Cape Town’s smart city strategy encompass?

4. Global challenges facing cities • Cities and towns are growing (size and influence) (The world is becoming more urban) • Devolution of functions to lower levels of government (Governments are decentralizing) • Globalisation (Cities are becoming more global) • Major programmes modernise/ re-invent government (Government is being reformed) • Additionally, technological developments and e-commerce are having a profound effect on society and speeding up change…..

5. Global challenges continued… “Sub-saharan Africa runs the risk of being virtually deleted from a world economy that increasingly is being driven and shaped by informational and globally networked capitalism….. …. Countries can operate effectively in the new global economy only if they meet two conditions: they must command adequate information and communication technology infrastructure and they must generate the human resources to operate it” Manuel Castells Spanish sociologist and author of “The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture” Quoted in the Sunday Independent 16/07/2000 “The ability to maximise the use of knowledge is now considered to be the single most important factor in deciding the competitiveness of countries as well as their ability to empower their citizens through enhanced access to information” Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology White paper on Science and Technology, 1996

6. National Challenges • Increasing pressure to consider alternate service delivery - i.e. find creative methods through which municipalities can mobilise energy, capacity and resources outside the municipality for the development of the area • Increasing pressure to become service and customer oriented e.g. Batho Pele ('People First') White Paper • Increasing pressure to involve the community in the work of the municipality • Increasing pressure to provide all relevant information to other levels of government, communities & other stakeholder • More and more functions being devolved to local government (partly due to fiscal and budgetary constraints at a national and provincial level, which leads to 'unfunded mandates')

7. Internal Local Government Challenges • Employee disillusionment/ uncertainty • Organisational decay • Lack of common service delivery standards across areas under our control • Lack of integration between Departments and Directorates • Increasing bureaucracy - huge reliance on manual processes and people based processes • IT Systems focused mainly on cost reporting not business enablement

8. Cape Town challenges - our city has many strengths... • Diversified and growing economy • High concentration of tertiary educational institutions • Beautiful and unique natural and built environment • Vibrant cultural mix that can serve as bridges between communities and people and lead to novel fusions • Great potential in the new knowledge economy growth sectors • Widespread civil society membership, activism and volunteerism • Resilience in the face of persistent hardship • Good infrastructure and manageable backlogs in terms of basic needs • Widespread and significant levels of managerial skills in both the public sector and private sector • Modern technological infrastructure (hardware and software)

9. Exacerbates social division & community disintegration However it also has many challenges - Salient Trends shaping the city • Unemployment likely to increase in medium term (3-10 years) as regional economy repositions • Poverty will deepen and spread amongst a larger section of the population as economic restructuring kicks in (note: 53% of Coloured community just above PDL) • Income inequality likely to increase as job growth is restricted to highly skilled areas • Aids/HIV infection rate to increase in tenfold in just 8 years affecting largely poor households and especially black women • Limited prospects for job creation and social integration amongst the youth will reinforce and further entrench vicious cycles of violence and criminality • Spatial divisions will continue to undermine optimal economic productivity and prospects for social integration

10. External Forces These challenges imply that local government has to change!! Demand for Lower Cost International trends, National legislation, Financial Pressures, Community disintegration, Technological Innovations, etc. Demand for Enhanced Services Focus on Change Demand for Increased Community Participation Social Inequality

11. A vision for the City of Cape Town • The city government of Cape Town will build a partnership with all its people to make Cape Town a world-class city in which the quality of every citizen’s life steadily improves. • Mindful of that which gives our city its unique character, we commit ourselves to nurturing Cape Town’s spectacular natural beauty, to preserving its rich heritage and to enriching its exciting mix of dynamic cultures. • In partnership with all our people we commit ourselves to fight crime, combat HIV/AIDS, promote job creation through a special focus on tourism, provide every Cape Townian with free basic services. • Our vision is of a safe city that is clean, attractive to investors, welcoming to visitors and underpinned by a vibrant, growing economy. • Our vision is of a well-run, democratic city that is accountable to the people of Cape Town, corruption free, transparent in all its activities and prudent in the management of its finances.

12. A vision for the City of Cape Town • Our vision is of a city in which no one is left behind, where everyone has access to opportunity and everyone is guaranteed basic life-line services. • Our vision is of an open, tolerant city in which every resident feels at home. • Our vision is of a smart city populated by informed people, connected to the world and each other by the technology of the information age. • Our vision is of a city filled with concerned citizens, in which every person takes responsibility for the good order, high standards and upkeep of the city and its environment. • We commit ourselves to a focus on the citizen as customer, to be responsive to the needs of the people and to efficiently deliver affordable services to all. • Together with the people of Cape Town, we will strive to make our city the best place to live, to work, to invest and to visit in all of South Africa.

13. Is about the social and economic development needs of the city Is about creating a competitive city Good governance and good Government Customer/ user/ citizen driven Partnership oriented The role of IT within this agenda: IT enabled Social and Economic Development IT enabled Administration/ Service Delivery IT enabled Governance The emerging agenda for the city Leadership + Policy and Regulations

14. A smart city strategy is a transformation strategy that encompasses these 5 questions • What leadership is necessary to establish competitive advantage in a digital economy and society (smart city leadership)? • What must be done to ensure that our policy and regulatory environment supports the development of a smart city? • How will information technology lay the foundation for the building of a new flexible and responsive organization and enable the organisation to continually improve in its efficiency and effectiveness in delivering its programmes and services? (administrative/ e-government strategy)? • How do we use IT as an instrument to foster the economic and social development of the city (development strategy)? • How can IT be used to ensure/ enhance good governance (digital democracy)?

15. A smart city strategy is a transformation strategy that encompasses these 56 questions • What leadership is necessary to establish competitive advantage in a digital economy and society (smart city leadership)? • What must be done to ensure that our policy and regulatory environment supports the development of a smart city? • How will information technology lay the foundation for the building of a new flexible and responsive organization and enable the organisation to continually improve in its efficiency and effectiveness in delivering its programmes and services? (administrative/ e-government strategy)? • How do we use IT as an instrument to foster the economic and social development of the city (development strategy)? • How can IT be used to ensure/ enhance good governance (digital democracy)?h • How can we create a world class IT organisation that supports the achievement of the smart city strategy objectives

16. Agenda/ Key issues • Challenges facing cities • Globally • Nationally • Cape Town • What these challenges imply for local government and IT? • The emerging agenda for local government and the role of IT within that • What does Cape Town’s smart city strategy encompass?

17. 1. Smart City Leadership • Leadership in technology policy and strategy should ideally be found at the most senior levels in the organisation – both at a political and an administrative level • A “center of gravity” for technology policy and strategy is a fundamental critical success factor (Kennedy School of Government ) • Other leadership ingredients for an e-government include smart businesses, smart citizens, smart non-profit organisations, and collaboration.

18. Recommended Actions: Smart City Leadership • A Smart City strategy must be a key strategy for the city • Leadership in technology policy and strategy should ideally be found at the level of the CEO, mayor and from elected politicians • Embark upon a programme to build the capacity and understanding of senior politicians and the officials with respect to technology policy and strategy • Equip and train all councillors with PCs and internet connectivity in their homes. • Appoint a Chief Information Officer (CIO) or a Technology and Policy Advisor to the CEO to create a ‘centre of gravity’ for technology policy and strategy • Create a special governance body, aimed at actively engaging the multiple public and private stakeholders in the planning and execution of strategies, public policies, initiatives and pilot projects • Actively market the city as a as a ‘smart city’

19. 2. Policy and Regulatory Environment

20. Recommended Actions: Policy and Regulatory Environment • A programme must be instituted to review all the city’s current legislation for digital age appropriateness (Request to national Government relating to E-commerce Greenpaper initiative) • All new legislation passed by the city must be designed to ensure digital age appropriateness • The city must ensure representation and participation in relevant legislative and policy processes at a provincial and national level to ensure that such legislation does not negatively impact on the cities strategy

21. 3. Administrative/ E-Government Strategy • Doing more with less!!! • IT should not be used to automate existing processes but as a strategic tool to re-engineer local government to: • Create a highly efficient and effective local government services • Reduce transaction costs • Allow anywhere, anytime service to citizens • Allow citizens to deal with local government services in an integrated manner (eg. via one-stop shops) • Make local government more customer friendly and citizen oriented • Improving decision making by providing easy and timeous access to relevant and accurate information (thereby reducing discretion and arbitrariness)

22. Administrative/ E-Government Strategy State of Arizona: HR Resume system, Medical complaints, Sex offender registry, car registration, license renewal Banking implodes ($ cost per banking transaction) $6.75 $1.60 Source: Booz-Allen & Hamilton Source: Forrester Research

23. Recommended Actions: Administrative/ E-Government Strategy • Clear principles to guide the new city's IT investments need to be developed and adopted. • Systems that give the organisation its basic capabilities (including single budget formulation, financial management and HR management) must be in place by July 2002. • New systems implemented must also give the organisation the ability to ring fence services units. • Standardisation and rationalisation of the existing IT environment must be explored immediately to effect cost savings and/ or increased IT service levels. • E-procurement should be explored as a possible fast-track project to realise administrative and developmental objectives.

24. Examples of emergent principles • Pursuing a buy Vs build philosophy with regards to application software. • Focus on customer and network-based solutions, making data and applications available from anywhere in the city. • Data should be captured once and as close to the source as possible. • Focus on integrated enterprise-wide solutions to facilitate communications and data sharing across the new city. • Focus on centralised administration with decentralised service delivery. • Streamline the administration and delivery (operations) of IT services to increase efficiency and effectiveness while reducing costs. • Leverage economies of scale.

25. Example initiatives • Implementation of an Integrated Enterprise Application System – core modules by June 2002 • Internal Corporate Comms (Intranet, email, etc.) • External communications • Electronic Agendas and Electronic Registry • Consolidated management information (especially with regards to Finance and HR) • Standardisation (s/w, h/w, OSs, DBs, Networks, etc) • Councilor Portal • Consolidating service agreements and external service providers • Unlocking money and staff to resource priority projects • Development of an interim architecture framework • Retention of staff

26. E-procurement network Project needs to be done for Administrative and Development reasons Administrative reasons • E-procurement has the potential for reducing costs (industry benchmarks show that up to 20% of annual spend can be saved - i.e. potentially R 700 million on a R3.5 Billion purchasing budget in the CMA) • E-procurement ensures transparency • E-procurement facilitates compliance with agreed procedures and policies through improved measurement and control tools, and a robust management information system. This will ensure that Councillors can get real information to see that their policies are being implemented in the way desired. • Reduces cost through aggregating spend, improving processes, cycle times and delivery, and improved inventory practice. It also reduces the need for many products to be held in central stores and allows for just-in-time procurement.

27. E-procurement network Development Reasons • Increasing the Internet connectivity of businesses in Cape Town is desirable and adds to the competitiveness of the city in the knowledge economy. However, businesses have no compelling reason to be connected. • Council's e-procurement drive will be the catalyst for organisations to get connected. Councils annual spend is substantial enough for it to act as a catalyst. • As the e-procurement network grows, companies would have access to other regional, national and possibly international markets. • Council's business startup support initiatives can be geared around the e-procurement network and giving companies the skills to enable them to participate in the information economy. • Small businesses would have instant access to a large marketplace. • Data on the transactions that are occurring on the e-procurement network would be a very useful source of economic data

28. IT as a growth industry Growth and retention of the IT industry in the city Attracting more participants into the IT industry Attracting investments from outside the city Providing high quality services in all spheres IT as a skill Creation of employment potential Promoting knowledge as the key resource for economic progress of individuals and institutions. IT for social development Providing public access to IT Infrastructure and internet Promoting IT education and IT enabled training Promoting local language interfaces and Gathering a wide range of social and economic data from all local government activities that are electronic to ensure better, more co-ordinated planning and targeted interventions 4. City Development Using IT as an instrument to foster the economic and social development of the city. This translates into specific action in the following areas:

29. Recommended Actions: City Development • Increasing connection and access (Community and Business) • Levy payers online inquiry and transactional system • Providing Public access (libraries, Local govt. facitities, schools, etc) • Community based IT training (at libraries and schools) - link these with co-operative training/ bursary schemes/ volunteerism at universities and technicons • Providing relevant local content – government and via partnerships • Jobs network (CVs, opportunities, advice) geared more at the unskilled/ semi-skilled sector of the population • Business incubation and stimulation of innovation - by partnerships with external organisations like CITI (Cape Information Technology Initiative) – example Bandwidth Barn • Venture capital sourcing and business plan development - support and enhance initiatives that exist eg. CITI • Cape Online (Joint initiative with Province to create an information portal for easy access to government and other information)

30. This is the area that local government needs to focus on - the area that will give us maximum value The effort relating to connection needs to be focussed on …... Potential/ Value Households connected Community access points/ public access Councilors Connected Business Connected

31. Recommended Actions: City Development • Increasing connection and access (Community and Business) • Levy payers online inquiry and transactional system • Providing Public access (libraries, Local govt. facitities, schools, etc) • Community based IT training (at libraries and schools) - link these with co-operative training/ bursary schemes/ volunteerism at universities and technicons • Providing relevant local content – government and via partnerships • Jobs network (CVs, opportunities, advice) geared more at the unskilled/ semi-skilled sector of the population • Business incubation and stimulation of innovation - by partnerships with external organisations like CITI (Cape Information Technology Initiative) – example Bandwidth Barn • Venture capital sourcing and business plan development - support and enhance initiatives that exist eg. CITI • Cape Online (Joint initiative with Province to create an information portal for easy access to government and other information)

32. 5. Governance/ Digital Democracy • IT can significantly impact on good governance by making local government, the politicians and the officials more accessible. • It can also be used to make the processes of local government and related performance information more transparent. In this way it can build accountability. • Areas where IT can improve governance include: • Elected politician - Citizen interface • Government Administration/ service - Citizen interface • Government - Business Interface • Intra-Governmental processes

33. Recommended Actions: Governance/ Digital Democracy • Council agenda's and reports be available online. • ‘IT-enabling” the new Council chambers and Councilor support function • Information categorised on a ward basis as a minimum. • Performance information (including reporting on a ward/ area basis using GIS) made available and be easily accessible. • Mechanisms that allow easy IT enabled communication between public and councillors/administration to be developed. • Conducting online opinion polls and discussions on topical issues

34. Agenda/ Key issues • Challenges facing cities • Globally • Nationally • Cape Town • What these challenges imply for local government and IT? • The emerging agenda for local government and the role of IT within that • What does Cape Town’s smart city strategy encompass?

35. Video - think big Note that the video clip has been excluded from the distribution version of presentation due to file size.

36. In Summary... • A smart city strategy is a key component of the City Development Strategy (CDS) for Cape Town • The CDS is owned by all the stakeholders in the city - not just local government • The five areas that we have to tackle is: • Leadership • Policy and regulatory environment • IT enabled administrative and service delivery (e-govt.) • IT enabled development • IT enabled governance • The critical mass to achieve this exists in the city

37. Questions?