The focus on, and consequently the importance of, cities as crucial drivers of sustainable development have been recognized for the first time ever in the international arena as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) released last year. In fact, there is a very pointed recognition that cities need to be actively included in both local and national development strategies as seen in SDG Goal #11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. The recognition of cities as both drivers and vehicles of sustainable development is indeed an international milestone, bringing to the forefront the hard work that has gone in recent years, as well as much further back, by city advocates worldwide that cities can and are able to make a much broader impact beyond their own borders. However, the work is by no means done. Particularly in cities that grapple with trying to balance how to grow sustainably while also working to address the needs of their cities and constituents in the here and now, sustainable development can seem like a daunting and time-consuming task for already overburdened city planners globally.

However, we argue that sustainable development does not need to be a balancing act. On the contrary — making effective choices that impact both the short term and long term positively should be the goal of cities worldwide. And this is where data can play a huge role. The ongoing Data Revolution can support this ambition by helping city stakeholders to make data-driven decisions that are measurable and actionable, given a city’s resources. Cities should indeed aim big but they should also be supported to reach their goals in a fashion that reflects the working reality of the city, allowing for cities to create their development roadmaps based off of their own city contexts and needs.

With the launch of important city-related methodologies such as the United Smart Cities Initiative as well as documents, notably the forthcoming Urban Agenda at the Habitat III Conference in Quito, the role of data is insurmountable to the effective implementation of these city-specific initiatives. However, the point stands to be made that data should be collected and utilized efficiently and effectively. In order to achieve the goals set forth for sustainable cities, cities should not have to necessarily collect and use more data. Rather, the focus should be on collecting and using the right data – data that stands to serve a purpose for their city development, planning, and strategies. Data use and collection should also be viewed via a sustainability lens, to ensure that data consumption is effective, relevant, and not redundant.

We at Development Gateway are currently working on a cutting-edge innovative data toolkit project to help support this goal. This Cities Alliance-funded project is being developed in partnership with Athena Infonomics, as part of the DfID-funded Future Cities Africa Initiative. The Cities Alliance, as part of their Future Cities Africa Initiative, is interested in learning how can cities, regardless of where they sit on the data ecosystem spectrum, collect and analyze city-related data more effectively such that cities can become better managers and better planners of their development process. But currently there are no clear resources or mandates out there for cities to understand what are effective city data management and planning strategies and pathways. As the Habitat III Conference recognizes, urbanization is already complex and challenging such that the lack of proper devolution, rapid population growth, and environmental shocks all threaten a city’s capacity to manage growing needs.

Thus, this is the gap that the data toolkit aims to fill. With a pressing need for cities to know how to manage a healthy and effective data ecosystem, the data toolkit serves as a manual and guideline for cities to create a data system, that not only helps to identify what data points a city needs to collect but also how to manage this data. Furthermore, the toolkit is not meant to be a one-off resource; it allows cities to iteratively assess and develop their data maturity so that they can effectively create a data life cycle.

The data toolkit is set to be launched in the coming months. Stay tuned for further updates.

Dina Abdel-Fattah is a Senior Associate at Development Gateway Inc. Email Dina at [email protected].