Applied AI for Urban Governance
Public participation gives residents a voice in the decisions shaping their cities. But when thousands of comments arrive in 11 languages – sometimes blended in a single response – processing them by hand becomes difficult. Working together, a South African metro, HSRC and Open Cities Lab applied AI to turn raw comments into clear, routable civic needs while protecting residents’ privacy.
Institutional Readiness & Governance Stability : Success factors for digital transformation interventions
Digital projects can work technically and still struggle to take root. Drawing on years of implementation experience, this case study explores how institutional readiness and governance stability shape whether an intervention ends after the pilot stage or becomes embedded, sustained and capable of creating lasting impact.
Embracing Uncertainty: M&E Lessons from an Evolving Ecosystem Programme
Meaningful institutional change rarely follows a neat programme timeline. Drawing on the UK FCDO’s Urban Resilience Programme, this case study shares what we learned about monitoring change in complex local government ecosystems – including what worked, what evolved and where our original assumptions were challenged.
Using data to strengthen electricity asset maintenance in Cape Town
The City of Cape Town had electricity asset and maintenance data, but its fragmented format made it difficult to see which assets had been missed or neglected. By turning this information into a clearer spatial view, the City significantly reduced missed inspections and moved towards more proactive, risk-based infrastructure management.
Connecting water data to support more proactive infrastructure management in Cape Town
Cape Town did not lack water infrastructure data. The challenge was that it sat across different systems and was not always easy to connect, trust or use. Through data reconciliation and advanced analytics, the City improved infrastructure visibility, reduced manual work and enabled possible water losses to be identified sooner.
How eThekwini Municipality sparked a data strategy community of practice that rippled across the country
What began as eThekwini Municipality’s data strategy journey grew into a community of practice that reached municipalities across the country. MijiBora brought together peer learning, practical use cases, advisory support and toolkits, helping municipal teams strengthen their own data strategies and move towards more structured, data-driven governance.