Bloomberg releases new toolkit to help cities unlock data

Want to unlock your city’s data and only measure the stuff that matters? A new toolkit has been released by Results for America, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, to help cities do exactly that.

The new What Works Cities Resource Toolkit–openly available–includes best practices in designing open data policies and creating open data portals, advancing performance management programmes by setting stronger targets, utilising behavioural insights to run randomised control trials and better managing city contracts.

The toolkit is based on the experience of the work Results for America and its partners have undertaken with cities through its What Works Cities initiative. Twelve new cities were also announced to be selected to join the programme, including Baltimore, Fort Lauderdale and Kansas City, Kansas, taking the total number of cities participating to 39.

“These city leaders are committed to utilising data to make better decisions, engage residents and hold themselves accountable,” said James Anderson, Head of Government Innovation, Bloomberg Philanthropies. “Bloomberg Philanthropies is excited to support these cities and help them to achieve their ambitions.”

The initiative collaborates with participating municipalities to review their current use of data and evidence, understand where they are utilising best practices, and identify areas for growth. Through its partners, the initiative then develops customised approaches to help cities expand their use of data and evidence.

One example is that ten cities will work with the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University to establish and improve open data practices in order to make their cities’ data more accessible to city managers and the public, engage residents around government priorities and services, and increase transparency and accountability. The results and ideas will be openly shared.

The initiative celebrated the success of its first year in April 2016 and will provide technical assistance to 100 cities on a rolling basis through 2018.