Page 119 - Connecting cities and communities with the Sustainable Development Goals

United for Smart Sustainable Cities
Connecting cities and communities with the Sustainable Development Goals

On the other hand, PPPs provide significant advantages by bringing together the best of both worlds
(public and private sector) with each contributing significantly to the partnership. Different
perspectives between public and private sector partners can be reconciled, leveraged and further
capitalized as an advantage by a successful partnership. Innovative ideas can be jointly developed
by partners to enhance the value for the ultimate customers by splitting the investments, revenues
and risks.
Technology and demand uncertainty pose great opportunities, as well as challenges for the future.
In the case of the SDP, there is ample opportunity for incorporating new services and functionality
in the platform through innovation, albeit with certain risks. Hence, it will be quite important to
balance rewards and risks in the future while innovating new services and functionality. Additionally,
establishing and adopting an appropriate governance model will be key for sustaining the success
of SDP.
ƒ Focus on knowledge and skills building
Ongoing training, workshops and awareness events are held to enhance platform services and data-
related skills of government employees. Additional citywide awareness sessions, educational
programmes and hackathons drive data usage and enhance the insights unlocked from data.
ƒ Recognize and award success

Awarding success and recognizing efforts are important for ensuring participants’ continuous
contribution and active involvement in these transformative initiatives. Data providers that
contribute to the Dubai Data use cases, for example, are recognized and their efforts are highlighted
at the highest levels of leadership in the Dubai Government. Compliance is driven by awarding the
entities that engage with these initiatives and reporting high achievers to top leadership in the
Emirate. Additionally, key performance indicators were infused in the Dubai Government level
programmes and awards, to drive up participation of local government data providers in the
initiative and to utilize citywide platform services.

ƒ Active communication, engagement and inclusiveness
Smart Dubai promotes extensive participation in both initiatives and the usage of Dubai Data by
focusing on real use cases and policy problems in the city and demonstrating visual analytical
findings to government entities. By showcasing how the platform and data publication and exchange
can help solve real-life challenges that city planners face, city entities are more eager than ever to
take part in these initiatives. Furthermore, there is ongoing communication about the progress of
these initiatives and the activities conducted through direct and indirect channels.
ƒ Facilitating demand and supply

The value of the platform and the data in Dubai will be realized based on the quality of the supply
of platform services and the open and shared data on it, and the demand from users. Without use
and reuse of data, the value derived from opening and sharing data will be minimum. Smart Dubai
and Dubai Data Establishment play a facilitation role in determining the priority list of platform
services and data sets to be opened and shared with data providers. Needless investment in
generating, opening and sharing data that are not conducive to value creation is avoided through a
robust, collaborative, needs-based prioritization approach. Furthermore, efforts are taken to
enhance the quality of platform services and the data supply making it reliable, discoverable and
interoperable.
ƒ Innovation potential
Reliable platform services and rich city data are catalysts for innovation, opening new insights to
government and business leaders to enhance existing operations and service delivery, identifying
new areas of opportunity for growth from all sectors, and establishing a level playing field for
entrepreneurs to discover, design and deliver new products and services addressing areas of unmet
needs across the city. The Dubai Data Initiative has made efforts to enhance innovation through
putting minimum restrictions on the use and reuse of open data through the open data license.

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