In 2015, the Smart Dubai Office decided to partner with the U4SSC in piloting the U4SSC Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Smart Sustainable Cities. The objectives of this project were: 1) assess the impacts of ICTs in the city; and 2) measure its progress in reaching the SDGs. The U4SSC KPIs consist of 91 indicators that measure the role of ICTs in the three key dimensions of a city; environment; economic; and society and culture. Each indicator is uniquely connected to one or multiple SDG targets, allowing the city to determine which targets it has or has not achieved.

The U4SSC KPIs are powerful benchmarking tools that have allowed the city planners of Dubai to analyze the ways in which ICTs have improved the city according to the parameters set in the 2030 Agenda. The results are comparable and measurable data that have assisted Dubai in adjusting its priorities and informed the city's policymakers to make better environmental and sustainability decisions and to unlock the full potential of ICTs. The project has also disseminated best practices of Dubai in implementing smart projects at the international level, allowing other cities to learn from the city and establishing new foundations for further collaboration on the SDGs.

https://www.itu.int/en/publications/Documents/tsb/2016-DubaiCase/mobile/index.html#p=1

• United Arab Emirates

• Older persons
• Women
• People with disabilities
• The unemployed
• The poor
• Remote and rural communities
• City inhabitants

The KPIs are designed to be flexible and replicable. Every city can use the U4SSC KPIs to evaluate their smart initiatives and progress in reaching the SDGs regardless of their geographic location or capacity. The KPIs are divided into two set of indicators; the core indicators; and the advanced indicators. Cities only need to report the core indicators in order to obtain a holistic view on its smart progress. The advanced indicators complement the core indicators but do not constitute as an integral part of the assessment. The high replicability of the U4SSC KPIs is also proven by the fact that over 100 cities worldwide, including Singapore, Moscow, Valencia, Wuxi, have already followed Dubai's footstep to partner with the U4SSC in implementing these indicators.

The implementation of the U4SSC is both operationally and environmentally sustainable as it involves only the collection of data with minimal resource usage.

The U4SSC KPIs project promotes WSIS values in Dubai by creating a standardized approach in assessing the impacts of ICTs in cities and, thus, accelerating the progress of the SDGs. This project is the catalyst that has allowed the city government of Dubai to expand its capacity to develop a more human-centric approach to ICT development. It has facilitated a more enabling environment for ICT applications, improved accessibility of the city’s smart services, promoted the integration of ICTs into all aspects of the city, all of which are in line with the principles and visions of the WSIS forum.