South Africa
Dan Plato
4,490,000 (2019)
Craig Kesson
Anticipate and manage future challenges
Improve service delivery
Improve resident outcomes
Dedicated innovation team
Leadership from Mayor
Culture of innovation in city
Support from outside city administration
Dedicated funding
As part of its Integrated Development Plan 2017-2022, the City of Cape Town has identified innovation and data as drivers for operational sustainability, which will help realize its strategic focus of building a well-run city. Besides a small team that coordinates all innovation activities, the city also created an innovation forum comprised of representatives from all directorates in the administration. Together with change agents, these representatives are responsible for driving innovation programs within their specific areas. In 2019, Cape Town also launched their Data Strategy to drive evidence-based decision-making.
Along with 50% of cities surveyed, Cape Town does not have an explicit innovation strategy. Similar to more than half of cities surveyed, Cape Town approaches innovation capacity both from a holistic/macro level, as well as in specific policy areas.
Cape Town’s innovation work is being led by the Innovation and Organizational Effectiveness and Innovation Department and innovation related-task groups with delegates from different departments within the municipality. As an independent department, Cape Town’s dedicated innovation team consists of 12 staff.
Taking risks or testing new ideas
Data-driven analytics/public data management
Engaging residents in new ways
Developing new solutions based on digital technologies
Organizational change within the municipality
Human-centered design
Rethinking your city’s approach to financing partnerships
Like 81% of cities surveyed, Cape Town has dedicated funding to support innovation capacity.
Similar to 61% of participating cities in the 2020 survey, Cape Town's funding for innovation capacity is also directed towards training staff and building capacity*.
*"Training staff and building capacity" is not an option in the 2018 survey, while "Launching or sustaining a project" is not an option in the 2020 survey.
Cape Town has developed partnerships to promote innovation capacity with other public agencies, private firms, not-for-profit organizations, and city residents/resident associations.
To improve data use, the city has also developed data partnerships with academia and think tanks to collect and analyze data, as well as with other cities.