Maceio

Brazil

Mayor

Rui Soares Palmeira

Population

1,010,000

Innovation Website
Lead Innovation Officer

Íria Almeida

Innovation is helping to:
  • Engage residents and other stakeholders

  • Improve service delivery

  • Simplify administrative procedures for firms and residents

Critical success factors:
  • Dedicated funding

  • Focus on measurement

  • Dedicated innovation team

  • Culture of innovation in city

  • Support from outside city administration

  • Leadership from Mayor

Spotlight on innovation in Maceio

Maceió’s Innovation Law of 2019 establishes as priorities for the city the stimulation of innovation, the creative economy, entrepreneurship, and scientific research. Maceió engages in several partnerships and programs to bring innovation to the city. Working with a local micro and small business assistance service, Maceió’s Smart City Project matches local creativity with advanced technologies and data management in order to foster more efficient use of natural and financial resources. The city’s InovaMCZ Program aims to cultivate local innovation and increase civic engagement.

Vision and approach to innovation capacity

Along with 50% of cities surveyed, Maceio has an explicit innovation strategy. Similar to 24% of cities surveyed, Maceio approaches innovation capacity in specific policy areas/domains.

Policy areas that Maceio is focused on

Tourism
Transport/Mobility

Tourism: Maceio implemented Maceio 360º - Try Our Virtual Trip project, which allows tourists to virtually experience the most famous attractions in 360º video format. The Experience Maceio portal also presents information about the city's natural and cultural attractions, as well as other services such as hotels, restaurants and cultural agenda. Moreover, the Observatory of Tourism of Maceio monitors the local tourism's activities and provides main indicators used for strategic decision-making and management of the city's tourism sector.

Mobility: In 2015, Maceio launched the CittaMobi app, which monitors the entire fleet of collective buses in Maceio and assists the citizens in real-time. The free application, frequently updated, already has more than 800,000 downloads. The app makes it possible for users to lodge a complaint or make suggestions for a specific bus line; inform about delays, vehicles that did not stop at the station, wrong itinerary or wrong predictions; and report serious incidents of violence such as armed robberies and sexual abuse.

Policy areas by number of cities

Maceio utilizes 8 different innovation skills or roles

Project manager
Data scientist
Communication officer
Engineer
Designer
Architect
Lawyer
Urban planner
Innovation roles by number of cities

Situated within the Mayor’s Office, Maceió’s dedicated innovation team consists of 15 staff, eleven of whom is working specifically on innovation.

Terms Maceio most associates with innovation

Experimentation
Resident engagement

Maceio's most common innovation activities

Taking risks and testing new ideas
e.g. prototyping new programs or models to address a persistent city challenge
Engaging residents in new ways
  1. 1

    Taking risks or testing new ideas

  2. 2

    Data-driven analytics/public data management

  3. 3

    Engaging residents in new ways

  4. 4

    Developing new solutions based on digital technologies

  5. 5

    Organizational change within the municipality

  6. 6

    Human-centered design

  7. 7

    Rethinking your city’s approach to financing partnerships

How is innovation funded here?

Like 81% of cities surveyed, Maceio has dedicated funding to support innovation capacity.

Top sources of funding

Municipal budget
Municipal budget
This could include, for instance, City Council approved funds; operating budget; a special funding process (bond, Mayoral special initiative funding, etc.); and participatory budgeting / citizen-selected budgeting.

Activities being funded

Maceió’s funding for innovation capacity is generally directed towards promoting and supporting innovation-related events. Similar to 61% of participating cities in the 2020 survey, Maceio'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.

47 cities
Launching or sustaining a project
79 cities
Idea generation & brainstorming
51 cities
Investing in digital systems
36 cities
Investing in physical infrastructure
30 cities
Paying for services

How is innovation measured?

Maceió 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 the private sector, academia and think tanks, to collect and analyze data, as well as with other cities.

Data availability by policy area

14
3
2

Sufficient data

Transport/Mobility

Health

Government finance

Waste and sewage

Social welfare/social services

Labour market and skills

Tourism

Education

Culture

Built environment

Land use

Blight

Social inclusion and equity

Digital governance

Insufficient data

Housing

Environment and climate change

Economic Development

No Response

Policing and law enforcement

Public works