Date Published: May 11, 2018, 10:08 a.m.
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n order to arbitrate its urbanization choices, to respond to the requests of its citizens and to anticipate changes, the city of Sèmè-Podji in Benin set up an urban management solution to collect, process and manage data (education and health, finance, socio-economic indicators, infrastructure, roads, tourism ...) of its territory. Bellow are described the innovations which have been key to the success of the Wexity platform: Exhaustivity of urban themesMulti-usersUltrafast implementation (ready to use)No specific IT infrastructure required (simple internet access is sufficient)Simplicity of useSmartdata tool (a report in 3 clicks)Automatic calculation of the urban profileFlood risk management moduleOpen APIs to vertical initiatives of Smartcities (IoT urban) In a few weeks the data was available on Wexity, and the municipal council was able to launch analyze, and generate reports.Wexity has become the decision aid tool and communication tool of the town hall. Wexity is now ready to support all data from Smartcity's specific initiatives.
The project targets the municipality of Seme Podji (250 000 inhabitants)
The project involved 25 technicians / executives from the municipality, as well as the mayor and his deputies.
Starting date: 03/2018
Ending date: still on going
The project took place in 4 distinct stages through Steering Committees.
Managers make full use of Smartdata's capabilities to make decisions and communicate them to stakeholders through export functions. In addition, the services rely on obsolescence management functions to keep the data up-to-date. - Duration: annualized
Note: All phases of the project were piloted by a local partner (SUDD Consulting), and were carried out in full collaboration with the Mayor of Sèmè-Podji.
The project is self-financed by the municipality of Sèmè-Podji on its own account. This follows a call for international tenders validated by the municipal council of Sèmè-Podji.
The overall amount of the project is, over 5 years, well below 100K €, broken down into 2 budget items:
1. Wexity software license for 25 users including Modules:
Data production, Shares, Smartdata (Territory Analysis), Urban Profiles, Risk
2.Implementation support services:
Before the commissioning of the Wexity platform, the municipal council of Seme-Podji was somehow "blind". Decisions on urban planning were best made on the basis of external studies, often obsolete or on the basis of scattered and largely incomplete information.
The main benefit of the commissioning of the Wexity platform is that the municipal council now has an accurate knowledge of its territory. Gradually, all available data is collected and organized in the database. All information is therefore directly available to all users.
Three types of impacts can be identified:
Beneficiaries are first and foremost the technicians and executives of the municipal administration, since they have at their disposal a tool enabling them to improve public policy choices. Elected officials, and first of all the mayor, are also impacted as they can better follow the work of the administration and benefit from a decision aid tool to urban management and planning.
The use of an innovative platform like Wexity has led to some changes in the daily lives of users (technicians, decision makers, technical teams) who needed to be well ahead.
For example, the data being shared, it required to finely anticipate the rights of users to assign to each person. Initial trainings therefore have a unifying role around a modern digital tool that all share with respective rights. Each user must control his perimeter of daily use.
Maintenance of the tool is included in the license, it is not a concern for the municipality.
The choice made by the Mayor to initiate a digital dynamic to manage urban infrastructures and associated data is a unifying element for the staff of the municipality and is perceived by citizens as an element of modernity. The tangible results are noticeable in the month following the training of the users. The Wexity platform is the standard tool on the market and is implemented almost immediately. It is therefore possible to multiply this initiative with the cities of Benin and create an urban vision at several levels (regions, national).
It is clear that all cities in developing countries, particularly in Africa, are potentially interested in the Wexity platform. Only a few cities (the largest) have geographical or urban information tools. It is obvious that all these cities, subject to very strong pressures (risks, social movements, population growth), need reliable information to better manage their future.
Wexity's interest is to offer cities a powerful but easy-to-use platform, which does not require prior investment and no recruitment of specific experts. All technicians and executives of municipal or national administrations can use it.
Nevertheless, experience shows that the appointment of a "data manager" within the municipality is likely to facilitate the handling and use of the Wexity platform. His role is to coordonate the work, to verify the data, to structure the data collection and to train the newcomers.
