THE CITY of Durban has won the IBM Smarter City Challenge that will see IBM experts providing expertise and working with the city’s leadership to develop a roadmap to a smart city which is aligned to the economic development and job creation plan for the City. IBM will provide technical expertise to reach this goal, from socio-economic and technological perspectives. They will be sharing lessons learnt in other cities that have successfully packaged developmental programmes and projects in achieving the smarter city status.

The Smarter Cities Challenge is a competitive grant programme that sends teams of some of IBM’s most talented experts to select cities and regions worldwide to provide pro bono consulting expertise on the most critical issues faced by communities today. The value of the service is estimated to be at least US $500 000. Durban is one of three African Cities to receive this grant and one of only 16 cities around the world to qualify and receive the highly prized three-week engagement. The eThekwini municipality will focus its efforts on boosting economic development. Other cities will look to address issues ranging from clean water, healthy food, and revenue generation, to job development, efficient transportation, and public safety.

For these consultative engagements, IBM teams invest months studying a local issue chosen by a winning municipality. They then spend three weeks on the ground in the region gathering and analyzing all relevant data, while meeting in person with dozens of members of the government, citizen, business, and not-for-profit communities. In doing so, they gather diverse perspectives about the causes and potential solutions to the challenge at hand. At the conclusion of these studies, IBM presents comprehensive recommendations for solving the problem, followed weeks later by a more detailed, written plan for its implementation.

> via thenetworks.co.za