Peter Oborn from the UKBEAG welcomed those present, invited them to make introductions and provided an overview of the event. Ms Irem Karim, FCDO Prosperity Fund Programming Manager offered introductory remarks.
Ms Victoria Delbridge, Head of Cities that Work, International Growth Centre gave a short framing presentation on moving from policy to practice.
Mr Ben Snaith, Researcher, Open Data Institute gave a presentation on operationalising data.
Dr Stewart Kettle, Principal Advisor, International Development, The Behavioural Insights Team gave a presentation on changing behaviours.
Key Takeaways:
1. In moving from policy to impact, it was discussed that cities may wish to consider:
- the governance structure of the city – including vertical and horizontal coordination
- the legal framework to enforce to clarify mandates and ensure long-term accountability
- how to achieve compliance with these laws – either through monitoring and enforcement or through encouraging voluntary cooperation
- finance and prioritisation of projects, building in budget realities and making the economic case from the start, experimentation and using pilot projects to demonstrate value while building incrementally and adapting as progress is made.
2. The use of data to derive impact in city interventions was also discussed. Open Cities and Smart Cities were compared – with the ideals of the former presented as a more realistic and appropriate model to work towards in promoting data-driven urbanisation. Technologies are expensive and certain systems can lead to vendor lock-in and silos. As a result, the central focus should be the end-use of the data and technology in which investment has been made, ensuring that future use aligns with data skills and literacy in the city. It was also noted that the true value of using data comes from sharing it. The subject matter experts proposed that cities need to constantly work towards finding a balance between ‘data fearing’ and ‘data hoarding’ to facilitate trust and openness between stakeholders.
3. Behavioural insights were also discussed as a way to facilitate rapid change, through an in-depth understanding of the user. Cities need to drill down from the broader goals, map the user journey and find very specific aspects that need to be targeted for change.
4. The four key steps to facilitate this include making interventions:
- easy: either make the process easier or enhance communication
- attractive: incentivising behaviour using financial rewards or making it more fun or more interesting
- social: we copy what people around us do, therefore by providing citizens with information on how others behave it is possible to motivate different decisions
- timely: well-timed prompts or appealing to the fact that people are more inclined to respond to immediate/present issues rather than future issues, can also be used for more effective policy design.
5. It was also noted that people are also more likely to change their behaviour if they are undergoing another big change simultaneously – for example, a change in lifestyle due to Covid-19.
- Case studies of Open Data’s impact from The GovLab.
- EAST: Four Simple Ways to Apply Behavioural Insights.
- Assessment framework for measuring economic success in transport, land-use planning and resilience interventions.
- Operationalising data, Mr Ben Snaith, Researcher, Open Data Institute
- Delivering effective outcomes: changing behaviours, Dr Stewart Kettle, Principal Advisor, International Development, The Behavioural Insights Team gave
The event was framed around the topic of governance and collaboration and was made up of two workshop sessions facilitated by Smart London and the Behavioural Insights Team, both of whom considered what it takes to move from policy to practice and deliver more effective outcomes