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ISS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
March 2020
Learning To Be Smart: Using Data and Technology to Improve Services in Kansas City, Missouri
When Troy Schulte too over as interim city manager of Kansas City, Missouri, in 2009, the local economy was struggling and the government faced hard choices about how to use scarce resources. Together with a small team of employees, he began to create a culture of data-driven decision making in municipal offices, to invest selectively in technology, and to give nonprofit organizations and firms an opportunity to develop their own, innovative solutions to city problems by making more information available to them. Schulte found a kindred spirit in Mayor Sly James, who negotiated a public-private partnership with a view to developing what Kansas City's chief innovation officer called "the smartest 54 blocks in the country" along the city's new streetcar corridor. As initial efforts came to a close and a new mayor entered office, Schulte and other officials stepped back to assess what they had learned. The new, data-driven culture had yielded positive improvements, whereas the technology-based smart-city initiative had a more limited impact---at least in the shorter term. The experience generated important lessons about the scale of the benefits that technology could generate in midsize cities and in what kind of time frame.
Downtown kiosks are part of Kansas City's Smart City Initiative, giving users access to information on events, restaurants, and points of interest. Photo by Daniel Boothe.
Lessons from Liberia: Social Mobilization and Contact Tracing in an Infectious Disease Outbreak
For Liberians, changing social practices to protect against infection is a familiar practice. So is contact tracing to identify people exposed to a virus. To see how these efforts unfolded and insights from the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak relevant to COVID19, see two ISS case studies, "Everybody's Business": Mobilizing Citizens During Liberia's Ebola Outbreak, 2014-2015 and The Hunt for Ebola: Building a Disease Surveillance System in Liberia, 2014-2015 .
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ISS Monthly Newsletter Archive
October 2019 - Seattle Earthquake Preparedness
September 2019 - Indoneisa Anti-Corruption
August 2019 - Amazon Rainforest
June 2019 - Early Childhood Development Urban95
April 2019 - Uganda Revenue Authority
February 2019 - Cape Town Water
January 2019 - Ethiopia Health
November 2018 - Colombia Health
October 2018 - South Africa Health
September 2018 - Rwanda Health, South Bend Smart City
August 2018- Vietnam Tax Chicago Smart City
May 2018 - Rwanda Revenue Authority
March 2018 - Human Trafficking
February 2018 - Liberia Payroll US TIGER
January 2018 - US Heirs Property
December 2017- Indonesia Land Agency
November 2017 - India Open Defecation
October 2017: Anti-Corruption Series
September 2017: Rwanda Land, Colombia Coffee
August 2017: Indonesia Corruption , Brazil Soy
July 2017: Tanzania and Australia Land
June 2017: Reforming Procurement Systems in South Africa
May 2017: Tunisia Open Government
April 2017: Liberia Ebola Response
March 2017: Land Administration
February 2017: Brazil Anti Corruption
January 2017: Property Rights & Land Administration
December 2016: Reconciling the Impossible: South Africa's Government of Unity
November 2016: The Ongoing Drive for Sustainable Cattle Ranching in Brazil
October 2016: Managing Tense Elections
September 2016: Indonesia's 2014 Presidential Transition
August 2016: Reforming Brazil's Military
July 2016: Graduates to Government: The President's Young Professionals Program In Liberia
June 2016: Delivering on Presidential Goals in the Dominican Republic
May 2016: Pockets of Effectiveness in Senegal and Indonesia
April 2016: Evaluation in Benin & Croatia Defense Reform
March 2016: Powersharing in Tunisia and Kenya
February 2016: Morocco Water, Tunisia Microfinance
January 2016: Mexico Veracruz and Ghana Presidential Transition
December 2015: Peru and Kenya Judiciaries
November 2015: Protecting Forests, Mitigating Climate Change
October 2015: Open Government Partnership
September 2015: Mexico's Presidential Transition
August 2015 Indonesia Military
July 2015: Kenya 2030 Strategy
June 2015: Calderon's Prexidency in Mexico, Anti Corruption in Luthuania
May 2015: Bihar India Modernizing Systems to Improve Service Delivery
April 2015: Two New Case Studies on the Philippines
March 2015: Monitoring Kosovo's Courts
February 2015: Pakistan's Citizen Feedback Monitoring Program
January 2015: ISS Announces a New Online Course
January 2015: Reducing Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
December 2014: Lagos State and Vietnam: Promoting Reform at the Local Level
November 2014: Political Transitions in Chile
October 2014: Tunisian Elections
September 2014: Strategy Development in Serbia and Estonia
August 2014: Strategy Development in Malayasia
July 2014: Effective Reforms in Brazil
June 2014: Public Sector Innovation in Mexico
May 2014: Short-Route Accountability in Afghanistan
April 2014: Elections in India
March 2014: Transforming Citizen Services
February 2014: Short-Route Accountability in Indonesia & the Philippines
January 2014: Anti-Corruption Agencies
December 2013: South Africa's Transition to a Non-Racial Democracy
November 2013: Reform Leaders on Effective and Accountable Civil Service
October 2013: Improving Policy Management and Service Delivery
September 2013: Combatting Corruption and Mediating Election Conflict
August 2013: Improving Service Delivery and Reducing Election Violence
July 2013: Increasing Accountability and Efficiency in Civil Service
June 2013: Government Delivery Units
May 2013: Anti-Corruption Commissions
April 2013: Election Reforms in Zambia and other Countries
March 2013: Civil Service Reforms in Brazil
February 2013: Infrastructure Projects, Government Investments and Obstacles
January 2013: Anti-Corruption Efforts in the Baltics and Nigerian Elections
December 2012: Reforming City Management in Palmero and Johannesburg
November 2012: ISS Marks 100 Case Studies
October 2012: Kenya Open Data and the Rapid Results Approach
September 2012: Cabinet Reform and Anti-Corruption Agencies
August 2012: City Management in Bangalore and Rapid Results in Madagascar
July 2012: Indonesian and Georgian Reforms
June 2012: Revenue Collection in Liberia
May 2012: Center of Government in the Batics
April 2012: Indonesian Accountability and Nigerian Electoral Reform
March 2012: Improving Government Accountability, Leading Reform