ABOUT THIS REPORT
This report was prepared by StateUp in collaboration with Visa and Resilient Cities Network. Findings and suggested actions are based on in-depth interviews, a survey of city officials, and desk research conducted by StateUp, working with Visa and Resilient Cities Network, as well as our long-run work with government agencies around the world and with the broader public-purpose technology innovation ecosystem.
The information provided in this report is for informational purposes only and should not be relied on by third parties. This report does not in any way represent advice, recommendations or otherwise. All case studies, comparisons, statistics, research, recommendations, or information in this report (the “Information”) are provided “AS IS” and intended for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for operational, marketing, legal, investment, technical, tax, financial or other advice. You should consult with your advisors to determine what laws and regulations may apply to your circumstances.
StateUp/Visa/Resilient Cities Network make no representation (whether express or implied) or give any warranty regarding the suitability, accuracy or completeness of the Information in this report and that matters which may affect third parties are not addressed in the report and any liability is therefore hereby expressly excluded to the maximum extent permitted by the applicable law. Any reliance third parties choose to make on the Information is a matter of their judgment exclusively and independently. Furthermore, the Information contained herein is subject to change or amendment without notice.
The actual costs, savings and benefits of any recommendations or programs may vary based upon your specific organizational needs and program requirements. By their nature, recommendations are not guarantees of future performance or results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict or quantify. StateUp/Visa/Resilient Cities Network are under no duty to update or revise this report in any way.
All intellectual property rights, including but not limited to copyrights, and the ownership and title to this report and the information contained therein are owned by and vest exclusively in Visa. Third parties shall not have nor acquire any rights in such intellectual property and shall not copy, distribute or make any other use of the report and the Information contained therein.
These materials and best practice recommendations are provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for marketing, legal, regulatory, or other advice.
Recommended marketing materials should be independently evaluated in light of your specific organizational needs, operations, and policies as well as any applicable laws and regulations. StateUp/Visa/Resilient Cities Network are not responsible for your use of the best practice recommendations or other information, including errors of any kind, or conclusions you might draw from their use.
OUR APPROACH
Unique data
Our unique dataset and qualitative research is grounded in the experiences of city teams and leaders. We map the challenges they face and illuminate novel case studies, sometimes in challenging circumstances, of engaging public financial innovation to make cities more resilient to critical shocks and stresses. The report also presents actions that can further empower cities to engage public financial technologies to meet critical needs, based on our in-depth research and co-creation with city leaders and other key stakeholders.
Digital as a tool, not an end
Approaches to addressing complex challenges necessarily require a combination of policy, technological, and behavioral levers. In this report, our key focus is on technological tools, but we do not treat them in a silo. As our suggested actions show, evidence-based policymaking, behavioral change, and digital adoption are mutually reinforcing, together enabling innovative approaches to tackling major public needs.
City participation in numbers
More than 30 cities were engaged through survey research and individual semi-structured interviews. We engaged city officials in both city Resilience Teams (primarily Chief Resilience Officers), and Digital, Data, and Innovation Teams (primarily Chief Data or Digital Officers). This included interviews with the Chief Resilience Officer and other relevant city officials from cities including Athens (Greece); Broward County (USA); Cape Town (South Africa); Mexico City (Mexico); San Antonio (USA); and Santa Fe (Argentina). Interviews were also conducted with digital, data, and innovation officials and related stakeholders in cities including Copenhagen (Denmark), Kyiv (Ukraine), London (UK), and Tel Aviv (Israel).
30 cities participated in the survey research, including four cities from Africa, six from the Asia Pacific region, five from Europe and the Middle East, eight from Latin America and the Caribbean, and seven from North America. The list below displays all cities engaged through interviews and survey responses for this research.
PARTICIPATING CITIES
CORE TERMS
Urban Resilience: the capacity of a city’s systems, businesses, institutions, communities, and individuals to survive, adapt, and thrive, no matter what chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience. (Source: Resilient Cities Network)
Public Financial Innovation: the updated infrastructure, policies, business models, and city-level ecosystems needed to enable enhanced government financial processes and serve communities through them
Public Financial Technologies: technologies at the core of Public Financial Innovation, including digital payments solutions.
GLOSSARY
Digital government is the use of digital technologies by public sector organizations to enhance access, efficiency, and quality of government services for residents and businesses.
Digital payments and financial solutions are technologies that can enable and streamline public processes including revenue collection (e.g., cities collecting taxes and fees), public disbursements (e.g., social support payments), public spending and procurement, and data insights and analysis (e.g., use of payments data for economic planning).
Government digitization is the process of converting government information and processes from analog to digital formats, enabling data and documents to be accessed, processed, and managed electronically.
Government digitalization is the comprehensive integration of digital technologies into all areas of government functioning, aiming to improve service delivery, enhance transparency, increase efficiency, and foster greater community engagement.
Payments data is information gathered when consumers use card payment and other remittance methods to complete transactions. When utilized on an aggregated and anonymized basis, data from payment transactions can provide granular information about economies and communities to support planning, policy development, and program delivery.
Public-purpose innovation is the ecosystem of new and updated technologies, public policies, organizations, cultures, and business models needed to address major public needs.
Urban digitalization is the process of applying digital technologies to governance, planning, and infrastructure investments in urban areas, aimed at enhancing resident wellbeing and addressing resilience challenges through more efficient, sustainable, and inclusive city services across various sectors such as security, healthcare, mobility, and community engagement
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Cities that thrive explores how urban centers can harness public financial innovation to help confront critical twenty-first century challenges, and prosper amid them.
The twenty-first century has proven to be full of uncharted territory for cities, from pandemics to increasingly widespread climate-change impacts and ongoing social, economic, and technological change. Resilient cities have the capacity to thrive in the face of such uncertainty and adversity. By building urban resilience, cities can help protect infrastructure and ecosystems, promote economic stability and social cohesion, safeguard public health and wellbeing, and help ensure the sustainability of their city for future generations. Cities that Thrive showcases how city governments can take steps to achieve rapid, context-driven progress across these critical areas by integrating Public Financial Technologies as a foundational layer within their resilience toolkit.
The aim of this report is both to map the current situation and to identify new trends in how cities engage public financial technologies. It further offers practical models for building up the urban public finance innovation ecosystem critical to meeting current challenges and preparing for future ones. Our data shows that cities across the globe have already started to engage public financial technologies, but may only just be starting to recognize the potential that these innovations can offer.
As our research shows, the journey to integrating public financial technologies is not always simple. Barriers, ranging from organizational silos to technical capacity gaps within government and among vulnerable populations, can slow or limit change. In our survey research, most digital teams reported no mandate to work on policy challenges relating to social equity, economic opportunity, water security, food security, or resilience to natural hazards. In addition, 33% of city resilience teams said they had no visibility or input into digital projects.
There is no “magic wand” solution: no two cities are exactly the same, and their approach to integrating public financial technologies must necessarily start from the needs and challenges faced by local communities. Success stories nonetheless reveal a common theme: action should be collective, involving, and led by, participants from across the public-purpose innovation ecosystem (see Figure 1), including city government, residents, and the private sector. There are many lessons that can be learned from the experiences of other cities, and general principles that can help to galvanize the use of public financial technologies as a key lever for urban resilience.
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