Page 20 - Policy benchmarks for digital transformation of people-centred cities

3 Framework to establish acceptable policies and execute policy
benchmarks

3.1 What is a good policy?

The scope of Digital Transformation for People Centered Cities (Working Group 1) argues that
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the dependencies between pervasive digital technologies in smart cities become an inherent
consideration for policy makers and international businesses and a reality in many areas of citizen
life.

“The People-centred smart city approach ensures that information and communication
technologies serve to improve people's lives by contributing to improving cities
infrastructures and municipal settings such as energy, buildings, traffic, water and sewage,
on the basis of integrated development concepts. The concept advocates for a just,
inclusive and sustainable transition of cities into smart cities, where technologies are used
for and by the people.”

Therefore, policies need to include the following sections and approaches in order to align the
context of policy to people-centric principles. Good policy considers the long-term future (possibility
space), minimizes short-term risks (known unknowns), and is adaptable to new information (unknown
unknowns). They need to incorporate resilience strategies, institutional mechanisms as well as the
depth of digitalization and technology to develop, map and execute policies.

3.2 The Framework

In order to evaluate an acceptable policy based on the societal background and the people
centric city roadmap, the policy needs to be assessed and benchmarked against real time events
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that are occurring in the city and its entire environment. This is important because this requires
transparency generated to a mix of digital technology and human engagement It also needs to
take into account different science methods used to design and evaluate public policies that better
reflect human behaviour and decision making in order to be applicable to local or local contexts.
Data are important for understanding current impacts of policy against the original objective, the
efficiency and efficacy of the use of tools to support policy, as well as the situational awareness and
applicability in the city and citizen context.

5 Reference to WG 1 Charter
6 https:// www .oecd .org/ en/ publications/ seven -routes -to -experimentation -in -policymaking _918b6a04 -en .html

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