Innovative IT tool to help municipalities improve service delivery

A multi-million-rand information technology tool, the Municipal Innovation Maturity Index (MIMI), which is aimed at assisting municipal officials improve service delivery, has been developed and piloted by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) in partnership with the South African Local Government Association, the Human Sciences Research Council and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).

The tool assesses how a municipality responds to science, technology and innovations, and recommends areas of improvement where a municipality has made progress in adopting innovative practices. Most importantly, the tool provides municipalities with insights into planning for innovation and migrating to higher levels of innovation maturity.

MIMI measures the capabilities of individual employees and municipalities to learn, adopt, implement and institutionalise innovations that can improve the functioning and performance of municipalities.

Principal investigator of MIMI, Dr Sithembiso Myeni from the School of Built Environment and Development Studies at UKZN, says the tool will go a long way in ensuring the efficiency of service delivery. He added that with the use of this tool, municipal officials will be in a better position to continually engage and track information/data that is processed and further reflected as a performance score.

The national rollout of MIMI is expected to enhance the capacity of municipalities to plan, integrate and embed innovation and technology in their daily operations, while creating an enabling environment for innovation uptake in municipalities.

A preliminary report on the municipal innovation measurements, based on the insight emerging from the pilot phase of this index, was also shared at the launch event that was hosted as a webinar.

DSI Director-General, Dr Phil Mjwara called on all stakeholders in the national system of innovation to partner with government in implementing initiatives that support a capable state.

“In this regard, I invite all stakeholders to work with us in creating an enabling environment for innovation across the state, and in municipalities in particular,” said Dr Mjwara. He also mentioned a number of initiatives that have been earmarked to bring innovation in various sectors of society.

“We believe that the District Development Model provides an excellent approach to introduce technologies and innovation that can renew existing economic sectors, drive new sources of growth and create a capable public sector, which will be supported by technology to improve the standard of living and the quality of basic services,” he added.

In partnership with the European Union, the DSI is implementing the Viability and Validation of Innovations for Service Delivery Programme (VVISDP) to demonstrate, pilot and evaluate the suitability of technologies and innovations that can improve the delivery of basic services at municipal level, and improve municipalities’ performance and functioning.

Municipal and local government policy and decision-makers, city managers, research institutions and private sector partners supporting innovation and innovative programmes in municipalities attended the webinar.