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San Nicolás, Argentina

San Nicolás Uses Data and New Digital Infrastructure to Increase Access to Quality Health Care

Project Type:
Health and Wellbeing, Technology

At a Glance

Transformed health services to be data-driven and digitized, reducing emergency response time from nine minutes to three minutes to improve health outcomes for residents.

Used resident feedback to simplify and digitize the business application process, increasing the number of businesses authorized annually to 650 in 2023 – up from 316 in 2018.

The digital Single Citizen Service Center is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for complaints and questions about city services. It allows the municipal government to track resident satisfaction and evaluate the response time for complaints.

Undertook a digital transformation of city services beginning in January 2023. Now, renewing a driver’s license can be done completely online and takes a maximum of 90 minutes rather than two days.

For years, residents of San Nicolás without private insurance relied on 28 public health centers, scattered unevenly across the city, that offer neither comprehensive services nor weekend care, leaving families with limited options. Without the freedom to choose the right doctor or access treatment nearby, residents faced significant barriers to essential health care.

But change is underway. San Nicolás is transforming its health care system, using data, technology and new infrastructure, to make quality medical care more accessible to all.

In 2023, the City introduced Seguro Medico Municipal, a groundbreaking health voucher system designed to empower uninsured residents. This program allows individuals to choose care at public or participating private health care facilities, which gives residents more options for high-quality service closer to home. More than 40,000 of the city’s 165,000 residents participate in the voucher program, with eligibility regularly reassessed to prioritize resources for those most in need. Additionally, the City links the vouchers to residents’ National Identity Documents, ensuring accurate tracking of medical information while preventing fraud.

The City is also building three hospitals and decided on the locations for these hospitals using disaggregated data on residents’ demographics, income and health needs, with the goal of allowing residents to choose facilities based on preference rather than necessity.

Photo Courtesy of Sanatorio GO San Nicolás

The first of these, GO Sanatorio San Nicolás, opened in 2024 and has already delivered over 216,000 medical services. This hospital represents Argentina’s first public-private partnership in health care, with the municipality supplying the building while a private medical group oversees operations, staffing and cutting-edge equipment. Officials plan to replace the smaller, less efficient public health centers with the larger hospitals, creating a streamlined, centralized system.

The City has also embraced digital innovation to improve health care delivery. A virtual queuing system has reduced in-person wait times by allowing patients to join lines remotely. Digital appointment reminders and simplified cancellations have cut no-show rates from 40.6% in spring 2024 to 29.4% by fall. Emergency response times have seen dramatic improvements, dropping from nine minutes to just three, thanks to collaboration with doctors and researchers. Additional innovations include digital prescriptions, which simplify access to medications, and telemedicine, which expands options for patients unable to visit clinics in person. These services, combined with unified, digital medical records will ensure continuity of care across providers, as the system expands in 2025.

San Nicolás is setting a national benchmark for using data-driven strategies and technological innovation to build a health care system that prioritizes accessibility, equity and quality for all its residents.

Reduced the medical emergency response time from 9 minutes to 3 minutes between May and September 2024

The first of these, GO Sanatorio San Nicolás, opened in 2024 and has already delivered over 216,000 medical services. This hospital represents Argentina’s first public-private partnership in health care, with the municipality supplying the building while a private medical group oversees operations, staffing and cutting-edge equipment. Officials plan to replace the smaller, less efficient public health centers with the larger hospitals, creating a streamlined, centralized system.

The City has also embraced digital innovation to improve health care delivery. A virtual queuing system has reduced in-person wait times by allowing patients to join lines remotely. Digital appointment reminders and simplified cancellations have cut no-show rates from 40.6% in spring 2024 to 29.4% by fall. Emergency response times have seen dramatic improvements, dropping from nine minutes to just three, thanks to collaboration with doctors and researchers. Additional innovations include digital prescriptions, which simplify access to medications, and telemedicine, which expands options for patients unable to visit clinics in person. These services, combined with unified, digital medical records will ensure continuity of care across providers, as the system expands in 2025.

San Nicolás is setting a national benchmark for using data-driven strategies and technological innovation to build a health care system that prioritizes accessibility, equity and quality for all its residents.

When you govern you have to have the humility to understand that you do not know everything. There are other cities that have faced the same challenges and maybe they solved something and you have to know how to take that experience and adapt it.

Mayor Santiago Passaglia

“What using data did was to professionalize management. It is like navigating before with a compass and then navigating with a GPS. It allows you to make decisions with knowledge and make management efficient.”

Mayor Santiago Passaglia

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Corrientes,
Argentina

A Digital Transformation in Corrientes Improves Resident Experiences and Services

Project Type:
High-Performing Government, Technology

At a Glance

The Citizen Service System allows residents to ask questions and register complaints and concerns online, by phone and in person. Expansions and improvements to the system have enabled the City to resolve complaints in an average of 7 days instead of 30.

Launched in 2022, Muni Bot assists residents using the Citizen Service System on WhatsApp and the city’s website. In 2024, it had 60,000 new users and sent 1.4 million messages, a 2,000% increase from the previous year.

The Open Data Portal gives the public access to 70 datasets, encouraging a more informed community and holding the government accountable.

Digital inclusion programs, such as free public Wifi and training for government employees and the public, help bridge the digital divide. Public WiFi is available at 57 locations with around 450 daily users.

Electronic signatures for City paperwork enhance security and efficiency, reduce the time and cost of traveling to City Hall, and support paperless processes, aligning with the City’s goals of modernization, improved services and environmental stewardship.

In Corrientes, Argentina, the government has undertaken a profound digital transformation of its services, making life easier and government interactions smoother for residents. For instance, renewing a driver’s license–once a task that could mean hours spent in a waiting room–is now streamlined through a digital platform that allows residents to complete paperwork and book appointments online, reducing the in-person process to under 30 minutes.

We are focused on the fact that we are an organization that is there to provide services, to guide and order the functioning of the city and to serve and provide services; it is not a political slogan.

Mayor Eduardo Tassano

This improvement is part of Corrientes’ broader push to digitize city services, modernizing everything from document access to resident engagement.

The Muni Bot virtual assistant, launched in October 2022, embodies this shift towards efficiency. Accessible on WhatsApp and the city’s website, Muni Bot responds to questions around the clock, addressing about 80% of inquiries automatically and referring more complex issues to city staff. In 2024, Muni Bot added over 60,000 users, sent 1.4 million responses and helped residents settle over 4,000 fines, often needed for transactions like vehicle sales or license renewals. Digital upgrades, paired with the mapping of complaints, have improved resolution times from 30 days to seven.

Corrientes has also introduced digital tools like the Turnero Web, an online appointment management system which has cut wait times for services, such as appointments for licenses and health documents or scheduling transportation, to an average of seven minutes. As a result, the Subsecretariat of Transportation was able to serve more than 13,000 residents between 2022 and 2024. Meanwhile, the Open Data Portal offers over 70 datasets for public review, enhancing transparency and allowing residents to stay informed about city projects and policies. QR codes for online validation of official documents reduce fraud and improve access, while electronic signatures have sped up processes, cut costs and supported environmental sustainability.

Increased government efficiency is only a part of digital transformation: Corrientes is actively empowering residents to use wifi and digital tools.The City has boosted digital inclusion with 57 free public WiFi locations and training programs, like coding workshops for youth and the Munijoven IT Academy. The digital shift has also empowered residents to participate more actively in the community’s development. For example, 16 institutions helped craft an environmental action plan for the city and over 1,000 residents voted online for their priorities, including planting more trees and improving recycling. With these advancements, Corrientes is realizing the potential of digital governance to bridge the gap between the government and the people it serves.

Digitizing business applications reduced the processing time from 3 months to 24 hours

Mayor Eduardo Tassano meets with the What Works Cities team. Photo Courtesy of the Municipality of Corrientes.

“We have closed the distance between the resident and the municipality. Residents have become empowered and demand more from the municipality. What they see that works in one area they demand it from another.”

Maria Cruz Silvero, Director General for Government Coordination

Vicente López, Argentina

Using AI to Detect Dengue-Carrying Mosquitoes in Real-Time

Project Type:
Environment, Health and Wellbeing, Technology

At a Glance

Vicente López developed a device powered by AI to instantly detect dengue-carrying mosquitoes with 90% accuracy, helping the City’s response time go from ten days to real-time.

The City’s data-driven recycling strategy implements weekly collections, new trash receptacles and environmental awareness campaigns. The goal is to reduce the amount of trash sent to landfill by 25%.

The 1000 Days Program aims to improve the comprehensive health of pregnant women, expectant mothers and children from 0 to 3 years old, especially those in vulnerable communities.

Vicente López is one of the first Latin American cities to publish a proclamation for the ethical use of artificial intelligence, helping the City stay updated and promote good practices in the use of Generative AI.

The City of Vicente López, Argentina, has a new tool in the fight against dengue. With artificial intelligence that can detect the presence of dengue-carrying mosquito species in real time.

The device is one of many data-based initiatives being developed in municipal government and has the potential to save lives in South America and around the world.  As temperatures rise, dengue spreads to cities where it was not a significant problem before.

This is the case in Argentina, where the number of dengue cases shattered the country’s previous recorded records in 2023 and again in 2024. People who are bitten by a mosquito carrying the dengue virus often experience high fever and severe headaches and joint pain. In severe cases, dengue is deadly.

One of the City of Vicente López’s AI-powered mosquito traps.

“The use of data helps us improve our management and provide quality public services. It is not only about improving our processes, but also about having a positive impact on the daily lives of our neighbors.”

Vicente López Mayor Soledad Martínez

35 mosquito traps equipped with artificial intelligence were placed throughout the city, with 35 more planned to be installed by 2025.

As part of its efforts to combat this disease, the municipal government has placed dozens of special AI-powered mosquito traps near health centers, schools, sports fields and other places in the municipality. The traps are approximately the size of a 500ml bottle and they use a fan, along with an attractant, to attract mosquitoes through a hole. Once inside, a camera takes a photo of the insect and sends the image to a database, hosted in the Amazon Web Services cloud, containing thousands of mosquito photographs.

That’s where artificial intelligence comes into play. AI classifies photographs to determine if the mosquito in the trap is the Aedes A species aegypti that transmits dengue, with an accuracy greater than 90 percent. This data is sent to the municipal health inspectors, who closely observe the flow of information. “When the alert arrives, a prevention protocol is activated and immediate fumigation,” said Juan Pablo Fittipaldi, Secretary of Digital Transformation of the Municipality.

It is too early to know if this innovation is having a real effect on dengue cases. However, what is clear is that Vicente López’s high-tech, data-driven approach has accelerated the speed with which they respond to the problem. The city’s previous detection systems relied on manual collection and analysis of samples that took up to ten days to detect the presence of dengue in the municipality. The new traps reduce that detection time to approximately one hour.

2 weeks to 1 hour The time to detect and respond to mosquitoes carrying the dengue virus was reduced from two weeks to one hour.

Vicente López City staff meet with What Works Cities Certification team.

The idea for this solution dates back to 2017, when two residents, the Barceló brothers, attended a hackathon at the Vicente López University Center that was aimed at using city data to find new ways to solve problems. They came up with the idea of the trap, which has gone through several iterations since then. The municipality is eager to share the solution with other cities where dengue is a threat to residents. Today, parts of the software code that feed the solution are freely available for anyone to use.

Through its innovative artificial intelligence traps and robust data management, Vicente López proactively confronts the growing threat of dengue and lays the foundation for a healthier community.

“What Works Cities Certification is not just about receiving an award, it is a process. It is about continuing to improve our management and being part of a network of cities that work with data to improve the lives of neighbors.”

Vicente López Mayor Soledad Martinez

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Mendoza, Argentina

Using AI to Tackle Unregulated Landfills

Project Type:
Community Engagement, Finance, Health and Wellbeing, Infrastructure, Public Safety, Transportation

At a Glance

Used an AI-powered digital tool to identify small but harmful garbage dumps scattered around the city.

Created a Directorate of Digital Transformation, Smart Cities and Open Government to take advantage of data and make better decisions.

Built dashboards for data on commercial activity and entrepreneurship, waste recycling, public safety, and more after seeing the power of collating data during the pandemic.

Making progress toward 2030 climate goals through innovations from the Municipal Climate Change Committee, which is made up of the Secretary of Environment and Urban Development, science and technical organizations, universities, the Institute of Environmental Sciences, and more.

Like many cities, Mendoza has a problem with illegal dumping, particularly in marginalized neighborhoods near the foothills of the Andes. These small piles of trash pose major risks to water quality and public health. However, they are not always easy to see: many of the spill sites are small and hidden in ravines.

City leaders are now using artificial intelligence to locate and clean these micro-landfills. In collaboration with the Bunge and Born Foundation, Mendoza developed an algorithm that used drone photography to detect landfills as small as one square meter. The initiative is part of a broader effort to use data to make smart decisions related to climate change and the environment.

In just one part of the city, the tool found 1,573 detected trash tags. The algorithm can also identify whether the material in these piles is plastic, branches, construction debris, or something else. This gives city leaders a plan to direct their cleanup efforts, impacting and improving quality of life. of 2,000 families in 19 neighborhoods.

Recognizing the global need for such a tool, the team behind the technology has released the code and it has presented to cities throughout Argentina. And to make it replicable, they have adapted the algorithm so that it can use free images from Google Earth, instead of drone photography, which can be expensive. They believe the same approach could be used to detect other environmental hazards on the urban periphery, such as deforestation.

“Managing open dumps is an enormous management challenge for national, provincial and local governments,” said the Secretary of Environment from Mendoza, Sebastián Fermani. “Not only because of pollution and climate change issues, but also because it is a problem that disproportionately affects the vulnerable population.”

“Local governments may not have the resources of a regional or provincial government, but through data-driven decisions, we can generate a better climate and investment to create jobs and economic development.”

Mayor Ulpiano Leandro Suarez
Comparison of detection of small dumpsites by AI versus humans.

Used AI to identify and classify 1,573 small dumpsites in just one section of the city.

“What Works Cities Certification is both a recognition of the work done by a great team here, and also shows us how we can improve city management based on international standards.”

Mayor Ulpiano Leandro Suarez

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Luján de Cuyo, Argentina

Bajo Luján’s Journey to New Housing.

Project Type:
Community Engagement, Environment, Equity, Health and Wellbeing, Infrastructure, Public Safety, Technology, Transportation

At a Glance

Relocated more than 1200 families who lived in flood-prone areas.

Created a workforce development initiative that employed residents, renovated public land and expanded access to recycling centers.

Improved access to territorial data, which made getting land permit data faster—going from months of waiting to just three clicks. The platform, Luján 3D, allows renovations and housing development to have substantial improvements.

Improved accessibility for residents with disabilities through an adapted bicycle program.

In 2016, a survey conducted by the city of Luján de Cuyo, Argentina, revealed a heartbreaking reality. There were about 3,500 families who lived in marginal or informal neighborhoods, of which 700 were concentrated in the Bajo Luján area, often without basic services. The most vulnerable residents lived near a flood-prone river, underscoring the urgency for change. As a result, the City developed an ambitious urbanization and relocation project, supported by the World Bank.

At the heart of the initiative was a resident-driven approach. Residents were surveyed to identify and prioritize needs, including proximity to employment, family size, and level of need to minimize disruption to their daily lives. Efforts to monitor the impact of this relocation were key. A survey and audit process was initiated, capturing residents’ experiences before, during and after the move. This data was visualized through PowerBI dashboards, allowing real-time tracking of project progress.

“Governing is making decisions. Doing it well requires exceptional use of data. If we intend to achieve real impact in the community, our public policies must be data-driven. We dream of becoming an international example of well-managed local government.”

Esteban Allasino, Mayor

The result was the construction of 700 homes in 11 neighborhoods.

This enormous initiative not only provided new homes, but restored a sense of human dignity and trust in government for those who had long been marginalized.

Seven hundred safe and practical homes is a significant achievement.

Additionally, the community intervened and regularized other settlements benefiting 500 families, completing a very ambitious stage that managed to reach more than 35% of the most vulnerable sector of the City.

But the government did not stop there. City leaders knew that housing is only one part of poverty. Thus, in an effort to create employment opportunities, the city turned its attention to residents who worked at the landfills as urban recyclers.

These families made a living collecting recyclable materials from garbage dumps. To help them, the following public policies were promoted: Closure and remediation of garbage dumps, Social inclusion of urban reclaimers, Inclusive Recycling Program – Centro Verde. In this way, the city, together with a group of neighbors, mainly women, officially formed a cooperative. The City provided land and necessary infrastructure.

The Fortress of My Earth, which now has nearly 30 members, launched a program that uses geographic information system (GIS) data to strategically place recycling bins throughout the city. This project successfully increased the number of Green Dots from 8 to 65, ensuring that residents could easily find a container within 500 meters of their homes. This caused a notable increase in recycling from 2021 to 2023.

The story doesn’t end there. In 2021, the City cut the ribbon on Luján Park,  located in the previously abandoned housing settlement Bajo Luján. The area has been transformed into a lively community space, with children’s play areas with equipment made from recycled plastic from the cooperative.

The Bajo Luján and Centro Verde projects reveal how intertwined initiatives can have an exponential impact on residents’ lives. They boosted citywide sustainability, helping hundreds of Luján de Cuyo residents achieve housing stability and financial independence and building much-needed trust in local government.

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Tres de Febrero, Argentina

Making Health Care the Starting Point of Community

Project Type:
Equity, Health & Wellness, High-Performing Government, Technology

At a Glance

15 minutes: The longest a resident in a target population needs to travel to reach a primary health center.

More than 50% of the local population is registered in the municipal public health system, with the proposed minimum goal being 35% (population with only public coverage).

Reduced emergency response time from an average of 60 minutes to 10 minutes, improving public safety and health outcomes.

There is a difference between having the right to health care and having access to health care.

In Argentina, health services are divided among levels of government, and while the country does have universal health care, many residents—especially vulnerable populations—lack access to critical health services. In the 24 municipalities that make up Greater Buenos Aires, 50% of people live in poverty and 54% do not have access to at least some public services.

Given this significant disparity in access, Tres de Febrero, a municipality of 350,000 in the Buenos Aires metro area, understood that it would take transformational change to solve its health care problem.

First, the City analyzed its community needs to identify a priority population of residents who lacked access to government-provided healthcare. The City embarked on an inside-out transformation of its health system with three strategies:

1) Digitize

  • Tres de Febrero invested in key digital infrastructure across its health services. This allowed the City to provide more efficient, more accurate and more user-friendly services for residents when they made appointments, filled prescriptions, got blood work, and more. Crucially, the City also transitioned from paper patient records to digital medical profiles, which directly improves patient care by enabling greater data sharing between health providers and faster access to information for patients. Through coordinated enrollment plans with the electronic registry, Tres de Febrero was able to reach a 100% enrollment rate.

2) Decentralize

  • A core challenge that Tres de Febrero faced was the distribution of its health services and primary care centers (CAPS). Using geographical data about its target population, the City built two new CAPS in strategic locations so that no one in the target population had to travel more than 15 minutes for primary care. They also increased the number of CAPS that could provide specialized services such as dentistry, gynecology and mental health care. For instance, in 2021, only one CAPS had a lab that could do blood tests. By 2023, all 14 centers could.

3) Revitalize

  • Previously, CAPS centers did not exemplify healthy community spaces. They were dilapidated, with exposed electrical wire, flaking paint and visible mold. Being in the buildings did not make residents feel good. Thus, the City renovated more than 14 health care facilities to improve quality of care.
Image courtesy of the Municipality of Tres de Febrero.

“It is not possible for me to pay for a gym membership, but I have been here every day to exercise because there is space to do so.”

Resident speaking about renovated public exercise space

The numbers in Tres de Febrero speak for themselves. The transformation has touched every branch of the City’s health system: emergency response times have dropped by 82%, lab results come in three days, not two weeks, and more than 450 medical professionals have participated in the city’s continuing training program.

This sweeping and dramatic improvement in how Tres de Febrero serves its residents was made possible by data. Tres de Febrero has done more than build health centers: It has created equitable community spaces that build trust in government, deepen community bonds and make lives better.

“As a neighbor, I can see the impact of using data to improve the lives of residents and the community.”

Ailén Gómez, Líder de Seguimiento

“Certification is a valuable tool for mayors. Using data and evidence adds value to strategic planning and increases your chances of success. Using data is essential but it is not enough. You also need to have empathy and political leadership is how you change people’s lives.”

Diego Valenzuela, Mayor

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Córdoba, Argentina

From Paper to Digital in 3.5 Years.

Project Type:
Community Engagement, Environment, Equity, Housing, Infrastructure, Public Safety, Technology

At a Glance

Three and a half years ago, Córdoba did not have any digital processes and used paper for nearly everything. Today, the City has a data governance practice and more than 100 out of 275 identified processes are digital.

88% of the people that uses the health system now have their medical records digitalized.

VeDi App, launched in 2019, has more than 1.1 million users, 70% of Córdoba’s population.

18,000 residents have been trained in digitization courses to reduce the digital gap, of which 80% are women.

In 2019, when Córdoba, Argentina, Mayor Martin Llaryora entered office with a mandate to improve data-led practices, the City of 1.6 million had a small budget and operated almost entirely on paper. For residents of this vast city, which covers an area more than three times the size of Buenos Aires, this meant frequent trips to municipal offices and bureaucratic struggles to address simple issues. 

Córdoba transformed this experience quickly by creating a data governance practice. That allowed the City to prioritize 275 procedures that could make lives easier for residents, such as obtaining driving licenses and building approvals. Mayor Llaryora is most proud of the City’s Citizen App, used by more than 1.1 million people — about 70% of the population. The app lets residents file claims and generates valuable data about problems around the City, helping officials focus resources on issues important to their residents, such as waste, lighting and traffic signals.

“This is an example of hope for Latin America because although we have a very low budget, we were able to develop a smart city.”

Martin Llayora, Mayor

Córdoba has also made progress in adopting digital tools in public health policies. Different community vaccination strategies are now digitalized on the basis of Epidemiology records or the “Mejorar” free electronic prescription program. This online provision and authorization system meant a change in the public drug dispensing system.

Along with its digital efforts, Córdoba is making progress to reduce the digital gap, particularly among women, with Corlab, the city’s Innovation Lab that offers training programs for residents. Through its “Menos Brecha, Más Comunidad” program, out of the 18,000 citizens who have been trained, 80% are women. For a city with a tight budget, adopting the cloud has been doubly beneficial: simplifying processes and eliminating paper waste has saved more than 3.5 billion Argentine pesos across 22 City departments and agencies.

This rapid digital conversion delivers more than savings for the City, it’s a transformation with far-reaching consequences—from everyday services like trash pickup and traffic lights—to the times when residents count on their government the most.

“We have the data to know that we are going down the right track. The data is not there to punish you, it’s there to help you course correct.“

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Buenos Aires,
Argentina

Public Policies Based on Data Lead to Significant Decrease in Infant Mortality

Project Type:
Health and Wellbeing, High-Performing Government, Youth Development

At a Glance

39% decline in the infant mortality rate between 2016 and 2022.

15 minutes: the maximum time it takes for a resident to reach a community healthcare center.

300 individual metrics are being tracked to support the quality and reliability of 115 public services.

100% of Buenos Aires community health centers now operate with electronic medical charts.

The City now has a thorough data strategy, clear evidence-based policies, 30 executive dashboards, and more than 4,300 indicators after creating the Undersecretariat for Evidence-Based Public Policies and the General Directorate of Monitoring and Evaluation.

Reducing the Infant Mortality Rate

Improving the infant mortality rate in Buenos Aires, which was 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2016, required a multi-pronged strategy, especially because the hospitals and doctors offices are run by public and private entities as well as social security. Additionally, the strategy was not just medical—it required the coordinated approach of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Human Development and Habitat to carry out policies that considered both medical and social implications.

Effective solutions to complex and urgent problems require more than passion and good ideas. City leaders need the right data to illuminate the depth and breadth of an issue; that is what sets the stage for smart public policy.

Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, Mayor

The City, which had already worked to build a data-driven culture, took another step forward by implementing electronic medical records in all health and community action centers (CeSACs), collecting healthcare data from across Buenos Aires to better identify at-risk pregnant women and develop integrated interventions to both strengthen health services and create targeted solutions. Specific goals were established:

  • Make healthcare more accessible so that every resident has a community healthcare center less than 15 minutes from their home.
  • All women would receive at least five checkups over the course of a pregnancy and seven pediatric consultations during the baby’s first year.
  • Promote the healthy development of vulnerable children between 45 days and 3 years old through 76 early childhood centers.

With these clear, measurable targets and the increase in higher quality data, all of the goals had been reached by 2022. Additionally, the City reached their goals with an emphasis on transparency: Buenos Aires’ General Directorate of Statistics and Censuses allowed residents to have transparent and reliable access to data as well as a way to monitor and evaluate progress on the measures the City was taking to improve healthcare.

How else has Buenos Aires become a more data-driven government? 

  • Digitized and streamlined their procurement system and made data on city contracts open and accessible.
  • BOTI, the first city-developed chatbot for WhatsApp in the world, had 59 million conversations with residents in 2022. 
  • Developed “green streets” to create more natural space for pedestrian enjoyment and capture stormwater.
  • Created a 3D model of the City to aid neighborhood development and make it easier to see regulations and codes. 

The Ministry of Health constructed seven new health care centers and renovated 10 others. Pregnant women were given priority when making appointments online for primary care visits. Targeted campaigns involving workshops, at-work training and seminars—on subjects including sleeping and eating habits—had reached 7,000 families considered to be highly vulnerable. And the overall impact was clear: The City of Buenos Aires reduced its infant mortality rate by 39% from 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2016, to 4.4 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022. 

Buenos Aires’ progress on maternal care and infant health is just one example of how the City’s commitment to improve data quality, quantity and practices is bearing fruit. But a 39% decrease in infant mortality rate is more than a success story for the City of Buenos Aires—it’s a number that represents the prevention of heartbreaking losses in scores of families—and incalculable joy as families watch their children grow up.  

“We have a limited time to transform reality—and data-driven governance can accelerate positive change. By having shared standards and rules for data management, we create a common understanding and language, powering day-to-day change.”

Melisa Breda, Undersecretary of Evidence-Based Public Policy

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