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Niterói, Brazil

Data-Driven Investment Benefits Youth and the City of Niterói

Project Type:
Youth Development, Community Engagement

At a Glance

In 2013,  Niterói developed its first strategic plan, Niterói Que Queremos (The Niterói We Want), with online contributions from about 5,700 residents. The plan, with goals set until 2033, includes indicators that strengthen the city’s ability to monitor, evaluate, and improve public policies.

Niterói was among the first cities in Brazil to establish a Digital Government Strategy by decree in December 2022. Today, 100% of administrative processes are handled electronically.

Niterói is the first city in Brazil to conduct a large-scale municipal household sample survey. Beginning in 2025, the Niterói Que Somos (The Niterói We Are) survey will interview 15,000 households across all city regions and will be repeated every four years.

Niterói has won first place four times and received the highest score twice in Transparency Rankings from the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Office of the Comptroller General. The city’s Transparency Portal allows the public to track government spending and resource allocation.

Many things need to happen for a young person in a vulnerable situation to achieve the dream of attending college: years of study, support from family and teachers, and financial resources or scholarships. But for the youth of Niterói, data analysis is being used to implement public policies for social inclusion and shorten that path.

By analyzing information on public safety and education, the Niterói City Hall found that young people from more vulnerable neighborhoods needed more support to develop professional skills. Based on this data, the Niterói Jovem EcoSocial Program was developed to offer free professional training to young people aged 16 to 24 living in socially vulnerable areas. The program has a dual purpose: increasing youth employability and promoting the city’s environmental sustainability. The initiative is continuously monitored, closely tracking participants to assess its effectiveness and demonstrate the impact of education in reducing violence.

Image Courtesy of the City of Niterói.

Walking through the communities impacted by EcoSocial shows that we have planted ideas of preservation and sustainability in the minds and hearts of young people in our city. More than that, we have contributed to their education and professional development, and we hope they will share their knowledge and do good in their communities.

Octávio Ribeiro, Municipal Secretary of Social Participation

The Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities Certification is, above all, an incentive—something that drives us to organize, modernize, and continually improve our strategies using technology and data analysis. We have earned certifications, recognition, and awards that show we are on the right path, investing in innovative initiatives like the Niterói Jovem EcoSocial Program. This is a concrete example of how well-structured policies, supported by technology and evidence, can transform lives.

Mayor Rodrigo Neves

900 young people from vulnerable neighborhoods have participated in the Jovem EcoSocial Program since 2019. Another 600 are currently enrolled in the third phase, expected to graduate in the first half of 2026.

Participants choose from a variety of classes and engage in field activities that develop their skills and contribute to their communities, such as assisting in reforestation and establishing community gardens. Since 2019, more than 900 young people have graduated from the program.

Jhonata Barcelos was part of the first EcoSocial cohort and received a job offer related to the courses he took in the program upon graduating in 2021. “A person is not born a professional,” he said. “They develop professionally. Who I am in my career today is 50% thanks to what EcoSocial provided me and 50% my own effort.”

The City continues to follow EcoSocial participants even after they complete the program, using outcome data to improve future editions, such as expanding the neighborhoods served and diversifying the courses offered. A strong culture of monitoring within the municipal government allows city management to evaluate what is working, what needs adjustment, and the progress made toward Niterói’s 20-year plan to become the best city to live in Brazil.

In 2023, Barcelos was accepted into the State University of Rio de Janeiro. He credits the EcoSocial program with opening the first door that allowed him to fulfill his dream of attending college. Through its commitment to data analysis, Niterói is creating more pathways to long-term success for Barcelos and hundreds of other young people.

More than 45,000 families receive the Arariboia Social Currency, an electronic currency that not only provides government benefits but also supports local businesses and encourages employment and school attendance.

Image Courtesy of the City of Niterói.

In recent years, Niterói has made great strides in the strategic use of data for decision-making, policy formulation, and evaluation of public policies. Now, Niterói is innovating by launching Brazil’s first municipal household sample survey, Niterói que Somos. With it, we will have even greater capacity to improve our planning and develop more effective public policies based on detailed population data.

Isadora Modesto, Secretary of Planning
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Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Belo Horizonte Reduces the Digital Divide and Creates Opportunities for Residents

Project Type:
Technology, High-Performing Government

At a Glance

Belo Horizonte uses demographic data to offer free Wi-Fi points in all Villages and Favelas, territories with high social vulnerability and low income, and train more than 17,000 residents through free technology and digital entrepreneurship courses.

The Open Data Portal makes more than 500 datasets available, encouraging transparency and public innovation.

Belo Horizonte Operations Center (COP-BH) brings together 20 institutions to share data used in managers’ daily decision-making, in major events, catastrophes and crises.

As of February 2025, citizens can interact remotely with Belo Horizonte City Hall by requesting 1,435 services on the BH Digital platform, including 128 quick request services via PBH APP.

The Belo Horizonte City Hall Data Lake brings together 10 databases from Resource Planning, Urban Mobility, Taxes and Citizen Service.

Belo Horizonte’s strategic planning is 100% aligned with Sustainable Development indicators.

Millions of people in Brazil, especially in low-income communities known as favelas, do not have access to the internet and computers, which is a barrier to education, professional opportunities and essential services. Belo Horizonte, however, is changing this reality.  Digital inclusion is essential for universal access to digital public services. Inspired by the motto “Don’t leave anyone offline”, the Digital Inclusion Program, led by the City’s digital infrastructure and IT company, PRODABEL, is bridging the digital divide and transforming lives. The initiative is based on three pillars: connectivity, equipment and training.

Belo Horizonte uses demographic and geographic data as a tool to reduce social inequality and the lack of access to quality internet. In 2023, the City reached an important milestone by providing more than 2,100 free Wi-Fi points in Belo Horizonte’s 220 vilas and favelas. Across the capital, more than 4,800 access points now offer free internet, with a simplified login system available in Portuguese, Spanish and English, already used by more than 3 million people. For residents without their own technology, more than 130 telecenters — located in libraries, cultural centers and other public spaces — offer free access to computers and online services. Moreover, a mobile digital inclusion unit expands this effort, bringing technology and training directly to the most vulnerable communities, enabling access to recently digitized municipal services and educational programs.

17,000 certifications awarded to residents for completing free technology courses, in person and online, including a significant participation of women, young people and the elderly.

Image Courtesy of the City of Belo Horizonte

“I am grateful for the learning opportunities that the basic IT course provided me. In my 39 years of life, this was the first time I had contact with a computer. When I arrived to take the course, I didn’t even know how to turn it on, and I had this wonderful opportunity to acquire knowledge that will open many doors for me.”

Adriana Lima, Belo Horizonte resident and graduate of a training course offered by the Municipal IT and Information Company (quote provided by the City)

100% of the city’s 220 villages, favelas and housing complexes have free Wi-Fi points.

“We work to improve people’s quality of life. That’s the most important thing.”

Mayor Fuad Noman

More than 4,800 free internet access points spread across the city.

The program also increases digital inclusion by renovating and donating equipment — more than 50,000 to students and 1,300 to low-income families and telecenters in non-governmental institutions as of December 2024. Free technology courses, covering everything from computer basics to programming, robotics and digital entrepreneurship, enable residents to prosper in the digital economy. Available to anyone over the age of 16, these courses have already issued more than 17,000 certificates, with a focus on involving women, young people and the elderly.

Belo Horizonte is also a model in digital governance. City Hall trains employees in the use of technology to increase efficiency and improve decision-making. Through a pioneering Data Intelligence Policy, the City ensures that data is collected, stored and shared with security and transparency, in addition to prioritizing the responsible use of artificial intelligence. The Belo Horizonte Operations Center (COP-BH) puts this policy into practice, integrating data from more than 20 institutions to improve public services, coordinate major events and respond preventively to crisis situations.

The City is not only filling the technology gap, but also building a future in which every resident can thrive in a rapidly changing world.

In Belo Horizonte, we are committed to institutionalizing digital transformation, structuring processes and providing tools for decision-making. Furthermore, we understand the importance of everyone involved having digital literacy to take ownership of the digitalization of services.

Jean Mattos, president of Prodabel
Image Courtesy of the City of Belo Horizonte
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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A Bridge for the City’s Most Vulnerable

Project Type:
Community Engagement, Housing, Infrastructure

At a Glance

266,393 household surveys were carried out by the City’s Social Territories program to identify vulnerable families disconnected from municipal services.

3,758 out-of-school children and adolescents aged 4 to 14 were referred for enrollment.

9,744 families living in extreme poverty gained access to housing, healthcare and other social assistance through the Social Territories program.

About 2 million of Rio de Janeiro’s 6.2 million inhabitants live in favelas, residential areas spread across the City of Rio. These densely populated neighborhoods are often hard to reach, lack infrastructure and many families remain without access to basic services, disconnected from the sewage network, running water or electricity.

The first step to helping these families is to find them, as many of these residents are not part of government systems and there is little data about them. Thus, Rio City Hall decided to launch a new program, Social Territories, in partnership with UN-Habitat, the United Nations’ sustainable urban development program. With field agents who go door to door to interview families, the program’s priorities are to identify families at social risk and provide them with various basic public services, such as school enrollment, health care, referral to social benefits, housing support, and access to professional training and job opportunities. For example, Social Territories data helps the City choose beneficiaries of Casa Carioca, a housing requalification program.

Designed in 2016, Social Territories has proven the value of a three-phase, data-driven approach to helping some of Rio de Janeiro’s most vulnerable residents.

Image courtesy of the City of Rio de Janeiro.

In the first phase, municipal officials conduct interviews with residents to identify how they could help, whether by enrolling children in school, providing clean water or other support. Detailed household survey data is analyzed against standards defined in the UN Multidimensional Poverty Index. Levels of risk are established to indicate the degree of need of each household, which lays the groundwork for the second phase of the program. Using survey and geospatial data, municipal departments reach out to high-risk families, including those living in extreme poverty, to provide appropriate services such as housing, health care, education and job training. The final phase of Social Territories involves monitoring residents receiving targeted services and then reassessing their needs after a year.

In essence, the program aims to proactively learn about disconnected communities and build bridges between the City and residents to improve their lives. Administered by the Pereira Passos Institute, which oversees the City’s data practices and uses detailed demographic data to support the implementation of policies and programs, the Social Territories program has expanded over the years. Originally focused on 10 favelas, in 2022 the program expanded to cover all of Rio de Janeiro. That same year, it was recognized with a World Smart Cities Award.

“The Social Territories program serves all areas of City planning, identifying vulnerable families and increasingly promoting equity in access to services and opportunities.”

Bianca Medina, Coordinator of Social Territories at Instituto Pereira Passos

Today, Social Territories continues to show what can happen when a municipal government prioritizes data-driven decision-making to help its most vulnerable residents. In January 2025,

  • Almost 32,000 families identified by the program were served by the Municipal Health Department
  • Nearly 26,000 were served by Municipal Secretariat of Social Assistance
  • Almost 8,000 families received housing improvements, many of them through Casa Carioca Project
  • Nearly 4,000 children were recently enrolled in school
Image courtesy of the City of Rio de Janeiro.

“With the data made available by the Pereira Passos Institute from the field search, we can provide secretariats with information about families, improve the living conditions of the population, improve the efficiency of public management and promote sustainable urban development. It is an immense satisfaction to see the program happen and take shape in Rio.”, says Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

“When data drives our city’s services, we not only deliver results for our community, but we also rebuild trust with residents. What Works Cities Certification shows residents that we are making smart decisions that they can see and understand, making them partners in improving our city.”

Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro
Image courtesy of the City of Rio de Janeiro.

“Using data and evidence to run local government is more efficient. When you know where to invest and where the results come from, you save money.”

Lucas Padilha, Municipal Secretary of Culture
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Caruaru, Brazil

A Data-Driven Approach Yields Progress on Early Childhood Development.

Project Type:
Community Engagement, Cross-Sector Collaboration, Education, Health and Wellbeing, Parks and Recreation, Youth Development

At a Glance

Launched a 10-year Municipal Early Childhood Plan with 60 goals for the health and wellbeing of expectant mothers and children ages 0 to 6.

The City is making measurable progress on key metrics, including rates of teen pregnancy, maternal mortality and congenital syphilis.

A new community center is the heart of municipal services, professional training, policymaking and research on what works related to early childhood development.

The sparkling new community center that opened in Caruaru in April 2024 is a unique headquarters for all things early childhood. Within its walls, expecting mothers get health checkups and prenatal care, teachers get professional training, parents learn positive parenting techniques in dedicated classes, and there’s no shortage of play areas for children to climb, tinker with toys, or make their way through a stack of picture books.

However, the space is more than a vibrant community center. It’s also a health and education research and collaboration hub, aimed at learning what works in early childhood, a critical time for brain development. The center and its programming relied on best practices (such as disaggregating data) from Urban95, an initiative that elevates children’s perspectives in urban planning. Learnings from the center will spread to the growing number of municipally run daycare centers springing up around the city of 400,000 near Brazil’s eastern tip.

Children play at the new Caruaru’s new community center.

These centers are the most visible products of Caruaru’s data-driven 10-year plan for early childhood, which kicked off in 2018. But there is much more behind the scenes. That plan includes 60 goals tied to measurable results. It’s bearing fruit. The number of cases of syphilis passed from pregnant mothers to their babies declined from 79 in 2022 to 19 in 2023, thanks to stepped up testing and treatment. Rates of teenage pregnancy are down 6 percent since 2022, and the number of pregnant women who died before, during, or soon after childbirth dropped from three to zero.

New parents receive support at Caruaru’s community center.

“Whether it’s health, education, social assistance, or other City Hall services, we have an obligation to deliver with quality. Data helps us measure how we are progressing and whether our investments are paying off.”

Caruaru Mayor Rodrigo Pinheiro

Two things stand out in Caruaru’s approach. One is a commitment to engaging residents — and children themselves — in the childhood development effort. A diverse advisory committee of 20 children between the ages of 4 and 12 meets regularly to discuss things they’d like to see in the community. Current priorities include creating a new water park, more activities for kids during an annual local festival and cleaning up the local river.

The City of Caruaru convenes the Comitê das Crianças (Children’s Committee).

The other standout is the way agencies across city hall, including health, education, planning and others, collaborate to get results. In fact, there are meeting spaces at Caruaru’s new community center specifically meant to be places where public-sector and nonprofit leaders can team up on youth and family initiatives. Caruaru’s shared, data-driven approach helps different partners stay focused on the results they are working to achieve together. “We do it in an intersectoral way,” says Mayor Rodrigo Pinheiro. “All the departments meet and work together.”

“Certification is extremely important for us to inspire a regional culture of using data. If we can do it in Caruaru, it will be replicated in 50 other cities in the region. By serving as an example, we can spread a culture of data-driven governance to other municipalities in our region.”

Dimitri Bezerra Almeida, Procurador-Geral de Caruaru
A young member of Caruaru’s Comitê das Crianças (Children’s Committee).

60 goals Caruaru's 10-year Municipal Early Childhood Plan includes 60 goals.

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Porto Alegre, Brazil

Going Digital to Improve City Services

 

Project Type:
High-Performing Government, Technology

At a Glance

Digitalized city services, resulting in a 42% reduction in paper consumption by City government. 

Reduced the average time it takes to register a business from six days to seven hours.

Expanded digital resident service channels, via the Customer Service Center, which resulted in an 82% increase in interactions with residents between 2020 and 2023. 

Between 2022 and 2023, there was a 46% increase in residents using City Hall’s digital application to request services.

In 2023, the Innovative Territories Project promoted the digital inclusion of underserved communities, including the installation of 45 new internet access points, with 13,000 uses per month.

A Sunday morning in Porto Alegre’s Germânia Park. Photo: Alex Rocha/PMPA

When it comes to municipal services, digitalization is a win-win situation for residents and the government. It simplifies workflows, reduces costs and allows cities to better use their data. But what matters most is how digitalization can improve the lives of residents. The digital transformation of Porto Alegre City Hall shows how technological updates can make City Hall more accessible and responsive to the 1.3 million people it serves.

For example, the City drastically reduced the time it took to register a business — from six days to seven hours after the process was digitized, allowing operations to begin sooner and supporting economic development. And more efficient operations enabled by digital systems have helped reduce backlog in the city’s 156 system, through which residents receive non-emergency information and support services, in 79% since 2020.

The movement to digitize and connect public services is a decisive step toward a more innovative, efficient and transparent government that responds to the needs of its residents. In Porto Alegre, I believe we are establishing a model for cities throughout Brazil and Latin America.

Cezar Schirmer, Head of the Secretariat of Planning and Strategic Affairs, City of Porto Alegre

More broadly, Porto Alegre’s digital transformation — which has accelerated since early 2023, in part due to support from the Inter-American Development Bank — has helped the city’s decision-makers start with data.

When Sebastião Melo took office in 2021, his administration published a strategic plan aligned with electoral promises and public feedback. Prometa 2021-2024 included contributions from more than 1,800 employees through the “Vozes da Cidade” project.

Porto Alegre’s commitment to prioritizing data continues. Certification is an important milestone, but city leaders understand that their new data practices can help Porto Alegre become even more proactive and resilient. The City is working to eliminate silos in its own systems, aiming to turn technology upgrades into more improvements for residents. It’s working to connect healthcare, education, financial and other databases so it can provide crucial services more proactively. For example, its “Digital Citizen” initiative provides each resident with a personalized profile reflecting their interests, information and needs. The connected and interoperable database covers several different agencies/secretariats, so the City can communicate with citizens more effectively, for example, suggesting a vaccine directly to an unvaccinated child or offering places in daycare centers and municipal schools digitally, as well as signaling if a homeowner hasn’t paid property taxes — and then encourage residents to take action through a mobile app.

Porto Alegre’s story highlights how digital transformation and data-driven decision-making combine to lay the foundation for better municipal government.

“Data is essential for making better decisions and improving residents’ lives. And it helps invest resources more efficiently, as well as allowing the government to be more transparent.”

Mayor Sebastião Melo
Photo Courtesy of the City of Porto Alegre.

Porto Alegre has dedicated itself to transforming the innovation environment and stimulating entrepreneurship. We have been working to build a consolidated ecosystem that aligns the benefits of technology with the needs of the population. Innovation needs to translate into more efficient services, improving the city and the lives of people.

Mayor Sebastião Melo
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Recife, Brazil

Community Needs Lead in Recife

Project Type:
Education, Health and Wellbeing, High-Performing Government, Public Safety, Technology, Youth Development

At a Glance

15% drop in violence in neighborhoods covered by COMPAZ, more significant when compared to levels of violence throughout the City.

E.I.T.A! Recife, a City-run innovation lab, elevates and experiments with resident solutions to City challenges. More than 660,000 have tested these solutions.

Through an initiative to enable experimentation with digital solutions, the City reduced the time by 70% necessary to implement new solutions.

Development of a vaccination app for COVID-19 that registered 1.6 million users and allowed residents to receive vaccines in an orderly and safe manner, especially compared to vaccine uptake in Brazil overall.

It received resources for climate adaptation via a credit operation with the IDB, which will allow Recife to invest US$364 million in a social, territorial and climate justice initiative called ProMorar. It will be the largest urban resilience program in Brazil and guarantees decent housing for more than 150,000 people.

With an air of historic architecture and an incubator for startups and innovative research, Recife, Brazil, stands out for connecting tradition, modernity and technological expertise. However, Recife has historically had one of the highest levels of income inequality in the country, one of the main factors contributing to conditions that have led to high crime rates in the city. Ranked as the 22nd most dangerous city in the world, Recife recorded 55 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017.

To combat this violence, as well as drug trafficking, the City drew inspiration from other cities, even traveling to Medellín, Colombia (which successfully implemented a similar project) more than 40 times, to formulate and launch an innovative community center project, COMPAZ. COMPAZ offers a wide range of quality programs and services, from math classes to martial arts classes, to support crime and violence prevention efforts.

With COMPAZ, the city leverages neighborhood-level data and evidence to find and implement solutions by and for communities. Thus, Recife equitably and efficiently supports needy neighborhoods, addressing issues such as public safety and economic mobility with localized and targeted interventions.

“This helps us legitimize the vision that Recife has…when we make data-driven decisions, it leads us to the right solution. We have scarce resources, we need to prioritize allocation and maximize impacts. How can I reach more people with fewer resources?”

João Henrique Campos, Mayor
Image courtesy of the City of Recife.

Data-driven decision making is an integral part of COMPAZ. Using Recife’s open data portal, the city’s evaluation policy unit collaborates with academic institutions to collect data and evaluate program effectiveness, enabling the development of evidence-based policies and programs that provide solutions to issues revealed by the data. The results speak for themselves, with a 15% drop in violence in a COMPAZ neighborhood within four years of starting the project — a significant improvement over the city level, which remained stagnant during that same period.

Recife is not only implementing evidence-based programs like COMPAZ, but it is also at the forefront of innovation. That includes urban space in the city in a testing environment for innovations, making Recife the largest urban open innovation laboratory in Latin America, with an area of 218km². Open Innovation Cycles allow solutions developed by startups to be accelerated by the City Hall through a special contractual regime.Open Innovation Cycles recognize that there are challenges that the public sector cannot achieve alone – transformative solutions must be built with the end user, the resident. The ultimate goal is a city with more equal opportunities for everyone. So far, these innovation cycles have developed:

  • (I) algorithm for completing the electronic medical record integrated into public health systems;
  • (II) software for managing queues for free public health consultations and medical examinations; It is
  • (III) Internet of Things (IoT) sensing for flooding and rain in regions susceptible to disasters to generate real-time alerts and create operational protocols.

The population is at the center of innovative data-driven solutions in Recife. This approach allowed us to tailor policies and programs to the specific needs of the community, using data to determine where resources are most needed and identify opportunities for success.

“We are not reinventing the wheel, we are eager to learn from other cities, from other teams. What works for other cities, we try to adapt to ours.”

João Henrique Campos, Mayor
Image courtesy of the City of Recife.

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Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil

Where Urban Planning is for the Children of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

Project Type:
Community Engagement, Health and Wellbeing, Infrastructure, Parks and Recreation, Youth Development

2024 Gold Certification

Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil, is boosting transparency and open data. Since becoming one of the first cities in Latin America to achieve Certification in 2023, Mogi das Cruzes has worked hard to become a more transparent government. The City launched its first Open Government Action Plan, which includes 12 steps to improve information accessibility. They also introduced a comprehensive Transparency Portal, which features open data, public works updates, and up-to-date budget information. Finally, the City offers free online training for both government employees and residents on open government principles. These efforts go beyond policies on paper, they actively build trust with residents, promote accountability and encourage community engagement.

2023 Silver Certification

Created Participa Mogi – an online platform for citizen participation. In its first year, the City received over 1,300 public contributions.

When employment data showed that 25% of Mogi workers were commuting outside of the City, Mogi added 7,000 new jobs in 2022 and increased revenue by 33% ($700 million BRL).

To combat hunger, Mogi das Cruzes created the Social Market Program, which connects farmers to over 1,200 families in vulnerable situations to receive free food.

Deployed innovative Qualitative Data Practices to better understand residents’ needs.

Mogi das Cruzes has found a winning combination. The City of more than 470,000 in São Paulo State is setting itself up for success by using data and community engagement as the foundation of its strategic plan.

Part of this plan includes giving the mic to Mogi’s youngest residents. Mogi das Cruzes wants to be a child-centered city. City officials are asking children for ideas for improving their neighborhoods so that the next generation engages with their government and community. In December 2022, Mogi announced its first “Our Neighborhood Detectives.” Between the ages of 9 and 12, these 24 children will participate in discussions and make suggestions about how to improve the quality of life and urban landscape for all children and adults living in Mogi.

“These boys and girls will represent the children in their neighborhoods and help us create a better city. Their input is an important complement to our data that will improve our decision-making and inspire civic engagement in young people.”

Caio Cunha, Mayor
Image Courtesy of Warley Kenji.

The Neighborhood Detectives project is part of the Mogi Cidade da Criança (City of Children) program, which uses an innovative community engagement and design approach to inform the City’s investments in the wellbeing of its children. Another project within Mogi Cidade da Criança is monitoring air quality for its impact on children’s health. The air quality data is used to make decisions and create action plans, such as enhancing green spaces and encouraging active mobility to reduce emissions.

In addition to engaging its children in planning, the City seeks feedback from residents through regional meetings and neighborhood visits. By thoughtfully and rigorously soliciting resident input, the City is able to use this qualitative data to deepen community impact and better serve residents’ needs. For instance, the City asked for resident feedback about public transportation by conducting surveys in-person on the bus. Bus users were interviewed and the resulting data was used to optimize bus routes.

Mogi das Cruzes also created the Participia Mogi platform for residents to provide input on planning and budget priorities online. The City is opening its internal data up to residents as well, by hosting Open Data Days and making geospatial data available on the GeoMogi website.

“Staff perceive the need to use data in their day-to-day and Certification is helping with this culture shift. Once you have this cultural shift, you can’t go back.”

Caio Cunha, Mayor
Image Courtesy of Warley Kenji.

Additionally, under the guidance of Mayor Cunha, the formula of data and resident input is being used to create a long-term, 40-year plan for the City. The ultimate success of the plan requires institutionalizing recent progress on collecting, managing and analyzing the City’s data. The Mayor’s hope is that residents will expect future administrations to continue the shared vision within a long-term plan: “We wanted this to be a plan for everyone, so we are building a sustainable program that represents the needs of the City as a whole, for today and for the next generation of Mogi residents.”

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Fortaleza, Brazil

Data-Driven Approach Cuts Traffic Deaths by 57%.

Project Type:
Community Engagement, Infrastructure, Public Safety, Transportation

At a Glance

Reduced traffic fatalities by 57% over 10 years (2012-22)

1,086 lives saved

Eight consecutive years of fatality reductions

Mayor José Sarto signed a commitment to reduce fatalities by another 50% in the next 10 years

Monitored progress and changed course when needed to achieve traffic goals using Performance & Analytics strategies

At a recent public hearing on traffic accidents in Fortaleza, everyone participating shared that they knew someone who had lost their life or was critically injured in an accident. With 5 million daily trips and 29% of motorists on motorcycles, traffic fatalities have been an unfortunate part of life for Fortaleza’s 2.6 million residents.

In 2012, Fortaleza took action. Starting with historic traffic data, the City set goals and made evidence-based decisions about speed limits and traffic patterns. In 2021, it launched the Vida platform to consolidate traffic data from varying institutions and make it publicly accessible.

With these performance management and data-driven approaches, the City reduced traffic fatalities by 57% over 10 years. Additionally, the City established a road safety committee that meets every 15 days to review crash data and predictive analysis, using it to adjust strategies. The first city in Brazil to have a municipal road safety plan as law, Fortaleza has saved 1,086 lives and saved the City close to $42 million Brazilian Reals ($8.3 million USD).

“All of our actions, everything we do, is based on data and evidence.”

Elcio Batista, Vice Mayor

Still, Mayor Sarto is acutely aware that the City saw 158 traffic deaths in 2022, and he is committed to reducing fatalities by another 50% by 2031.

Fortaleza’s aim to realize Vision Zero—an international program working to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries—is just one of the data initiatives that has helped the City achieve What Works Cities Gold Certification. With its focus on data, the City has reduced school dropout rates, digitized its construction permitting process and launched an app to track sexual harassment on public transit. Fortaleza has also made progress on building a data culture: They developed a clear governance structure to coordinate data use, launched an Open Data Plan to guide data oversight, and concentrated over 200 datasets from 28 organizations in an Open Data Portal. By making so much City data publicly available, the City is promoting informed decision-making, transparency and robust resident engagement.

Vice Mayor Elcio Batista sees even more progress on the horizon. “Being Certified makes me proud and hopeful. Proud of what we have accomplished and hopeful for what is still to come.”

“By achieving Certification, it shows we are trying to do things the right way. It’s an honor for us, for the team, and it gives us a passport for the future.”

Jose Sarto, Mayor

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