This study focuses on Bamako, thecapital of Mali, that dominates the country’s urbanlandscape. Acentral premise of policy-making in cities isthat the flexibility, practicality, and focus of localgovernments make them ideal players to understand andrespond to the needs of their citizens. Indeed, citiesmostly aim their problem-solving at local conditions. InMali, the economic importance of the capital city cannot beunderstated – it is the nerve center of the nationaleconomy. If the capital, Bamako, were to be removed, Maliwould lose 36 percent of GDP. Thus, reforms and investmentsaimed at tackling urban development challenges in thecapital will have knock-on effects on national economicdevelopment. This report also demonstrates how a variety ofdata could be used for urban innovations: opportunisticdata, which is collected for one purpose and then used foranother (such as data owned by cellphone companies and thenused to understand urban mobility); purposely-sensed data,which is collected using cheap and ubiquitous sensors thatcan be deployed in public spaces (for instance, to betterunderstand land and building use); and user-generated data,which comes from engaging people through social mediaplatforms or crowdsourcing (for instance, through OpenStreet Map communities to track urban infrastructureinvestments and use). A summary of recommendations forunleashing Bamako’s potential includes coordinating land useand connective infrastructure, financing and managing betterpublic service delivery, and investing in urban institutions.
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