The Bloomberg Philanthropies has released a new, proposed national standard for data-driven decision making in local government. The standard is part of it’s What Works Cities Initiative and is called the What Works Cities Certification. What Works Cities is a Bloomberg Philanthropies program that engages with municipal government to improve and support data-driven policies and procedures.
Through the certification program, Bloomberg Philanthropies will publicly recognize the municipal governments that most effectively use data to allocate resources and improve residents’ lives. A team of national experts will assess each city’s data practices, and then award cities with a “platinum,” “gold” or “silver” certification status for achieving excellence in applying data to how they govern.