Representatives from the African Mayoral Leadership Initiative (AMALI) Data Programme joined members of the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence (GovEx) team on Wednesday morning to discuss their efforts to help leaders of African cities leverage a range of data tools to deliver a mayor’s legacy goal and improve local governance. Both AMALI and GovEx are part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Government Innovation portfolio.

Based in Cape Town, South Africa, AMALI is a collaboration between the University of Cape Town – African Centre for Cities, Big Win Philanthropy, and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Its primary platform is the AMALI Executive Leadership program, a year-long training that supports mayors in honing the visions for their cities. The AMALI Data Programme works with selected mayors within the program to establish performance management and create a data reporting mechanism that allows for monitoring and evaluation of the mayor’s selected legacy goal.

Tiffany Davis, a former director at GovEx, relocated to Cape Town earlier this year to take on her current role as director of the AMALI Data Programme. In their presentation to GovEx staff, Davis and AMALI Data Programme City Data Advisors Chukwuma Okolie and Lesego Tshuwa, described the AMALI Data Programme, which works with African mayors for up to six months to help them reach a legacy goal – an achievement intended to have a lasting impact on the city’s residents.

There are seven cities in the current Data Programme cohort: Adama and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Kitwe and Lusaka, Zambia, Masaka and Nansana, Uganda, Quelimane, Mozambique, and Zanzibar, Tanzania.

In addition to sharing and comparing their respective work, the AMALI Data Programme and GovEx colleagues discussed opportunities for ongoing collaboration and discussion of challenges and best practices to improve mayoral support around the world.