IBM extends grants program for cities

US-based technology giant IBM Corp. has extended its Smarter Cities Challenge competitive grants program, which funds the deployment of IBM’s top talents to help cities address challenges in development.

For the 2014 cycle, the Smarter Cities Challenge is open to local and regional, general purpose governing bodies, including cities, counties, prefectures, boroughs and districts.

“Our Smarter Cities Challenge program can be a valuable resource, especially to the new mayors and local government administrators in the country, with whom we can share successful strategies that have been put into place elsewhere,” said Agnes Africa, country manager for marketing, communications and corporate citizenship and corporate affairs at IBM Philippines.

Under this program, IBM teams spend three weeks in the winning region or city to gather and analyze all available data to address key challenges in the areas of economic development; water, energy and environment; health and social services; transportation; and public safety.

These teams will then meet in person with dozens of members of the government, citizen, business, and not-for-profit communities to gather diverse perspectives about the causes and potential solutions to the challenge at hand.

At the end of these engagements, IBM is expected to present comprehensive recommendations for solving the problem, followed weeks later by a more detailed, written implementation plan.

Included in the plan are examples of how other cities have successfully addressed similar issues.

“Effective service delivery in cities requires collaboration of so many stakeholders. One of IBM’s goals with Smarter Cities Challenge is to help city leaders gather data and organize a community around a shared set of facts.  This is so that in spite of budgetary constraints that are so widespread, real progress can be made,” said Stanley S. Litow, IBM vice president of corporate citizenship and corporate affairs.

In the Philippines, Makati City was the recipient of the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant for 2013, to be implemented in the first quarter of 2014.

The grant will provide Makati City with access to some of IBM’s top experts to analyze and recommend ways to help address the city’s traffic management issues to become an even better place in which to live and work.