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ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW
Assignment Title: Municipal Spatial Data Infrastructure in Samarkand
Assignment Countries:
ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION
Urban development challenges and the need for strong data foundations
Today, more than 50% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. This percentage is increasing, and it is expected to beat 66% by 2050. Cities often offer access to services such as electricity, water, and health services, as well as professional opportunities that make them attractive to many people. Nevertheless, cities are growing so rapidly that it has become more difficult to provide safe and affordable housing, basic urban services, as well as accessible and sustainable public transport.
The cities that emerge from the extended rapid urbanization will be key determinants of the countries’ overall economic development and competitiveness, as well as their inclusiveness and environmental sustainability. Without strategic investments, policy interventions, and institutional capacity, mismanaged urbanization could become an obstacle to sustainable growth.
Data has become the new infrastructure for cities around the world. The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the pressing need for strong data foundations for cities, especially geospatial data. Cities are ready to address these challenges through better data governance. Cities need to manage their information assets more efficiently for forward-thinking analytics, smarter city management, and civic planning. Often, this data is collected, processed, and stored without being leveraged for more or greater purposes—partly due to data silos unsupported by data governance or one-stop shop technical solutions.
Access to up-to-date and complete urban data is vital to those who are in charge of implementing urban services. They need them on a daily basis to manage and plan their activities. To ensure resilient urban planning, it is therefore essential that the data used by a large number of users is shared, easy to access and updated frequently. When data sets are reliable and easily accessed, stronger urban service management systems enable citizens to see an improvement in their daily lives.
Project context
Urban growth in Uzbekistan presents a dual challenge: rapid urbanization alongside infrastructural deficiencies and susceptibility to natural disasters due to climate change. The government has responded with initiatives such as Uzbekistan 2030, emphasizing sustainable urbanization and infrastructure development. Supported by the World Bank, projects like the Medium-Size Cities Integrated Urban Development Project(MSCIUDP) and the Modernization of Real Property Registration and Cadastre Project (MRPRCP) aimed to bolster urban infrastructure and enhance land administration. However, gaps persist in municipal spatial data infrastructure, impeding effective urban planning and disaster management. Addressing these gaps through further development and operationalization of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) is critical to fostering resilient urban growth.
Despite strides made, Uzbekistan's urban areas still face challenges in infrastructure resilience and disaster preparedness. The government's efforts, supplemented by World Bank support, have targeted key areas such as infrastructure modernization and land administration. However, deficiencies in municipal spatial data infrastructure hinder informed decision-making and limit effective disaster response. To bridge these gaps, ongoing initiatives must focus on strengthening the NSDI framework and enhancing data quality and accessibility. By prioritizing the development of robust spatial data infrastructure, Uzbekistan can better equip itself to tackle the complexities of urban growth, climate change, and disaster risk management.
City Planning Labs initiative
The World Bank’s City Planning Labs (CPL)initiative is being rolled out globally and is able to provide support to selected cities. In order to enable a data-driven approach to urban planning and service delivery, CPL undertakes an ecosystem approach to operationalize Municipal Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) in partner cities. This initiative helps manage and maintain geospatial data through interventions across its agile and scalable four-pillared IPDS framework (Institutional Arrangements, People, Data, Systems).
CPL's ecosystem approach leverages data through a range of tools and processes to support civic leaders in making quicker, better, tech-enabled decisions. More broadly, it aims at facilitating the work with city partners to:
1.Assess the maturity of the city’s data ecosystem and geospatial data infrastructure with rapid municipal assessments.
2.Identify opportunities for short, medium, and long-term actions to establish a fully functioning data ecosystem and geospatial capabilities across city agencies.
3.Support the development of a roadmap with a clear action plan for implementation of the opportunities.
4.Hands-on support for the implementation of one-stop-shop data platforms and enabling systems.
5.Access to agile, digital Urban Planning Tools for evidence driven decision-making, including training.
CPL supports three mutually reinforcing components, namely:
Component 1: Baseline assessments, analytics and roadmaps: Assess the baseline maturity of a city's data ecosystem, readiness to implement MSDI, and identify bottlenecks and opportunities. These opportunities are mapped to the four pillars of Institutions, People, Data, and Systems. As part of this roadmap exercise, the government is encouraged to identify possible sources of financing or the financing gap and technical advisory needs.
Component 2: Technical Assistance for the Implementation of key opportunities or needs identified. Each pillar has tools and toolkits based on the specific entry point while keeping in mind the universe of interventions across the four pillars as these interventions are often interconnected. This component also includes undertaking data inventories, development of fundamental datasets, software solutions, and most importantly supporting the institutionalization of data governance.
Component 3: Incremental innovation and Research and Development. This is important as it creates room to sustain digital innovation, further develop the existing tools and toolkits based on the experience and demand on the ground and create a feedback loop within the initiative across the global and regional aspects of CPL's program. And through knowledge exchange mechanisms, all cities in the initiative and beyond benefit—creating economies of scale not only in implementation but also in innovation and impact. CPL has supported the development of a suite of Urban Planning Tools to simplify complex planning and urban management and to empower cities to take charge of their digital development processes.
Consultancy scope and objective
The overall objective of this consultancy is to support the development of MSDI in Samarkand, Uzbekistan using the CPL approach and with CPL support that will lead to the long-term sustainability of an integrated MSDI in the city. With proper implementation, this arrangement will lead to the institutionalization of evidence-based decision-making for Urban Planning and Management and therefore improve delivery and access to municipal services.
FUNDING SOURCE
The World Bank Group intends to finance the assignment / services described below under the following:
- BB: Bank Budget
- TF0C2038: SURGE
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
The World Bank Group invites eligible firms to indicate their interest in providing the services. Interested firms must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services (brochures, description of similar assignments, experience in similar conditions, availability of appropriate skills among staff, etc. for firms; CV and cover letter for individuals). Please note that the total size of all attachments should be less than 5MB. Firms may associate to enhance their qualifications unless otherwise stated in the solicitation documents. Where a group of firms associate to submit an EOI, they must indicate which is the lead firm. If shortlisted, the firm identified in the EOI as the lead firm will be invited to the request for proposal (RFP) phase.
Expressions of Interest should be submitted, in English, electronically through WBGeProcure RFx Now
NOTES
Following this invitation for EOI, a shortlist of qualified firms will be formally invited to submit proposals. Shortlisting and selection will be subject to the availability of funding.
Only those firms which have been shortlisted will be invited to participate in the RFP phase. No notification or debrief will be provided to firms which have not been shortlisted.
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