Partnerships with local government

A growing number of municipalities and other local government bodies want to move to data-driven working methods, such as taking certain policy decisions based on data. A partnership with Statistics Netherlands (CBS) can help them to do this. It can help to provide rapid and useful insights into which information is required by a province or municipality, in areas such as the construction of new homes, the energy transition, nitrogen-based pollution, climate resilience, subversion or the long-term effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Partnerships

Using the right data, a province or municipality can test and implement its policies. CBS has various partnerships at the local and regional levels. One far-reaching form of cooperation whereby CBS joins forces with a municipality is a CBS Urban Data Centre (UDC). A UDC can help to provide answers to local policy questions by making smart use of the knowledge and expertise of both the municipality and CBS. It is also possible to link municipal data with CBS data. This can help local authorities, businesses and institutions to improve their understanding of what is really going on in their area.

Municipal level

As the need for data-driven policy making increases, a number of municipalities have chosen to join forces with CBS. These municipalities need data on key themes such as poverty, job and income security, or challenges around housing and the energy transition. The extent of these partnerships can vary significantly. In the case of very intensive cooperation, a CBS data specialist may even be deployed to a municipality to ensure that maximum value is derived from data and to share the latest skills around working with data. This helps municipalities to pave the way for policy and enables decisions on policy to be better substantiated.

Provincial level

The Netherlands’ twelve provinces are working on some major challenges, particularly when it comes to spatial planning. It is up to the provinces to solve the puzzle of how best to allocate scarce space for housing, jobs, nature, energy and mobility. The availability of up-to-date data is essential. To tackle the challenges that we face in areas such as housing, the energy transition and the problem of nitrogen-based pollution, we need to make faster progress on the digital transformation and data-driven working. Several Dutch provinces are cooperating with CBS in order to do exactly this.

Information

If you would like more general information or have specific questions about regional partnerships such as the UDC, please contact us at udc.info@cbs.nl.