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Assessing City Government Dynamic Capabilities: Interim report of the Public Sector Capabilities Index project | Policy Report No. 2025/01. 

Authors:

  • Rainer Kattel | Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
  • Mariana Mazzucato | Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, University College London, and Founding Director of UCL IIPP
  • Ruth Puttick | Senior Research Fellow | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
  • Kwame Baafi | Research Fellow in Data Analytics and Visualisation | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
  • Bec Chau | Senior Research Fellow | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
  • Anjum Dhamija | Research Fellow | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
  • Anna Goulden | Research Fellow for Public Sector Capabilities Index | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
  • Iacopo Gronchi | Research Fellow and PhD student | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
  • Nai Lee Kalema | Research Fellow and PhD student | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
  • Fernando Fernandez-Monge | Research Fellow and PhD candidate | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
  • Mia Tarp | Project Manager | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)


Executive Summary:

The Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) is working with Bloomberg Philanthropies to develop a new Public Sector Capabilities Index. This index will be a global measure of where city government capabilities are strong and where critical skills must be built up. The first iteration of the Public Sector Capabilities Index will be published in late 2025.

Over the past year, we have engaged with over 20 city governments in 11 different countries through 62 expert interviews with officials in city government and regional and national governments. We have also engaged with other urban experts, such as academics, philanthropic foundations, and development banks, who are involved in or fund city government efforts. These interviews have helped refine our conceptualisation of dynamic capabilities, and identify what existing data we could utilise, the options for assessing dynamic capabilities in city governments, and the value city governments could derive from the Public Sector Capabilities Index as an improvement tool.

This paper synthesises the findings from our research conducted between May 2024 and November 2024. Through in-depth qualitative interviews, and reviewing academic and policy documents, we have generated case studies on dynamic capabilities in 15 city governments across six countries.

Reference:

Kattel, R., Mazzucato, M., Puttick, R., Baafi, K., Chau, B., Dhamija, A., Goulden, A., Gronchi, I., Kalema, N., Fernandez-Monge, F. and Tarp, M. (2025). Assessing City Government Dynamic Capabilities: Interim report of the Public Sector Capabilities Index project. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. IIPP Policy Report 2025/01. 

Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/policyreport-2025/01

This policy report is part of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose’s (UCL IIPP) publication series.

Explore more working papers and policy reports here.