Understanding and Addressing Knowledge Gaps for Ward Councillors

Municipal Governance Public Data Service Delivery

Handbook for Ward Councillors Social Infrastructure Atlas Ward- and City-level Profiles Report on Discretionary Budget Expenditure of Ward Councillors Policy Brief - Making Cities in Gujarat Data Smart and Data Inclusive

I was part of a research team that conducted this three-year action-research project (2018-2021) with ward councillors in Ahmedabad. We took an iterative, participatory approach — regularly engaging councillors to understand their information needs and refining our outputs based on their feedback.

Phase 1: Understanding roles and resources

We began by developing a comprehensive handbook detailing councillors’ roles, responsibilities, and available resources, alongside an analysis of their discretionary budget expenditures to help them understand spending patterns and possibilities.

Phase 2: Expanding the toolkit

As the project evolved based on councillors’ inputs, we created:

A social infrastructure atlas mapping availability, quality, and accessibility of services, particularly for population residing in slums
Ward profiles providing a spatial overview of services and infrastructure in each ward — including locations, quality assessments, and benchmarking against neighbouring wards and city-wide standards
A social protection schemes booklet compiling schemes for children in urban areas in one accessible resource — since this information is scattered across multiple departments and difficult for councillors to access.
Educational videos translating dense reports into digestible formats councillors could actually use

We also produced policy briefs on data challenges in urban governance, Anganwadi centre quality, and nutrition issues among migrant workers’ children, alongside a detailed analysis of councillors’ discretionary budget expenditure. Beyond aiding councillors, these materials may also help a layperson understand how municipal governance functions.