Aarhus opens access of local data to public with TARGIT

Hjorring—Today the Municipality of Aarhus announced that it is the first municipality in Denmark to go live with a web-based platform, powered by TARGIT Decision Suite, that gives citizens access to an unprecedented amount of management information and regional data. This level of local insight was previously only accessible by City Council.
The new web solution offers counselors, citizens, and journalists the ability to easily follow the evolution of data on employment, education, environmental initiatives, and other parameters the City Council uses to measure impact and make decisions for the municipality.

“Citizens and the press can now monitor whether the plans and initiatives the City Council is working on actually provide the desired effect,” says Jacob Bundsgaard, Aarhus Mayor “The citizens can, so to speak, look over the shoulders of councilors and civil service employees and be prepared to participate actively in the debate on the council’s work. It is my hope that putting facts into the open strengthens the democratic debate about the city's development.”

The solution focuses particularly on seven key goals for the city of Aarhus. Goals are decided by the City Council and progress is measured on the most important public initiatives. Objectives include the number of jobs, growth in GDP, emissions of CO2, number of students in youth education, self-reliance, and citizenship, as well as an overall measurement of whether Aarhus is judged to “be a good city for all.”

This new initiative to share data reflects how TARGIT Decision Suite can be used as a public portal. Aarhus Municipality is the second major public-facing Danish organization in 2016 to tap TARGIT Decision Suite for the dissemination of data. Earlier this year STIL, Styrelsen for IT og Læring, released a web portal for Danish citizens to access statistics about Danish Schools for parents and educators to make better decisions about public education.