By: Michael Cengkuru   Introduction Access to reliable and accurate data is crucial for making informed decisions, especially in the infrastructure sector. In Malawi, traditional methods of data sharing have been plagued by various challenges. For instance, paper-based record-keeping systems have been prone to errors, loss, and damage, making it difficult to access and share accurate information. These manual processes often result in delays, inconsistencies, and a lack of transparency in the management of infrastructure projects. Additionally, the lack of a centralized database has led ..read more

By Soren Kirk Jensen, Senior Advisor, CoST On April 30 a group of Nordic and Baltic OGP member countries convene in Edinburgh to share lessons about fiscal openness, including around infrastructure investments. This represents an opportunity to reflect on the outcome of five years of engagement with the Scottish Government around this issue. This is a good example of a process where CoST tools and standards have been impactful even if the government has not yet signed up for a membership of CoST. Back in 2016, CoST embarked on an effort to understand the usefulness of its standards, tools and ..read more

Access to clean water is a significant challenge worldwide. This is particularly so in the Global South, where the vast majority of the world’s population lives. In Uganda, roughly 8 million people are currently without access to safe water, while a further 27 million lack access to adequate sanitation. African nations are not alone in this, with places like Mumbai struggling despite a ‘water for all’ policy deployed in 2022, and São Paulo already expanding storage capacity to counter for severe droughts predicted in the near future.  As the climate emergency intensifies, the situation is ..read more

By Manuel Gonzalez Caballero   Amid the complexity of the policy context, tools can be developed to help establish a metric of transparency in the infrastructure sector. In recent years, Ecuador has faced an unstable political climate, with protests, changes of authorities, early elections, insecurity, and violence. These elements cannot be excuses for poorly managing public resources and not providing the right transparency mechanisms to citizens. In this way, within the framework of the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative, CoST Ecuador commissioned their first Infrastructure Transpar ..read more

We know that informed citizens who demand accountability from their public institutions can support the reduction of corruption risks in infrastructure projects, enabling people to have access to better and quality public services. Six years ago, CoST planted a seed of developing transparency in Honduran infrastructure projects. Today, this seed has grown and spread to several Honduras regions to ensure social accountability in benefit of transparency and the communities that depend on public infrastructure projects. The School of Social Auditing in Infrastructure (EASI) was created in 2017, t ..read more

The Infrastructure Transparency Initiative, CoST International, presented the Infrastructure Transparency Index (ITI) website, a tool that will help civil society, private sector and the government to promote better infrastructure.  The ITI website offers easy access to essential information of many countries that have already applied this tool at a national and sub-national level. We wrote recently on how ITI expanded across Latin America and Asia. Users will be able to download data, in open formats, from each country that has already presented an ITI report.  ITI helps monitor the ..read more

Written by Natalie Forysuk, CoST Strategic Adviser for Ukraine and Former Ukraine Vice Minister for Infrastructure and John Hawkins, CoST Programme Director This week, the UK hosts the annual Ukraine Recovery Conference which will focus on how the private sector can participate in the reconstruction of Ukraine.  The planning of the reconstruction of Ukraine is both hugely ambitious and impressive. Lessons have been learnt from past mistakes in post-war environments with a new digital management system that will help to ensure that transparency and integrity are at the heart of reconstruct ..read more

Climate change is one of the most pressing global challenges, and infrastructure is vital for mitigating the climate emergency. Between 2000 and 2019, there was a 74.5% increase in natural disasters compared to the previous 20 years. During this time, more than 4 billion people worldwide were affected by natural disasters, approximately 1.23 million people lost their lives, and economic losses are estimated at USD 2.97 trillion. There is a disproportionate impact of climate change on developing countries. Climate change poses a risk to existing infrastructure worldwide, but infrastructure can ..read more

Four years ago, CoST opened membership to allow cities and regions to become CoST members. This advancement recognised the important role that local governments have in infrastructure, and the need to drive transparency and anti-corruption at that level. In that time, cities of Sekondi-Takoradi in Ghana and Bogota in Colombia, the region of Jalisco in Mexico and the Regency of West Lombok in Indonesia have joined CoST and made vital strides in driving change. Using CoST’s core features of multi-stakeholder working, disclosure, assurance and social accountability to increase transparency and im ..read more

The impact of the CoST, The Transparency Initiative, can be measured in different dimensions. On this opportunity, we will explore a vision to reflect on the challenges ahead, especially in the possibilities of strengthening the infrastructure disclosure platforms. During the last decade, CoST has promoted and supported the design and implementation of 12 disclosure platforms throughout South America, North America, Asia and Africa. Of these 12 disclosure platforms, half implement  the CoST Infrastructure Data Standard (IDS), and the other half operate with the Open Contracting for Infras ..read more