Today 17th June 2021, CoST Uganda is pleased to commission its first Infrastructure Transparency Index (ITI). The Index will run for a period of two months across 30 pilot Procuring and Disclosing Entities, sampling 60 Public infrastructure projects from the pilot entities. Stakeholders and especially the PDEs in the inaugural ITI are encouraged to embrace this intervention.
CoST has developed the Infrastructure Transparency Index (ITI) as a national or sub-national evaluation instrument to measure levels of infrastructure transparency and the quality of the associated processes that improve participation and accountability. It will help stakeholders from government, the private sector and civil society understand the relative strengths and weaknesses of transparency, participation and accountability within the sector.
The ITI has been designed in a collaborative manner and is based on international good practice and lessons learned. And with the objective to provide stakeholders with quality information that serves to promote transparency and improve the management of public infrastructure.
The ITI is built on four blocks including an understanding of the enabling environment, capacities and processes for delivering public infrastructure projects, citizen participation and information disclosure. The index is guided by a Manual[1] which ccontains a description of the dimensions, variables, sub variables and indicators included in the Index.
The objectives of the Infrastructure Transparency Index include;
- To assess the level of transparency and accountability in the public infrastructure sector over time.
- To assess the state of infrastructure transparency and the capacity to improve transparency among PDEs.
- To track and encourage progress and facilitate peer learning, while helping to hold PDEs to account in providing quality infrastructure.
- To raise awareness of transparency at the national and international level, building on existing data standards such as the Infrastructure Data Standard (IDS) and the Open Contracting for Infrastructure Data Standard (OC4IDS)
The tool will offer to the national or subnational environment, as well as to PDEs, a transparency score on a 100-point scale using a subset of indicators. This resulting information will help to:
- Raise awareness about the strengths and weaknesses in public infrastructure transparency.
- The development of a collaborative agenda, among stakeholders, to raise transparency and accountability standards within the sector.
- Guide public leaders, at the centralized and decentralized levels, to build capacities to strengthen transparency and accountability in the sector.
[1] https://infrastructuretransparency.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/ITI-Manual.pdf
Please read the full ITI statement in Uganda via https://www.cost.or.ug/download/announcing-the-1st-infrastructure-transparency-index-iti-in-uganda/
