Leveling the playing field: How CoST Uganda promotes business integrity

Back in December 2019, CoST Uganda was awarded funding through the UK Government’s Business Integrity Initiative (BII) and launched the programme Promoting fair business practices in Uganda. The BII sought to strengthen emerging markets by combatting issues such as corruption and low competition which can otherwise impede private sector participation. Through Promoting fair business practices in Uganda, several improvements were made to Uganda’s business environment including:

• Greater transparency with an increase in infrastructure data disclosure from 42% in 2019 to 61.5% in 2020
• An increase in private sector understanding of – and participation in – the infrastructure procurement process. This has increased competition, with the number of bids per tender for infrastructure projects increasing from 1.6 in 2019 to 12.5 in 2020
• Improvements in local content provisions, with reservation schemes (which ‘reserve’ contracts for national and resident firms) reviewed to include more sectors for local providers.

This success story provides insights into the results of the action”Promoting fair business practices between Government and the private sector in Uganda”