The CoST core feature of social accountability plays an important role in ensuring key issues in public infrastructure projects enter the public domain. The feature sees us working closely with stakeholders from across civil society and the media who can influence the public and hold decision-makers to account. And over recent years we have begun to work more closely with citizens, helping to amplify their voice to demand better infrastructure.
CoST tools for social accountability
The assurance process
Our assurance process and the assurance report are major tools which can be used by the media, civil society and others to shed light on key issues. The assurance process turns project data into compelling information and uses language and a format that can be understood by the public. Social accountability actors can then take these key findings and use various means – such as the national press, community events or CSO reports – to put them in the public domain. The assurance report launch is a major event by which to publicise these findings and engage both the public and high-level decision makers through one of the key social accountability actors, the media.
Media training
CoST also has a long standing tradition of holding training events and public engagement sessions, as well as facilitating media debates and establishing journalism awards. Throughout 2020, CoST Uganda brought together journalists from 45 media outlets to build understanding and interest in the more technical aspects of the infrastructure sector, as part of the programme Promoting Fair Business Practices in Uganda. As a result, the ‘media team’ has grown to 57 committed journalists who published over 50 articles relating to Uganda’s infrastructure sector over 2020.
Meanwhile, CoST Malawi has received international recognition for its innovative citizen feedback service, which allows Malawians to log concerns over infrastructure projects by simply texting an SMS number. After the launch of the service, CoST Malawi utilised radio as a tool to engage authorities, who were given an opportunity to respond through radio panel discussions. Continuing to use influential radio stations to reach citizens, CoST Malawi developed 70 radio jingles which were broadcast over 2018 to encourage visitors to its new online disclosure platform.
Citizen monitors
Increasingly, CoST programmes are developing new tools to help citizens monitor the delivery of public infrastructure directly. For instance, CoST Ukraine’s new tool ‘Great Construction Transparency’ will provide civic monitors with interactive, analytical dashboards to easily monitor and analyse how the government’s 85 billion UAH (US $3 billion) infrastructure programme ‘Great Construction’ is delivered.
CoST Honduras works closely with Citizen Transparency Commissions (CTCs) and as of January 2020, has established partnerships with almost 250 CTCs. To strengthen their capacity, CoST Honduras created the School of Social Audit in 2017 to train CTC members on monitoring complex infrastructure projects and conducting ‘social audits’ to measure their impact. As of June 2021, 108 social auditors have been trained through the School of Social Audit and graduates have carried out nearly 20 audits on local, regional and national infrastructure projects.
In Guatemala, CoST worked with communities over 2020 to strengthen oversight on a project expanding water supply and sanitation across the department of San Marcos, through ‘social audit’ training. This training enables communities to monitor levels of transparency and the quality of projects being delivered locally, and CoST Guatemala has since expanded the training to other community groups in San Marcos and the department of Quetzaltenang.
Community events
CoST Uganda has established a series of successful community engagement events called barazas, which have amplified the voice of citizens in the infrastructure decision-making process. One such event in November 2018 allowed Ugandan citizens to tell local authorities about key issues, including insufficient citizen participation and environmental impact assessments, which had resulted in poor waste disposal management along construction sites and in nearby towns. The authorities then took several measures to address these issues.
Drawing on CoST Uganda’s experience, CoST Malawi also convened 450 people at a community event in 2019 to debate local infrastructure delivery. Meanwhile, CoST Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana held its first baraza in mid-2019.
Once these issues are put in the public domain, pressure is applied on government to deal with problems and ensure they do not reoccur in the future. Ultimately, this results in better quality public infrastructure that enables communities to thrive and trust to furthered between citizens and politicians.
See our impact page for more examples of CoST engagement with social accountability stakeholders.