Every year trillions of dollars of public funds are invested in infrastructure projects worldwide, but yet citizens are often excluded from infrastructure planning, preparation and delivery. At the 6th Open Government Partnership Summit next week, a joint CoST and Hivos session will focus on best methods to engage citizens to build trust and better infrastructure.

From local community events ‘Barazas’ in Uganda, to Citizenship Transparency Commissions in Honduras, to radio outreach in Malawi, to community monitoring in Afghanistan, CoST, Hivos and other experiences demonstrate that when citizens are more fully involved, better and safer infrastructure is delivered on-time and to-budget and a greater environment of trust is enabled.

In a series of lightning talks presented by government, civil society and citizen representatives, the session will focus on what has been applied and worked in vastly different contexts worldwide to bridge the gap between citizens and decision-makers. Speakers will share highlights from their civic engagement activities, challenges they faced, how they used innovation to overcome them and the wider implications of these activities.

The session will be discursive; attendees will be invited to share their experiences and given key take aways which can be applied in different settings and across a range of sectors.

CoST Hivos session at the OGP Summit 2019
Building Trust and Better Infrastructure: Best Methods to Engage Citizens and Have Lasting Impact

Date and time
Thursday 30 May, 12:00 – 13:20

Location
Shaw Centre, Room 214

Speakers
Hope Muli, Hivos East Africa (Moderator)
Alfredo Cantero, President of the Honduras Transparency Commission and CoST Honduras MSG member (Honduras)
Olive Kabatwairwe, CoST Uganda Country Manager and CoST Regional Manager for Africa (Uganda)
Ana Carolina Alpírez, Ojoconmipisto (Guatemala)
Donald Kathumzi, YONECO (Malawi)
Sayed Ikram Afzali, Integrity Watch Afghanistan (Afghanistan)

Languages available
English, French and Spanish