Jalisco, Mexico announces its CoST membership today, becoming the first new member to join the initiative as a result of the CoST membership competition. A launch event is being held in the official residence of Enrique Alfaro Ramírez, the Governor of the State of Jalisco and will be attended by stakeholders from across government, the private sector and civil society alongside a significant media presence.

The CoST Jalisco programme will be hosted by the Institute of Transparency, Public Information and Protection of Personal Data of the State of Jalisco (ITEI), an autonomous body public which ensures organisations receiving public funds are transparent in their actions and comply with principles of open data.

Over 100 attendees will be at today’s launch, and high-level speakers include the Governor of Jalisco Enrique Alfaro Ramírez, the President of ITEI Cynthia Patricia Cantero Pacheco and the Rector of Guadalajara University, Ricardo Villanueva Lomelí. With 16 speakers tabled to address the event, this event demonstrates the strong support CoST Jalisco needs to make real change to state-wide levels of  infrastructure transparency. Following the launch, members of CoST Jalisco’s multi-stakeholder group (MSG) will convene for the first time: the MSG is comprised of 15 members from government, private sector and civil society who will each bring their unique experience of public infrastructure in Jalisco to the CoST programme.

CoST and OGP approaches working together in Jalisco state

The three municipalities of Guadalajara, Tonalá and Zapopan will participate in Jalisco State’s CoST programme. Jalisco State is a member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and currently undertaking its second OGP Action Plan: the three participating municipalities cited their interest in CoST as stemming directly from their involvement in OGP, and as a means of complying with their open government commitments. This is an excellent example of the synergy between CoST and OGP principles, working in tandem to encourage and support open government.

Jalisco’s application to join CoST follows on from two events which were held in Jalisco earlier in the year, where stakeholders were introduced to the CoST approach and potential benefits from promoting more open, accountable and efficient infrastructure. Eight projects have so far been identified to be used to pilot the CoST approach in Jalisco, ranging from the road sector to sanitation and with a total value of MX $45 million (US $2.4 million).

What’s next for CoST Jalisco

Over the course of the next year, CoST Jalisco will focus on developing capacity in the area of assurance, one of the key tenants of the CoST approach which ensures the validity and reliability of disclosed data. The programme will provide training for civil society, helping these groups play a more active role in project monitoring and raising levels of accountability within government and procuring entities. Crucially, it will also build technical capacity in order to achieve its aim of developing an online disclosure portal.

CoST membership competition

Launched in May 2019, the CoST membership competition opened a limited number of places to any government, procuring entity or mega-project with a desire to achieve lasting impact in the realm of infrastructure transparency. Jalisco State is the first of several other new members to be announced as a result of the competition: stay tuned for further details of our new members, coming soon!