The primary purpose of this manual is to provide guidance to help design and strengthen disclosure processes that ensure the timely and reliable disclosure of data by public infrastructure procuring entities, both proactively (data disclosed without official request) and reactively (data disclosed after request).

A secondary objective is that the disclosure through a public channel complies with the CoST standards, the CoST IDS or the OC4IDS, at national or sub-national level, and that this becomes one of the main sources for anyone who wants to use the data. Such users may include contract monitors, journalists, oversight authorities, professionals involved in the CoST assurance process or evaluator teams applying the CoST Assurance Manual or the CoST Infrastructure Transparency Index Manual.

The manual contains guidance and useful tools of value to anyone with an interest in, or responsibility for, a CoST disclosure process. However, it is primarily aimed at members of CoST member secretariats and their multi-stakeholder groups who will be supporting the design and implementation of disclosure processes in conjunction with procuring entities responsible for disclosing data.