A CoST Africa Regional Workshop was held in Kampala, Uganda recently. It was facilitated by the CoST International Secretariat and attended by 25 participants, including 11 representatives from Uganda, 13 regional representatives from Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia and 1 representative from Afghanistan.

The aim of the workshop was to facilitate knowledge sharing and lesson learning amongst CoST countries. Over 2 days, the participants explored various topics which were crucial to the implementation of their national programmes. This included interactive sessions and active discussion on ways to strengthen multi-stakeholder working and government capacities to disclose information, as well as ways to institutionalise and scale-up disclosure and build demand for the disclosed information. Monitoring and evaluation of CoST programmes was also introduced.

For the very first time, Roads Authorities’ representatives from CoST countries were invited to participate in a CoST Workshop. These representatives were able to share insights into the incentives and barriers to their participation in CoST and as a result, participants are now better equipped to develop strategies for engaging governments in their national programmes. From this event, the representatives from the Roads Authorities also committed to supporting and promoting CoST within their respective agencies.

The workshop was made possible through the efforts and support of the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) and funding from the African Development Bank. CoST Malawi Chair, Joe Ching’ani said “We congratulate UNRA on becoming the first African country to join CoST since the launch of the Global Programme. We look forward to supporting UNRA in the implementation of their CoST programme.”