In March representatives from civil society, private sector and the government of the Dominican Republic learned more about the work that CoST, the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative, has done to promote transparency through enhancing social accountability.

During the virtual workshop, Manuel González, CoST’s manager for Latin America, explained the impact of CoST’s social accountability methodology at a continental and global level during the last decade.

This workshop was organized by the General Bureau of Public Contracting of the Dominican Republic, which was attended by dozens of people, who learned about the essential processes of CoST: Disclosure, Assurance, Social Accountability and Multi Stakeholder Group Governance.

González explained that social accountability engages both citizens and governments to implement actions and mechanisms for monitoring the services in the infrastructure sector, the impact of projects on the lives of citizens and the promotion of human rights.

The social accountability process promoted by CoST International is based on four pillars: Open and Responsive Government, Access to Public Information, Organized Citizens and Context and Culture.

CoST International believes the work and actions of social accountability in the implementation and development of public infrastructure projects, drives to improvement public policies and services to citizens.

In addition, social accountability helps to reduce the risk of corruption, as well as the costs of the constructions. Social accountability also helps with a more balanced use of resources and promotes the reduction of work execution times.

During the workshop, participants highlighted the relevance of an empowered Dominican community that promote and engage in social accountability processes.

They also expressed interest in learning more about the experiences of the training processes that CoST has promoted around the world to reinforce the capabilities of citizens through its Social Auditors School in Infrastructure.

The Dominican Republic joined CoST on December 2021, and in doing so demonstrated a firm commitment to infrastructure transparency, participation and accountability.

Since then, the Dominican Republic has pledged to establish a legal mandate on data disclosure and use technology including a new online data disclosure platform and our Open Contracting for Infrastructure Data Standard (OC4IDS).

CoST is one of the leading global initiatives improving transparency and accountability in public infrastructure. CoST works globally with members spanning four continents, including Latin America where there are 10 active members.