CoST El Salvador held its first local workshop on the program methodology and the experiences in Guatemala and Honduras. The event was attended by over 40 guests who included representatives of public institutions, civil society organizations and universities; and aimed to raise awareness of how the program works and its benefits.

The purpose of the event was to publicize CoST El Salvador to people working in the Procuring Entities and Offices Access to Information of Institutions. It also allowed the promotion of the program to other university’s and civil society organisations, in order to identify those that would eventually be part of CoST El Salvador in the very near future.

To learn how CoST operates, the workshop included a presentation from Heizel Padilla, CoST Guatemala Coordinator, described the Guatemalan experience of the initiative since 2010 including its achievements and challenges. All this led to representatives of various public institutions were interested to know more about how CoST could work in El Salvador. They considered that there are problems with some legal procedures during the development of the project. In many cases, legal procedures for tendering for infrastructure had been ignored.

In addition, the academic participants showed interest in CoST and indicated that they would like to take part in the CoST El Salvador program.

During the workshop, CoST El Salvador MSG members also received a refresher from Heizel Padilla, with an additional presentation on the CoST assurance process. Then, by videoconference, CoST Honduras joined the workshop to share their experience of preparing a disclosure process.

This approach has united the bonds of cooperation among the Central American CoST countries. The workshop has allowed CoST El Salvador to soak up the CoST processes and procedures which will help to advance its implementation.