CoST’s 2025 Annual Impact Report explores how our global network is turning transparency in infrastructure into tangible results – helping governments make better investment decisions, strengthening infrastructure markets, and empowering citizens to shape and scrutinise the infrastructure that affects their daily lives. 

The stakes are high. The IMF estimates that up to one-third of public infrastructure investment is lost to inefficiency, corruption and mismanagement, while infrastructure accounts for around 15–20% of public spending in many countries. At a time of growing fiscal pressures and increasing demand for infrastructure, it has never been more important to ensure every bit spent delivers maximum value. 

Our report shares how CoST members are putting this into practice through local partnerships, including by: 

• opening up nearly 48,000 infrastructure projects to public scrutiny across 19 CoST members;  

• publishing US$9.3 billion of public infrastructure contracts in Ecuador, the largest single infrastructure data publication in CoST’s history;  

• giving citizens in Malawi and Cali new ways to identify and report infrastructure concerns;  

• giving university students a role in scrutinising nationally significant infrastructure projects in Panama;    

• using infrastructure data to improve government decision-making from Bogotá to Kaduna;  

• strengthening infrastructure transparency laws and government systems in Ecuador, Jalisco and Thailand, and 

• helping Malawi, Uganda and Jalisco, Mexico improve the monitoring of climate investments. 

These are just some of the results behind CoST’s 2025 impact. 

The CoST International Secretariat supported members through technical assistance, peer learning, capability building, research and global advocacy, while publishing six new or updated tools and guidance products, including a new integrity framework for water infrastructure planning developed with the Water Integrity Network. 

The report also highlights the private sector’s role in infrastructure governance. Based on the views of 219 representatives across Africa and Latin America, CoST’s new perceptions dashboard helps governments identify reforms to strengthen integrity, improve competition and attract investment. 

We also learned three lessons from our work across the year: 

• Transparency is a tool for better investment decisions, not just anti-corruption 

• Infrastructure data creates value when it is used, not just published 

• Legitimacy matters, not just technical solutions. 

Read the full Impact Report to discover how governments, communities, civil society and businesses across the CoST network are turning transparency into better decisions, stronger accountability and more resilient infrastructure.