Uganda becomes the 10th CoST country

The announcement took place at Uganda’s Joint Transport Sector Review (JTSR) event in Kampala. Guests included Hon. Eng. Abraham Byandaala, Minister of Public Works and Transport, participants from central and local governments, private industry, academic institutions, NGOs and the media.

CoST will be working directly with the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), who will lead in the implementation of CoST within the country. Implementation of the CoST Uganda programme builds on a Multi-Stakeholder approach used by the Uganda Road Council (URC) with information to be disclosed on ten road projects. It is anticipated that the lessons from this initial disclosure will be used to scale up the programme within UNRA and to encourage other procuring entities to participate in CoST Uganda.

A key issue at the event was the role of civil society and the protection of confidential business information in the disclosure process. Mr. Bekure Ketema Gebremariam, a CoST Board Member and Vice Chair of the CoST Ethiopia Multi-Stakeholder Group addressed these issues by emphasising the importance of all stakeholders committing to working in a close and balanced partnership through the Multi-Stakeholder Group. The Multi-Stakeholder Group contains representatives from government, civil society and business.