The Infrastructure Transparency Initiative (CoST) International has held its 51st Board Meeting in Ghana on the theme “Enhancing Infrastructure Transparency through the Cost Approach – Achievements and Lessons from Sekondi-Takoradi and across the globe”. In his welcome address, the Metropolitan Chief Executive of STMA, Hon. Abdul Mumin-Issah pointed out, Ghana signed up for the Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative in 2011, and by its membership, Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) was selected in 2015 to join other 14 subnational governments across the globe as a way of giving meaning to the tenets of OGP at the grassroots level through the efforts of Local Governments, Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) as well as citizens’ involvement to cause changes in infrastructural development and information availability to the people.

He noted that the GAMA project focused on increasing access to improved household and institutional toilets, as well as extension of piped water connections to people living in low-income communities. “The GAMA Project is in charge of delivering the toilets to the beneficiary households and institutions, and Ghana Water Company is working on the water component”, he said. Mr. Asiedu further noted that the project chose to provide bio-digester technology because of lack of space and the income levels of the target beneficiaries. He stated that the technology requires minimal space and is very affordable, and so far, 43,608 toilets have been constructed,benefitting 562,373 people. The Project Coordinator stated that the project has achieved significant successes by reducing open defecation cases, cholera and other sanitation-related disease outbreaks. He emphasized that the project team paid attention to institutional strengthening and capacity building through regular training and sensitization of stakeholders, including Environmental Health Officers, Traditional Authorities, Assembly Members, Journalists, beneficiary households and schools.

He revealed that through the CoST initiative, transparency, participation and accountability had improved significantly which has birthed an electronic portal developed by the Assembly dubbed “e-Governance platform” aimed at modernising the operations of the Assembly. He added that the electronic platform would enhance service delivery, promote access to information together with inclusive decision-making platforms with the citizenry. According to the Mayor, the platform will make service delivery accessible as well as provide prompt feedback to the citizens thereby promoting transparency and accountability to the people.

The CoST Regional Manager for Africa, Olive Kabatwaire, took participants through the lessons learned in the various operational countries adding that the diversified experiences across the countries helps in shaping other countries under the OGP to enable them learn and work within the standards of CoST. She pointed out that the CoST approach assists in improving business integrity thereby, enriching the trust of the citizens in public institutions around them. She again added that CoST assurance, promotes civic engagement for improved service delivery. The CoST Board Chairman, Chrik Poortman pointed out that the STMA has laid good foundation with regards to its 65 CoST activities being implemented adding that CoST runs on budgets and that the beneficiary institution’s commitments attract whether or not to continually receive support from CoST. He expressed the hope that the programmes could extend beyond STMA since people in the metropolis have great interest in the activities of CoST. He added that when institutions adopt the guidelines of CoST, it open doors for donors to associate themselves with CoST-related programmes to project its impacts in their operational countries.

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