CoST Sekondi-Takoradi, wins three awards in London

By Mildred Siabi-Mensah

Sekondi, Mar 08, GNA – The Infrastructure Transparency Initiative programme (CoST) Sekondi-Takoradi has become the first subnational programme of CoST to win three awards at the Managers workshop and award ceremony in London.  

The awards are: second position in Open Contracting for Infrastructure Data Standard (OC4IDS) publication, first in the participation category and the overall Outstanding Award named in memory of Alfredo Cantero (1973-2019), a much-respected former CoST Board member.  

For the first time in the awards ceremony, CoST International recognized the work of those members who had stood out in publishing information under the Open Contracting for Infrastructure Data Standard (OC4IDS) with CoST Jalisco (Mexico) winning the first position, followed by CoST Sekondi-Takoradi second position and CoST Malawi placing third.  

The main CoST Award was introduced in 2022 by the CoST International Secretariat to ensure there were mechanisms to celebrate success from CoST members.   

Mr Isaac Aidoo, the CoST Manager for Ghana said, “It’s a great honour for me and my colleagues from Africa, the MSG of Sekondi-Takoradi and the Ghana’s National Open Governance Programme (OGP) Steering Committee to receive the prestigious Outstanding Award named in memory of Alfredo Cantero (1973-2019), a much-respected former CoST Board member”.   

He recounted how the CoST Sekondi-Takoradi begun its joining in 2018 and officially announced its CoST membership on 13th March 2019 as part of Open Government Week (11 – 17 March) where many advocates around the world display their Open Government commitments.  

 In doing so, we became the first sub-national government to join the CoST initiative and demonstrated our seriousness to committing to promoting infrastructure transparency in the region.   

He said CoST Sekondi-Takoradi took a lot of inspiration from the work Alfredo has done from 2014-2019 and Honduras MSG working, their disclosure platform (SISOCS) and the training of citizen transparency commissions.  

He further indicated that CoST Sekondi-Takoradi a subnational programme had used the CoST multi-stakeholder working approach to achieve a national consensus to co-create infrastructure transparency commitments to improve public infrastructure governance at the national level.   

This milestone served as a catalyst to pursue a National CoST programme membership for Ghana and” I dedicate this award to Prof. George Ofori a former Vice Chair of CoST Board, Olive Kabakwariwe, Gilbert Sengudwa and the MSG members of CoST Sekondi-Takoradi for their constant support and advice that has brought CoST Sekondi-Takoradi this far”.  

Mr. Aidoo also remembered the outstanding move by the Former mayor of Sekondi-Takoradi who led in joining the CoST in 2019, Mr. Anthony KK Sam of blessed memory (may his soul rest well), who passed on during the COVID-19 period.  

The Construction Sector Transparency (CoST) Initiative is a UK registered charity (number:1152236) working worldwide in 20 countries including Ghana to implement transparency and accountability reform within the infrastructure sector.   

The CoST was initiated by the former Department for International Development as a pilot before it was spun out and set up as UK charity organization.  

The managers workshop saw participants from the 20 countries and the CoST International secretariat converged in London to equip Managers with the skills, knowledge and attitudes needed to effectively manage a CoST Member programme.   

The workshop provided the opportunity for the member management teams to share lessons, discuss technical issues they have confronted and develop the programme to strive for better returns from investment in public infrastructure.   

 Some five members, from three continents, were selected for the CoST Awards 2024: Costa Rica, Jalisco (Mexico), Sekondi Takoradi (Ghana), Thailand, and West Lombok (Indonesia).   

The awards had two categories, with one of the winners awarded an Outstanding Award named in memory of Alfredo Cantero, a former Board Member.   

For the Transparency category, the award sought to recognize the work of members that had increased the scope, scale, robustness or accuracy of data proactively or reactively published in relation to the planning and provision of infrastructure and/or the institutionalization of related processes or building and implementing successfully a transparency agenda after the publication of the Infrastructure Transparency Index an award won by CoST Thailand.  

The Participation Category, the award sought to recognize the work of members who valued establishing a constructive dialogue between government, civil society, and the private sector to improve infrastructure sector governance within national or local jurisdiction and was taken by CoST Sekondi-Takoradi.  

The outstanding achievement award, named in memory of Alfredo Cantero (1973-2019), a much-respected former CoST Board member which is the overall award was won by CoST Sekondi-Takoradi.   

Madam Evelyn Hernández, CoST Head of Members and Affiliates said, ” we want to commemorate Alfredo’s life by honouring the work of CoST members each year,”   

GNA  

JP/KOA