Infrastructure Transparency Index
Measuring transparency that actually works, not just promised.
Governments worldwide commit to openness about how they plan, fund and deliver public infrastructure. But commitment is not delivery. The ITI doesn't stop at measurement: it offers practical recommendations that have been implemented and are driving reforms.
Each country receives one overall score out of 100, so progress can be compared globally and tracked over time.
The Problem
Infrastructure is the largest and most exposed category of government spending.
When transparency fails in public infrastructure, costs rise, quality falls, and communities bear the consequences. Many countries publish some project data. Far fewer have asked what happens next: Is it complete? Does it cover the full project lifecycle? Can citizens actually use it?
What other tools do
Most transparency diagnostics measure whether information exists at the upstream level: planning, budgeting, and legislation. They assess systems on paper, not in practice.
What the ITI does differently
The ITI evaluates the entire system required for transparency to function, from legal framework to data publication to citizen engagement, at implementation level, across the full project lifecycle and throughout the entities developing public infrastructure.
2020
Year the ITI was launched by CoST: the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative
4
Dimensions assessed: enabling environment, capacities, citizen participation, and data publication
0–100
Standardised scoring scale enabling direct comparison and tracking over time
The Four Dimensions
A system-level assessment, not a single data check.
Every ITI implementation scores four dimensions. Together they form a complete picture of whether transparency is structurally possible, practically operational, and genuinely accessible.
Enabling Environment
Are there laws, regulations, platforms and institutions that make consistent infrastructure disclosure possible at national or sub-national level?
Capacities & Processes
Do procuring entities (the institutions that commission infrastructure) have the right systems, processes and skills to publish information across the project lifecycle?
Citizen Participation
Can citizens access, understand and use infrastructure information? Are there formal mechanisms for communities to engage in how projects are planned and monitored?
Data Publication
How much infrastructure project information is actually published, and does it meet international standards such as the CoST IDS and OC4IDS?
Before and after the ITI
What changes, and how.
Real-World Results
Every implementation drives measurable improvement.
The ITI has been applied 20 times across 14 countries since 2021, including fragile states and sub-national contexts. In every country, it has produced evidence-based change.
Panama
67.7, highest scorePanama's national ITI score rose to 67.7 in 2026, the highest of any ITI assessment, up 19.6 points from 48.1 in 2023 following a national resolution mandating standardised disclosure and integration between its procurement and transparency platforms.
Uganda
20.8 → 32.3 scoreUganda's national ITI score rose from 20.8 to 32.3, a +55% improvement, the largest of any ITI country. Public accountability forums (barazas) are now legally mandated during project implementation, and ITI findings led to road safety improvements in Kampala, including warning systems in flood-prone areas.
Costa Rica
48 → 67Costa Rica's national score rose from 48 in 2021 to 67 in 2025, driven by two landmark legal reforms. Costa Rica now leads all ITI countries in data publication, with a dimension score of 88.6 out of 100.
If transparency cannot be measured, it cannot be improved.
The ITI provides governments and their partners with a structured, evidence-based diagnostic and the support to act on it. That is what makes it more than another index.