How can public information be transformed from an administrative obligation into a genuine tool for trust and accountability?

Major infrastructure investments affect society for decades. Citizens are involved in them simultaneously as taxpayers, users of public services, and people whose communities, environment and daily lives may be directly affected by the project.

Public participation should therefore not begin only after a conflict has arisen.

Good practice requires the early provision of information, clear consultation procedures, an explanation of the available alternatives and constraints, and mechanisms through which the issues raised can be tracked and followed up.

Contemporary debate increasingly considers access to public information, open data, public registers, civic monitoring and the journalistic use of data as interconnected components of accountability.

As early as the programme of the 2018 international conference, a dedicated thematic panel was devoted to the challenges of public participation in public-private partnerships.

Under current international approaches, standardised infrastructure data are viewed precisely as a means of improving project monitoring, comparability and accountability. (standard.open-contracting.org)