The Source Community convened its first meeting of 2026 in an online session chaired by Boitumelo Mashilo, Chief Director for Infrastructure Regulation and Assessment, Budget Office, from the National Treasury of South Africa. Participants from member countries reviewed ongoing work, shared implementation experiences, and aligned on priorities for the year ahead.
Strengthening the Community and advancing project preparation
At the opening of the meeting, the Chair reaffirmed the three foundational principles that continue to guide the Source Community’s work:
- The central importance of structured data collection, ensuring that complex project information is captured in a standardised, accessible and comparable format;
- The need for interoperability, so that Source operates in seamless connection with domestic systems and institutional processes, reducing duplication and strengthening coordination; and
- The value of domestic customisation, enabling countries to adapt the common framework to their specific legal and institutional contexts while maintaining alignment with global standards.
These principles remain the basis for strengthening credible project preparation and sustaining the growing impact of the Source platform.
The meeting opened with reflections on the continued expansion of the Source Community and its growing relevance in strengthening national infrastructure pipelines. Participants reaffirmed the importance of structured project preparation, data standardisation, and alignment with national systems. The year ahead will focus on leveraging an improved version of Source, deepening collaboration with partners and investors, and increasing the visibility of project success stories.
New members were welcomed (the governments of Brazil, Ghana, Madagascar and Pakistan), underscoring the ongoing diversification and growth of the Community, bringing the total number of countries to 18.
Experience of multilateral use of Source
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) presented insights from the project: Qarakhach Wind Power Plant with Battery Energy Storage System (more info here), applying Source in the preparation of this large-scale energy project, illustrating how the platform helps to align national documentation requirements with international project preparation standards. The case example highlighted how Source supports streamlined data collection because the templates requested for use by the Armenian government were already provided in Source, therefore reducing duplication, and facilitating transparent engagement through structured publication of project information.
Participants discussed the practical benefits of integrating Source into project teams, the organisation of internal workflows, and the value of publishing project data to support early market sounding and sustained investor engagement. Now ADB already has plans to use Source for more projects, this is great news! Community members were pleased to witness a practical example from an MDB using Source.
Implementation experiences across the Community
Members shared recent progress in deploying Source within their infrastructure and PPP institutions. Key points included:
- The value of publishing structured project information to enable early market sounding, increase transparency, and strengthen investor confidence.
- The migration of extensive project portfolios into Source and the benefits of interoperability between Source and national databases to reduce manual work and enhance consistency.
- The usefulness of Source’s structured templates in improving institutional memory, aligning with domestic documentation processes, and supporting coordinated engagement with development partners.
- Requests for demonstrations of the new platform and continued training support after the integration of Source, which SIF confirmed will be provided over the course of 2026.
Update on the new Source platform
SIF highlighted that they are working on an enhanced version of Source, noting improvements to functionality, speed, user experience, AI, and integration capabilities. The upgraded platform is scheduled for launch at Q2 of 2026, planned in May alongside the G7 meetings to highlight its value for governments, development partners, and the international infrastructure community.
Next steps and closing reflections
In closing, participants emphasised the importance of institutionalising Source as a central tool for systematic and credible project preparation. Members were encouraged to continue enriching project entries with high quality data ahead of the next Community meeting. The shared objective remains to move beyond project disclosure and towards the delivery of robust, investment ready infrastructure pipelines, ensuring that projects prepared through Source reach financial close and successful implementation.