Inter-American Network on Government Procurement Workshop on Sustainable Public Procurement

On April 5-6 2015 a workshop on sustainable public procurement (SPP) took place in Bogotá, Colombia, with the participation of the member countries of the Inter-American Network on Government Procurement (INGP).

The workshop supported the implementation of SPP in INGP countries. The specific objectives of the workshop were to: (1) identify a common strategy to support the implementation of SPP in INGP countries; and (2) demonstrate SPP progress, goals and strategies of the INGP members, and share experience and learning. The participants of the workshop included the SPP specialists of the national procurement agencies of the INGP countries as well as international experts on SPP.

IISD facilitated the workshop on behalf of the Organization for American States (OAS), which acts as the technical secretariat of the INGP.

On the first day of the event the 22 attending member countries presented actions plans for SPP implementation during a poster session. Subsequent discussions, moderated by IISD, identifed bottlenecks to advance SPP, discussed gaps in the action plans, and analyzed countries’ needs for further support SPP. The second day started with a session on “Big Ideas for Sustainable Public Procurement” during which experiences of the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Colombia will be shared. Finally, IISD highlighted the importance of and need to elevate the public procurement profession as to allow public procurement to become a real, strategic driver of sustainable development.

This workshop is part of IISD’s dedicated work in the Latin American and Caribbean region on SPP. IISD has developed a handbook on SPP for the INGP, an online course with OAS, and is currently implementing SPP through pilot tenders in the Dominican Republic and Mexico.

Click here for the meeting report and workshop presentations.