Performance-Based Procurement to Drive Inclusive, Sustainable Growth in the Western Cape Province

How can global governments rethink public procurement laws, policies and processes towards delivering value for money across the life cycle of the goods, services and assets governments are buying?

This one-day workshop will demonstrate why, what and how to ensure that public procurement focuses on the best available technologies to meet public needs, rather than purchasing yesterday’s solutions. The workshop will focus on solutions for implementing performance-based procurement to overcome the barriers identified in the earlier stages of this project (legal barriers, public accounting issues, financial barriers and a skills gap).

The workshop will also discuss sustainable, green, smart and strategic public procurement, ensuring the products and services purchased by governments are as sustainable as possible. This means reducing environmental impact; generating positive social and economic impacts in a cost-efficient manner; and creating and driving new markets for innovative climate-friendly technologies, goods, services and infrastructure that generate co-benefits for society.

The workshop will also launch the guidance tool on performance-based procurement developed by the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the WWF South Africa for the Western Cape government, with the support of the 10-Year Framework Programme on Sustainable Public Procurement Trust Fund. 

Expected outcomes of the workshop include:

• Providing participants with an insight into the published guidebook development through this project and utilizing interactive activities as a knowledge mechanism to enable performance-based procurement within the Western Cape context at the provincial and municipal levels.
• Empowering participants to implement performance-based procurement, thereby changing current public procurement processes.

Topics to be discussed include:

• The what, why and how of performance-based procurement
• An introduction to the international context and momentum around sustainable public procurement
• An introduction to the guidance and its contents
• How to implement performance-based procurement for sustainable solution needs identification and supplier engagement, including the design of specifications, awarding and monitoring contracts