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Marrakech Process Task Force on Sustainable Public Procurement: Governments Assess the Situation

Imagine your government at work: building schools, fixing roads, planning housing. To meet the needs of growing cities and towns, governments today invite companies from around the world to compete in bidding for often lucrative contracts. They are the largest consumers in any given economy, spending an average 45 to 65 per cent of their budgets on public purchasing. Those purchases account for some 13-17 per cent of GDP. *

Imagine using that hefty buying power to influence a range of long-term social, economic and environmental goals. That is sustainable public procurement in a nutshell, a process in which governments consider three main factors when buying products or services they need: environmental impact throughout a lifecycle; impact on social issues – such as poverty, labour conditions or human rights – and economic competitiveness.

This approach is commonly called the triple bottom line approach to financial reporting, which expands traditional accounting methods to capture “people, profit and planet” considerations. By using it, governments can help create markets for goods and services that support sustainable development, and raise the bar for other market actors to respect environmental and social standards.

The Task Force on Sustainable Public Procurement has developed an online status assessment tool, which can be used by procurement officials to help them understand and improve their countries’ purchasing systems.

The assessment gauges whether national laws are in place to regulate procurement, and if so, whether they are applied. Do procurement systems measure the effects of purchasing on the environment, society and economy? Do governments provide skill training in areas such as influencing, negotiating and contract law to procurers, finance managers and lawyers?

With the results in hand, officials can identify the strengths and weaknesses of their government’s procurement approach. Anyone who wants to follow the government’s example can use the assessment, including companies, says Alexander Kopp, an official with Switzerland’s Federal Office for the Environment, the lead Task Force agency.

The online tool is the part of a package of steps that governments can take in developing a sustainable approach to public procurement. Other steps include a legal review, market readiness analysis, development of a sustainable public procurement plan, and finally, a “train the trainers” workshop.

The Task Force is moving quickly to promote the holistic approach among governments. Its goal is for 14 countries in all regions to have tested it and fed results into the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production by 2010.

So far, Costa Rica, the Brazilian State of Sao Paolo, Colombia, Tunisia and Ghana have expressed interest in the project. Developed countries, including New Zealand and Norway, are also hinting at interest after their officials took part in a training workshop in Buenos Aires, Argentina that attracted 60 people, many of whom were from other Latin American countries.

“What we really would like is for China and India to participate”, Mr. Kopp says, adding that a green light on a sustainable approach to public procurement from those large consumer economies would pave the way for others to follow their lead.

Led by Switzerland, Task Force members include the United Kingdom, China, Brazil, Argentina and Norway.


* International Institute for Sustainable Development

For more information, please visit Task Force for Sustainable Public Procurement website.