The Inclusive Public Procurement Playbook was launched at UNDP Business Call to Action’s (BCtA) 12th Annual Forum as a guide to seven strategies that can promote supplier diversity while guaranteeing important public procurement principles.

September 21st, 2022, Istanbul – In the context of the current interlocked crises, the BCtA 12th Annual Forum convened partners on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly on ‘The Power of Collaboration’ to present an integrated solution that effectively engages governments and businesses for systemic change.  

Partners agreed that public procurement is an essential component of democratic governance, poverty reduction and sustainable development, which can be used to propel changes in public service delivery, create fiscal space and jobs, and stimulate private sector growth. “Through sustainable public procurement (SPP) principles and practices, the annual multi-trillion-dollar public procurement budgets can be leveraged to support sustainable development”, said Moderator Carsten Hansen, Chief of Procurement Services Unit at UNDP. A well-performing public procurement system increases citizens’ confidence in government and private sector competitiveness, especially by levelling the playing field for small- and medium-sized businesses. 

Inclusive Public Procurement (IPP) is a new way of looking at public procurement under which the government meets its needs for goods and services through the private sector by engaging Small Medium Enterprises (SME) and Inclusive Businesses (IBs) in the public procurement process. As an approach to Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP), IPP is designed to maximize equitable economic, social, and environmental benefits with the primary aim of promoting supplier diversity through economic inclusion in the supply chain of SMEs, IBs and other socially disadvantaged groups. Understanding the important role that Inclusive Businesses play in supporting governments to better reach underserved populations with essential services and goods, this discussion will focus on the uptake of SMEs operating inclusive business models in public procurement processes. 

During the session Inclusive Public Procurement: Enhancing SME-based innovation uptake in public procurement processes, Luciana Aguiar, Programme Manager at UNDP Business Call to Action, presented the Inclusive Public Procurement Playbook as a  guide to seven strategies that can promote supplier diversity while guaranteeing important public procurement principles. “The Inclusive Public Procurement Playbook seeks to define the standards, procedures, strategies, and best practices for both private and public sector actors. For the public sector, the playbook guides public procurement actors on enhancing SME-based inclusive business solutions. For the private sector, the Playbook guides SMEs, social enterprises, and inclusive businesses on how to successfully navigate public procurement processes”, said Luciana Aguiar. 

At a glance, this Playbook presents the case for change towards inclusive public procurement and defines the standards, procedures, strategies and best practices for public procurement stakeholders to enhance supplier diversity while guaranteeing important public procurement principles. Moreover, the Playbook aims to guide SMEs, social enterprises and inclusive businesses on how to navigate public procurement processes; as well as to support public procurement stakeholders on how to enhance SME-based inclusive business solutions to serve vulnerable communities. 

Business Call to Action (BCtA) recognises and advances inclusive businesses with a clear commitment to benefiting people in low and middle-income markets to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more about our work here. Governments often have a hard time reaching and providing essential goods and services to low-income populations. At the same time, inclusive businesses are successfully operating innovative solutions to serve such communities, but often not at scale. Business Call to Action's Inclusive Innovation Journey (IIJ) bridges this gap by fostering collaboration between the private sector and the government. The IIJ is a government-led inclusive innovation process that replicates and adapts proven inclusive business models and their solutions to serve low-income populations, in the last mile. Learn more about the IIJ offer here.