Sustainable Public Procurement

Background

Sustainable public procurement is a tool which allows governments to leverage public spending (between 15 to 25 % of GDP) in order to promote the country’s social, environmental and economic policies. SPP contributes to create markets for appropriate technologies and innovative solutions.

The United Nations Environment Programme has been for a long time a supporter of Sustainable Public Procurement by:

  • Facilitating global consensus on the integration of sustainable development considerations in procurement at all levels (UN; national governments and local authorities);
  • Fostering information exchange to have a wide number of organizations to benefit from the experience of the forerunners;
  • Providing practical tools for capacity building to translate sustainable procurement policies in a reality.

UNEP’s commitment in this field has led to partnerships with various organizations such as the World Bank, the International Training Center of the International Labor Organization, the League of Arab States and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. With these partners we have organized awareness raising events and training workshops in locations such as Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia, Costa Rica, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Italy.

UNEP is also an active member of the Swiss task force on Sustainable Public Procurements and this has led in 2008, to the establishment of a partnership aimed at fostering the diffusion of SPP worldwide through the implementation of the Swiss MTF Approach on SPP.

 

News

-(06/01/2010) Two regional training workshops took place in December 2009 in Tunisia and Malaysia, with the presence of 28 participants from Francophone African countries on the case of Tunis, and 23 from Asian countries in the case of Kuala Lumpur.   The training workshops were groundbreaking in the creation of regional networks for the promotion of SPP in their respective geographical areas.  Download the agenda for the Tunis Training Workshop, and Kuala Lumpur Training Workshop.

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Current Issue:
Issue # 01 September 2009 EN ES FR