Putting people and our planet at the heart of public procurement reform

The challenges facing societies, cultures and economies internationally are interrelated and increasingly complex, for example climate, health, food, education and equality. The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda provides the pathway for the current decade, and the foundations for the decades to follow, but only where these foundations have been laid.

The coronavirus global health pandemic has exposed gaps and weaknesses in governments' digital resilience, as well as further undermining governance and accountability where systems were already weak, for example due to inefficient, ineffective and outdated processes and practices, or worse still, corruption and bribery.

Even before the pandemic, it's estimated that just under half a trillion US dollars of annual global healthcare spend was lost to fraud and corruption. Now more than ever, governments globally must embrace internet era approaches to public procurement.

It's fundamental that national, regional and local governments embrace social purpose digital commissioning by moving away from narrow, compliance-led, process-oriented, and siloed approaches in public procurement. This means:

mainstreaming human-centred design, data-driven, agile and open approaches in public procurement.
investing in multidisciplinary and cross-functional teams (where commercial practitioners are embedded with digital, data and technology delivery practitioners) founded on honesty, transparency, collaboration and integrity.
using public procurement approaches that are fit for the 21st century, as a lever to achieve inclusive, equitable and sustainable policy outcomes that have positive economic, social and cultural, and environmental impacts.
seizing the opportunities provided by digital government, open data and new technologies throughout the full public spending lifecycle - from planning, through to procurement and contracting, and beyond into implementation and service delivery - to help prevent corruption and sustainably meet the needs of citizens, businesses, communities and societies.

If you're interested in social purpose digital commissioning, and would like to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to get in touch.