SAPIENS third advanced training course (ATC3) aimed at introducing the role of Global actors in fostering the use of public procurement as an instrument to promote sustainability.

This ATC complemented the previous SAPIENS training courses by adding a global perspective on SPP and by introducing a management point of view. The training, hosted by the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” came at a time where the need to build sustainable and resilient societies while respecting the environment we all live in, has become urgent and strongly recognized, as noted in the IPCC latest report.

This third ATC added to the Sustainable Public Procurement focus a global look that matches the scale of the sustainability issue,  thanks to the contribution of international experts coming from the academia and beyond.

Session 1: Reconciling Social and Green Issues across the Globe

The first session of SAPIENS ATC3, chaired by SAPIENS Lead Researcher Prof. Gustavo Piga, introduced SPP as a multi-dimensional concept and as a global tool to address green, social and inequality issues. The session saw three panelists, coming from different countries and organizations, interacting on the green and social dimensions of SPP and their different understanding, application, and adoption across the globe.

The session was started by Annamaria La Chimia, Professor of Law and Development at Nottingham University , who acknolwedged the importance of public procurement, not only in economic terms but also for the value it can bring to our societies, and its role in addressing the issue of gender equality. In her intervention she made us notice how procurement is not neutral, but can exacerbate certain conditions, for example by weakening women’s economic efforts if a gender blind approach is taken. She also shared some practical recommendations about how to include the gender lenses in the procurement process and warned against the tendency of using SPP as a tokenism to tick the box.

Vinay Sharma, Global Director, Solutions and Innovations in Procurement at the World Bank, followed with his intervention where he addressed the implications of the intertwin between the social and environmental dimension of sustainability in public procurement in different countries – high income and low-income countries. He underlined how the specific country context matters when we talk about SPP implementation, and that countries social economic policies must be understood to effectively unlock SPP potential.

Finally, Steven L. Schooner, Professor of Government Procurement Law at the George Washington University, concluded the panel session by illustrating the meaning of SPP value proposition. Following the Management principle that “what gets measured gets managed”, he stressed the importance of building SPP metrics as SPP requires changing behaviors. According to him, the focus shall be shifted from process to outcomes, as we need to measure what is important and not what is easy to measure. He then concluded by outlining how SPP requires a change management approach.

“The challenge in Public Procurement is in our evaluation criteria and in the way we structure our specifications, and thus in the way we do our market research and our acquisition planning we need to fundamentally ask the question: If  I am willing to pay a higher purchase price, what benefits as a government, as a society and a planet, do I receive or, in other words, how much more do I have to pay to avoid purchasing the harmful solution, which is less expensive?” Prof. Steven L. Schooner

The full recording of Session 1 can be accessed below.

Session 2: Multilateral Institutions for Sustainable Procurement

Session 2, chaired by SAPIENS Lead Researcher Prof. Andrea Appolloni, was devoted to illustrating the role of International Organizations in advancing the UN Agenda 2030 objectives via SPP. In this session, the representatives of three key international organizations, EBRD, FAO and IFAD, outilined the SPP approaches in countries of operation, focusing on the issues and opportunities for SPP application.

Dirk Plutz, Associate Director/Procurement Policy Advisor at EBRD, started the session by illustrating the role of International Organizations in making supply chains sustainable from a social and environmental point of view. In particular, he shared how EBRD fosters the application of green and social procurement in the procurement process of its countries of operations.

Luana Swessons, Policy and Legal Specialist for Sustainable Public Procurement at FAO, followed by highlighting how SPP in the food sector can link the demand with the production side of sustainable food and in particular, how FAO is linking procurement with the support to vulnerable suppliers, like family-based businesses and small-holder farmers.

Finally, Priscilla Torres Rossel, Global Lead Procurement Advisor at IFAD, concluded the session by explaining the role of SPP in global value chains that involve developing and emerging economies. She noticed how procurement can help countries in addressing multiple goals, making the example of the IFAD value-chain development programme in Nigeria, where procurement fostered also youth empowerment.

“It is not enough to create the demand for sustainable procurement but we need to support the suppliers to respond to this demand, to the criteria, to the new market.We need to work holistically to support the demand, the supplier and the overall framework.” Luana Swessons, FAO

The recording of Session 2 is available below.

Session 3: Global Stakeholders for Sustainable Procurement

The third session of ATC3, chaired by SAPIENS Lead Researcher Prof. Marta Andhov, explored the role of different stakeholders and networks, including non-conventional and private sector actors, in SPP. Three panelists coming from the academia, the private sector and the no-profit shared their perspectives on sustainability and highlighted their contributions.

Rodrigo Lozano, Professor of Organisational Sustainability at the University of Gävle , opened the session by highlighting the relationships between stakeholders and sustainability, materiality, and stakeholders’ typologies. In particular, he highlighted how Stakeholders’ Theory can be applied to public procurement for achieving sustainable results.

Then, Federico Budassi, Account Executive at Ecovadis, talked about the role of the private sector in responding to SPP and in promoting equity, inclusivity and the respect for social rights and the environment. He particularly addressed the issue of monitoring and assessing suppliers with complex and global value chains and explained how Corporate Social Responsibility assessment can be conducted in public tenders using digital technologies.

Finally, Daniel Morris,  Adviser on Human Rights and Business at The Danish Institute for Human Rights,  illustrated what is the role of third actors in SPP and in the promotion of human rights, equality, inclusiveness, and the respect of the environment. In particular, he explained what a human rights-based approach, human rights due diligence, and engagement with rightsholders means in a public procurement context.

“The State as the biggets buyer has the ability to affect change and this change can really have substantial impacts on rights-holders. It can do that in a number of different ways and public procurement is one way of doing it but hasn’t really seen a huge amount of attention from the human rights world. That is changing now.” Daniel Morris, The Danish Institute for Human Rights

The full recording of Session 3 can be accessed below.

Session 4: Round Table – Fighting for Sustainable Public Procurement

The fourth session of the training hosted a round table, chaired by SAPIENS Lead Researcher Prof. Martin Trybus, where academicians, public buyers and listed companies’ representatives shared their efforts and contributions to the global fight for sustainability. The session focused on the barriers and enablers of SPP that each of them encountered in applying sustainability to procurement.

The round-table was opened by the intervention of Mario Eugenio Comba, Professor of Law at the University of Turin, who explained how public procurement supported the protection of workers in labor intensive sectors, by illustrating some example from the Italian Piedmont Region.

The intervention was followed by Fuguo Cao, Professor of Law at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing  who shared the results of his research on SPP in China focusing on the policy and regulatory framework and the current developments, concluding by making the case for a consolidated Green Public Procurement code.

Then, Hanadi Al-Nabulsi, Director General of the Government Procurement Department (Kingdom of Jordan), illustrated the government procurement department model for attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goals and its short and long-term strategies.

Finally, Francesca Di Carlo, Head of Global Procurement at ENEL, shared the perspectives of a listed company on the selection of sustainable suppliers, by illustrating the firm’s strategy in leveraging their suppliers base to champion sustainability.

Session 5: Special Lecture on Sustainable Supply Chain Management

ATC3 was closed by SAPIENS Network External Expert, Stefan Seuring, Professor of Supply Chain Management at Kassel University, who delivered a special lecture on Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM). The lecture focused on how to conduct systematic literature reviews (SLR)  to advance theory development in the field of SSCM, by introducing the different types of SLR, their goals and methods. Finally, he concluded by outlining the role of theory in the academic world to further research and theoretical contributions on sustainability.