1. Continuing the SAPIENS Policy Brief Series with a Focus on Collaboration

Sustainable public procurement (SPP) has been using government purchasing power to foster sustainable consumption and production, contributing to sustainable development efforts. SPP policies, guidelines, and regulations have been proposing collaboration between stakeholders as a relevant tool to develop mutual learning and propose joint solutions. However, there is limited research providing an understanding of how collaboration between stakeholders impacts SPP initiatives.

Felippe Vilaça’s policy brief, “Collaboration between stakeholders in sustainable public procurement”, delves into how interactions between organisations can contribute to including sustainability issues in public procurement. This policy brief is based on the author’s research on collaboration between stakeholders in SPP, based on hermeneutics, inductive approaches, and comparative studies – data collected with Brazilian and Swedish practitioners was analysed to explore the phenomenon of collaboration in different SPP contexts.

This policy brief is directed to SPP practitioners, including government (e,g, policymakers, public managers, procurement officers), market (such as suppliers and industry organisations), and society (e.g. non-governmental organisations) representatives.

2. Insights from the Policy Brief 

Stakeholder interactions are an important element of SPP, leveraging the potential for collaboration. Collaboration has been driving organisational changes for SPP and overcoming barriers to SPP. However, collaboration is not a silver bullet for addressing the complexity of SPP. There are limits to which aspects of SPP can be tackled through collaboration and, concurring with previous research, collaboration benefits and drawbacks should be balanced.

The recommendations presented by the policy brief include:  

– Collaboration between stakeholders can drive SPP by creating new solutions and understandings.

– Collaboration initiatives may not be determined by context but by individual commitment and organisational capacity to navigate into the legal and bureaucratic pathways to SPP.

– Organisations engaged with SPP can decide when to collaborate by analysing the benefits and drawbacks, evaluating their expertise in developing collaboration mechanisms, and assessing the availability of facilitators.

– Implementing collaboration in SPP requires specific organisational changes.