Overview of the Procura+ Conference 

Running for the past 25 years, the Procura+ Conference series (formerly EcoProcura) is one of ICLEI’s flagship events where public procurement policy meets practice. The Conference provides a unique forum to exchange and inform on the latest strategies and practices for implementing high quality, cost-effective, sustainable, circular, and innovative procurement.

For its 11th edition, the Procura+ Conference 2024 saw over 220 government officials, procurement practitioners, as well as industry and third-sector leaders gathering in Lisbon (Portugal) on 13-14 March.

Under the theme “Step Changes for Big Impact”, the conference showcased how public buyers across Europe are taking steps to leverage public procurement for sustainable and circular transformations. Good practices and approaches across thematic areas, key product and service sectors were presented, including biodiversity, climate change, urban development, buildings and construction, energy, food and catering, ICT, mobility and textiles. It included sessions with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Circular Flanders, Rijkswaterstaat, TCO Development and the Institute of Brilliant Failures, addressing professionalising public procurement and learning through experience.

SAPIENS Network’s contribution to the 2024 Procura+ Conference

ESRs Laura Treviño-Lozano and Chiara Falvo represented the SAPIENS Network during the two days of conference.

On 13 March, Chiara had the opportunity to take part in one of the Deep Dive Parallel Sessions, titled ‘Transforming food systems through minimum standards’, where she contributed a presentation on Minimum standards for Sustainable Public Food Procurement (SPFP) in France.

In her presentation, Chiara provided an overview of the minimum targets and standards concerning sustainable public food procurement that have been adopted in France in recent years. She addressed the impact of this wave of national legal requirements on local procurement practices, also through concrete examples from a case study she conducted in the French department of Dordogne. She concluded with some numbers on the implementation of the standards and highlighted remaining challenges.

Opening the session, the introduction and the keynote speech were contributed, respectively, by Jean-Marc Louvin, Expert in Sustainable Food Systems at ICLEI Europe, and Luana Swensson, PhD, Policy specialist for sustainable public procurement at FAO. In addition to Chiara‘s contribution, the panel discussion was articulated around a presentation by Filipe Ferreira, Metropolitan Secretary at Lisbon Metropolitan Area and one by Cristina Sossan, Officer Food Policy Unit at Municipality of Milan.

The other Deep Dive Parallel Sessions were focused on ‘Buy Social – Discovering the enabler for a just transition’; ‘Transforming infrastructure and urban development districts through procurement’; ‘Mastering the Art of Innovation Procurement’; and ‘How to mainstream circular procurement within your organisation’. Materials of the sessions are available on the conference page.

Laura attended the Buy Social session, which provided relevant insights linked to her research on the enforcement of labour rights in global supply chains through public procurement.  Valentina Caimi shared a relevant case study in the Basque Country in Spain, which throughout two decades, has set up a system to implement in a coordinated and systematic way the inclusion of gender clauses; having achieved 71 contracts with gender clauses. Today, according to Valentina, this autonomous community’s system for gender inclusion has led to positive impact in rebalancing gender in different professions, and influencing the way that public buyers are planning procurement, and the awareness that contractors have on gender equality. Besides, Marieke Weerdesteijn highlighted implementation to demand from tenderers and contractors human rights and environmental due diligence (connected with the CSDDD) requirements. She stressed that public buyers partnered with NGOs to do research, combined with key potential suppliers to understand the key risks of their services, and translate them into procurement requirements in practice able to address them.

9 takeaway messages for building the future of strategic procurement  

During the closing plenary, a panel of experts composed by Harriët Tiemens, Director of the Green Metropolitan Region of Arnhem-Nijmegen, The Netherlands and ICLEI European Regional Executive Committee Member; Mark Hidson, Deputy Regional Director, ICLEI; Abby Semple, Public Procurement Analysis; and Carlos Moedas, Mayor of Lisbon, reflected on and discussed what we heard over the conference, sharing their key messages for the future:

1. Public procurement needs to be strengthened through multi-level governance. There are tools to include in the process the different voices of people and foster collaboration, but further work is needed to make this effective.

2. Any new SPP measure should be accompanied by concrete requirements regarding monitoring and reporting. The proliferation of requirements may lead to fatigue within the procurement system. It is important to subject new sustainable, circular and innovation procurement measures to scrutiny and testing for effective implementation and accessibility to practitioners.

3. Socially responsible public procurement should be addressed in EU funding programs.

4. A centralized hub for EU legislation relevant for sustainable, innovative, and circular procurement is essential, consolidating scattered legal obligations into a single point of reference.

5. Change management is crucial for ensuring sustainability circular and innovation goals are integrated into the core mission and values of public entities and avoiding the risk of resistance to new procurement practices. Sustainable public procurement makes the case for public procurement not as a reactive and administrative function but as a proactive and strategic one.

6. While technology and data analytics aren’t a silver bullet, they can support a step change.

7. It is important to provide incentives – for example financial or reputational – to suppliers who innovate and develop sustainable solutions, especially considering that such solutions may be more expensive.

8. Cities are the engines of change, embodying risk-taking drivers of transition and leading by example through their incremental progress, one step at a time.

9. Adopting a systemic approach to different types of procurement, including sustainable, circular and innovative, is crucial to reduce complexity for public procurers, as suggested by a practitioner in the audience.

The 2024 Procura+ Award Winners

The 2024 Procura+ awards, distributed across three categories, recognized outstanding contributions to procurement practice.

The Norwegian Central Procurement Body clinched the Sustainable Procurement of the Year award for its development of a framework agreement concerning the reuse and recycling of used ICT equipment, also incorporating social criteria.

In the category Innovation Procurement of the Year, the City of Malmö received recognition for its formulation of procurement criteria based on universal design principles to enhance accessibility of physical infrastructure, goods, and services.

Lastly, the City of Lisbon was honored in the Procurement Initiative of the Year category for its establishment of a Sustainable Procurement Management System to ensure that all public procurement processes within the Municipality adhere to responsible, transparent, fair, and ecological principles.

A successful format

This conference edition was a great success, offering many opportunities for exchange and learning on how to build, one step at a time, the future of strategic public procurement. Attending in person, the networking opportunities are excellent, but it is also remarkable that much of the material presented is made available online to the public. Another plus of the conference is its format, which makes the sessions engaging, dynamic and even fun!

On both days, the Market Lounges featured over 25 parallel roundtables on a wide range of topics, each lasting 30 minutes. Participants could choose 3 roundtables and engage in a focused and insightful conversation among a small group of peers. The roundtables provided guidance on available support, tools, strategies, research and initiatives aiming at facilitating step change for big impact. Also, in the plenary session “There’s no such thing as failure!”, Paul Louis Iske, Chief Failures Officer at The Institute for Brilliant Failures invited participants to share their procurement mistakes and how they overcame them. Aligning with the theme of the conference, Paul emphasised that great change often comes from the ability to learn from mistakes.

Congratulations to the ICLEI Europe team and to all participants for making this a great event!