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The online guide to developing public procurement capacities

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Capacity development is a widely used and loosely interpreted term. Rather than add to the long list of definitions for capacity development perhaps time is better spent considering, What are the 10 Critical Success Factors for Capacity Development?

The following is a quick list of critical...

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To compete, or not to compete (internationally)

Earlier today the Guardian Global Development Professionals Network asked the question Public Procurement: is open competition bad for development?

While entities such as the WTO, World Bank and Millennium Challenge Corporation promote open international competition as best practice, opponents argue that subjecting local industries to international competition might drive them out of business. 

Proponents of international competition, on the other hand, argue that "with time, as the developing country becomes more prosperous, local markets will be able to compete."

However, there seems be a middle ground between these two positions. Arguably, in some cases international open competition will be the best choice (such as when domestic industries cannot deliver at the required speed, scope or scale). In other cases local preference can perhaps make sense for a developing country for strategic economic or political reasons (e.g. in cases where local employment creation is a predominant and immediate challenge). 

Perhaps it is time to reconsider the approach to 'best practice'? Embracing a notion that best practice is really about 'best fit' (rather than how things are done elsewhere) can help the design of contextually grounded procurement policies with maximum development impact. 'Best fit' implies a more rigorous process of problem identification, solution design and implementation, so by no means is it easy - but it might be worthwhile. 

And maybe it is also time to start embracing more flexibility in solutions for public procurement. As economic impetus, unemployment rates, and structural shifts in national production patterns are all dynamic, maybe policies for public procurement should be dynamic as well?

As the Guardian piece ends: "The current consensus is that eliminating corruption and allowing international companies in is good for development. But, as with everything in global development, it is the way that is done that is crucial."

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We can #BeTheGeneration to defeat #AIDS #TB & #malaria. Are you in? http://thndr.it/15yQI4a

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This July '13 how to note outlines DFID's approach to Capacity Development. While hardly surprising to many CD practitioners, the key points mentioned in the section "What's Good Capacity Development?" are always worth highlighting:

Capacity development is an endogenous process

Evidence shows a ‘best fit’ approach, suited to the local context, as opposed to ‘best practice’, transplanting models from other countries, is more likely to work

Domestic leadership is an important aspect of country-led change

Capacity development for poverty reduction can appear technical but is ultimately political

Transparency, empowerment and accountability are needed

Much of the support provided by the international community on public procurement has a very technical focus: Promoting international standards for procurement laws, manuals and procedures. The lessons above remind us of some of the things that can help make procurement reform stick over the long term and work better in a local context. 

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Beginning to understand capacity challenges for sustainable public procurement

A recent study on sustainable public procurement (SPP) from the UK National Audit Office (NAO) reveals a number of challenges. Here we are taking a look at these from a capacity development perspective in general, and on four specific capacity drivers in particular (leadership, knowledge, accountability and institutional arrangements).

But first, the challenges as reported: 

departments facing internal pressure to focus on upfront cost often at the expense of whole-life costs to meet cost reduction targets; 

central procurement staff finding it difficult to obtain support from other staff across their department to meet the sustainable procurement commitments; 

for more complex procurement exercises, engineers or scientists may take decisions at an early stage before the procurement cycle has begun, which may impact on the sustainability of the product or service to be procured; 

sustainable procurement policy requirements including supply chain impact analysis can require a level of documentation from suppliers that may discourage SMEs with fewer corporate resources from being involved in government procurements; and 

frequent changes in the governance arrangements for sustainable procurement resulting in uncertainty over requirements and difficulty in finding relevant guidance. 

(source)

UNDP's capacity development (CD) framework has identified four key drivers behind capacity development:

Institutional arrangements: the policies, practices and systems that allow for effective functioning of an organization or group.

Leadership: the ability to influence, inspire and motivate others to achieve or even go beyond their goals. It is also the ability to anticipate and respond to change.

Knowledge: literally what people know, underpins their capacities and hence capacity development.

Accountability: exists when rights holders are able to make duty bearers deliver on their obligations.

(source)

Mostly, capacity challenges can be located within this framework and as is clear from the above mentioned challenges identified by NAO that is no different when it comes to sustainable procurement. As such, the four categories provides us with a simple analytical framework that can help formulate some initial thoughts on how to improve systemic capacities for sustainable procurement:

Institutional Arrangements: 

Increased inter- and intra-departmental coordination and collaboration between technical and procurement staff at an early stage in the procurement can help align sustainability and technical requirements.

A broad-based public policy dialogue on SPP with support from a broad range of stakeholders can help provide much needed stability in the governance framework.

Finding 'fit-for-purpose' policies with reasonable requirements for documentation relative to the contract size will enable SME's to participate in procurement. 

Leadership:

Procurement staff and management can jointly support opening up a dialogue on why a whole-life cost approach may make more budgetary sense in a medium to long term perspective. 

Increased collaboration and coordination (see institutional arrangements) can help position procurement as a strategic function (instead of a mere clerical function). 

Knowledge:

Building on a more stable policy mix (see institutional arrangements) knowledge management systems can help provide technical and procurement staff with access to the knowledge the need for SPP.

Accountability:

Internal accountability mechanisms that gives joint responsibility for results to both technical and procurement staff can possibly help procurement obtain the support they need from other departments. 

Of course the capacity development responses that are necessary would likely require a deeper analysis to find the root causes of the challenges identified by NAO. But as a starting point for discussion a capacity development 'frame of mind' and analytical framework are great conversation starters for enhancing sustainable public procurement capacities. 

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The Principles and Practices of Public Procurement is a great example of a collaborative effort to shape the public procurement agenda. Check it out.

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Data visualizations from OpenSpending

Another interesting data visualization tool on Government spending is available from OpenSpending. 

The above example shows procurement data from Denmark. 

Follow OpenSpending on Twitter: @openspending

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Heat map: Czech public procurement

This heat map shows where money is spent on public procurement in the Czech Republic (thanks to Tweep @sclopit). 

Another data visualization tool from the Slovak Republic can be seen here and you can read a case study on the Slovak experience in this WBI publication. 

Having - and sharing - the data on the where, what, when and how much on public procurement is an important step towards more accountable government spending. Data visualizations provide an excellent entry point for engaging stakeholders and ultimately inform procurement policy. We wrote about engagement in a previous post. 

Are you aware of any other data visualization tools in the area of public procurement?

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This Guide by PCDC includes the 5 steps of the UNDP Capacity Development Process and provides guidance on defining capacity development plans for procurement, measuring capacity development and using a monitoring framework. The Guide has been integrated with the OECD DAC Methodology for Assessment of Procurement Systems (MAPS) benchmark and was developed in collaboration with the OECD DAC Task Force for Procurement.

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Esta sección de la página web de IHOBE (Sociedad pública de Gestión Ambiental del Gobierno Vasco) recoge todos los recursos, documentos politicos, herramientas y servicios que IHOBE ha desarrollado para ayudar a las administraciones públicas a superar las barreras o obstáculos a la compra pública verde.

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From 2007 to 2011 UN procurement from developing countries and transition economies rose by 57%, supporting economic growth and opportunities. To learn more about the what, where and how much of UN procurement you can follow this link. 

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The MAPS methodology from OECD is essential reading for anyone interested in assessing and strengthening public procurement capacities. 

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Great video on UNDP's support to civil service reform in Somaliland

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Procurement in action! Great shots from UNICEF's warehouse complex in Copenhagen. See the whole Flickr set here. 

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Know more - public procurement

If you are looking for information on public procurement and how to strengthen government capability to procure, check out our ‘key resources’ page (link). 

You can find tools and methods for strengthening procurement capacities, legislation, a variety of studies and more.

And here’s an open invitation: if you have materials relevant to procurement or capacity development let us know in the comments below!

The knowledge resources are divided into the following categories: 

Methodologies and Toolkits: 126 documents/links

Laws and Regulations: 115 documents/links

Procurement Instructions and Manuals: 93 documents/links

Assessments and Studies: 288 documents/links

Policy and Strategy Documents: 196 documents/links

Articles and Literature: 298 documents/links

Relevant Websites: 283 documents/links

PCDC Newsletters: 26 documents/links