New Approaches to Institutional Development in Public Procurement:

Enabling Environments for Local Reforms to Succeed.

Peter van de PolKnowledge, Innovation & Capacity Group

UNDP

Presentation Outline

• UNDP & the importance of procurement.• Emerging changes in the institutional

environment affecting procurement.• Institutional development: a process not well

understood.• Procurement Capacity Development revisited.• PCDC.

Procurement at UNDP

• UNDP is committed to the use/strengthening of national procurement systems;

• Procurement is key element in Value for Money debate;

• Importance of Sustainable Procurement;• Procurement capacity is key to direct access to

vertical funds, most notably upcoming Green Climate Fund.

Emerging changes• Character of governance & administration is changing;• Public challenges become too big for public sector to

handle on its own;• Public challenges become increasingly cross-sectoral

(e.g. economic growth, social inclusiveness & environmental issues);

• The lines between public, private and ‘civic’ are blurring;

• Public value increasingly co-created by public, private and civil organisations.

Some Consequences for Public Procurement (PP)

• PP becomes a strategic policy tool (e.g. Sustainable Procurement);

• PP specialists become involved in policy design, implementation, evaluation (e.g. with vertical funds);

• PP teams increasingly have to engage cross-sectoral and cross-societal;

• PP specialists & teams need to balance all this with traditional requirements of risk management, accountability, etc.

Institutional Framework

PP specialists and teams need an enabling environment to adapt to the changing environment, but….• Public frameworks are predicated on a sharp

public-private divide;• Public institutions are bureaucratically framed;• Public institutions are internally focused.

PP Institutional Development (ID) -1

• ID is not just about training (and capacity development is not just training);

• ID is not just about introducing new procedures, business processes or adapting the organogram;

• ID is not about filling a gap;• ID is not about rolling out a meticulously

designed blueprint for change;• ID is not about adopting external ‘good practice’

or academic ideals wholesale.

PP Institutional Development (ID) -2

• While PP is a technical process, PP reform is very much a political process;

• ID works at three (capacity) levels: individual, organisational & the enabling environment;

• ID is about doing things differently, not just looking differently;

• ID, reforms and change are ‘messy’, non-linear processes, they need change management, experimentation, flexibility;

• ‘Context’ determines ID at all levels, and ‘best practice’ should be ‘best fit’.

An Enabling Environment for ‘new’ PP

• Deals explicitly with political issues and vested interests;

• Creates ‘change readiness’: appealing vision, realistic goals and change management capacities;

• Emphasizes inclusive process of homegrown solutions and contextualizing, exploring and adopting (or discarding) external practices;

• Builds collaborative capacities: institutional arrangement & organisational structures that stimulate cross-sectoral & cross-societal collaboration;

• Promotes ‘common-action’ capabilities.

The UN Procurement Capacity Development Centre (PCDC)

• Online portal for procurement capacity development– 1,300+ Knowledge resources– Practitioner’s forum– News on policy developments– User generated calendar– Practical guide to procurement capacity

development

A guide to procurement capacity development - 1

A guide to procurement capacity development - 2

How-to guidance, tips

and tricks, cases

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Contact

• Email:petrus.vandepol@undp.org

• Web: www.unpcdc.org