And then on Thursday, and then next Tuesday as well. We have 3 different sessions, all of them held at the same time, and I'll be talking more about scheduling issues.
In just a second. But thank you very much for joining us.
So I'm Chris Yukins. I'm the Lynn David research Professor and government procurement law at George Washington University Law School in the Government Procurement law program.
I just wanna let you know this couple of minister things.
Recording and the materials for this program will be it on the program page of publication, com.
And we're also gonna be putting the recording on the Gw. Law government law program. Youtube page.
That will be later today, for sure, the publication com will have the have the recording. We'll be having QA. During the session, and we also hope to have chat as well. Please feel free to to chime in. If you have questions.
We we're gonna be using this format throughout the 3 sessions. Just want to say upfront that any Speaker statements made are in their personal capacity, because some of the speakers that we have.
Advocates, and we have to make clear that their statements are in their personal capacity.
We have. Excuse me.
We have. Actually, I recounted, we have over 300 folks.
I'm registered from 63 countries around the world. We're very glad that we have such an international audience participating today. This map is up on the program page.
If you're curious, one of the neat things that's happened over the years that we've done these webinars, we start on the pandemic.
As more and more people have been able to join us internationally. It's really helped.
Knit together the the International Procurement community.
So, as I said today is the 1st session, and then on Thursday there'll be another hour-long session where we discussing trade issues with with roadmap, or with Anderson and.
Tom Daley will be discussing in that this session will be discussing some of the nuances.
That green public procurement race in terms of trade as a threshold matter. It looks like green public procurement raises trade barriers, and and Abby will be talking about that a little bit today.
But, in fact, there are some solutions. We'll be talking about that on Thursday and July 25.th
And then next Tuesday week from today, we're gonna be talking about state local issues.
Green procurement is an emerging issue across the United States here, and we'll be talking about how some State and local governments are addressing that State and local governments here in the United States, typically don't have the same resources that Federal agencies have for procurement.
So what you'll be able to see for those of you who are outside the United States.
How smaller governments of the State and local level are still implementing successful green solutions here across the United States. And again, each of these sessions is going to be at the same time. It's at 9 Am. Pacific, from the on our west coast here in the United States.
12 noon eastern, where I am on the east coast.
And 1,800 Central European.
Time.
So today, Abby, from Greenville, procurement is going to be discussing developments in the United Kingdom and the European Union. I'll be giving you a deeper introduction. Just second.
Jolly Molina at the University of Cambridge. She's doing a she's a post doctoral fellow there. She'll discuss international institutions, approaches to green public procurement.
And then I'm gonna be stepping in for yourself. She's from the sapiens network, and she prepared slides, which are included. The slides, by the way, are linked.
At the program. Page and public procurement. Those slides are available. Her slides are available. But I've hidden them here from the presentation because she had. She's called away to Turkey, and I'm going to go ahead and fill in for her with it just a couple of slides of my own, and then we'll have on discussions. I I hope, during the discussion period that we can do that we can discuss audience questions. So please feel free to put.
Questions that you have up in the chat.
So, Abby, something's gonna be our 1st speaker. She's a public procurement consultant with many years of international experience.
She's managed complex tenders on behalf of public sector clients in Ireland or the Uk. She's working on the development of procurement policy in the EU and in Germany, really across Europe and in the United States.
She holds a Ph. D. From the University of London.
A lot of gray from Trinity College, Dublin, and a postgraduate qualification on public procurement from the Institute of Public Administration.
And you're gonna see this in her in her presentation, just on her areas of expertise.
Green and socially responsible procurement, lifecycle costing contract design, any procurement. She's developed criteria, tender documents, guidance and training materials.
On behalf of a number of authorities, local and the international level, including the Irish Environment Protection Agency.
European Commission and the Us. Department of Energy. She writes and speaks frequently on procurement topics throughout Europe and the world. She's a member of the Procurement Lawyers Association and the University Association.
For contemporary European studies. And I think you'll see from discussion as walking through. For example, when I talk about compliance issues and about enforcement issues.
Having practical experience have a parental experience, is vitally important.
As we sort through the legal and systemic.
Solutions for problems that we can see arising in this area.
This is jelly Molina. Dr. Molina is an international legal expert on sustainable procurement, with experience working for international organizations across the UN. The World Bank. Multilin banks.
She's a member of the Philippine Bar. With specialization of law, environmental law and corporate compliance. She holds a Phd. In law institutions from the University of Turin in Italy. She has an Llm. From our program at Gw. She was my student there was, and a wonderful, wonderful person to have.
An executive Mba. From the Asian Institute of Management, or Jd. From the University of, and a degree in Philosophy from the University of the Philippines. Diliman.
She's currently a postdoctoral research at the Use Hall center for climate change engagement with research focusing on private law procurement and climate change. She also serves as I'm sorry.
She also serves as procurement for unobs and international sustainable public procurement experts. World Bank in Bangladesh.
Thank you, and welcome very much to our 2 guests.
And with that I'm going to turn it over to Abby. If it's okay with you, I'll just advance your slides.
Yep, perfect thanks for that, Chris, and thanks very much for the introduction. Great to be here today. And I'm gonna do my best to give you a concise and overview of of the situation. Terms of green public procurement.
In the EU and Uk. So I am based in London, but very much working with European clients, both in Ireland and other parts of Europe.
And also working in the in the Uk with public bodies. Here.
And so next slide, please.
Alright. So just to give a bit of context here. So green public more commonly probably now referred to as sustainable public procurement.
Is not at all a new phenomenon in Europe. So we have going back to sort of the mid to late nineties.
A number of public bodies starting to take this on board.
And I would say in particular, I think this joins with something Chris said in his introduction. It did tend to be led by local government rather than being central Government authorities, who were the 1st to embrace.
Green or sustainable procurement.
And you also sometimes hear the term responsible procurement.
And I suppose the distinction here is that when in Europe we talk about sustainable procurement that tends to include the social aspects. So the supply chain, things like human labor rights, and also things like gender equality for people with disabilities, etc. So that tends to be incorporated when we use the term sustainable procurement or responsible procurement.
Whereas obviously green public procurement tends to focus on the environmental side.
And just for a bit of history there, and the European Commission for a long time really only embraced the environmental side. And so the social side as potentially being more of a threat to to open competition or fair competition for public contracts. That changed about 10 or 12 years ago. Now more or less around the time of the 2014 drift.
Being adopted.
And the European Commission is now fully behind. I would say that the social aspects of public procurement, as well as the environmental aspects.
And next bullet point. Please.
Actually might just advance all the bullet points, Chris, and then I can go through them. Thank you. Sorry.
So.
We have, as I mentioned, developments. So we had notably the 2,014 directives adopted which really cemented the possibility of including environmental and social criteria in tenders.
And that already existed to some extent. Before then, however, there were a number of cases where where it had come under challenge.
And almost and universally in those cases the European court had come back and and and said, No, there is scope for including environmental and social criteria and tenders. And it had done some work to sort of define. How that can take place!
So in 2,014, what we really saw was the codification of some of the case law that that had developed up to that point.
And the general trend, I would say from the you know this this century has been that both in in the legislation and in the case law. We have been seeing.
You know, in in not just tolerance, but I suppose welcoming for the use of environmental and social criteria.
And that has reflected the drive that has come obviously a very, very strongly from from the European Commission and most recent years, in order to address in particular environmental issues through through the way public money is spent.
And it's also it's been. It's been a bottom up process, but also top down process. And we are seeing that really becoming a mainstream phenomenon within the past 10 years or so.
However, and there is another trend to be aware of, and and this was very much highlighted by a report from the European Court of auditors which came out towards the end of last year.
And that is that we do have a problem in many European countries with low levels of competition for public contracts, and in some European countries you have as many as 50% of contracts being awarded with a single bidder.
And and or being awarded by use of direct awards, so where there is no competition held, and keep in mind, these are only contracts which are valued above the European threshold. So these are higher value contracts. And now, if not always the case that you have more competition for higher value contracts. In fact, sometimes it can be the opposite that you actually see a more competitive procurement for your lower value contracts in in some Jersey.
However, nonetheless, there is concern that levels of competition have been declining in many parts of Europe, and also that we see increased use of direct awards. In some cases.
And and I mentioned that just because obviously, for those of you who follow European politics we have just elected reelected lion as as the head of next Commission.
And it's just to give a bit of context to to the fact that, you know we, we may be looking at another reform of the procurement directives. And one of the issues which I think many policymakers would want to address are these low levels of competition.
Now, I'd be interested if we have time in the discussion later for people's views on the interaction between green or sustainable procurement and levels of competition. Do we see, for example, green criteria as being something which encourages more competition? Or is it something that has a negative effect on competition, and these, to my mind, are questions to which we don't really have.
Good solid answers in terms of the research that's out there.
But it is an issue which which is on many policy makers minds, I believe.
And the other trend to be aware of is that we have a very large volume of New EU environmental and social regulation. I'm going to highlight some of that in a moment.
And what that means is that some of the traditional, some of the things we used to focus on quite a lot, and within a green procurement. And so things like supply, chain, transparency, or or certification of suppliers. A lot of that is now actually required. Jen, under general legislation, which applies to industry as a whole.
And so what that means is that you know you can see that, as in some ways a success of green procurement that we've actually driven some of these requirements, and they're now they're now being adopted as as mainstream. General requirements.
And it also potentially opens up the possibility of new areas of focus for green and social procurement. And indeed, the connection between those 2 areas. And so one of the areas I've been doing some work on in Ireland and elsewhere is the whole area, the whole idea of a just transition. So how do we make sure that as we are moving to a green economy, and that we are helping people to rest.
And so that the people who used to install gas boilers, for example, can now install heat pumps. And you know other similar changes in other sectors.
And that is an area where we are seeing some innovation and increasing focus as part of green procurement.
Next bullet point, please.
This one more at this slide.
Yeah, so this is the point about strategic industries. So this and this will actually be highlighted on the next slide as well. So we do have some concerns in Europe, and that as we have embraced things such as renewable energy, and that we have also created an increasing dependency on jurisdictions, and I would say the greatest concern relates to dependency on on China and China's business.
In terms of things like electric vehicle batteries or other technologies that we are depending on in terms of the green transition.
I am.
And when we if we go to the next slide, actually, we can see that highlighted in comments from us. And this is in her her sort of the statement in terms of the political priorities for the next European Commission.
On here. She has said quite plainly that she's going to propose revision of the Public Procurement Directive.
And somewhat surprisingly I would say, for anyone who's familiar with the the history and general direction of of European regulation. She's saying that this will enable preference to be given to European products for certainic sectors.
I'm.
So this is very much giving voice to the concern that as part of the green transition we may be, you know, engaging in. You know, we may have developed a dependency.
I'm on other jurisdictions. And obviously in Europe we want to be, have our own homegrown industries.
And I think this is also a nod to things such as the Inflation Act and the U.S.A. And the way that's been used in some cases to to support your own domestic industry in terms of of developing green technologies.
And she's also mentioning security, which is is obviously a concern in, you know, a challenging geopolitical environment such as we're in at the moment.
And then finally, this I have to say, I think, evokes a bit of a wry smile, and for anyone who's been following European public procurement for some time that she wants to modernize and simplify our public procurement rules. Well, we did attempt to do that the last time round, and I think it was universally acknowledged to be a failure in terms of simplification.
And and the problem that we encountered that time, and which we may well encounter again.
Is that where you try and create more flexibility in your regulation, so that people have more choice and perhaps more freedom in terms of how they award contracts.
Inevitably, you also. Increase. Okay? Because you, by definition, your legislation has to cover. A number of different scenarios.
Okay, so that's an indication of the political direction that set out over the next. That will be in place for the next 5 years or so next slide. Please.
Yeah. And if you want to, maybe just sorry, load all the bullet points on the next slide that'd be great. So this slide just highlights and some of the legislation which has been adopted, and this is really only over the past year or so. So the final year.
Or the final 18 months of the of the current European Commission.
And you can see here. You know, some of this may be familiar to you, but we have a range of really targeting primarily environmental considerations, but also in some cases, social considerations.
And throughout supply chains, and the interesting feature of the legislation highlighted here is that most of it directly refers to the role of public procurement and set specific requirements in the context of public procurement. And so we are seeing a lot of legislation identifying public procurement as being a really important tool.
In order to address the the environmental impact.
Of these various sectors.
And each of these pieces of legislation takes a slightly different approach to that. So I'm hoping that in maybe 5 to 10 years we can. We'll have a really interesting.
You know, source of comparative research in terms of what actually works or what is the impact of different legislative approaches when we're trying to use public procurement.
As a tool, you know, to support a transition within the economy.
And because some of them, you know, set sort of minimum requirements. So in terms of what you have to buy, some of them set more procedural requirements. So saying, things like you must take this into account.
And so so, a variety of different approaches being taken. As you can see across a number of different sectors.
Next slide, please.
Okay, so yeah, just go back for a minute. So I just wanted to, by way of comparison, have a look at the Uk. And does. Everyone knows the Uk is no longer part of the European Union.
And as part of that has started the process of amending some of the legislation which governs areas which we're hitherto governed by legislation derived from European law.
And and procurement is one of those areas. So we've had over the last 3 or 4 years now of a new Uk Procurement Act.
Which was adopted in October of last year, and comes into effect October of this year.
And this, this has been quite an interesting process, because there were a lot of demands in terms of this legislation. So there are a lot of people who said, Well, you look, we want to do things differently. We don't like all this legislation. That's been, you know, that inherited from Europe. And and let's start fresh. Let's do things differently. And and industry and business also put forward their views quite strongly.
And as part of you know, the Brexit campaign, such as red tape, you know this, this dreaded idea of red tape. We're gonna get rid of the red tape. We're gonna tear it off. We're gonna make it, you know, everything.
From my point of view. Again, as with European reform, I wouldn't say that the Uk reflects a radical simplification of procurement law, and one indication of that is that we now have, and 13 different forms of notice, and that that have to be dealt with by contracting authorities. So in some cases, perhaps, an increase in the level of bureaucracy.
However, we can say that that it takes a somewhat different approach.
And if you just go on to the next slide, Chris, I'll just highlight a few areas where changes have been made.
So we do have a reduction in number of procedures. So under the European directives, we actually have, depending on how you classify them either 6 or 7 different procedures that can be used. And whereas now in the Uk we will have just 2 different procedures that we can use.
However, that said the competitive procedure is kind of like a choose your own adventure. Right? So what that means is that the contracting authority whilst it has to abide by certain sort of light touch rules, you know, they they can essentially choose.
How to organize the competition.
And so that does obviously increase ability and and choice.
Doesn't really create simplification from the point of view of bidders, because obviously, it means that you may encounter very different types of of requirement or procedure, and have to get your head around those each time you set out to tender.
And so again, we see this sort of classic trade off between flexibility and simplicity.
I mentioned that the number of notices.
Also some changes which to me really look a bit more cosmetic in nature. And I'm not the only one who would make that observation so changing, for example, from from the most economically advantageous, tender to the most advantageous, tender in terms of of the ward basis.
You know, we may not see that much changing in practice related to that, but it really remains to be seen how the courts will go about interpreting that change.
We do have obviously because the Uk is no longer in the EU. We no longer have references to the treaty principles of things, such as equal treatment, transparency, etc. However, these have essentially been replaced by the procurement objectives, which, again, whilst the language is somewhat different, are very seem to me very similar in substance to what we had under the treaty principles.
I am.
And then we also have this additional layer of the national procurement policy statement.
And this is one where those of you who who follow British politics will know we have a new labor government elected very recently, and so it is possible that they will seek to introduce a new national procurement policy statement in order to outline their priorities in terms of public procurement, because obviously the previous Government had had published its.
And the current version we have in place, I would say, is very minimal in terms of references to to environmental aspects. They sort of get a sort of passing mention, but.
There isn't much, and that really pushes that I would say as part of the national policy statement.
I don't think there's 1 more.
Bullet point on this slide.
Please, Oops, if you want to. Just go back for a moment.
Yes, so sorry. Yeah, the light touch regime. So this is where it gets somewhat interesting, because again, with the Uk being outside of of the EU, and you know it does conceivably have more choice and flexibility. And one of the areas where it has exploited this onto the new legislation is under what's called light touch, regime.
So this relates to services which are not covered by the Uk's commitments under the Wto Government procurement.
And accordingly. And they have. You know, there's there's much less in the way of requirements on contracting authorities. So you know, in terms of the time limits that apply to tenders in terms of things like the rules on modifications to contracts. After award.
We are seeing what I would say is genuinely a lighter touch system for these services. And so that would be an interesting one to watch to see whether that leads to different approaches in terms of green procurement. Again, it would be amazing if we could see whether that leads to more or less competition for these types of services. You know, one of the objectives here is to make it.
Easier for small and medium sized enterprises, as well as voluntary and community to bid for some of these contracts.
And that's an area where you know, many local authorities have focused their efforts in recent years. So I think what we're hopefully going to get.
Is a really interesting source of comparison between you know what's happening in the Uk. What's happening in the EU. Both, you know, in both jurisdictions. We have a lot of examples of of, you know, successful approaches to green procurement as well as social procurement.
And hopefully, you know, this isn't sort of the end of the relationship. We're hopeful of having good relations between the the Uk and the EU, and lots of room for interesting cross fertilization in areas such as green public procurement.
I'm so I think that's it from my side, just to give a bird's eye view, but obviously happy to take any questions after. And the other speakers.
Okay.
Hmm.
And just, and we've been accumulating questions from the chat as you've spoken, Abby, so we have questions for education, but a quick question for you on competitive procedure. So open procedure for the Americans online, open procedure would be our seal bidding roughly analogous to our seal, bidding.
And then competitive, flexible procedure can encompass a lot of different things.
From an American perspective. When we've talked about this over the last decade or so.
Hmm.
Our working assumption has been that something like.
Our competitive negotiations? Or would we call a competitive dialogue or competitive procedure with negotiation under the E directives? That's the best way to go if you're trying to use procurement to leverage.
Sis sustainability across the economy, because.
If you.
Sustainability and award criterion in the technical evaluation. Then, essentially, you're you're leveraging, you're forcing the market.
Hmm.
To present more green goods and services. So competitive dialogue seems to us.
The the best way to go down the road in terms of being able to use the procurement system.
To get to a more sustainable future. Do you think is that the European perspective, as well.
Well.
I. What I would say is that it's it's it's not a 1. Size fits all so. And and this is, you know, absolutely there are areas where the use of what we would call award criteria, and you know, as a way of sort of expressing a preference or rewarding enhanced levels of performance under environmental criteria. That is certainly an area that has been used.
Very effectively in in many contracts, in order to, you know, encourage goods.
It's not the only approach that we see being used. We also see the use of specifications or technical requirements.
And when I'm you know, thinking with clients about, you know, which approach to use, it really comes down to the level of market knowledge that they have going into the process. So if they know the market quite well, and then they might feel comfortable setting. You know, technical specifications, so minimum requirement in relation to environmental performance, because they know that at least, you know, a a fair segment of the market will be able to respond.
To that.
And if they don't have that knowledge.
And then I would generally recommend that they go down the Award criteria reach, because that way they can see where the market is, and they can then allocate the marks.
Accordingly. So it is, I suppose, for courses, as we might say, but yet I mean both both of those approaches in the Uk and and used in the EU for different types of contract. I would say.
Thanks very much. Ab.
So I'm gonna turn it over now to.
Jelly.
Thank you so much, Professor, so good afternoon, and good evening wherever you might be. I saw some colleagues in the chat already from different countries. But 1st I wanted to take this opportunity again to thank Professor Chris Meyman or my supervisor for this opportunity to be part of this discussion. But before I start, you know it's a protocol for me to introduce the college where I am currently.
The are connected, which is the usual college here at the University of Cambridge.
It is actually the oldest graduates here. It was established in 1,885, and we are now accepting postgraduate students and mature state students in all areas of study and research. And actually, that that particular picture that you can, you are seeing on the top is our iconic building, which is called the Margaret William Building. In honor of our 7th principle.
And then the logo below is the center for climate engagement, where I am affiliated as a senior fellow, and it was set up by the college in 2,018 as a bridge initiative. So the college we're producing much of research. But we don't just produce research. We have to make sure that our research were really solved problems such as in the center, we're very focused on climate change.
Anyhow, as mentioned by Professor Chris, what I will be sharing to you.
Under my personal assessment. Nonetheless, these were based on previous works, where I had the privilege to be a part of. Hence I could say that I have personal knowledge and the completion of some of the studies that I will be presenting.
Next slide
Sir Professor Professor Chris. So the topic that was assigned to me is focus on the
International organizations, approach to procurement. But I would like to start 1st by showing this particular figures which are actually taken from the 2022 sustainable public procurement. Global Review of Unap, where I work as one of the researchers and authors of the 4 chapters, including the specific chapter on the current State.
Of sustainable public procurement and emerging trends.
The assessment. And this chapter was basically based on.
Stakeholder survey, covering a total of 322 stakeholders from across the the globe. And there are coming from international organizations, public authorities, companies, nonprofits, consultants who are actually involved in sustainable procurement. And one of the questions that we asked was there recommendations on how international organizations.
Can support sustainable procurement. And the 1st graph that you can see on top.
Actually indicates the the response of our stakeholders indicating that international organization should focus on engaging the market, meaning that encouraging suppliers to make more sustainable products, and this is followed by providing tools to support sustainable procurement implementation.
And of course, encouraging harmonization and decision. We also try to compare the the result of the assessment in sustainable public procurement, global view which is on the the figure below it, and you can see that there has been a shift.
Market. And in fact, we also try to see if this particular expectations from international organizations are the same across different regions. And if you can see on the the bullet, you'll see that it varies from the rejo. Of course, if you are coming from.
North America, and even in European, were of course, sustainable procurement. Procurement is considered as matured in terms of the practice.
Their expectation is really focused on market engagement, and of course, in terms of those development. But if you will go on the the cases of of respondents coming from Asia, Pacific Latin America. The the focus really is on training and capacity building.
So, in fact, as we are talking as of this moment, where I work as consultant for several projects of international raising awareness.
And capacity building for purposes of developing policy framework that would support green next slide
Please.
So in the in the subsequent slide, I will be showing to you the result of the assessment on sustainable procurement in the International intergovernmental organizations. Of course, if you look at the the whole report, there is a particular chapter that is very specific on the role of governmental organization. That is, chapter 7. So unlike the.
The 2 previews Sustainable Public Procurement Review. Where this particular chapter was not included for this version of the 2022, there is a specific chapter on the role of inter national organization in promoting. Sp, so this is what I will be highlighting in the next 3 slides. So if you will look on on this particular.
Figure. You'll see that over the last 2 decades there is a growing commitment to move sustainable public procurement agenda forward, both in the regional and international level. So if you will see that
From the 2013 to 2017 Global Review. This has been already addressed. In fact, if you will look at the case of E, international organization, such as.
Un.
Historically, it. It was one of the international organization that lead Spp in the global starting. Of course, in 2,005, you can see in this video by participating in a global initiative which is known as the Macara stores for sustainable public procurement. And this actually help develop the Sb framework.
And then eventually you end up, develop the Spp
Approach.
Which was Pilot in several countries, and it actually lead to the publication of the 1st Spp guidelines in 2012, and then it was applied to several countries again, and of course we were able to collect lessons and best practices which leads to the publication of the recent. The 21 Spp guidelines.
And if you look in the case of Icd countries, you'll notice here that the 1st initiative from Oecd, in so far as the use of green public procurement was through the Oec. Cd. Recommendations on public procurement, which, of course, provide the recommendation on the use of public procurement.
As a secondary objective, such as for sustainable green growth, and then, of course, immediately after the European Commission, release the Handbook, and then, of course, there are several communications providing practical guidance on the implementation of the Gpp. So this is how international organization have started in so far as promoting.
At the time bring procurement very focused on the the green initiative.
And next slide. Please.
And this particular slide, we check what are the different activities that these are international organizations.
Actually done in supporting the Sbp implementation. So between 2,016 and 21.
There are several initiatives that are very focused on capacity building and policy making support. If you will look at this particular slide, this actually summarizes the different types of these initiatives.
So it actually depends on the prioritization of the intergovernmental organization. So if you look in the case of the European Commission, very focus on supporting the needs of his member countries. So that's why you'll see that a great majority of his support is really focused on practical guidance, criteria, tools, capacity building.
To implement sustainable procurement in their member countries, whereas, if you look in the case of unap the support, 3D. Is.
Global level. So we are we. At that time we were assessing the the support of.
Una, for example.
Is focusing really on monitoring. The purpose is you have to gather data so that you see the gaps of the practices of the different countries, so that intervention will be provided according to the the gaps, and at the same time one of the initial had, which was not actually available because they are already regional organizations.
Are very focused on their member countries is developing regional. So Unp has been very active on developing regional networks so that there will be an opportunity to exchange best practices.
Among the members in a particular region, and in the case, of course, CD, again, the same also very focus on the use of the maps for purposes of assessing member and non member countries. And then, of course, just recently, we know that Icd also.
Establish the supplemental module for Spp assessment, which we also use when we are doing country assessment of the status of sustainable procurement in in different countries.
Next
Slide, please.
And of course, this is something that is really close to my heart, the role of multilateral development. It was the the coverage of of my Ph. D. Thesis.
It's because, prior to my graduate study in in sustainable procurement.
I work as legal procurement, specialist.
At the office of General Consolidation Development Bank. But prior to that I was an environmental lawyer in in my country, in the Philippines.
And at the same time I work as an administrative.
Lawyer. So in that case you'll see.
That when I was working with Adb.
Although I was just checking the the you know the draft of the standard beating documents for ad funding projects.
I was actually checking the environmental impact assessment of the projects.
Seeing like, how do we integrate the result of this.
This environmental impact assessment in the standard reading document.
Not as a contract loss.
Because at that time what we are doing is just, you know, integrate contractes. Make sure that you follow the recommendations of the in Incorporated and the environmental impact.
But at the end of the day, when you look at countries that were in these projects would be implemented, we know that there is.
issues or challenges and contract implementation.
So I was thinking like, How can we
Protect the environment, support the people even before the contract is awarded. At that time it was 2,015. I I didn't even know what sustainable public procurement was, why i i i took this particular program and study. So this is why I am very focused on the role of Mds. Because by experience I know that Ndis can influence their borrowing countries in the implementation of their.
Development projects. And these are the different rules. And these are actually performing develop as a developmental institutions. We know that.
The role is to provide financial assistance. But at the same time, you know, when you provide financial assistance, you have to make sure that this Grant Center standards of the bank.
And then, of course, the bank also is considered as a policy. Makers specifically in providing fundamental institutional and policy forms.
By providing also the same technical assistance and issuer. So these are the basic role of the Mbps. And, in fact, by this particular role, Mbis can actually implement the implementation of sustainable public procurement in their member countries. But of course, we check, we check for purposes on on the figure that was really very focused on assessing.
The policies. Of inter almost a lateral development of sustainable public procurement in their project procurement. And if you will see in this particular slide. You'll notice that, of course. Although this has been updated because the data is as old as.
2021. So some of the banks have already developed sp policies, and of course they also have come up with Sp. Priorities in their procurement regulations. They also have spid guidance and Sp target. For example, on the time that we're doing the assessment, only inter American development has a very bank has a very specific target of making sure that a certain personage.
Of their contract will have
Representative from social criteria so very focused on social criteria. But right now, as we are talking as early as the last quarter of 23 world Bank, for example.
It has this target that all projects funded by the World Bank should use weighted criteria, and of course we from the procurement know that if.
Weighted criteria is something obligatory. There is a possibility of assessing the the evaluation of the the award not just based on the price, but the technical specifications, quality, and other standards that could support green procurement. So this is how.
How Mdps, for example, are leveraging under loads to promote sustainable.
Opening procurement, and the next slide is so we cause I've seen so many questions, so it will be good that we will have more time for discussion, but moving forward, you see. So what can we do more.
There has been that we monitor a lot.
Of what international organizations have been doing specifically when we did this monitoring exercise, when I was working for unap.
But at the end of the day, you know, we realize, enter national organizations are buyer themselves.
You see. So if I just will just look on one particular organization, for example, on moving forward, what do we expect.
International organizations to do more just agencies. So there are 3 issues that I've seen. I've seen in so far as the the practice is concerned. The 1st issue is that.
Initiatives are currently fragmented to the point that there are possibility that, you know there is duplication of efforts.
So, even if it is already UN agency, you realize that sometimes you know.
There are efforts from one UN agency that is being UN agency. In fact.
What we can do is.
You know, increase collaboration, so that there will be more opportunity to make sure that there is no redundancy. I had experience implementing that particular works very well. That was in 2022.
When I was commissioned by the Ifc. To support the country.
And Vietnam, because at the time there is an urgent need to re to check and review the draft of the procurement, because there is an ongoing process to amend, and from their assessment there is.
One theme of provisions.
On green procurement, so I was commissioned to to draft it, but considering that we are given, I.
Think 30 days!
Because the the draft will be forwarded to the National Assembly. So it has to be what a work of different international organizations. So, although I'm the technical Unp supported by providing their literature UN woman, supported by providing all their data, the world supported, providing all data, and of course.
The private sector international community supported. So all of their data were given to me. And then, of course, we deliberated until such time that within the period we were able to support the country and making sure that the basic provisions on green procurement will be stipulated on the draft. That will be
Forwarded to the National Assembly for for deliberation. So you'll see if we. There is a collaboration among international organizations.
Then there is a a better impact to support countries.
Developing countries more particularly, and the second issue that I would like to raise here is, of course, the expectation for them to walk. The talk, you know. I just run this particular checking on the ungm, so ungm is like the Platformer UN agencies are publishing the tenders, and you'll see that there is a specific portion there where you can see all the sustainable penders. So I just run.
What are the procurement opportunities last year from January to December, because I was asked to to to report, and I've noticed that the 1,400. Then there's published. There were only 19.
So only 14%.
So it's like saying, Why is it that there is a very low sustainable tenders from the tender being published by UN agencies in their procurement platform. So the recommendation is that you know UN should be the the champion in promoting sustainable tenders, and then, of course.
Here is also another another issue is that.
There are several UN agencies, although this has been addressed.
Has been addressed. As we are talking the server UN agencies in a particular country.
So, but not all of them are actually leveraging under possibility of.
A framework.
Or, you know, aggregating their demands for purposes of establishing a sustainable tender. So imagine if all of this UN agencies in particular, and even a particular region will consolidate their their needs, and then publish a a joint and collaborative procurement that will support Sppp. Then, of course, it it will better enhance.
The the the buy in of the market, that there is really a high demand for sustainable procurement. So I will stop from here so that we can have more time for discussion.
Thank you very much, Shelley. We'll have a couple of questions. I'm gonna I think we'll go a little bit over. Let's say we'll go about 10 min over the discussion. I just very quickly wanna go through these questions of contract administration.
And because they they create interesting questions regarding and contract administration.
So the starting point for understanding the the problem is the principal agent. This is a 19 era economic theory that we use a lot in public procurement, and it says in essence that the contracting officials.
Act as agents for a principal, and the principal is kind of in. But it's probably in the nation.
The the problem, the key enforcement problem. Here.
Is, that.
The.
Global warming is an externality that not everybody in the nation agrees. In my own country, for example, there are a lot of people who don't believe here that global warming actually exists. They think that the warming of the earth.
Is just part of a cyclical change in Earth's temperature. They don't think greenhouse gases are to be blamed.
They're a minority, but they're an important minority.
So not all contracting officials may take to heart the idea of green the because it solving this problem, this global problems and externality for contracting. Even if they believe in global warming, they may say, Look, my mission is to buy very good gun.
I don't care about what impact they may have on the environment more broadly. They may be very narrowly focused.
So.
How to deal with contract compliance and with contract administration.
Those issues are issues that are more complex in this field. And we have to start thinking about ancillary ancillary solutions. Now, historically, what we've dealt with. When we've dealt with this issue in more traditional corruption issues, we have an optimal outcome which is a contracting official.
Buys the optimal car, which is the environmentally friendly car and doesn't buy the purple car, doesn't deviate from the optimal outcome.
Instead buys that environmentally sound car. And the ways that we can do that is, by monitoring or by sanctioning. We can monitor and sanction the contracting official if she doesn't do what she's supposed to, and we can also monitor and sanction the.
The the vendor itself has a way of making sure that we have this optimal.
To understand how this plays out. We have to understand what are the different ways that we will reach green sustainable procurement.
And these are the 5 basic methods that we've been identifying. We've been talking about in various programs.
Including a a webinar. We had on a joint EU Us. Catalog.
And that joint catalog.
Really demonstrates. And there's that that's a webinar. It's available in public, international.
That EU catalog really demonstrates that these.
5 approaches that Abby and Julie have been talking about are 5 very common approaches internationally.
Using, planning, looking at contractor using eco labels.
Technical valuations, lifecycle costs.
These are 5 very common approaches.
So the question is, how do we deal, then, with the enforcement and the compliance issues of these on these 5 different issues?
And that that question.
Is one that really sh! We have to go back to the fact that the contracting officials and others in the procurement and then procurement process may be indifferent.
To the green procurement. So we have to. We have to think about more holistically. How do we set up systems to make sure that these issues are being addressed. So, for example.
With regards to contractor qualification. If we're going to disqualify contractors that aren't presenting goods and services.
We may have to have a debarment system that is more open, certainly, than when we have in the United States. The exclusion system in Europe is still evolving. Abby talked about the possibility. There might be new directive. Hopefully, that exclusion system gets tightened in the European Union, and importantly.
Creates easier means of exchanging information across borders as a way of excluding contractors that aren't, in fact, presenting goods and services that are that are sustainable.
So we we begin to see that we move to contractor, to, to compliance and to enforcement. If we're going to make green work, we have to think holistically for each of these strategies. We have to think collaterally.
In the on the fraud on the fraud solution, for example, in the United States.
Fraud. You cannot bring a fraud action for something that the contracting officer.
Generally speaking, for the something the contracting officer didn't consider important to payment and performance.
If the contracting officer isn't monitoring green, it's gonna be very hard for a 3rd party whistleblower or the government to bring a fraud action.
So we have to start thinking about.
How do we ensure in these green procurements.
That the door is open to a potential fraud by a 3rd party or by an Enforcement agency.
If, in fact, the green procurement is failing. So what I wanted to lay out here was as a 1st step to start thinking about how these green strategies.
Lead to a broader question of how do we set up the surrounding procurement system? How do we set up the compliance structures, contract administration structures.
To make sure that, in fact.
They are being met.
Okay, with that we have questions and discussions. And so the lead question that and I had promised one of our one of our audience members is, I was gonna put to Abby Abby, the MEAT. Versus MAT. That transition in the Uk.
How is that going to affect green procurement?
Yeah. Okay. So 1st of all, I just want to apologize because I had responded to some of the questions in the chat. But I made that stupid error of not replying to everyone. So sorry. I'm trying to to repost my my replies, but apologies, and that that I didn't do it in a timely way, and regarding the shift from from me to Matt. I'm personally I don't. I wouldn't really see it as as a paradigm shift. I would see it as more of a termination.
The chief shift.
And but it will be interesting to see.
If the courts really attach any significance to it. Now, if you look at the Procurement Act, the Uk Procurement Act, many of the requirements for award criteria are still the same. So you know, in Europe, for example, we have a requirement that award criteria must be linked to the subject matter in the Uk. Now they will have a requirement that award criteria must relate to the subject matter of the contract. So you know our obviously, and I'm sure there are.
Our clever lawyers participating in this, you know, you might be able to argue for a difference between those 2. But to me it's it's it's not going to to represent a major shift.
That said. And there is an interesting point to note, which is that under the Uk there is no longer a requirement that you take costs into account as part of your award criteria, whereas that has always been a requirement on under European law, you can't exclude cost completely from from the evaluation of attenders so potentially, that does does leave room for contracts sort of fixed price type contracts, or where the.
Contracting authority states a particular budget, and they don't then actually have to analyze costs on a competitive basis.
And.
Now, you might, you know, and obviously you could have some interesting arguments about whether that's something we want to be doing with public funds. But so there are some changes there, and but I would be surprised if we see, you know, major reorientation of award criteria as a result of of the adoption of the Uk.
Thanks very much. I mean one of the other questions, and this is for both of you. One of the questions we had was whether or not move to green procurement.
Raises new risks of corruption. What do you 2 think.
On my case, you know. Before embarking in sustainable procurement.
I was very focused on finding corruption and procurement in the Philippines. So it's like from a corruption lawyer to a sustainable public procurement advocate. And I've realized the other way around, because sustainable public procurement requires transparency.
Rick, and it might prevent, you know, the possibility of a flyby contractors that are sometimes, you know, chosen by certain. Not so good politicians, because you have to establish the performance.
All suppliers. You have to establish the performance of contractors.
Hmm.
So for my case, it's the other way around.
That sustainable public procurement. In fact, that's that's what I'm trying to tell myself. You know, it's it's a cute way of saying I'm actually fighting corruption in developing countries by advocating sustainability because it requires transparency. It requires responsibility.
both from the buyer and the supplier.
That's really interesting, Jenny, and I think you know, we've worked, and I suppose different jurisdictions. But I I would really echo what you've said. You know I've worked in countries such as as Ukraine and Central and other central and Eastern European countries, where they have longstanding concern about corruption in in procurement as should we already? You know, it's not limited to anyone jurisdiction. It's it's certainly alive and well in country such as as the Uk, as well as we saw recently.
During during the pandemic. But, you know, I think you know the idea that greencment for corruption there really isn't very much evidence around that, and to the extent that we do have evidence, it tends to point in in the other direction that by making people, or even encouraging people to think more carefully about what it is that they're buying, and also to justify their decisions.
You are actually contributing to transparency and procurement and well motivated and well thought out public spending decisions. And, you know, decision based on lowest price alone is absolutely not a bulwark against corruption, as we've seen time and again, you know, you can award to the lowest bidder, and that contract never gets delivered or gets delivered in a way which is deeply flawed, I think has been pretty.
Before the because of the externality problems, because the procurement system itself may not sufficiently enforce these green procurement goals.
Transparency becomes as jelly's pointed on transparency becomes.
Absolutely essential, because in the 3rd parties can start speaking to the failure in green procurement. But basically jelly, that's what you've done in your studies, that your empirical studies.
Has proven the need for that kind of outside transparency.
I remember the the struggle we had when you were a student, and we're trying to figure out how you would access.
United Nations Solicitations, because it's so important for you to be able to study one of those things aren't transparent to assess.
Okay? The. So we're just a quick note on terms of the before we go on. The the last set of questions is what? Abby raised the question regarding the Inflation Reduction Act.
Have you? What.
The the irony is the Inflation Act in Europe has been very controversial, and has been reviled.
But in fact, the real evil is in the build. America. The Biden administration put a very strong domestic preference.
In infrastructure, about 80 billion dollars infrastructure.
Appropriation, mechanism.
Bottom line is that under the build America buy American Act. Even if European providers, for example, have access to an American.
Federal.
Federal American Project is funded with Federal dollars.
They will not be able to enjoy the Gpa. The Gpa. And we'll talk about this on Thursday.
They still have to seek a waiver through the Federal government. So it's actually Baba, that's Crane. The huge procurement problems not necessarily inflation act, the inflation. Actually, it's just been the focus of.
Of political anger, and Europe.
Okay, just I. I have a question for you, Abby, in terms of you, were talking about.
The holistic approach where you deal with.
Social issues with issues of economic sustainability and environmental sustainability. All as a packaging, you pointed out quite appropriately that the the term that's more commonly used is environmental sustainability.
The.
Package of all 3 in the States at the Federal level. The the tendency has been to break them off from each other, to focus on environmental sustainability separately. One of the reasons Carrie is joining us is because on next week from Portland is Carrie Waters is the head of the green procurement initiative in Portland and Portland is an exception. Portland deals with them holistically across all 3.
That's 1 of the reasons we wanted to have her join us.
But Abby in the in Europe, and the European experience.
Is there a political risk.
To having all 3 together, where? So that those who oppose.
These efforts can shoot at whatever is the weakest target, because they're a bundle.
Should should put it differently? Should developing nations be dealing with them as separate issues? Or should they be dealing with them as a bundle. What do you think.
Yeah, I mean, that's that's a really interesting question. I guess I can't. From the political perspective, you know. I think I think you're probably right if we, if we address them as a package, there is the possibility that the next government or administration that comes in sees things differently and says, no, we can't have any of that stuff, you know, and and it all gets cancelled. I I would say that. You know they, they do sometimes merit slightly different approaches.
But that doesn't mean that you couldn't address them in the same policy or the same legislation. It simply means that.
And you know, when you look carefully at what you're trying to do with social procurement. And again, social procurement encompasses many things. You know it encompasses supply chain considerations, but also encompasses. You know, the outcome of public contracts. And you know the impacts that they're having on communities, for example. And in the Uk we talk about a lot about things such as community benefits. For example, whereas I know in in other jurisdictions, it's more about okay, well, who is actually providing.
That contract. And how do we ensure that we're getting a representation, you know, from different groups. So.
Again depending what the specific objective is, the approach is probably going to vary in terms of making it politically. And you know, bulletproof, I'm not sure we can, but I think, you know, it's it's really about showing the that the results of this and showing that you know this is.
This is a legitimate way to spend public funds and to demonstrate that you know we we are having an impact. And you know the the way governments used to think about it. If you go back, you know, in the Us. As far back as the new deal, you know, public works. Contracts were seen as making work for people. And okay, so you're actually taking people off the unemployment register by employing them on a public works contract. So the concept is new.
Might not have universal public support. But when you look at how we spend public funds, there's often quite a clear argument to be made for it.
Julie, did you have any comments?
Am I in? In? In? In my experience, of course. What what I have been focusing on is really supporting developing.
Countries with respect to initiative on green.
And and one thing I've I've I've I've noticed is that.
Compared to the cases mentioned by Abby.
In in countries like, for example, Bangladesh. And recently I work in Angola.
You know.
They did this discussion on an issue. Sustainable public procurement.
Is is that they think they didn't know what it is.
But when you go there I was. I was in Bangladesh just 3 weeks ago.
I had stakeholder engagement with several government agencies.
They share me their practices. In fact, I was telling them, you know.
Your practices are even more advanced.
Then European countries, because you already have mandatory criteria in your technical specifications.
But he didn't know. He didn't know that in your technical specifications.
That is mandatory criteria.
So in all your government projects you have procurement, but they didn't know it.
They didn't know. So I think the the idea is really.
There is an important you know, support that we have to give to countries that are thinking they are not doing sustainable procurement. They're not doing procurement.
They just.
Talking to them.
Learning from the water experience and telling them, you know you're not as underdevelop as European countries.
But and you can do it. You just have to to make them understand that your little baby steps are, in fact, already big steps, and we need to to support them. So different approach in Angola. I did a diagnostic assessment.
And in in that case, you know, there was a question in the chat saying that.
Why is that Gpp is not mentioned on environmental Protection law.
Well, there was a case many years ago. But right now, if you look at environmental protection law, particularly in climate change.
Procurement is being mentioned there.
So what was happening many years ago is is not the case as of this moment, but the the idea is that we really have to make sure that the discussion is continuing, and then we have to make sure that our reach.
Would be as as high as those countries. That they think that they are very low in terms of, and their confidence levels very low, but, in fact, when you go there they're immune.
As in the case of of some countries, where I had an opportunity also to evaluate.
I think you so. I think you both answered my last question, but let me walk it, walk through with you. So in the us. We have a we'll talk about this more on Thursday, but we have. We have a proposed rule that's pending that's been stalled from the Biden Administration.
That would, in a in a nutshell say that.
Major contractors can be disqualified if they don't chronicle their greenhouse gas emissions.
And the idea is that you force them in order to be responsible or qualified, they have to have. They have to have the greenhouse gas data.
And they the the concern with that has been that in essence, like a blind man shooting into a crowd, because you don't really know which vendors might fail ahead of time. So you don't know what impact that can have on your supply chain.
That stalled largely because of the Conservative Congress, supposed.
Until next administration. Whatever happens on the November elections.
The the other approach that has that has become a final rule is what I would call an ecolabel approach, where the where agencies are encouraged to the maximum extent. Practical.
To actually consider Ecolabels and build them into the into the technical.
Technical standards.
And so that approach the Ecolabel, approach.
Is moving forward, and the other approach which is based on contractification is really stalled.
I think what I'm hearing you say, based on your practical experience.
The Us. Is replicating an international experience.
That internationally, we're seeing.
Eco labels used successfully in nations at all stages of development.
But a more radical approach, like a disqualification approach is less common. Is, that is, that a fair generalization.
Yeah, I mean, i i i would tend to agree with that. I think it's
Yeah, phone off statement. Sorry. I was just answering another question there in the chat.
In in the countries where I've I've evaluated. This qualification is the list of the approach. Most probably the reason is that.
The no, the the platform, the dynamics on how to disqualify it's not as matured as other countries.
And then the second is, of course, the limitation of market players.
So I think you know as much as they would like to disqualify.
The, the.
Sometimes it becomes, a personal action of the procuring official. Not necessarily the entity.
And of course you're working in a community where suppliers.
I more or less.
You, you are within the same community, you see them in the market. So in that case.
That is the list.
That. That is, that's why, because of the particular dynamics in the environment, we're really looking on the approach.
Of. You know the qualification criteria.
Should be strengthened.
Rather than it's like more on the the current approach rather than the stick, because we know that it may not work on a certain level. Specifically, if you're working on small island, you know. i i i was in. I was assessing I was working with Guyan and some projects with with it, working in small island.
You know everyone.
Suppliers. So how would you? How would you do that? In in that case.
Morning.
I think we'll we'll wrap up there and thank you both for a very interesting program. As I said, the video recording will be available later today in public procurement.
Thanks again. Always nice to see you both. Take care.
But.
Thank you.
Okay, thanks. Everyone. Bye.