Public Procurement for Sustainable Development

Public procurement is a tool with enormous potential power. 1/6 of global GDP ($13 trillion per year) is spent by governments on goods services, works and utilities. If this spending were targeted strategically to support social and environmental progress, public procurement could make a much more significant contribution to sustainable development that it does at present.

With reference to case studies from Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Ecuador, Colombia, and Vietnam, Chatham House’s new paper proposes a more ambitious and inclusive definition of sustainable procurement which actively promotes ethics, justice, human rights, diversity, health, wellbeing, environmental stewardship and other social goods, which should be enshrined in law, in line with a State’s development priorities.