In September, public buyers and social economy actors from Finland gathered in Helsinki to receive a training on socially responsible public procurement (SRPP) in the context of the WeBuySocialEU project. The training, led by ICLEI Europe in collaboration with local social economy organisation Silta-Valmennusyhdistys, helped to give participants a better understanding of how SRPP can be applied in practice to contribute to social policy goals.

One of the challenges of SRPP is reaching social economy actors and enabling an environment that fosters their participation in tenders. The training addressed this by highlighting how market dialogues can facilitate collaboration between contracting authorities and social economy actors, how the social economy sector can benefit from participating in tenders, and how public buyers can design tendering procedures that are attractive for social economy entities.

Public buyers and social economy entities (SEE) also got the opportunity to participate in deep-dive sessions specifically aimed at their needs and challenges. Public buyers learned how to include social components in selection and awards criteria, and in technical specifications. They furthermore got a better understanding of the different types of contractual social clauses and how they can be monitored during the implementation phase of the contract.

Social economy actors familiarised themselves with the concept of socially responsible public procurement and the relevant legislation that enables their participation. Furthermore they learned how to build consortia with other SEE’s to have a better chance of winning contracts, and developed skills to improve their cooperation with public buyers and their involvement in social tenders.

The day ended with a playful game where the participants put their learnings into practice by designing a market dialogue for three different types of procurement: procurement with an employment clause, procurement with a code of conduct and procurement that reserves a contract for a social enterprise.

ICLEI will organise a similar training on 18 November in Valletta (Malta) for Maltese stakeholder, and on 5 December in Graz for their Austrian counterparts. To register for the Maltese training, click here. To register for the Austrian training, click here.

More information about the WeBuySocialEU project and its objectives can be found here.