Procurement: An overview

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A part of the OECD's work towards meeting the Busan commitments on effective institutions centres around supporting good procurement practices.

Procurement is:

identifying needs
determining who can best supply what is needed
ensuring that what is needed is delivered to the right place, at the right time, for the best price, in a fair and open manner

Millennium Development Goal 2: Universal primary education

To enable children everywhere to complete primary education, we need: quality buildings, roads, teachers and text books.

To achieve this goal, donor and partner governments have to commit and deliver funds. Reliable procurement processes are the bridge between commitment and delivery: ensuring that funds are transformed into the quality buildings, roads, teachers and textbooks that are needed.

Reliable procurement systems are central to public service delivery

As part of its work to support the commitments on effective institutions, The OECD-DAC Task Force on Procurement endorsed the Cuzco Declaration in 2011 which contributed to the related commitments in Busan on Effective institutions. The Cuzco Declaration recognises that:

Good governance is a key driver of economic growth and development,
Efficient and effective public procurement is a fundamental component of good governance and is intrinsically connected and dependent on effective functioning of other parts of the broader public sector framework,
Political commitment is essential to sustainable procurement reform
One of the critical elements of success for procurement reforms is country ownership and leadership in their design and implementation.

Tools to help strengthen procurement systems

The OECD-DAC has developed tools to help countries identify weaknesses in their procurement systems and create action plans to address these weaknesses using capacity development strategies. Partner countries are encouraged to make use of these tools and donors and development partners should support this work in order to increase their use of these procurement systems. Access the procurement assessment methodology received from partner countries.

Methodology for the Assessment of Procurement Systems MAPS (pdf, 446.2 kB), December 2009, which include only the BLIs and was developed as a tool for participants in the 2011 Monitoring Survey

Methodology for the Benchmarking and Assessment of Public Procurement Systems (pdf. 517.5 kB), July 2006, which include both the baseline Indicators (BLIs) and the Compliance and Performance Indicators (CPIs).

Additional resources: Links and documents

Compendium of Country Examples and Lessons Learned from Applying the Methodology for Assessment of National Procurement Systems - Volume 1 (pdf 1.69Mb)

This paper presents the experiences and the lessons learned by 22 partner countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia related to the application of the Methodology for the Assessment of National procurement Systems of the OECD/DAC Joint Venture on Procurement.

Also available in: Français (pdf, 2.0 MB) l Español (1.7 MB)

Capacity Development Guidelines for Public Procurement

This new generation capacity development guide includes all five steps of the Capacity Development process including capacity development plans and measuring. It has been developed by the PCDC team based on fieldwork in countries including Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh and Benin.

These guidelines have also been integrated with the OECD DAC Methodology for Assessment of Procurement Systems (MAPS) benchmark.

Methodology for the Assessment of National Procurement Systems - Special site (Special site)

22 pilot countries have been participating in this Pilot Exercise since early 2007; the countries agreed to submit and share with others their reports on applying the assessment methodology and in using the results of the assessment.

Also available in français español

Reliable Procurement - It Adds Up (pdf 1.33Mb)

Answers to questions about the importance of procurement in development.

Arusha Statement (pdf, 563 kB)

To support the implementation of the Paris Declaration principles by building reliable public procurement systems.

Also available in Spanish

Other Procurement resources

Related Documents

Strengthening and Using Country Systems

Effective Institutions

Public Financial Management: An overview

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