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In July, 2006, the Co-Chairs of the Joint Venture approved for field testing the version 4 of the Benchmarking and Assessment Methodology for Public procurement Systems by means of pilot exercises at the country level. All adherents of the Paris Declaration were invited to submit an Expression of Interest; the final selection depended on interested development partners in each country confirming beforehand they would finance participation at the orientation workshop and development and implementation of the resulting procurement capacity development programs. 22 pilot countries were selected: 6 in Francophone Africa, 7 in Anglophone Africa, one in Latin America and 8 in Asia.
The pilot exercises have the following objectives:
a) To improve the common methodology by means of the experiences and lessons learned through its application under different country conditions.
b) To increase our common understanding about measuring performance – what have we learned the pilot exercise about the criteria, availability and reliability of data and information? What have we learned about methods of collecting and verifying information from stakeholder groups like civil society and the private sector?
c) To increase our understanding of practical lessons and good practices regarding ways to involve civil society and the private sector in planning the assessment process and in validating the results.
d) To learn about ways to strengthen local ownership and leadership in procurement reforms and in improving donor coordination.
e) To identify and strengthen links with financial management reforms in the pilot countries, such as via PEFA assessments and its “strengthened approach”.
The local UNDP offices in Nairobi, Yaoundé and Jakarta agreed to organise the logistics of the workshops. The intent of these workshops is to bring together pilot country participants and representatives of their supporting development partner agencies in order to prepare them to plan and implement the actual pilot exercise. This is done through a combination of plenary presentations and sub-group discussions on the methodology on the methodology, the common, generic approach to the Pilot Exercise and suggested common tools. Ongoing learning from each other’s experiences (good and bad) as the exercise progresses is a key component of the workshop methodology.
Anglophone Africa: Nairobi, Kenya - 1-2 February
Asia: Jakarta, Indonesia - 5-6 February
Francophone Africa: Yaoundé, Cameroon - 21-23 March
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