Innovation Procurement in Croatia

Annex A. Training of Trainers (ToT) programme of innovation procurement and pilot training workshops

This Annex describes the details on the Training of Trainers (ToT) programme and pilot training workshops which were developed and delivered by the OECD in the strong partnership with the international peers from the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ). Developing the capacity-building system on innovation procurement was directly linked with C2.9.R3 Innovative procurement (#263) of the Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRP) of the government of Croatia, and therefore these capability-building components were the key deliverables of the EU-funded TSI project Supporting implementation of innovation procurement in Croatia.

The capacity-building initiatives on innovation procurement consists of the following four activities:

• Training of Trainers (ToT) programme to train future trainers who will provide procurement officials at contracting authorities with trainings on innovation procurement (3.5 days in Zagreb)

• Post ToT online quiz

• Follow-up virtual webinar (3 hours online)

• Pilot training workshops (2 days in Zadar / 2 days in Zagreb)

Figure A A.1. Overview of the capability-building initiatives of innovation procurement

Source: Prepared by the author

The following sections of this Annex describe the details of each initiative. The capacity-building initiatives contributed to improving the capability of public procurement officials in Croatia to carry out innovation procurement. However, it is worth mentioning that they also communicated high commitment of Croatia to promote innovation procurement in Croatia in the future, because trained trainers were selected from the four key actors of innovation procurement in Croatia: MINGO, HAMAG-BICRO, the Central State Office for Central Public Procurement and SAFU.

Training of Trainers (ToT) programme

A 3.5-day ToT programme, directly linked with C2.9.R3 Innovative procurement of RRP (#263 due Q1 of 2024), was organised in Zagreb on 13-16 February 2024 for 15 future trainers from MINGO, HAMAG-BICRO, the Central State Office for Central Public Procurement and SAFU. The programme provided a comprehensive overview of innovation procurement combining theory and practice, together with topics such as contract award criteria and project management. These topics were determined based on the ProcurComp^EU self-assessment survey result. The programme was provided by the OECD in the partnership with the international peers from the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ).

The OECD agreed with the EC and the government of Croatia including MINGO and HAMAG-BICRO on the structure and modules of the training programme on innovation procurement, building upon the self-assessment result of the ProcurComp^EU survey. (See 3.1.1 for more details of the survey) The core module of innovation procurement, which was identified as the weakest competence that requires more capacity-building actions as a result of the ProcurComp^EU survey, provided a comprehensive overview of innovation procurement from planning to contract management which consists of nine steps, by combining theory and practice. In addition to the core module of innovation procurement, the modules of some peripheral topics relevant to innovation procurement were also included in the training programme, namely contract award criteria and project management including risk management and key performance indicators.

Table A A.1. Training modules of the 3.5-day ToT programme

Topics	Duration
Innovation procurement Introduction to innovation procurement and 9 steps to carry out innovation procurement Step 1: Identifying the need Step 2: Business case and project mandate Step 3: Writing the needs description Step 4: market and prior art analysis Step 5: Open market consultation Step 6: Choice of procedure Step 7: Drafting tender documents Step 8: Conducting the procedure Step 9: Contract management	3 days
Contract award criteria	1.5 hour
Project management (including risk management and key performance indicators)	2.5 hours

Source: Prepared by the author

The OECD launched an online feedback survey to the participants of the ToT program to hear about their feedback on the 3.5 -day ToT programme and to identify the key topics to be followed up in the upcoming virtual follow-up webinar. Overall, the ToT programme received very positive feedback:

• All the participants rated the overall quality of the ToT programme as positive (69%: excellent, 23%: very good, and 8%: good, without any participants who selected fair or poor).

• All the participants considered that the ToT programme was beneficial (46%: very beneficial and 54%: beneficial).

• 85% of the participants feel that they are now confident in carrying out innovation procurement, although some of them think that we need more practices.

• 85% of the participants think that they are willing to get involved in innovation procurement (23%: highly likely and 62%: likely in the next one or two years) 15% of the participants that selected not likely wrote that they chose it as carrying out innovation procurement is not their work but that they would like to contribute to promoting innovation procurement.

The feedback survey also asked the difficulty of each module and the topics that requires more focus during the upcoming virtual follow-up webinar. In terms of the difficulty of each module, the choice of procedure and the cases for group work were the two modules that received votes for very difficult. In addition, participants shared their views on the elements to be covered during the upcoming virtual follow-up webinar such as complete evaluation criteria from the example cases and more detailed information on the cases used during the ToT programme. These requests and feedback were reflected in the 3-hour virtual follow-up webinar which took place on May 15, 2024.

Post-ToT online quiz

Although this competent was not required under the EU-funded TSI project Supporting implementation of innovation procurement in Croatia, the OECD decided to design and carry out a post-ToT online quiz in April 2024 after MINGO supported this idea. The online quiz was designed to (i) allow the trainers trained in the ToT programme to review what they have learned during the ToT programme, and (ii) allow the OECD to design the online follow-up session by identifying the topics to be followed up further.

13 trainers completed the online quiz when it was closed on April 29. Overall, the result was quite positive with the average score of 16.1 / 25 points (64% of accuracy rate), considering the fact that some questions were designed to apply knowledge in the practical situation and that the quiz was prepared in English language which might have affected the accurate answer rate.

Virtual follow-up session

The 3-hour virtual follow-up session was organised by the OECD on 15 May 2024 in collaboration with the international peers from the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ). The virtual follow-up session was designed to (i) recap and compliment the elements covered in 3.5-day ToT programme, and (ii) help trainers prepare for the pilot training workshops organised in June 2024.

The 3-hour virtual follow-up session consisted of the following agenda:

• Demonstrating the online quiz result including the explanation of key points for some questions that marked low accuracy rate

• Re-visiting and recapping the most relevant aspects of the 3.5-day ToT programme, focusing on the topics identified relatively weak as a result of the online quiz: choice of procedure as well as the selection / contract award criteria

• Detailed information on the cases used during the ToT programme

• Q&A sessions

Pilot workshops

Pilot training workshops were organised in Zadar on 3-4 June 2024 and in Zagreb on 5-6 June 2024 under the presence of the European Commission, the OECD and the DFØ. The duration of each pilot workshop was 2 days which focused on the core moule of innovation procurement. In total, eight trainers trained in the ToT programme were mobilised as trainers of pilot training workshops to provide public procurement officials at contracting authorities with training on innovation procurement. For each 2-day pilot workshop in Zadar and Zagreb, four trainers, or one trainer from each of four entities that participated in the ToT programme (MINGO, HAMAG-BICRO, Central State Office for Central Public Procurement and SAFU), were mobilised. 12 public procurement officials participated in the 2-day pilot training workshops in Zarar and 13 public procurement officials participated in the 2-day sessions in Zagreb.

Table A A.2. Pilot training workshops in Zadar and Zagreb

City	Schedule	Duration	Number of trainers	Number of trainees
Zadar	3-4 June 2024	2 days	4 trainers (each from MINGO, HAMAG-BICRO, CPB and SAFU)	12 officials
Zagreb	5-6 June 2024	2 days	4 trainers (each from MINGO, HAMAG-BICRO, CPB and SAFU)	13 officials

Source: Created by the author

During the pilot training workshops in Zagreb, a 50-minute peer session was delivered with the collaboration of the Regional Energy Agency North on the case of innovation procurement by Koprivnica (the first innovation procurement in Croatia and the awardee of the 2020 PROCURA+ Awards under the category “Innovation Procurement of the Year”).

Key takeaways

A series of capacity-building activities on innovation procurement (ToT programme, online quiz, follow-up virtual webinar, and pilot training workshops) brought many benefits.

First of all, it contributed to reinforcing the capability of carrying out innovation procurement whose use is still limited in Croatia. The 3.5-day ToT programme provided trainers from the four institutions (MINGO, HAMAG-BICRO, the Central State Office for Central Public Procurement and SAFU) with the opportunity to enhance their understanding on innovation procurement. Then, after the online quiz and the 3-hour virtual follow-up webinar, eight trainers trained in the ToT programme provided in total 25 public procurement officials (12 in Zadar and 13 in Zagreb) with the 2-day training on innovation procurement. The pilot training workshops were beneficial not only for trainers to improve and practice their skills in delivering innovation procurement training but also for 25 public procurement officials to deepen their knowledges and skills on innovation procurement.

Second, it is worth mentioning that these activities showed high commitment from the government of Croatia to promote innovation procurement. Indeed, the ToT programme and the pilot training workshops benefitted from the presence and collaboration from the four key institutions to promote innovation procurement in Croatia: MINGO, HAMAG-BICRO, the Central State Office for Central Public Procurement and SAFU. In particular, this case was unique in that SAFU, as a control body of the ESIF projects, showed their strong collaboration and support to promote innovation procurement.

Lastly, this model of capacity-building initiatives can be replicable not only to Croatia in the future but also in any other countries which aim at increasing the capability of innovation procurement. Indeed, the trainers from MINGO and HAMAG-BICRO are willing to continue this collaboration in providing training on innovation procurement in the future. This will also contribute to helping the government of Croatia accomplish the C2.9.R3 Innovative procurement (#264 due the end of 2025) of the Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRP) of the government of Croatia, which is about providing procurement officials with training on innovation procurement.