The Dutch intergovernmental working group on public procurement is preparing the ground for its forthcoming national Sustainable Public Procurement Strategy. To develop a national strategy that enables a more strategic use of public procurement on the ground and yields positive outcomes, it is important to consider the perspective of various stakeholders. 

In the context of DG GROW’s Procurement Dialogue Initiative, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, in collaboration with the Project Team from ICLEI Europe and PwC, organised a workshop on the Strategic use of Public Procurement. The workshop, which gathered around 35 stakeholders from across Ministries, Contracting Authorities, competence centres, and universities, among others, took place in Utrecht on April 9th 2024. 

The Procurement Dialogue Initiative aims to develop a dialogue on the use of strategic public procurement (green, social and innovation) in all 27 EU Member States. The main objectives of the project are to understand the current state of strategic use of public procurement within each of 27 Member States and identify existing barriers and potential solutions, cooperate with local key stakeholders to prepare a roadmap towards the development of strategic public procurement and develop communication paths between the European Commission and Member States regarding strategic procurement.

This workshop was an opportunity for Dutch policymakers to get an overview of how the Netherlands is performing on different aspects of public procurement, namely green, circular, social and innovation. It also helped to gather insights on the challenges that public procurement practitioners face. Participants were divided into four breakout sessions to discuss the legal and policy, technical, economic, and organisational challenges they faced. Using a collective intelligence approach, stakeholders identified possible solutions to address these challenges, as well as actions that will be taken to further implement the use of strategic public procurement. 

The workshop participants were highly engaged, demonstrating the importance of this policy lever. The insights from the discussions will feed into the development of a roadmap and of the next national public procurement strategy of the Netherlands.