From 28 to 30 October 2019, municipal practitioners from Sub-Sahara Africa, Latin America and Europe met at the MUPASS Dialogue Forum the second year in a row.

The event took place at the premises of the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) and pursued two main goals: First, the participants presented and discussed up-to-date topics of sustainable and strategic public procurement. Besides instruments and framework conditions (e.g. e-procurement and public support structures), we posed the question how a strategic use of public procurement may serve further policy goals, e.g. cost-efficiency or local employment. A transformative transfer of latest academic knowledge underpinned the debate. Second, practitioners had the possibility for intensive exchange on initiatives in the field as well as existing drivers and barriers. This exchange shall also create a basis for future networking. To have a concrete place for this networking, the MUPASS project team is currently working to establish a virtual dialogue platform.

Last year’s dialogue fora impressively demonstrated the need and the benefits of an international exchange on strategic and sustainable public procurement. With this year’s event, our project partner, the Service Agency Communities in One World, and we would like to intensify and stabilize this exchange.