12.7.1 Implemented sustainable public procurement policies and action plans

12.7.1 Implemented sustainable public procurement policies and action plans

12.7.1 Number of countries implementing sustainable public procurement policies and action plans

12.7 Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities

Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

The indicator measures the number of countries implementing sustainable public procurement (SPP) through the implementation of policies and action plans, assessing the degree of implementation through an index. To produce the index, countries self-assess the following main elements:

- Legal and regulatory framework for public procurement
- Practical support provided for the implementation of the PPS
- PPS priority products1 and relevant sustainable procurement criteria
- Existence of a PPS monitoring system
- Measurement of the actual outcome of the PPS

Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP): Sustainable Public Procurement is the process by which public organizations meet their needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a life-cycle basis in terms of generating benefits not only for the organization, but also for society and the economy, while significantly reducing negative environmental impacts through the adoption of action plans, the application of best value for money, life-cycle costing and best price-quality criteria.

The index aims to measure not only sustainable public procurement (SPP) but also green public procurement and socially responsible public procurement. However, these can be addressed in very different ways depending on the country. They can appear as a component of comprehensive policies such as sustainable development strategies, green economy roadmaps, etc. They can also be addressed directly by adopting a SPP action plan or policy, or through regulatory means, such as specific provisions in public procurement regulations.

The main problems during the development of this indicator are:

- Data on the proportion of sustainable public procurement is not available because there is no consensus on which products are green or sustainable and because the data are very often not classified by volume and value of purchased products.
- Another limitation relates to the existence of multiple layers and components of public procurement: central government, provinces in federal states, municipal level, public enterprises, hospitals, defense, etc. Procurement data from these different sectors are very often not aggregated.
- Furthermore, contracts below a certain threshold are not monitored.

As a result, it was decided to focus on process sub-indicators that would measure the resources and efforts that countries invest in implementing their PPA plans, policies and programs.

In order to assess the “number of countries implementing sustainable public procurement policies and action plans”, a certain threshold is foreseen above which a country will be considered to have a sound sustainable public procurement (SPP) policy or action plan, which is set to determine whether this country will be considered compliant with the indicator in the final calculation of SDG indicator 12.7.1.

This assessment is based on an assessment of the national government's level of implementation of the SPP, its scope and comprehensiveness, through the assessment of 6 specific parameters
(Existence of a PPS action plan/policy and/or PPS regulatory requirements; policy and/or SPP regulatory requirements at national, local or both levels; public procurement regulatory framework leading to sustainable public procurement; practical support provided to public procurement practitioners in SPP implementation; SPP purchasing criteria/purchasing standards/requirements, existence of a SPP monitoring system; percentage of sustainable procurement of priority products/services), which will lead to the calculation of a score for the implementation of the government's SPP.

The scoring ranges from 0 to 1, with a specific threshold above which a country is considered to have a sound SPP policy or action plan, considered aligned with SDG 12.7.1. indicator with a score of 1.

Score

Republic of Serbia

Public Procurement Office

Every two years

C120701

https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadata-12-07-01.pdf