Inclusive procurement and transparency - Connecting smallholder farmers to school feeding - Procurement governance for home grown school feeding project

Published on March 4, 2022

The paper is based on the findings of a desk examination of data developed by SNV and others for the Procurement Governance for Home Grown School Feeding (PG-HGSF). Public procurement legislation and school feeding procurement guidelines from Mali, Kenya and Ghana were also examined. An extensive review was conducted of worldwide sustainable public procurement policies and practices. Governments, when deploying public funds for the provision of goods, works and services, can and should use this important function to advance social and economic development by ensuring the inclusion of otherwise excluded suppliers. The challenge is how to carry out that commitment while safeguarding the essential principles of public procurement, transparency, open competition, and value for money, among others. So, this paper analyses the tension between the principles of open procurement and the targeting of specific groups such as smallholder farmers, and offers specific recommendations for how procuring entities can implement their work differently but effectively while maintaining transparency and fairness. The authors came to the conclusion that procurement principles of transparency, integrity, and openness need not be compromised when making efforts to be inclusive. They trust this message comes through clearly, with practical examples of how this can be achieved using the existing system and the flexibility it already contains.

Inclusive, or sustainable, procurement has over the years gained broad recognition with specific procedures and tools developed. In the framework of horizontal policies, this approach is accepted in most countries. At the same time, its implementation is far from widespread, especially in developing countries. This paper challenges procuring entities of HGSF programmes at all levels to enter with greater vigour into the inclusive procurement realm, while offering a broad range of opportunities to do so with transparency.The paper draws on the experiences of the procurement process for the governmental school feeding programmes in Ghana, Kenya and Mali, where SNV implements the Procurement Governance for Home Grown School Feeding (PG-HGSF) project. The national Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programmes offer a valuable example of both the challenges and opportunities of inclusive procurement efforts. Governments declare their intention to make their school feeding programmes “Home Grown” by striving to secure the participation of smallholder farmers as suppliers. However, this lofty goal has often proved elusive, given the realities of the smallholder farmer, whose production capacity limitations; lack of knowledge, skills and organisation; and independent style of operations, bordering on isolated in some instances, hinder efforts to promote their fair participation in the process. Throughout the document, several examples have been provided to show that such tension can be mitigated by being transparent and fair in the application of the existing regulations for public procurement. Rather than explicitly targeting vulnerable groups, in this case smallholder farmers, the focus is on administrative adjustments of regulations and their implementation, taking into account the reality of those groups who are traditionally not considered potential suppliers. A good application of those adjustments could, in fact, even improve competition as new bidders are attracted. The result could be more value for money when using public funds for purchases. In much the same way, focussed procurement, an established and transparent practice, enables specific targeting that gives preferences to smallholder farmers and their organisations.