Sustainable Consumption and Production Dialogue Series Ep.1: Ecolabels and Sustainable Public Procurement Monitoring Systems, including. SPP Index

Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) is a powerful tool to reduce the environmental impact of government purchasing, and can support wider social and economic policy goals. But monitoring just how powerful SPP actually is remains rare in practice.  In many countries data simply doesn’t exist on how much SPP is being done, and what impact this is having. 

Improving the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of SPP is an important step in increasing the effectiveness of SPP policies. Policy makers need to track progress and identify opportunities to maximise benefits of the SPP system. For this they need data measuring the institutionalisation of SPP (i.e. the extent to which it is embedded in organisational policy and practice), the implementation of SPP (e.g. the amount of investment using SPP criteria), and outcomes of SPP (e.g. GHG savings or reduced lifecycle costs).

Challenges exist to designing an effective M&E System: high levels of cooperation are needed to support information flow between ministries; clear and simple steps are required to collect data from procurers; and defined sustainability standards and calculation methods are needed to support the estimation of environmental outcomes. Nevertheless, some countries have already established M&E Systems for SPP from which valuable lessons have be learned. These have been documented in a new publication from GIZ and the Öko-Institut on M&E of SPP (link). In addition, a methodology for measuring country contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator 12.7.1 on the “Number of countries implementing SPP policies and action plans” has now been established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the first SPP Index results were published in January 2021 (link). The existence of an M&E System is a core parameter measured by the SPP Index, along with other key indicators of SPP policy implementation.

This webinar is part of the SCP Dialogue Series brings together policy-makers and experts to discuss practical methods for measuring SPP success. This will include an overview of the SPP Index and early insights into the scores of target countries Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, before zooming into the core components of an effective M&E System, including real case studies from forerunner countries.