Senegal : SUSTAINABLE PUBLIC PROCUREMENT The World Bank distils the concept in Africa.

The World Bank, in association with Senegal’s Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (ARCOP), has organized a week of training in sustainable public procurement in Dakar for senior public procurement officials from French-speaking countries in West and Central Africa.

They are senior public procurement officials from Mali, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo and Senegal. They were brought together in Dakar for a week, from 22 to 26 April 2024, by the World Bank to receive training in the principles of sustainable public procurement. The idea is to help these public procurement specialists gain an in-depth understanding of the key concepts of sustainable development and their application in the context of public procurement. The aim is to equip them with the skills they need to identify, integrate and evaluate relevant environmental, social and economic criteria in procurement procedures. In this way, they will be able to implement sustainable purchasing practices throughout the purchasing cycle, from the definition of needs to the execution of the contract.

During the sessions, workshop participants were guided through each stage of the public procurement cycle, introduced to tools such as planning and prioritization techniques, and life-cycle impact mapping. The sessions were designed to show how sustainable procurement principles can be used to develop effective specifications and requirements, support supplier selection and tender evaluation, and improve contract management and performance indicators.

At the opening ceremony on 23 April, Saër Niang, Managing Director of Arcop Sénégal, said that “sustainable public procurement is now a strategic concept aimed at integrating economic, social and environmental considerations into the life cycle of public contracts”. He added that sustainable public procurement offers enormous advantages and is in line with the sustainable development goals, which aim to “put an end to extreme poverty and stimulate prosperity on a liveable planet”, and welcomed the fact that Senegal’s Public Procurement Code has enshrined sustainable public procurement, which is based on three pillars: economic, social and environmental.

For Pierre Xavier Bonneau, the World Bank’s Director of Operations in Senegal, this training is more than just an apprenticeship; it is about preparing to “bring positive change to our organizations and our communities. “Sustainable public procurement is at the heart of environmental, social and economic progress. Over the next few days, we’ll be talking about the importance of sustainable procurement, the practical steps you can take and the tools you can use to make it a reality.