These guidelines aim to give direction to governments on designing and implementing sustainable public procurement (SPP) policies and action plans. The guidelines and the associated UNEP’s SPP Approach are hereon referred to as the “SPP Approach”. The aim is to provide countries a common vision, language and framework for SPP and to guide stakeholders on how to effectively pave the way towards SPP implementation.
The SPP Approach was developed within the framework of the Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Public Procurement. The SPP Approach has been tested in seven countries, which benefitted from the assistance of UNEP: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Lebanon, Mauritius, Tunisia, and Uruguay. Implementing the SPP Approach in these countries provided an opportunity to collect lessons, establish best practices and improve the methodology for the design and implementation of national SPP policies and action plans.
The SPP Approach is aimed at guiding policy makers and practitioners in designing and implementing a sustainable public procurement policies and actions. The Guidelines are primarily written for government agencies who wish to take a common step-wise approach to SPP. They are designed both for countries just beginning to consider SPP, and for those who already have an SPP plan in operation and who would like to improve it. The Guidelines are also designed to be flexible to adapt to specific country circumstances and existing practices.