On December 3 and 4, 2014, the conference “The Future of Socially Responsible Public Procurement” was held in Warsaw, organized by the Cooperation Fund Foundation together with its partners: the Public Procurement Office, the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and the Institute of Public Affairs. Over the course of two days, representatives of local and central government, social economy experts, social clause trainers, institutions required to apply the Public Procurement Law, as well as partners and implementers of the “Integrated Social Economy Support System” project debated the future of social clauses in public procurement.
The conference, titled “The Future of Socially Responsible Social Procurement,” consisted of two parts:
A panel discussion with experts and decision-makers. Three topics were discussed in an open debate format: the coherence and correlation of legal acts in the context of the future of the socially responsible public procurement market, as derived from the National Public Procurement Programme (KPRES) and the Regional Social Economy Development Programmes (needs and recommendations), and social aspects in public procurement.
A summary of the project’s results – a nationwide campaign to disseminate information, in the form of seminars addressed to local government units, on the feasibility of using social clauses in public procurement, and a presentation of good examples of the use of social clauses by contracting authorities and contractors (a panel of practitioners).
During the panel discussions, participants considered identifying disadvantaged groups, whether social clauses in public procurement are and can be an effective instrument for regional economic development, what important issues should be included in other laws to ensure that the use of social clauses benefits local communities and beneficiaries, and what social criteria should be used as criteria for bid evaluation. They sought answers to questions about how to effectively use social clauses and how to overcome barriers and concerns among local governments about their use. The need for active participation and willingness on the part of local government authorities at various levels was emphasized, as was the need for educational and dissemination activities.
In the section devoted to summarizing the project’s results, the nationwide educational and dissemination activities conducted by the Cooperation Fund Foundation to promote the use of social clauses in public procurement were discussed. The conference concluded with a panel of practitioners, presenting successful examples of the use of social clauses in Poland. Over 100 people attended the conference.
The conference was co-financed by the European Union under the European Social Fund – as part of the project “Integrated system of support for the social economy”.
