The European Commission and ICLEI Europe have teamed up to develop two animated videos aimed at the promotion of Socially Responsible Public Procurement (SRPP). The two videos, produced within the context of the WeBuySocialEU project, are aimed at respectively public procurers and social economy organisations.
The videos seek to give public authorities and the social economy a better understanding of how they can work together to advance social policy goals through the use of public procurement. Social Economy Enterprises provide services and trainings for marginalised groups, create meaningful job opportunities, and champion gender equality, ethical finance, circular practices, fair trade, social innovation and access to healthcare and social housing.
Social economy organisations are value-driven rather than profit-driven and usually work on a smaller scale than major corporations, enabling them to have a good understanding of and with local communities. As such, they can be of great support to public authorities who want to create impact at a local level.
In turn, public buyers also have great potential to support the work of social economy organisations. Public procurement accounts for 14% of the EU’s GDP and when public buyers look beyond just price and quality to consider how goods, works and services are produced, sourced and delivered, they can make tenders attractive for the social economy. They can do so for example by adding social clauses to tenders or reserving contracts for social enterprises.
More information about the WeBuySocialEU project can be found here.