Projects

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Mobilising action for Fair Trade Public Procurement

2007 - 2010
The overall objectives of this project are to help progress towards the eradication of poverty in the developing countries and to contribute to sustainable global development. The specific objective is to reach a critical mass of public authorities using public procurement as a tool for sustainable production and consumption by systematically including Fair Trade criteria into their tenders.
The Public Affairs project is a 3-year project, funded by the European Commission (EuropeAid) and is divided into four main activities: Part 1 is about Networking and Governance and the main aim is to set up and animate the European Observatory on public procurement. This includes the creation of a specific web page for the Observatory with relevant information and links regarding fair trade in public procurement in Europe. The focus will also be on monitoring and analysing relevant EU, national, regional and local legislative and not legislative acts on sustainable and Fair Trade public procurement. Part 2 focuses on Benchmarking and Modelling. The main tasks are to conduct national and EU research on Fair Trade public procurement, collect best practices and case studies, and set up a database on Fair Trade public tenders. Finally, national data will by analysed to define a Fair Public Procurement model with benchmarks and tools. Part 3 is mainly on education and training. This involves primarily public authorities and other public bodies on Fair Trade public procurement. In this part material will be developed to sensitise and inform on FPP to the Horeca sector, including catering and vending machines. Part 4 is aimed at communication, awareness raising and dissemination, including activities such as organising producers' tours, writing newsletters, policy papers and other communication tools. The final project event will be hosted at as a side event at an international conference organised by ICLEI.