Advancing the SDGs through your procurement
Procurement plays a pivotal role in driving the essential reform required by our sector, advancing our progress towards key international policy objectives, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Action required following the latest SDG Progress Report
Since their inception in 2015, the SDGs have served as a comprehensive blueprint for international cooperation and collaboration. Comprising of 17 diverse global objectives, the SDGs have made considerable strides in inspiring governments, organisations and individuals to work collectively toward a more sustainable and equitable future for all.
Nevertheless, despite their success in functioning as a unifying framework, in numerous cases we are unfortunately no closer to addressing many of the crucial objectives set by the SDGs. As a result, the latest SDG Progress Report (2023) stresses the need for immediate and transformative measures to tackle this lack of progress and steer the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development back on track.
When considering our necessary course of action, this report also highlights the importance of promoting localisation, leveraging new technologies and strengthening multi-stakeholder collaboration to attaining more sustainable and equitable outcomes. This message corresponds seamlessly with the approach and mission of Solvoz.
The pivotal role of procurement in advancing the SDGs
Spending on procurement constitutes the largest component of any organisation’s budget in our sector. It is the funds allocated to procuring goods, such as NFI kits (e.g., Basic Hygiene Kits) to vehicles and incubators, as well as any required services (e.g., waste management), which collectively form the most substantial share of any NGO’s budget. Given this significance, how organisations manage their procurement provides our sector with a range of opportunities to cut costs, maximise efficiency and ultimately invest in the sustainable and prosperous future outlined by the SDGs.
Here are a few examples that illustrate how procurement is key to expediating our progress towards these objectives:
Aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
What if we set a goal to consistently procure with a gender and inclusivity lens? In our sector, we invest in projects and programmes to enhance women’s entrepreneurship, training and business development. However, by incorporating a gender and inclusivity perspective into our procurement practices—which constitute a significantly larger portion of our budget than project budgets alone—we can use procurement as an instrument to foster a fairer market for inclusive companies.
Promote inclusive, innovative and sustainable growth and industrialisation, with decent work for all
Similarly to SDG5, through our procurement and supply chain practices, we should embed human rights considerations – akin to our existing policies on preventing child labour – into our supplier validation and qualification processes, commonly referred to as due diligence.
Calling for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Fundamentally, advancing climate action through our procurement begins with us acknowledging the significant environmental consequences of what we purchase. These goods and services not only contribute to waste but also have other potentially far-reaching impacts. This is why we need to consider the sustainability of the products and services we acquire from the very outset.
For example, in refusing to purchase toxic products and opting for repairable goods, we can proactively contribute to reducing waste and promoting a circular economy. To learn more about this, click here.
How Solvoz supports the advancement of the SDGs through your supply chains
Developed by and for our sector, Solvoz is an e-procurement platform (Saas), sourcing tool and open-access knowledge base. It has been specifically designed to facilitate direct change in how organisations working in Low- and Middle- Income Countries (LMICs) procure goods and services.
Solvoz’s vision is to promote a more equitable, greener global marketplace and empower local suppliers and economies. We also develop and disseminate knowledge on key sustainability criteria for both goods and services, and support organisations to embed this information into their supplier qualification and validation.
Here are just a few examples of how Solvoz is enabling our supply chains to contribute to and advance our progress towards the SDGs:
SDG 1: No Poverty & SDG 2: No Hunger
By assisting a wide range of organisations to enhance the efficiency of their procurement, Solvoz facilitates the expansion of their budgetary capacity, thereby increasing the availability of resources within our sector. These savings enable organisations to expand their reach and redirect finite funds to where they are most needed.
SDG 5: Gender Equality
Solvoz is one of the initiators of the GRP Alliance (the Gender Responsive Procurement Alliance), supporting our sector to procure and invest with a gender lens. In addition to this, Solvoz assists organisations to support gender equality by accessing women-led or gender-balanced companies by embedding these requirements into their RfQs, tender or market assessments via their supplier qualification. In doing so, our approach fosters a more inclusive and equitable economic landscape at the local level and beyond.
SDG 8 & SDG 9
Solvoz supports organisations to connect with fair trade certified suppliers enabling investment in companies that are committed to ensuring fair wages and safe working conditions for their employees.
Our platform also offers suppliers of all sizes and locations new opportunities to increase their geographical footprint and access new markets. This contributes to a more level playing field, particularly for local (regional and national) suppliers, thereby promoting the strengthening of local economies and employment opportunities. To learn more about this, click here.
SDG 13: Climate action
Solvoz assists organisations to directly integrate relevant sustainability criteria and emissions requirements into their procurement requests. This works to fundamentally reduce the climate impact of the goods and services procured in our sector in the first place.
Furthermore, as part of numerous partnerships and initiatives, Solvoz has played a significant role in advancing the knowledge base on key sustainability principles and how social, economic and environmental considerations can be proactively embedded into procurement processes. This includes the application of a whole life cycle perspective to the purchasing of solar products. To learn more about this, click here.
Ultimately by increasing the effectiveness of our procurement practices, we can collectively bridge the humanitarian funding gap and work towards fulfilling our core missions of eradicating poverty and hunger for everyone, everywhere.