Advancing the SDGs through your procurement
Procurement serves as a key driver of the transformative change required in our sector. This includes advancing our progress towards key international policy objectives such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
A Call for Renewed Action
Since their inception in 2015, the SDGs have provided a comprehensive blueprint for international cooperation and collaboration. However, despite their success as a unifying framework, progress towards many of the 17 critical global objectives remains worryingly inadequate.
The 2023 SDG Progress Report highlights the urgent need for immediate and transformative action to address this lack of progress and steer the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development back on track.
In its call for renewed action, the report re-emphasises the importance of localisation, innovative technologies, and the strengthening of multi-stakeholder partnerships to advancing sustainable and equitable outcomes—principles that perfectly align with Solvoz’s mission and approach.
The Pivotal Role of Procurement
With procurement accounting for the largest share of organisational budgets in our sector, its strategic management presents critical opportunities to cut costs, increase efficiency, and invest in the sustainable and prosperous future outlined by the SDGs. Here are some examples showcasing the pivotal role of procurement in advancing these objectives:
Achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls
In our sector, we invest in projects and programmes that support women’s entrepreneurship, training, and business development. However, by integrating a gender and inclusivity lens into our procurement practices— which represent a much larger portion of our budget than individual project investments—we can leverage procurement as a tool to create a more equitable market for inclusive businesses.
Promoting inclusive, innovative and sustainable growth
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.
Taking urgent action to combat climate change
Advancing climate action through procurement starts with recognising the significant environmental impacts of our purchasing decisions. The goods and services we procure 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. To learn more about this, click here.
How Solvoz supports the advancement of the SDGs through your supply chains
SDG 1: No Poverty & SDG 2: No Hunger
By assisting organisations to improve the efficiency of their procurement, Solvoz enhances their budgetary capacity. This increases the availability of resources within our sector, enabling organisations to expand their reach and redirect limited 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), which supports our sector to procure and invest with a gender lens. Solvoz also assists organisations to connect with women-led or gender-balanced companies by embedding gender equality requirements into their supplier qualification. Through this approach, we promote 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 ensures a fairer competitive environment for local suppliers, contributing to the growth of local economies and expanding job opportunities.
SDG 13: Climate Action
Solvoz helps organisations to directly integrate sustainability criteria into their procurement requests thereby reducing the environmental impact of the solutions procured in our sector. Solvoz has also played a key role in advancing knowledge on core sustainability principles and how social, economic, and environmental considerations can be proactively integrated into procurement processes. To learn more about this, click here.