KEINO’s regional activities drew attention at an international meeting

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In September, KEINO met with representatives of the Swedish, German and Austrian competence centres for innovative procurement and representatives of the ministries responsible for innovation policy. KEINO chaired the meeting. 

At the meeting, the countries came acquainted with each other's national innovation policy goals, programs and procurement instruments. The Finnish representatives presented the recently published National Procurement Strategy and the Action Plan on Innovative Public Procurement.  Other countries that participated in the meeting were particularly interested in Finland’s advanced regional activities concerning public procurement: KEINO change agents, who act as the local contact point for the competence centre promoting sustainable and innovative procurement in the provinces and the regionally widespread development program for procurement management, KEINO-academy. Finland’s public procurement green-deal agreements also evoked interest. Green deals are voluntary agreements between procuring entities and the state to promote sustainability of procurement. 

Austria is a pioneer in measuring innovative procurement

Representatives from Finland, Sweden, Germany and Austria also shared their experiences on a mutual challenge: monitoring and measuring effectiveness. All four countries have found it challenging. 

At the meeting, representatives from Austria also spoke about how they have developed methods for measuring and identifying innovative procurement. For example, the local Statistics Centre has carried out pilot surveys on the subject.

Read the English report on the innovative procurement monitoring system in Austria 

According to the participants, the first meeting of the four competence centres was useful and will continue on a regular basis. 

An international seminar for procuring entities in 2021 

Next spring the countries plan to arrange a seminar on innovation procurement for international procuring entities. Participants will have an opportunity to share their experiences and hear peer experiences from other participants. More details of the seminar will be announced later.