The project in a nutshell
Buying for Social Impact (BSI) is a project commissioned by the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) and the European Commission Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) to promote the use of social considerations in public procurement procedures. The project has two main objectives:
• To encourage contracting authorities to use public procurement to pursue social goals;
• To Increase the capacity of social economy enterprises to take part in public procurement procedures and to access new markets.
The project covers 15 Member States: Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden.
What we do
We inform authorities and suppliers in these countries about social considerations in purchasing procedures by raising awareness, and by providing training to contracting authorities and suppliers to the public sector. The work of BSI is divided into two strands:
- Knowledge development through desk research on: how the new public procurement directive has been transposed at national level, identification of good practices showcasing how the social aspects of the directive can be implemented in practice, and a mapping of the capacity of social economy enterprises in accessing markets.
- Knowledge sharing and exchange through the organisation of awareness raising and training events in the 15 EU countries.
Who we are
The BSI Team consists of a network of National Public Procurement and Social Economy experts in the above mentioned EU countries. The Team of National Experts is coordinated by a Consortium led by the European Association for Information on Local Development (AEIDL) bringing together European organisations active in the promotion of local development and social economy enterprises: the European Network of Cities and Regions for the Social Economy (REVES), DIESIS COOP, Social Economy Europe (SEE) and the European Network of Social Integration Enterprises (ENSIE).
This event is open to procurers ONLY. If you have any procurers that are interested in attending, please send their information to info@socent.ie
