Governments across the UNECE region spend significant public resources every year purchasing goods, services and infrastructure. Across the world, public procurement represents between 13 and 20% of GDP. Used strategically, public procurement can create demand for innovative solutions, open markets for new technologies and approaches, and help governments tackle pressing economic, social and environmental challenges.
Experiences across the UNECE region demonstrate how this potential can be put into practice. In Flanders in Belgium, a digital platform is helping connect homeowners with renovation companies, while an innovation partnership is exploring AI-based solutions for public auditing. In Sweden, the municipalities of Hammarö and Karlstad used public procurement to develop a single-access citizen services portal and a digital guide supporting people with cognitive difficulties, respectively. Both Swedish solutions are now available on the market. In Austria, the national Competence Centre for Innovation Procurement helps public authorities turn identified needs into innovative solutions through multidisciplinary workshops, tailored advice and dedicated funding for pilot procurements. The municipality of Pasching for example, modernized waste collection through an innovative procurement project introducing smart bins and digital monitoring, enabling more efficient services, transparent billing and reduced administrative burdens for residents and local authorities.
Yet turning public procurement into a driver of innovation remains challenging. Even where legislation allows for innovative approaches and policy ambitions are high, public organizations may lack the capabilities, incentives, processes and institutional arrangements needed to put them into practice.
A new UNECE self-assessment diagnostic tool aims to help governments bridge this gap.
Presented and tested at the recent 18th session of the UNECE Team of Specialists on Innovation and Competitiveness Policies, the pilot tool is designed to help project managers, contracting authorities and policymakers assess how effectively their organizations use procurement to support innovation, identify strengths and gaps, and determine where institutional change may be needed.
Rather than simply producing a score, the diagnostic will prompt institutional learning and action. By helping public authorities examine the conditions that shape innovation-enhancing procurement, such as capabilities, incentives, internal processes and behaviors, it can reveal barriers that may otherwise remain hidden, while providing a practical starting point for reform.
UNECE experts and practitioners, drawing on experiences from Austria, Belgium, Sweden and the OECD, examined whether the draft diagnostic tool captures the factors that influence innovation outcomes in practice. Participants applied selected dimensions of the tool to their own national or institutional contexts, identifying strengths, gaps and areas where the diagnostic could be improved.
The feedback gathered will feed into the work of the UNECE drafting team developing a Code of Practice on Innovation-enhancing Procurement. It will also help further refine the tool, with a view to making it a practical instrument for institutional learning, capacity-building and procurement reform across different national contexts.
Innovation-enhancing procurement was also at the heart of the SDG 9 roundtable at the UNECE Regional Forum on Sustainable Development in April 2026, where member States showcased how the principles of the Transformative Innovation Charter are being put into practice to advance sustainable development. The outcomes of the discussion were subsequently transmitted to the High-level Political Forum in New York, contributing to the global review of progress of agenda 2030.
Innovation-enhancing procurement was one of three mutually reinforcing policy areas explored during the Team’s policy dialogue, alongside innovation ecosystem development and place-based innovation. Together, these approaches seek to help governments strengthen the connections, capabilities and incentives needed to translate innovation potential into sustainable and inclusive development outcomes.
Photo credit: Milan/stock.adobe.com
