On July 21st 2015 the executive directors of the World Bank approved a new policy framework which governs the procurement activities of projects financed by the World Bank. This is the first major reform of the Bank’s procurement policy in over 50 years and is said to represent a major shift from how the Bank used to operate. World Bank clients spend several trillion dollars annually on procuring goods or services on behalf of public authorities, of which the Bank finances less than 1%. Despite this, it has a large amount of influence on its clients’ public procurement policies, particularly in the poorest countries. The Bank’s procurement policy “impacts a portfolio of about USD 42billion in over 1,800 projects in 172 countries.” For these reasons, the framework the Bank imposes is incredibly important in determining how procurement systems are designed and operate in their client countries.

Written by Jeroen Kwakkenbos, European Network on Debt and Development