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The project “Transferring experience with GPP in Slovakia to Ukraine” comes to an end: the organizers and the project participants have met to share the final results and achievements during the final conference held on September 25. The representatives of the key stakeholders who made this project so momentous and valuable, were the main figures of the conference. We talk about representatives of the Government Office for European and Euro-atlantic Integration, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, “PROZORRO” SE and the Kyiv Regional State Administration. The results of the project itself were presented by both teams – NGOs GoLOCAL (Ukraine) and Slovak center for communications and development (Slovakia) – who have started the joint implementation of the GPP project about two years ago. And of course, we send our special gratitude to the Slovak donor – the Slovak Agency for International Development…

The first group of civil servants, who completed the educational online course on Green Public Procurement, have successfully completed the practical training. The training session that became a final exam for the “students” was held at the State Enterprise “ProZorro”. GPP experts had built this workshop specifically to help servants in practicing new knowledge and skills that they have got from the online course. All the participants were taking part in a tender procedure that was simulated specifically for that training day. The task was to establish an optimal set of qualitative, quantitative and environmental criteria for technical specifications of cleaning detergents, applying the standards and principles that were learned during the theoretical part of the GPP course. Working in small groups, students had the opportunity to use consultations and help from technologists, lawyers, and experts who were also invited to participate in the workshop. The GPP experts have developed…

A number of European countries have used the Green Public Procurement principle for many years to strengthen a sustainable economy and build a new, economical and efficient “circular” economy. We have prepared for you some examples of countries that have begun applying GPP and now benefit greatly every year. Both in financial and environmental meaning. Netherlands experience  Piloting circular procurement In 2013, the Dutch Government established the Circular Procurement Green Deal to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. This programme brought together 45 public and private parties and tasked each of them with carrying out two circular procurement initiatives in order to increase experience, share insights, and create a pool of good practice. Over three years, 80 circular procurement pilots were conducted and their lessons shared. The success of this programme resulted in the Dutch Government placing special emphasis on circular procurement and the consideration of life-cycle costs in its 2016…

As the world population increases and economies rely progressively more on outside resources to meet their demand for energy, water, and food among others, communities are under enormous pressure to find these resources and accommodate waste and emissions. Within the current linear production and consumption economic model, only a small share of waste produced is reused, recycled or traded as secondary materials. The vast majority, including valuable and scarce materials, goes to landfill or is incinerated. In light of finite resource flows, economies will no longer be able to rely on these linear production and consumption models. A circular economy is an alternative to this model. It aims to keep products and materials in the value chain for a longer period and to recover raw materials after the lifetime of products for their next use. Green public procurement (CPP) is defined by the EU as “a process whereby public authorities…

40 civil servants from 11 territorial governmental offices of Kyiv region have started the online training on the Green Public Procurement (GPP) basics. The educational Ukrainian-Slovak project was developed to teach civil servants, responsible for tender procedures, on how to use principles and benefits of “ecological procurement”. The training course is available on the online platform http://chamilo.sccd-sk.org/. “This is an affordable and very meaningful training program designed to raise awareness among public servants about the green procurement principle” said Igor Comendo, Director of NGO GoLOCAL. The course consists of 3 lecture modules, each one designed for 1 week of online training. At the end of each module the course attendant is offered to complete the test to examine the knowledge gained during the week. The course’s content: Module 1 – Green Procurement Policy, Principles and Methods. The module covers the following topics: Concepts: “Public Procurement”, “product life cycle”; Definition of…

One more step on the path of environmental improvement in Ukraine was made on April 13. Experts and practitioners have gathered together to discuss the current situation with public procurement, as well as approaches to improve this mechanism in both public and private sectors.   This meeting was initiated by NGO GoLOCAL, which in 2017 together with its Slovak colleagues launched the project “Transferring Experience with Green Public Procurement in Slovakia to Ukraine”.   Representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the State Enterprise “ProZorro”, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the Government Office for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, the National Agency of Ukraine for Civil Service, the Bila Tserkva City Council and the NGO GoLOCAL participated in the meeting, as well as representatives of other government bodies, interested in implementing the GPP approach.   During the discussion it became…

Ukrainian experts will meet in April to discuss an online program for the implementation of green public procurement philosophy in state institutions. The participants of the meeting are the experts involved in the public procurement area in Ukraine: representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine as well as representatives of the State-Owned Enterprise “ProZorro”. Also, the meeting will be attended by civil servants of the Kiev Regional State Administration and Bila Tserkva City Council, as far as Kiev region became a pilot region in the implementation of the project. Just to remind you: the project “Green Public Procurement: Transferring Experience with GPP from Slovakia to Ukraine” has been started in 2017 by GoLOCAL, Slovak Center for Communication and Development and SlovakAid. This educational Ukrainian-Slovak project provides, first of all, the training of civil servants responsible for tenders managing. One of the biggest aims of the project…

The ProZorro Public Procurement System supports the idea of ​​distributing Green Public Procurement Tools in Ukraine, and in particular launching an on-line course for professionals involved in the conduct of tenders. Namely this is the goal of a joint Ukrainian-Slovak project from GoLOCAL and the Slovak Center for Communication and Development “Green Public Procurement: Transfer of Experience from Slovakia to Ukraine”. Recently, during a visit of Slovaks to Kiev, an extremely important and productive meeting with ProZorro Public Procurement System specialists took place. During this meeting, Slovakian experts presented the benefits of LFAs, as well as briefed Ukrainian colleagues on the experience of Slovakia in green or environmental procurement. Since ProZorro will be the platform for the majority of such tenders, the support of the State Procurement System team is an extremely important part of the project implementation. It was agreed that this educational online course could also be found…

Keeping a healthy environmental background is one of the key requirements and principles of the European Union. Transparent Green Procurement is one of the important components of the EU environmental program.   GPP is actually a tendering process in which government institutions prefer goods or services with a minimal impact on the environment. That is environmentally harmless, or economical. “Slovakia is one of the first countries of Central Europe to adopt the relevant regulations and has been successfully continuing this practice for more than 10 years. Cooperation with Slovakia on this issue is the best option for us. We seem to have a past, a similar mentality and problems, especially in the area of ​​the environment. Knowledge of our Slovak colleagues is very useful to us, probably even more than the experience of other European countries, where the path to green public procurement is very different from ours”, – says…

Public procurement should be not only transparent, but the public procurement authorities should also take care of environment. This is required by the European Union and finally, it is beneficial for all. Non-governmental activists from Ukraine following this philosophy have approached Slovak experts with a request to assist in the implementation and application of the legislation related to this issue in Ukraine. At the same time, they expect that the Slovak experience will help them to avoid eventual mistakes. “Environmental public procurement contributes to sustainable development. Unfortunately, in Ukraine, it is not a known issue. Environmental problems do not really concern people. After the explosion in Chernobyl the public was for few years interested in the environment, but today they are not anymore. It seems that only catastrophes induce people to think about such themes. But we want to change this and to raise more awareness on this important issue”,…

Green Public Procurement: Transfer of Experience from Slovakia to Ukraine. Within the framework of the project, Slovak and Ukrainian Green Procurement Experts will conduct training seminars for the employees of the municipality of Bila Tserkva in February-May 2018 as well as specialists of central state institutions responsible for procurement. In addition, the project will launch an on-line course for all workers who want to learn about the GPP mechanism and use it in future work. At a joint meeting of the delegation of experts from Slovakia, representatives of GoLOCAL and officials of the Bila Tserkva Municipality, discussions were held on preparations for launching an educational course. The meeting was held at the Bila Tserkva Strategic Development Agency, which actively supports positive reforms in the region.

Keeping a healthy environmental background is one of the key requirements and principles of the European Union. Transparent Green Procurement is one of the important components of the EU environmental program. If you describe the GPP in two words, then this is a tendering process, in which state bodies prefer goods or services with a minimal impact on the environment. That is environmentally harmless, or economical. For example, purchasing paper from a second-level, or energy-efficient light bulbs, even detergents with a minimum content of harmful substances. According to the monitoring carried out by GoLOCAL, more than half of Kyiv oblast officials in charge of tender processes do not have a clear understanding of what is a GPP and what is its benefit to the state. And, accordingly, they do not use the principles of eco-conscientiousness in their work. This is despite the fact that Kyiv Region is one of the…