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Powering an inclusive recovery through open contracting

Insights from 100+ Lift applications

Public procurement can be a powerful lever for governments to achieve better results. From increasing citizens’ access to life-saving medicines such as in Chile and Ukraine, to expanding opportunities for businesses, procurement reform has been an essential tool during this challenging time. And as the world responded to the COVID-19 crisis, civil society organizations and citizens have held public leaders accountable as they signed billions of dollars in emergency contracts.

We want to help our partners take their ideas even further. We know that open contracting reforms can help our partners not just respond but rebuild better. That’s why we asked teams how they will use open-by-design approaches to public procurement to support an inclusive and effective recovery in this year’s call for applications to our impact accelerator program, Lift

We are blown away by our community’s vision for a better world after the pandemic. When viewed together, the 100+ applications from over 45 countries tell us loud and clear that they see procurement as a tool to deliver better, fair, public services and achieve social change. And better even: that they have a plan. This vision is global: approximately 40 percent of applications came from Africa, 23 percent from Europe and Central Asia, 22 percent from Latin America, 9 percent from the United States and Puerto Rico, and 5 percent from Asia-Pacific. 

Our team was very impressed with the high quality of applications, and felt like this year’s applications were even stronger than those we received in 2019. We are excited to work with all teams, whether through Lift or our other services, to help them achieve their goals and our shared aim of responsive and inclusive government.

The applications also give us insights on the field of open contracting and our community, and made us think about we could be doing better to support our partners: 

We are inspired by this incredible response from our community. We are eager to help build on this energy and support your efforts to achieve an inclusive and effective recovery. That’s why we will be in touch with all teams no matter if you’ve been chosen or not for Lift and explore what we can do to move your forward. We’ll provide feedback and connections to resources and we’ll have a new round of community calls that will cover the key topics. And in June, we will announce the five teams selected to participate in the new cohort – stay tuned! 

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