Opening doors and opening markets: Empowering small businesses

Imagine a bustling local market where every vendor, regardless of size, has a fair shot at selling their goods to eager buyers. Now, envision this inclusivity on a grand scale, where small businesses are not just participants but key players in the world’s largest marketplace: the US$13 trillion global public procurement market.

This vision can become a reality through the transformative power of open contracting, which leverages digital and data-first solutions to drive economic growth by leveling the playing field for small businesses.

Since 2022, OCP has partnered with Mastercard Strive to address the access to finance gap that particularly limits micro- and small businesses from confidently competing for and delivering government contracts. As part of this partnership, we launched CREDERE, an open-source solution that allows small businesses in Colombia to easily access financial products to comply with public contracts and be more competitive. Recently, CREDERE was rolled out nationally, and we expect to reach more than 50,000 small businesses in Colombia by early next year.

In this brief, we take a closer look at the evidence of the impact of open contracting on small businesses and identify recommendations and best practices to encourage more small businesses to participate in public procurement.