News & Press Releases - Fair procurement for the public sector © Greyson Joralemon - unsplash.com 25 April 2020 Good advice: City of Mannheim strengthens fair procurement The City of Mannheim sets itself ambitious goals: With its mission statement 2030, it wants to focus on fair procurement. FEMNET accompanied the Mannheim city administration in 2018 and 2019 to launch this project. Inspiration from other cities Bonn and Cologne were inspirations: In recent years, both cities have made coordinated efforts to integrate social criteria into their procurement processes. Mannheim saw the opportunity to benefit from the expertise gained here was also advised by FEMNET. Initially, projects were discussed extensively with the representatives of the Procurement Commission and the Occupational Safety Committee. Subsequently, municipal procurers received training on how social criteria can be incorporated into the planned framework contract. For example, the planned call for tenders for protective and workwear for several offices in 2020 will hopefully be made as fair as possible. Fair clothing must also be worn. In order to place the plans on a stable position, it is particularly important to take with you those in need. This is because: Workwear is for many places of work. Municipal employees wear workwear every day and rely on high-visibility vests, safety shoes and cut-resistant jackets. Of course, these clothes have to sit! Against this background, FEMNET organized a user workshop with the Mannheim city administration in autumn 2018. Here, not only fair service and protective clothing was demonstrated and tested – but also talked about the need for broad acceptance of fair procurement. Fair procurement for the 2030 Agenda FEMNET also acted as a key word generator for the Mannheim 2030 mission statement: Urban purchasing is one of the pillars of sustainable development in line with the 2030 Agenda. In autumn 2019, FEMNET was present at the Urban Thinkers Campus, which discussed the implementation of this project. Impulse lectures and an implementation workshop gave insight into how a fair award can succeed.
