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Sharing the best ideas on procurement

October 8, 2014

By Prabhat Garg , Practice Lead, Senior Director, Procurement

Almost 40 procurement professionals from 15 partner countries came to MCC last month with one goal in mind: ensure the goods and services we buy in the field deliver the biggest bang for the buck.

Attendees at MCC’s third Procurement College focused on creating a networking and learning environment so participants from around the world could share their experiences and lessons.

One of the group’s mantras is that procurement—the contracts and grants that turn plans into concrete programs—is a driver of development. MCC was built on best practices that emphasize the importance of how development is delivered effectively, and procurement is no exception. This year’s college was held at a time when MCC is also marking our 10th anniversary. We reflected on lessons from a decade of significant accomplishments, during which MCC disbursed more than $6 billion and currently has more than $1 billion under active contracts

The conference allowed us to explore ideas that are relatively new in the field of public procurement, including inviting contractors to provide feedback on donor procurement practices and using social media to strengthen collaboration. We also hosted an event for American businesses, during which more than 70 private sector representatives learned about upcoming business opportunities and networked with potential clients from MCC partner countries.

The discussions over five days focused on, among other topics, sharing lessons from recently closed compacts, improving MCC guidelines and procedures for compact implementation and assessing trends in procurement from industry experts and academia. All this provided an opportunity for us to learn from each other.

In their feedback, participants expressed appreciation for the helpful insights that reinforced the importance of procurements in implementing MCC’s compacts within our five-year timeline.

As one of the participants summarized, “We developed more efficient use of the currently available tools, identified the need for new tools for further improving our efficiency and also learned how procurement is becoming a strategic function in any organization.”