Sometimes during a change process, certain things may not be too clear until we start thinking hard about putting those changes into practice or practically experience it during implementation. Recently I came across a very interesting quote on knowledge versus understanding many of you might have read this before: "Understanding is deeper than knowledge. There are many people who know you but very few who understand you." Needless to say that knowledge is important but understanding is most important, as without understanding implementation becomes difficult.

In many new projects, especially in soft sectors and in cases of emergency situations and small states, almost 100% of procurement is expected to be done by approaching the national market thus qualifying to use the country's own procedures and in the case of national open competitive procurement, subject to certain minimum requirements (see Section V of the Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers). We have a wealth of information on national procurement procedures from several analytical work including from procurement capacity and risk assessments in many projects – Therefore, we have the knowledge and understanding of how national procedures work. In addition, as we know, under the New Procurement Framework (NPF) we could accept sustainable procurement requirements: country's policies on economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

This gives us an opportunity to incorporate certain preferences in procurement that promote the country's policies on social and economic sustainability (see Annex VII of the Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers) – such as job creation, SME growth etc. This in turn will give us an opportunity to show our internal and external clients the adaptability of the NPF and more importantly help us to strengthen the relationship between the Bank and our client countries.

 
Given the above, nothing stops us from being proactive and prepared with a specific note on how all of the key requirements are being (or will be) met by the implementing agency. So, wear your creative hats and start working on this with the teams for all the identified Project Concept Notes in Q1 and Q2, even if 100% procurement is not expected to be done by approaching the national market. Obviously, this note will be one of the inputs for Project Procurement Strategy for Development (PPSD).

This will help us identify early success initiatives and success stories of using the New Procurement Framework – remember that we don't have to work on complex projects to share our success initiatives. In other words, the starting point need not be about complex new subjects like competitive dialogue, value engineering etc.

For additional information, please contact V.S. Krishnakumar, Practice Manager, Solutions and Innovations in Procurement, Governance Global Practice, World Bank