Progressive Procurement as a post-Covid19 Recovery Strategy

Rokhsana Fiaz (Labour Party, Mayor of Newham), Costas Lapavitsas (SOAS, EReNSEP-Ekona), Neil McInroy (CLES), Lluís Torrens (Barcelona City Council), Mercè Corretja (Government of Catalunya)

An interactive webinar organised by the Department of Economics at SOAS, University of London, in partnership with EReNSEP, Ekona and CLES. It provides a platform for knowledge exchange among local authorities in Britain and Spain regarding policies and instruments for economic and social recovery post-Covid19.

Coronavirus has shaken the world to its core and the discussion around Europe’s Exit Strategy has placed special emphasis on a sustainable and social future. On 15 April the Presidents of the Commission and the Council presented, as a first step, a Joint European Roadmap towards lifting Covid-19 containment measures including the European Green Deal as the EU’s recovery strategy.

Following this roadmap, on 27 May the European Commission proposed a major recovery plan that includes creating a more circular economy, bringing back local jobs, rolling out renewable energy, contributing to cleaner transport and logistics, strengthening the Just Transition Fund, adapting to the digital age, ensuring fair minimum wages and stepping up the fight against tax evasion.

The workshop will bring together policy makers, academics, and procurement professionals from both countries to discuss the role of local governments in promoting social cohesion, wealth building, and economic justice. Fresh ideas drawing on radical environmental, social and governance values are necessary as established neoliberal practices have proven inadequate.

Both the UK and Spain face enormous challenges ahead and their responses at local level could act as guide for much of Europe. In this light, the workshop will focus on public procurement, the most powerful policy instrument available to local and regional governments to support sustainable investment and local job creation.

Webinar structure:
1st Session – 45 minutes
General discussion on the social and economic consequences of the Covid-19 crisis and the different recovery strategies proposed by governments and the European institutions. More specifically, the session will address how, in this context, local governments can play a leading role in the recovery through a new approach to public procurement that can spur a new model of local development:

1) Rokhsana Fiaz: Labour Party politician serving as Mayor of Newham
2) Costas Lapavitsas from SOAS/EReNSEP-Ekona,
3) Neil McInroy from CLES,
4) Lluís Torrens (Director for Social Innovation of the City Council of Barcelona) and Mercè Corretja (Director General of Public Procurement, Government of Catalunya).

2nd Session – 1:15 hours
30’ - Introduction to policy innovations and proposals by a representative from Ekona, a representative from CLES, with guest speaker Jordi Ayala, executive director of Economy of the Barcelona City Council.

45’ - These interventions will be followed by a discussion, in which the attendants will be allocated in smaller groups in order to allow for a dynamic knowledge exchange among experts, policy makers and academics.

The subject to address in the discussion will be: what are the concrete steps that local governments must take to ensure a responsible deployment of public resources through public procurement in the context of the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis. Which strategies?
Which policy areas? Which tools and mechanisms?

Please join the webinar on Blackboard Collaborate .

Organiser: SOAS, CLES, Erensep, Ekona

Contact email: economics@soas.ac.uk