Page 101 - Procurement guidelines for smart sustainable cities - A U4SSC deliverable

Figure 32: Māori women learning about procurement at the He Waka Eke Noa organization, South
Auckland

The challenges

One of the main challenges around prioritising indigenous groups is to do it fairly and transparently.
How, for example, do you define a Māori or Pasifika business? And how can you stop businesses
falsely claiming indigenous ownership just to win a government contract?

To deal with these questions the New Zealand Government has looked to its neighbour, Australia,
which runs a similar scheme for its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses. Under this
scheme an independent organization verifies that businesses are at least 50 per cent owned by
indigenous people. New Zealand now plans to implement a similar policy as part of its broader
outcomes approach.

Next steps

One intermediary, He Waka Eke Noa, has already shown success in linking Māori and Pasifika
to procurement opportunities in the Auckland area. Its ethos has been to enable indigenous
businesses through networking and training opportunities.

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