Page 154 - Procurement guidelines for smart sustainable cities - A U4SSC deliverable
P. 154
7 Annex
7.1 UK Government Digital Services
UK GDS has partnered with national, state and local governments across five emerging economies
through its Global Digital Marketplace Programme, to make the procurement process more open
and effective. This work is possible through the UK Government’s successes over the last decade
to 2020, including the Digital Marketplace, standards-based assurance of spending and service
delivery, and the Crown Commercial Service buying digital community, which are collectively
helping to transform the way the public sector acquires digital technology.
As COVID-19 pushes more governments worldwide towards digital, data and technology solutions
and opportunities, it is imperative to continue and scale these efforts to improve public procurement.
By working to make procurement open, this will help to make the process more transparent and
assist governments to function better.
The evolutionary and iterative approach taken to develop the Guidelines
The Guidelines provide practical steps to take at each stage
of the technology buying cycle, from planning, informing
the market, evaluation and award and managing delivery
of a product or service.
Each stage is supported by a growing set of case studies
from public-sector organizations around the world;
therefore, understanding and researching in context is
important.
The online accessible version, the Digital Buying Guide, is
initially available in English, Spanish and Bahasa Indonesia
versions, which were prioritized because of UK GDS’s work
in Latin America, South Africa and Southeast Asia.
The Digital Buying Guide beta has evolved from the “ICT Commissioning Playbook” alpha that the
UK GDS Global Digital Marketplace Programme delivered towards the end of 2018, with help from
partners and supported by the OECD.
Work on the Guidelines commenced following the launch of the Thematic Group on Procurement
Guidelines for Smart Sustainable Cities at the ninth Green Standards Week and the fourth Annual
Meeting of the U4SSC Implementation Programme in Valencia, Spain, in October 2019.
At the beginning of 2020, UK GDS began to iterate the “ICT Commissioning Playbook” alpha. The
multidisciplinary team drew inspiration from the GOV.UK Design System and from the UK National
Health Service (NHS) Digital Design System, as well as from other design styles used by multilateral
and non-governmental organizations that work on international development.
140 Procurement guidelines for smart sustainable cities | May 2023
Procurement guidelines for smart sustainable cities | May 2023 1
