Since May 2020, the EU funded Water and Environment Support (WES) project has been coaching staff from public and private bodies of Tunisia on how to make the public procurement process in the construction sector more sustainable. The Tunisian Ministry of Environment and the Tunis International Centre for Environment Technologies (CITET) have already initiated a series of programs in the building and construction sector in close partnership with relevant professionals.
Out of the coaching experience and to facilitate further replication, a set of guidelines has been developed by WES in cooperation with CITET (Guide d’appui à la mise en œuvre d’une opération d’Achats Publics Durables (APD) en Tunisie).
On the 26th of October 2022, WES, together with CITET and the Tunisian Ministry of Environment presented the lessons learned and the recommendations of the pilot action in a dedicated workshop entitled « Appui à la mise en œuvre d’une opération pilote d’achat public durable dans le secteur de la construction ». The overall aim was to consult with the stakeholders and disseminate the results to public actors and suppliers in order to stimulate market interest.
The discussions among the more than 25 stakeholders were very constructive and as Ms Imen Ben Soyah, Sous directeur management environnemental of CITET recapitulated: “We all have great ambition to continue to promote Sustainable Public Procurement and persuade public buyers of the benefits of sustainability and we believe that the continuous sharing of experiences as well as the collaboration with our public and private partners will allow us to move forward with sure steps to initiate and boost this transition towards sustainable consumption and production methods”.
Appreciation was expressed toward the WES team as well as to the efforts made by the pilot public purchaser, the municipality of Mahdia, through its dedicated and responsible team that applied the clauses in the installation process of a composting unit (through the CLIMA project).
This WES activity is now reaching its conclusion, with a Note to Decision Makers on Sustainable Public Procurement under finalisation based on the results of the workshop that took place on the 26th of October 2022.
