Community-partnered procurement : a socially sensitive option

The purpose of this paper is to provide information for promoting increased involvement of low income urban communities in the procurement of neighbourhood (tertiary level) infrastructure. The contexts are several and varied including • upgrading works carried out by urban government • donor funded urban development programmes • programmes initiated by NGOs. The paper aims to introduce the potential benefits to be gained from community partnered procurement(CPP). The content of the paper applies to those frequently occurring, low risk, routine small infrastructure works which characterise neighbourhood urban upgrading programmes and projects. We investigate cases relating to water supply, sanitation, drainage, access, paving, street and security lighting, solid waste removal, and community buildings. It is not applicable to complex, large, high risk and high hazard infrastructure projects. The findings are based on the results of interviews and a review of literature, documents and project files on urban upgrading projects in Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka. We are particularly grateful to the many government officials who so generously gave their time to us, and provided access to very detailed information on a wide range of both community-based infrastructure works and conventional procurement contracts.