Procurement: Delivering Development Outcomes

As the debate over reform of World Bank procurement policies progresses, I presented the keynote opening at a World Bank sponsored conference “Procurement: Delivering Development Outcomes” on February 19.  In this presentation, I challenge the procurement community to focus on the real outcomes of the whole procurement process and not just on compliance with the process steps for bid and award.  In addition, I discuss the serious implications of this shift and the need to address the “risk-averse” culture as well as the lack of effective engagement by sectoral technical experts.