After two months of participatory development, the Sustainable Public Procurement Project (CP+) Cooperation Cycle brought together seven states in a series of meetings focused on exchanging experiences on food procurement and fostering closer ties with Contrata+Brasil.

ICLEI South America concluded, on Thursday (August 20th), the Cooperation Cycle, one of the activities within the scope of Sustainable Public Procurement Project (CP+). 

CP+ is an initiative implemented by ICLEI in partnership with GIZ Brazil within the framework of the regional EcoAdvance project. Its objective is to strengthen the capacities of Brazilian states in sustainable public procurement through training, the promotion of exchange networks, and the structuring of planning instruments.

The Cooperation Cycle was organized into 4 meetings, which brought together representatives from the Secretariats of Administration, Procurement and Bidding, Planning, Environment, Social Assistance, Education, and from the seven selected states: Amapá, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Piauí, Paraná, and Santa Catarina. 

The trajectory of the CP+ Project Cooperation Cycle during these two months of participatory construction.

Given the low standardization of sustainability criteria and the strong reliance on historical bidding practices, the Cooperation Cycle sought to consolidate a space for dialogue among the participating states. The focus was on working on the agenda of food procurement and presenting the Contrata+Brasil initiative as an inspiration for less bureaucratic processes with integrated sustainability.

Over two months of participatory development, the Cycle explored various avenues to connect states with policies, experiences, and solutions for sustainable public food procurement, such as:

• The presentation covered public policies for food procurement, highlighting the Food Acquisition Program (PAA) and the National School Feeding Program (PNAE), their sustainability criteria, and recent legal changes by the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture (MDA) and the National Fund for the Development of Education (FNDE). We also had the participation of the Jataí Institute, which presented practical case studies of the application of these criteria throughout the procurement process, in connection with... Guide for defining and applying sustainability criteria in public procurement., from the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services (MGI);
• The introduction to the Contrata+Brasil platform by the MGI (Ministry of Government, Infrastructure and Management) covered its operation, types of contracts, and integrated environmental criteria. This stage allowed states to engage with the federal initiative and reflect on current food procurement processes and emerging initiatives in this area.;
• Sharing initiatives, progress, and challenges faced by states in food procurement, considering different contexts and territorial realities;
• The compilation of contributions from the states to Contrata+, which gathered lessons learned, challenges, and recommendations for improving the initiative, will be presented as the final product of this stage of the CP+ Project.

Lessons Learned from the Cooperation Cycle

During the Cooperation Cycle, states were at the center of the debate on sustainable food procurement, with the opportunity to share their experiences and the challenges faced in this area:

Node Holy Spirit, Experience with acquiring food from family farms highlighted that results can be achieved through the coordination of food policies. 

“Last year, we reached 52% of the FNDE resources applied to the direct purchase of food from family farming, and SEDU was responsible for 70% of all institutional acquisitions of food from family farming throughout Espírito Santo,” highlighted Kaio Gava, representative of the Espírito Santo State Department of Education (SEDU) in charge of food acquisition from family farming.

In states with larger land areas, such as Amapá, The challenges take on other dimensions.

 “The size of our territory and access to each locality and each group of farmers is a real factor of difficulty. Suffice it to say that we are in the heart of the Amazon, which makes this process more complex,” explained Dilfran Costa, Deputy Secretary of Sustainable Procurement and Bidding for Amapá.

Already Santa Catarina, The centralization of sustainable public procurement has contributed to expanding supply and optimizing processes. 

“Since we centralized purchasing, we’ve had considerable success: we’ve expanded the types of food, the regions served, and the number of suppliers. It’s become easier for the agencies, because the entire internal phase of a bidding process is exhausting, and by concentrating this process in a single location, we’ve been able to optimize it.”, "This is important," emphasized Rafaela, a nutritionist at the Secretariat of Administration of the State of Santa Catarina.

The exchange of experiences also included the participation of 7th Military Region of the Brazilian Army, headquartered in Recife, Pernambuco, , [Name], which presented a practical case study of food procurement through the Contrata+Brasil platform, already operating in Brazil. The experience brought to the debate aspects of the tool's application and issues related to the digital inclusion of family farmers.

 “This type of discussion is very important, as is the work of dissemination and digital inclusion that you develop, so that the rural producer participates more actively in sales, which benefits both buyers and sellers,” stated Major Thiago Martins Coutinho, of the Brazilian Army (7th Military Region).

For ICLEI South America, the diversity of experiences shared throughout the cycle reinforced the importance of cooperation between governments and the joint construction of pathways for advancing sustainable public procurement. 

“The Cooperation Cycle transforms the knowledge built by the states throughout the CP+ project into opportunities for dialogue and exchange of experiences to strengthen Sustainable Public Procurement. The Declaration of Contributions to Contrata+ translates this collective process into a concrete product with recommendations and challenges perceived by state representatives and promotes closer ties with federal initiatives,” concluded Felipe Jukemura, Technical Coordinator of ICLEI South America. 

With the contributions gathered throughout the meetings, the Cooperation Cycle now enters its final stage, with the consolidation and formalization of the States' Declaration of Contributions to Contrata+. The progress made on this journey will be presented during the initiative's final event, scheduled for September 2026.

About CP+

The Sustainable Public Procurement Project (CP+) is an initiative implemented by ICLEI South America in partnership with GIZ Brazil, through the regional EcoAdvance project, and aims to support Brazilian state governments in the formulation, implementation, and consolidation of sustainable public procurement policies and practices. 

The regional project EcoAdvance: Sustainable Labeling and Public Procurement is part of the International Climate Initiative and is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUKN). It is implemented by GIZ, in consortium with UNEP and the Oeko-Institut, and focuses on promoting sustainable production and consumption patterns, with an emphasis on strengthening type I environmental labeling and sustainable public procurement. In Brazil, it is carried out through a partnership between GIZ Brazil, the MDIC (Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade), and the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services.