Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.
Walter P. Paepcke, Aspen Institute Co-Founder
Aspen Institute
Publications
Procurement with Purpose: Improving Job Quality and Equity Through Public Procurement Reform
This era may be a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to channel a rising river of public funds to help address the country’s job quality crisis.
The $2.1 trillion in annual public procurement spending already affects job quality and diversity. This paper, completed with support from The James Irvine Foundation and the Surdna Foundation, argues for strategic reforms to procurement policies and practices that include reporting on job quality and diversity, equity, and inclusion by firms seeking public contracts. The data needed are in the hands of employers, and rating protocols can gauge employers’ performance. Adopting these and other measures would motivate greater efforts by employers to boost job quality and racial, ethnic, and gender equity. While procurement systems are complex and slow to evolve, select reforms are both achievable and consistent with the systems’ core functions and history of attention to socioeconomic goals. This paper offers a range of principles and ideas to guide a movement toward public procurement reform that seeks to ensure that more jobs are high quality, secure, and equitably accessible.
The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.
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The role of private sector procurement and how it can be leveraged to affect economic opportunities for workers has become a critical area for attention.
