Procurement category: Urban planning and regeneration.
Social/environmental impacts targeted: citizens’ engagement, social participation, social cohesion.
Background
Schaerbeek is a municipality of the Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium), which counts about 130.000. In social terms, Schaerbeek is very diverse: the median income significantly varies depending on the neighbourhood. Moreover, foreign nationals represent more than one third of the population.
Through its Sustainable Public Procurement Plan, which is linked to the Municipal Plan for Sustainable Development, Schaerbeek aims to increase social inclusion and social cohesion. One example is the procurement of artistic interventions in 3 public spaces of the Pogge area in 2021-2024.
This urban regeneration procurement project aimed to promote social inclusion and social cohesion by revitalising shared public spaces and encouraging community connections and interactions in the Pogge area. To better reach this social objective, the municipality decided to consult citizens in the pre-tender stage, and it required the involvement of users and local stakeholder as an award criterion of the procurement project.
Procurement objectives
The tender wanted to:
- improve residents’ quality of life by greening the area, in particular its schools’ playgrounds;
- increase social inclusion by engaging different social groups of the area, in particular students, in the requalification and revitalization of the Pogge area;
- stimulate new economic development dynamics by involving local socio-professional integration and training schemes of the neighbourhood in the urban regeneration project.
In the pre-tender phase, citizens and local stakeholders (including the school students, and the users of the neighbourhood facilities) were consulted through surveys, local events and other participatory tools with the purpose to provide the municipality with a feedback on its urban plans, as well as with ideas on how to green the Pogge area, make it attractive and liveable through artistic interventions and other initiatives (e.g. adding benches and fountains).
Tender requirements
The tender was divided into two lots:
LOT 1 – Artistic interventions in the schools of the Athenaeum Verwée;
LOT 2 : Artistic interventions in the STIB tram depot.
Award criteria
Please find below the tender’s award criteria:
Social dimension (25%): assessment of the proposed participatory methodology to respond to the social needs of the inhabitants and the users of the concerned public spaces.
Artistic dimension (20%): assessment of the proposed artistic approach, as well as its relevance and alignment with the values of the Commune of Schaerbeek, the STIB, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and the Pogge Sustainable Neighbourhood Contract, which is behind this procurement project.
Urban planning dimension (25%): this criterion includes the assessment of:
- how the artistic interventions are integrated in the local context;
- the added value that the intervention brings to the urban environment of the site and its social context;
- the coherence of the interventions (regarding the local context).
Feasibility and sustainability of the type of work proposed (30%): this criterion includes the assessment of:
- the compatibility of the project with the maximum budget allocated (ceiling of 354.228 euros, VAT included: 302.000 euros for LOT 1 and the remaining 52.228 euros for LOT 2), as well as the feasibility and sustainability of the project;
- the used materials and their sustainability.
As far as the social dimension of the project is concerned, tenderers were required to provide a descriptive note of the methodology envisaged to respond to the tender’s social objectives, as well as to involve the inhabitants and users of the facilities in the procurement project (description of the envisaged methodology and participatory process, frequency of meetings, identification of the target audience, estimated duration of the process, etc.). Tenderers were asked to pay particular attention to the students and the school staff, as for LOT 1, as well as to the workers and users of the STIB depot, as for LOT 2. As part of the participatory process, tenderers were also required to organise meetings with local stakeholders and residents. With the help of the contracting authority, tenderers were required to establish a dialogue with the local community through discussions and meetings with the inhabitants. Finally, tenderers were asked, in parallel with the implementation of the participatory process, to integrate the requests, needs and expectations formulated by the local actors in their final project.
To assess the bids, the contracting authority appointed a jury which included:
- at least 1 representative of RenovaS, which coordinates urban regeneration projects in Schaerbeek;
- at least 1 representative of the municipality of Schaerbeek;
- at least 1 representative of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation;
- at least 1 representative of the Athenaeum Verwée;
- at least 1 representative of the transport company STIB;
- at least 1 representative of the art field;
- any other relevant stakeholders the contracting authority may wish to engage.
Following an initial review for eligibility conducted by the contracting authority, jury members were tasked to score each bid against the award criteria.
Results
The contracting authority received 3 bids. The awarded supplier was GAMA FRESQUE.
The tender allowed the municipality to create linkages between its social, cultural, urban, and public procurement policies. By engaging citizens and users in the design and implementation of the artistic interventions, the contracting authority reached out citizens that are not usually taking part in the urban political process, such as school students and minorities. The engagement helped the municipality gather feedback on its urban plans, as well as opinions and suggestions on how to make Pogge a better and more liveable environments, especially for the youngest generations. Moreover, the involvement of citizens in the procurement of artistic intervention enabled to overcome the language barriers that often prevent social participation in a diverse community such as Schaerbeek. Furthermore, the project greened and fostered an enlargement of public spaces in the Pogge area, thus improving of the environment and residents’ quality of life. Thanks to the received feedback, GAMAFRESQUE could also deliver artistic interventions that were better responding to the taste and the values of the neighborhood. Finally, the procurement project allowed to recondition the quality of local educational facilities, thus promoting community development and the attractiveness of the Pogge area.
Environmental and social impacts
This good practice shows how public procurement can be strategically used to engage citizens with public policies, as well as to boost social inclusion. By moving away from the standard way of procuring without public participation, Schaerbeek not only met its own needs to requalify the area of Pogge, but also supported its social goals by better understanding its citizens’ needs, and engaging citizens with its sustainability objectives. It also increased the quality of the procured artistic interventions by addressing the specific needs of different categories of local users.
It is still early to fully assess the impact of the project, however, the municipality can already appreciate how the procurement project created aggregative opportunities for local citizens and stakeholders.
Thanks to the tender, the municipality also acquired knowledge and skills:
- it better understood the specific needs of different categories of users, including students and minorities living in the Pogge area;
- it acquired skills and competences for the involvement and empowerment of users in future procurement projects, including through inclusive and accessible local events and participatory workshops.
In the long term, the project has the potential to contribute to:
- improve diversity policies, and social inclusion from disadvantaged groups (e.g. people with a minority racial or ethnic background, people with low educational attainment and those at risk of poverty and social exclusion);
- increase resident's quality of life;
- stimulate new economic development dynamics.
Lessons learned
Advice to other contracting authorities:
- Sustainable Public Procurement requires leadership and political commitment. A sustainable public procurement plan enables the setting of priorities for all those involved in the procurement process, create ownership and enable integration with other organisational strategic plans;
- Participation needs time. Contracting authorities need not to underestimate the complexity and resources required for meaningful dialogue. The process needs to be started early so that you can get all the required information in detail from users and suppliers, even if not more than 6 months in advance not to lose momentum;
- The stakeholder involvement process is labour intensive, especially the evaluation of the comments provided. However, it was helpful from different points of view. Through the process, the parties could understand the views and needs of various local stakeholders, thus encouraging collaborations at local level;
- It is important to guarantee consultations throughout the procurement cycle. Since changes can happen throughout the process, it is important to keep the consulted stakeholders informed on any updates and any reasons that may lead the supplier or the contracting authority not to reply to the requests of the involved stakeholders;
- External communication is also essential. Communicating social objectives to the public increases contracting authorities’ accountability and sets an example which can inspire wider action. It may also help to build consensus around practices involving the use of social considerations. Finally, sharing knowledge with other contracting authorities can help speed up learning on sustainable public procurement. This is the reason why Schaerbeek participate in relevant international networks and projects, such as the URBACT III Project “Making Spend Matter”: changing procurement, changing cities.
More information
Contact: Laurent Briel, Sustainable Development Coordinator, Municipality of Schaerbeek