Course Introduction
Green public procurement (GPP) is an important policy instrument for reducing the environmental impacts of public expenditure, encouraging sustainable markets, improving resource efficiency, and accelerating the transition toward low-carbon and circular economies. Through the purchasing of environmentally preferable goods, services, infrastructure, and works, public institutions can influence production methods, supplier behavior, material consumption, energy use, and waste generation across entire value chains. However, the inclusion of environmental criteria in tender documents does not automatically translate into measurable environmental improvements. The Advanced Evaluation of Green Public Procurement Environmental Outcomes Training Course equips participants with rigorous evaluation methods for determining whether green procurement policies and practices produce demonstrable environmental benefits, how these outcomes can be measured, and which implementation approaches deliver the greatest value.
Evaluating green public procurement requires a clear distinction between policy adoption, procurement process compliance, supplier selection, contract execution, and actual environmental outcomes. An institution may introduce environmental specifications, award contracts to suppliers meeting sustainability standards, or increase expenditure on products carrying environmental labels without achieving the anticipated reductions in emissions, pollution, resource consumption, or waste. Participants examine how to construct theories of change linking procurement interventions to supplier responses, product performance, operational practices, and measurable environmental effects. The course emphasizes the importance of distinguishing procurement outputs from environmental outcomes and assessing whether observed improvements can reasonably be attributed to procurement decisions rather than broader market trends, regulatory changes, or unrelated environmental initiatives.
Effective environmental outcome evaluation requires reliable indicators, credible baselines, appropriate comparison methods, and consistent measurement across different product categories and contract types. Participants learn how to evaluate greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, water use, material efficiency, waste generation, recycled content, hazardous substances, biodiversity pressures, and other relevant environmental dimensions. They explore life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, supplier performance data, environmental product declarations, product certifications, environmental management systems, and contract monitoring records as sources of evaluation evidence. Particular attention is given to methodological consistency, data quality, functional equivalence, assessment boundaries, uncertainty, and the risk of transferring environmental burdens from one life cycle stage or impact category to another.
Green public procurement operates across diverse sectors, including construction, transport, energy, information technology, healthcare, food services, cleaning, office supplies, water infrastructure, and waste management. Each sector presents distinct environmental challenges, market conditions, technical requirements, and measurement opportunities. Participants examine how evaluation frameworks can be adapted to different purchasing categories while maintaining consistent principles for transparency, comparability, and accountability. They also explore the influence of procurement market readiness, supplier competition, environmental standards, purchasing volume, contract duration, verification arrangements, and institutional capacity on environmental performance. The course addresses unintended consequences such as greenwashing, weak supplier claims, rebound effects, restricted competition, and environmental criteria that are difficult to verify during contract delivery.
Advanced evaluation also considers whether green procurement delivers environmental benefits efficiently, equitably, and sustainably over time. Participants learn to examine environmental additionality, cost-effectiveness, life cycle impacts, supplier innovation, market transformation, and the distribution of benefits and costs among public institutions, suppliers, consumers, and communities. They explore quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods, including before-and-after analysis, comparison groups, contribution analysis, process evaluation, case studies, and mixed-method approaches. The course also examines digital procurement systems, environmental data platforms, supplier reporting tools, and analytical dashboards that can strengthen evidence collection and support more timely decisions. Throughout the program, participants consider how evaluation can identify both successful practices and implementation failures without overstating causal conclusions.
By completing this course, participants will strengthen their ability to design, commission, conduct, and use evaluations of the environmental outcomes of green public procurement. They will gain practical capabilities in developing evaluation questions, establishing environmental baselines, selecting indicators, analyzing procurement and supplier data, evaluating life cycle impacts, assessing cost-effectiveness, and communicating evidence-based findings. Through applied exercises and sector-specific case studies, participants will learn to identify which procurement interventions produce meaningful environmental improvements, where implementation needs to change, and how public institutions can use evaluation evidence to refine procurement criteria, improve contract management, strengthen supplier accountability, and achieve more measurable environmental benefits from public spending.
Duration
10 days
Who Should Attend
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Public procurement directors and procurement officers responsible for designing, implementing, and monitoring green procurement policies and purchasing procedures.
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Environmental policy specialists evaluating the environmental effectiveness of public expenditure, sustainable purchasing strategies, and government environmental commitments.
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Monitoring, evaluation, and learning professionals assessing procurement programs, environmental policy interventions, sustainability initiatives, and institutional performance.
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Government officials responsible for public investment management, finance, environment, climate policy, infrastructure, and sustainable development.
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Sustainability managers and environmental specialists responsible for measuring emissions, resource efficiency, waste reduction, pollution prevention, and supplier environmental performance.
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Procurement policy advisers developing environmental specifications, technical standards, evaluation criteria, supplier qualification requirements, and contract performance measures.
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Auditors, compliance professionals, and assurance specialists reviewing procurement integrity, environmental claims, supplier documentation, and contract compliance.
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Development finance institution and donor-funded program professionals evaluating the environmental performance of publicly financed procurement and infrastructure investments.
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Life cycle assessment practitioners and environmental economists conducting environmental impact comparisons, life cycle costing, and cost-effectiveness analysis.
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Contract managers and category managers overseeing the delivery of environmentally preferable goods, services, infrastructure, and construction works.
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Supplier development and supply chain professionals supporting environmental reporting, sustainable production, product certification, and compliance with green procurement requirements.
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Researchers and academics investigating sustainable procurement, environmental policy effectiveness, public sector innovation, and market transformation.
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Climate change and circular economy specialists examining the contribution of government purchasing to decarbonization, resource efficiency, and waste prevention.
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Local government and municipal officials responsible for sustainable purchasing, public infrastructure, fleet management, energy procurement, and municipal services.
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Consultants and technical advisers preparing green procurement strategies, evaluation frameworks, environmental performance reports, and procurement reform recommendations.
Course Objectives
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Develop an advanced understanding of green public procurement principles and the relationship between purchasing decisions, supplier behavior, product performance, and measurable environmental outcomes.
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Design evaluation frameworks that connect procurement policies, environmental specifications, contract implementation, supplier responses, and changes in environmental performance.
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Establish appropriate environmental baselines, indicators, evaluation questions, and data collection systems for measuring the outcomes of green procurement interventions.
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Apply life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, and environmental performance analysis to compare conventional and environmentally preferable procurement alternatives.
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Evaluate changes in greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, water consumption, material efficiency, waste generation, pollution, and other relevant environmental indicators.
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Distinguish procurement outputs, compliance results, and supplier commitments from verified environmental improvements achieved during product use and contract delivery.
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Apply quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method evaluation approaches to assess effectiveness, efficiency, additionality, sustainability, and the contribution of procurement to environmental objectives.
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Analyze the influence of environmental criteria, supplier capacity, market competition, certification systems, verification requirements, and contract management on environmental outcomes.
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Assess environmental trade-offs, rebound effects, greenwashing risks, and the potential transfer of environmental burdens across life cycle stages, impact categories, and supply chains.
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Evaluate the cost-effectiveness and financial implications of green procurement while considering lifecycle costs, environmental benefits, affordability, and value for money.
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Use procurement databases, supplier reporting systems, environmental declarations, digital dashboards, and analytical tools to strengthen environmental performance measurement and reporting.
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Translate evaluation findings into actionable recommendations that improve procurement policies, tender specifications, contract monitoring, supplier accountability, and the environmental impact of public expenditure.
Comprehensive Course Outline
Module 1: Foundations of Green Public Procurement and Environmental Outcome Evaluation
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Examine the principles, policy objectives, and implementation mechanisms of green public procurement across national and local government institutions.
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Distinguish environmental procurement criteria, procurement process compliance, supplier selection, contract delivery, and verified environmental outcomes.
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Explore how public purchasing can influence production practices, market innovation, product design, resource consumption, and environmental performance across supply chains.
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Identify common challenges in evaluating green procurement, including weak baselines, inconsistent data, unsupported supplier claims, and limited outcome monitoring.
Module 2: Green Procurement Policy Design and Theory of Change
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Examine how environmental policies, procurement regulations, purchasing strategies, and sustainability objectives translate into practical procurement interventions.
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Develop theories of change connecting environmental criteria and purchasing decisions with supplier responses, product use, operational performance, and environmental benefits.
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Identify assumptions, external influences, enabling conditions, implementation risks, and potential unintended effects that may affect expected procurement outcomes.
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Develop evaluation questions that address relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, impact, sustainability, and the contribution of green procurement to environmental policy objectives.
Module 3: Environmental Baselines, Indicators, and Measurement Frameworks
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Establish baseline conditions for emissions, energy consumption, water use, material requirements, waste generation, pollution, and other relevant environmental impacts.
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Develop measurable indicators with clear definitions, units, calculation methods, reporting periods, data sources, and verification requirements.
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Select indicators appropriate to different purchasing categories while ensuring that comparisons account for functional equivalence, product performance, and service requirements.
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Establish data collection protocols that document assumptions, baseline years, system boundaries, missing information, and changes in measurement methods.
Module 4: Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Impact Measurement
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Apply life cycle assessment principles to evaluate environmental impacts associated with raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, use, maintenance, and end-of-life management.
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Compare environmentally preferable products and services with conventional alternatives using consistent functional units, system boundaries, and impact categories.
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Examine environmental indicators relating to climate change, resource depletion, water consumption, acidification, eutrophication, toxicity, land use, and waste.
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Interpret life cycle assessment findings while recognizing uncertainty, data limitations, methodological choices, and the possibility of environmental burden shifting.
Module 5: Life Cycle Costing and Environmental Cost-Effectiveness
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Develop life cycle cost models covering acquisition, installation, energy, water, maintenance, replacement, disposal, and other relevant ownership costs.
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Compare the financial implications of conventional and green procurement alternatives over appropriate asset or product life cycles.
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Apply cost-effectiveness analysis to assess the cost per unit of emissions reduced, energy saved, waste prevented, or other environmental improvement achieved.
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Examine affordability, discounting assumptions, sensitivity to operating costs, budget constraints, and the distinction between financial savings and broader environmental benefits.
Module 6: Procurement Data, Supplier Reporting, and Environmental Verification
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Identify data sources including tender documents, contract records, invoices, supplier declarations, product specifications, environmental labels, and operational performance reports.
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Evaluate the reliability of environmental product declarations, third-party certifications, energy ratings, recycled-content claims, and supplier sustainability reports.
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Establish verification procedures using documentary checks, product testing, site inspections, audit trails, independent assurance, and contract performance evidence.
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Identify risks associated with inaccurate reporting, inconsistent measurement, greenwashing, selective disclosure, weak traceability, and unsupported environmental claims.
Module 7: Evaluating Green Procurement Across Major Purchasing Categories
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Assess green procurement outcomes in construction and infrastructure through embodied carbon, material efficiency, construction waste, energy performance, and asset durability.
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Evaluate energy, transport, and fleet procurement using emissions intensity, fuel consumption, electricity demand, operational efficiency, and relevant lifecycle indicators.
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Examine information technology, office equipment, healthcare supplies, and cleaning services using energy efficiency, hazardous substances, durability, repairability, and end-of-life management.
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Evaluate food services, water infrastructure, landscaping, and waste management using resource consumption, pollution prevention, biodiversity considerations, and circularity indicators.
Module 8: Quantitative Evaluation and Causal Attribution
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Select suitable quantitative evaluation designs, including before-and-after analysis, matched comparisons, difference-in-differences, and other approaches where assumptions are defensible.
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Develop methods for comparing environmental performance across contracts, suppliers, purchasing units, regions, and time periods.
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Assess the influence of energy prices, technology improvements, environmental regulations, market changes, and other external factors on observed outcomes.
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Communicate the strength and limitations of causal claims, distinguish correlation from attribution, and document assumptions affecting the credibility of evaluation conclusions.
Module 9: Qualitative Evaluation, Process Analysis, and Stakeholder Evidence
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Design interviews, focus groups, case studies, document reviews, and stakeholder consultations to understand how green procurement interventions operate in practice.
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Examine procurement staff capability, institutional commitment, supplier readiness, contract management practices, and the practical implementation of environmental specifications.
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Analyze barriers involving unclear criteria, limited market availability, weak verification, inadequate training, procurement delays, and competing purchasing priorities.
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Integrate qualitative findings with quantitative evidence to explain why environmental outcomes vary and identify feasible improvements in implementation.
Module 10: Environmental Additionality, Market Transformation, and Supplier Innovation
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Assess whether green procurement produces environmental improvements beyond what would likely have occurred under existing regulations, market trends, or standard purchasing practices.
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Evaluate supplier responses involving cleaner production, product redesign, recycled materials, energy efficiency, waste reduction, and environmental management improvements.
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Examine changes in market availability, product quality, supplier participation, environmental innovation, and the diffusion of sustainable products.
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Distinguish procurement-related improvements from changes driven by external policy interventions, consumer demand, technology development, or unrelated investment.
Module 11: Environmental Trade-Offs, Rebound Effects, and Unintended Consequences
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Identify trade-offs between emissions reduction, water use, resource extraction, biodiversity, waste, toxicity, product durability, and other environmental objectives.
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Evaluate whether lower operating costs or efficiency improvements increase total consumption and create rebound effects that reduce expected environmental benefits.
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Assess the environmental consequences of alternative materials, transportation distances, production locations, product lifetimes, and end-of-life pathways.
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Develop approaches for identifying burden shifting, unintended ecological impacts, and situations where a green procurement decision produces limited or negative net environmental value.
Module 12: Supplier Markets, Competition, and Implementation Efficiency
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Examine how market readiness, supplier capacity, product availability, competition, certification costs, and environmental standards influence green procurement implementation.
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Evaluate the relationship between environmental criteria, tender participation, bid prices, procurement duration, supplier diversity, and contract performance.
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Assess implementation efficiency by examining procurement costs, administrative burden, verification expenses, contract management capacity, and environmental outcomes achieved.
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Develop recommendations for improving market engagement, environmental specifications, procurement accessibility, and supplier participation without weakening legitimate environmental requirements.
Module 13: Digital Monitoring, Analytics, and Environmental Performance Dashboards
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Design environmental procurement dashboards that track emissions, resource use, waste, contract compliance, supplier performance, and environmental outcomes across purchasing portfolios.
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Integrate procurement management systems with environmental databases, supplier reporting platforms, asset management records, and operational performance information.
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Apply data analytics and appropriate visualization methods to identify trends, compare procurement categories, detect reporting anomalies, and prioritize verification efforts.
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Establish data governance arrangements covering definitions, completeness, access rights, quality assurance, auditability, privacy, and responsible use of automated analysis.
Module 14: Green Procurement Governance, Standards, and Accountability
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Examine the roles of procurement authorities, environmental regulators, finance departments, internal auditors, suppliers, and independent evaluators in environmental outcome accountability.
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Integrate evaluation findings into procurement strategies, tender criteria, supplier qualification, contract clauses, environmental management requirements, and institutional performance reviews.
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Review relevant environmental standards, product certification systems, sustainable procurement guidance, and jurisdiction-specific regulatory requirements.
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Develop reporting and disclosure practices that communicate environmental outcomes, uncertainties, limitations, implementation failures, and corrective actions transparently.
Module 15: Policy Learning, Scaling, and Continuous Improvement
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Translate evaluation findings into changes to procurement policy, technical specifications, purchasing categories, supplier engagement, and contract performance requirements.
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Establish mechanisms for sharing evaluation evidence across ministries, local governments, procurement authorities, public institutions, and development partners.
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Develop learning systems that capture successful practices, recurring implementation problems, supplier innovations, and lessons from unsuccessful procurement interventions.
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Design improvement plans with clear responsibilities, performance targets, review schedules, verification arrangements, and measures for tracking environmental outcomes over time.
Module 16: Integrated Green Procurement Evaluation Practicum
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Develop an evaluation framework for a representative public procurement program, including a theory of change, baseline, indicators, data sources, and evaluation questions.
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Analyze a simulated procurement dataset containing supplier performance, lifecycle costs, environmental indicators, contract information, and operational results.
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Compare procurement alternatives, assess environmental outcomes, examine cost-effectiveness, identify attribution limitations, and develop evidence-based findings.
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Prepare an evaluation report and management presentation containing recommendations for procurement policy, supplier accountability, contract monitoring, and environmental performance improvement.
Training Approach
This course will be delivered by our skilled trainers who have vast knowledge and experience as expert professionals in the fields. The course is taught in English and through a mix of theory, practical activities, group discussion and case studies. Course manuals and additional training materials will be provided to the participants upon completion of the training.
Tailor-Made Course
This course can also be tailor-made to meet organization requirement. For further inquiries, please contact us on: Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com Tel: +254 721 331 808
Training Venue
The training will be held at our Upskill Training Centre. We also offer training for a group (at a discount of 10% to 50%) at requested location all over the world. The Onsite course fee covers the course tuition, training materials, two break refreshments, buffet lunch, airport transfers, Upskill gift package, and guided tour.
Visa application, travel expenses, dinners, accommodation, insurance, and other personal expenses are catered by the participant
Certification
Participants will be issued with Upskill certificate upon completion of this course.
Airport Pickup and Accommodation
Airport pickup and accommodation is arranged upon request. For booking contact our Training Coordinator through Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com, +254 721 331 808
Terms of Payment:
Unless otherwise agreed between the two parties’ payment of the course fee should be done 3 working days before commencement of the training so as to enable us to prepare better.
