Instruments and Incentives to promote SME participation in Sustainable Public Procurement

National and regional governments around the world have developed and imple-mented instruments aimed at promoting the inclusion of local suppliers as well as SMEs into their procurement processes. Addressing this challenge within sustaina-ble public procurement strategies poses an even greater challenge to governmental authorities and as well to private sector entities that want to provide support and participate in government tenders. The key message here is: The participation of SMEs in government procurement is at present a challenge, hence their inclusion and participation in sustainable public procurement with additional criteria for envi-ronmental and social considerations requires support and incentivization.