City of Vancouver: Generating social value through procurement

This case study has been created from the Finance for the Future Awards. This entry was a finalist in the ‘Innovative project’ category.

The City of Vancouver is a municipal government organisation in Canada. In 2019 it developed and implemented a Social Value Procurement Framework as a way to generate positive social outcomes. The framework encourages City of Vancouver staff to procure services from vendors that have a social purpose or that are diverse. The city’s target is to procure 50% of services from such organisations in specific procurement categories by 2023.

‘The ambition of Vancouver to award 50% of its contracts to social and diverse businesses by 2023, under its Social Value Procurement Framework, is both inspirational and commendable. It is being implemented in a sensitive way that will increase economic opportunities for all its diverse citizen groups.’

Finance for the Future Awards judges