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December 9, 2025
Green Procurement in South Africa and the Southern African Region.

Green Procurement in South Africa and the Southern African Region.

Why 2026 is a Turning Point for Sustainable Procurement Locally The enactment of the Climate Change Act, 2024 — create a more urgent mandate for organisations to consider carbon, resource use, and long-term environmental impact when designing procurement strategies.

At the same time, businesses are realising that sustainable procurement can deliver measurable value: from energy savings and waste reduction to enhanced supply-chain resilience and improved access to global markets that increasingly demand ESG compliance. – 1

2026 is therefore shaping up to be a pivotal year as procurement professionals are being asked and dare, I say, demanded of procurement professionals, to embed sustainability into procurement strategies and planning, with real accountability.

Key Trends in South / Southern Africa’s Sustainable Procurement Landscape

1. Growing Alignment between ESG and Socio-Economic Goals

In South Africa, sustainability in procurement is often not viewed at through an environmental lens. Instead, procurement is being positioned as a driver of inclusive economic development. Many businesses are starting to align ESG (environmental, social, governance) goals with frameworks such as Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE). 2

This means that procurement decisions often account not only for carbon emissions or resource use, but also for the social impact: enabling black-owned SMEs to participate, fostering equitable supply chains, and supporting local businesses. This dual focus — planet and people, gives procurement an expanded role in shaping the transition to sustainability. – 3

2. Institutionalising Green Public Procurement (GPP)

The recently updated public procurement legal and policy framework in South Africa provides greater scope to integrate environmental and social considerations into procurement decisions — creating potential for significant impact if fully leveraged. – 4

As public-sector procurement embraces sustainable public procurement (SPP), private-sector players will likely align more proactively to avoid being left behind — especially suppliers who want to remain competitive and eligible for government contracts. – 5

3. Integrating ESG Metrics into Supplier Selection and Lifecycle Management

More and more companies in South Africa are embedding ESG criteria into their procurement scorecards, supplier audits, and even broader supply-chain governance. Procurement is being repositioned as a strategic function that can drive progress toward the United Nations’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). – 6

Suppliers are no longer evaluated only on price or delivery; their environmental footprint, labour practices, resource efficiency, and community impact are becoming relevant decision-making factors. This also means procurement teams need new skills — to assess ESG disclosures, audit supplier practices, and manage supplier development initiatives. – 7

4. Adoption of Circular Economy and Eco-Conscious Manufacturing Within Supply Chains

Across industries, there’s growing momentum toward more sustainable manufacturing practices, waste reduction, re-use of materials, and circular economy thinking. South African manufacturers supplying to conscious buyers are increasingly offering recycled content or designing for easier recycling. – 8

For procurement practitioners, this opens a strategic opportunity: sourcing from suppliers whose business models already incorporate sustainability can reduce raw-material dependency, lower environmental impact, and improve brand reputation — while potentially yielding long-term cost advantages.

5. Recognition That Sustainable Procurement Is Risk Management & Value Creation

Rather than viewing green procurement as a “nice-to-have,” many South African firms now regard it as essential for long-term resilience: managing carbon risk, energy price volatility, supply-chain disruption, reputational risk, and evolving regulatory requirements. – 9

The more progressive organisations are seeing sustainable procurement as a source of competitive advantage — differentiating their supply chain as more transparent, ethical, and future-proof. For many CPOs (chief procurement officers), sustainable procurement is becoming a strategic balancing act between ESG commitments, cost efficiency, and social equity. – 10

What Does This Means for Procurement Strategy & Planning in 2026 (for South/Southern Africa)

These trends translate into several strategic imperatives for 2026:

  • Adopt a dual-value procurement framework: Evaluate suppliers not only on cost and quality, but on ESG, sustainability, and social-impact metrics (e.g. B-BBEE compliance, local economic development, waste/carbon footprint).
  • Build supplier-development capabilities: Many smaller or emerging suppliers (especially SMEs) may lack the systems or resources to meet ESG requirements — but engaging them and helping build their capacity can unlock value while meeting social-inclusion goals.
  • Embed ESG metrics in contracts and supplier-lifecycle processes: Supplier selection, audits, renewals and performance evaluation should incorporate environmental and social criteria.
  • Prioritise green and circular-economy suppliers: Encourage sourcing from suppliers with sustainable manufacturing, recycled content, waste minimisation and resource-efficiency practices.
  • Leverage public procurement policy shifts: For organisations dealing with government or public entities, align procurement processes with emerging green public procurement (GPP) standards — anticipate tenders that weigh ESG heavily.
  • Invest in procurement governance & skills: Ensure procurement teams have the knowledge, tools and governance frameworks to assess ESG risks, audit suppliers, measure impacts, and manage supplier development.
  • Plan for long-term resilience and compliance: As regulation (e.g. under national climate legislation) tightens and international buyers demand ESG compliance, sustainable procurement isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s strategic risk management.

Final Thoughts

For organisations in South Africa and Southern Africa, 2026 presents a compelling opportunity for procurement to transcend its traditional role of cost- and supply-focus to become a driver of sustainable development, social equity, and long-term resilience.

But realising that opportunity requires a shift — from transactional procurement to strategic sourcing with ESG and social-impact baked in. For procurement leaders and consultants alike, the task is clear: build frameworks, skills and partnerships that enable green, inclusive, and future-proof supply chains.

Sources

1. https://www.it-online.co.za/2025/11/05/the-rise-of-sustainable-procurement/

2. https://www.bee.co.za/post/businesses-urged-to-align-esg-and-b-bbee-for-sustainable-procurement-success?

3. Sustainable Public Procurement as a Policy Tool in South Africa

APLU Conference 11 September 2023
https://wiser.wits.ac.za/sites/default/files/SPP%20as%20a%20Policy%20Tool%20Short%20Paper%2022082023.pdf? 4. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2025-02/green-public-procurement-south-africa.pdf?

5. Sustainable Public Procurement as a Policy Tool in South Africa

APLU Conference 11 September 2023
https://wiser.wits.ac.za/sites/default/files/SPP%20as%20a%20Policy%20Tool%20Short%20Paper%2022082023.pdf

6. https://supplynetwork-africa.co.za/beyond-cost-savings-how-procurement-can-drive-social-change-in-south-africa/?

7. https://www.sapics.org/news/addendum-esg-south-african-procurement-balancing-act-cpos?

8. https://apexpolymers.co.za/the-year-2025-reshaping-sustainable-manufacturing-in-south-africa/? 9. https://it-online.co.za/2025/11/05/the-rise-of-sustainable-procurement/? 10. https://www.sapics.org/news/addendum-esg-south-african-procurement-balancing-act-cpos

janineh@tkjprocurement.com | etienneh@tkjprocurement.com | www.tkjprocurement.com

November 6, 2020
Beneficiary Management System Part 4

Beneficiary Management System
Part 4

Implementation of the Beneficiary Management System, Lessons Learned

When planning the Implementation of the Beneficiary Management Systems (BMS) it is best to consider this part of the journey as a change management project. Suppose we have done everything correct in the process of developing the BMS: the processes of application, decision and development of beneficiaries are reflected correctly in the system, the data requirements are thoroughly examined and the software provides the necessary capabilities for capturing, accessing, using and reporting important data in a user friendly form. Still the process of implementation of a new software may experience certain difficulties and there are important factors that should be considered in advance to ensure a smooth transition to everyone happily adopting and using the new software. We should separate these factors into three groups: technical, process/data and human related.

Technical Factors

product warrantyIf the system is developed according to the principles of the modern agile approach, all functionalities would be tested not only by the software development company but also by a dedicated team from the client. This process allows for on-time corrections of functionalities to match the expectations and the needs of the users. At the time of implementation of the software there should be no surprises…theoretically. But in reality, depending on the number of users and complexity of the BMS version there is still a chance that something might not work as expected. The reasons may include undiscovered bugs, unexpected difficulties with connectivity and other. Although these situations do not happen often, ensuring a warranty period with the provider can definitely mitigate the negative consequences should something like this occur.

Process / Data Related Factors

In our experience we have noticed that people naturally think of the most typical situations, user actions and data processing when describing their expectations of a system. In reality however processes may not be applied as described or there may be certain exceptions of the user actions or data collection which, although rare, may not be considered during development of the software. If discovered after the software is already operational, this can lead to understandable frustration. However, to resolve the problem either the users need to be creative and find workarounds (which can cause other problems), or additional programming work will be required which adds time and cost to the project of implementation. This challenge is often unpredictable. The best approach to addressing this challenge it prevention, such as talking to as many potential users as possible and taking their view on what could in reality work differently than the prescribed processes, or asking directly what might work differently in practice or where it is possible to have an exception. With time we have found that experienced consultants, or business process analysts can be very helpful in this regard with their developed skill to sniff such possible deviations

“experienced consultants, or business process analysts can be very helpful”

who wants to change The Human Aspects

Human Related Factors

Not everyone will typically be happy to start working with new software. There is always the learning curve that requires extra effort outside the comfort zone of a person. To address this, we have found that clients who exercise a change management approach manage to implement the solution easier, with less effort and with minimum resistance and struggle from users. Some of the lessons learned about this include

  • Create positive expectations by building awareness of what the new software would do and what are the reasons of its introduction to the company. Stress the benefits of the system and WIIFM (what is in it for me) for different target groups. Awareness creates desire which leads to less resistance at implementation

  • Involve representatives from different types of users in the process of defining requirements, testing and providing feedback. One of the benefits of that is that the software functionalities are considered better and on time. But the other aspect is that, when happy with what they experience, these people spread the word across the organization. This could be combined with communication strategy to ensure visibility of the project.

  • Spend enough time and effort to train people using variety of methods: online and/or face-to-face training, mentorship and availability for questions and support during the inevitable difficulties until people feel comfortable with the software. Having a team of “super users”, mentors or peer coaching techniques can have a strong effect on the ability of users to come to grips with the software and to minimize their frustration or resistance.

Contact us directly if you are interested in finding out more about the BMS at info@tkjprocurement.com

janineh@tkjprocurement.com | etienneh@tkjprocurement.com | www.tkjprocurement.com

August 5, 2020
Beneficiary Management System- Part 2

Beneficiary Management System – Part 2

What optimization does a Beneficiary Management System enable

The Beneficiary Management System (BMS) is designed to measure the true impact of the investment on the beneficiary. This is achieved by supporting every stage of the beneficiary management processes, which are typically executed through manual operations.

BM Systems

How do we know what the effect is of the developmental activities if we do not measure it?

Donors are often engaged in numerous development activities and employ significant resources with high hopes of achieving results. A Beneficiary Management system is an invaluable asset in capturing data and providing information for analyzing the effectiveness and efficiency of development efforts.

The BMS can be configured to track all important data related to development activities, measuring the spend in rand value and cost of time and resources at every stage, in this way the information captured into the BMS becomes the source information for providing proof of both activities, impact and:

  • Allocating and calculating cost
  • Allocating cost spent per beneficiary or region or sector etc.
  • Summarized data for annual, quarterly, monthly reporting and sustainability reports
  • Case studies / Marketing campaigns/ media reports
  • Data for conference presentations and academic papers
  • The input for regulatory requirement i.e. B-BBEE scorecard reporting etc.
  • Evidence in the event of a query / complaint / issue with a beneficiary
  • Documented evidence of the development route of the beneficiary – from onboarding, through diagnostics and the development plan, to exit 

The BMS also allows for the reporting of  non-monetary values which typically  is more difficult to track and can easily amount to millions but not captured and reported on, and consequently skewing the representation of what is required to effectively develop and grow a beneficiary. Our BMS allows also the following data be captured and reported:

  • Capture management and administrative costs
  • Capture money spent on development of beneficiaries
  • Capture information on the type and value of “in kind” contributions from partners and stakeholders
  • Capture information on time and value spent on development of beneficiary businesses, discounted rates e.g. subsidized premises, use of assets and facilities, etc.
  • Capture the nature of the interventions per beneficiary (to eventually determine which interventions had best impact)
  • Capture details on improvements in a beneficiary, based on pre-determined progress measurements

How do we keep all program stakeholders on the same page?

The project managers and staff which are directly involved in development activities are often well informed about all details of what is being done. But is that information available in summarized, comprehensive form for taking managerial decisions? How to keep all stakeholders informed of what is going on and what has been achieved?

The BMS is designed to provide powerful reporting opportunities. Regular and ad-hoc reports can provide detailed or high-level reports as and when required.

Examples of report elements include:

  • Overall strategy implementation costs
    • Cost per programme element
    • Costs per beneficiary (average or actual)
    • In-kind contributions (per stakeholder or per beneficiary)
    • Number of beneficiaries overall and/or per strategy element or program
    • Impact per beneficiary, program, site or nationally (can include growth in the business(es) – jobs, turnover, market share, profitability)

Over a period of time of accurate data input, reports can be  used to determine exactly what it takes to develop a beneficiary from one level to the next, which interventions had the most impact, what had been spent in cash and kind over time to support beneficiaries , the direct and indirect impact that it had on economic growth of the beneficiary  and the reach of a program regionally or beyond.

Look out for the next post on: Measuring Impact with BMS

Contact us directly if you are interested in finding out more about the BMS at info@tkjprocurement.com

June 15, 2020
Beneficiary Management System

Beneficiary Management System

Why is a Beneficiary Management System a Necessary Tool?

In the contemporary business world, the need for software support is already a norm rather than necessity. The development industry is also catching up. More companies are beginning to realize the need for solutions that have the ability to track and manage the process for development of different types of beneficiaries

TKJ Procurement Consulting and Training together with our partner Addit Software are in a position to provide an end-to-end solution that is designed to address a wide spectrum of needs related to beneficiary development. Our Beneficiary Management System (BMS) is a web-based solution:

  • that can be accessed and used simultaneously from multiple locations
  • has predefined processes and workflows that can be adapted for different purposes
  • allows for monitoring of investment and expenditure related to beneficiary development
  • measures the impact through a number of electable factors such as jobs creation, turnover increase etc. 

overview of main benefits

 Our BMS makes for a very useful Monitoring &Evaluation tool as well. The system can be used for a variety of different purposes ranging from procurement to enterprise development, all types of business process optimization and management reporting.

The BMS can also be applied in working with different segments including corporate businesses, small enterprises, youth, and women entrepreneurs. Look out for our next posts on: What management optimizations can BMS facilitate or contact us directly if you are interested in finding out more about the BMS!

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