Demand Acceleration may get international pilot case in 2024

Jakob Lindvall is one of the team members behind the development of the Demand Acceleration methodology. During the autumn, he has been working on creating an initial handbook to provide concrete guidance on how the methodology is used in public procurement.

At the same time, he has also on several occasions presented the thinking in various international networks. In November, he visited Geneva for the second time this year, where UNECE – the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe – convened a specialist panel to discuss innovation and competition policies.

A practical tool for meeting sustainability goals

In connection with the meeting, Jakob Lindvall participated in a think tank within the ETIN network (UNECE’s network for transformative innovation). The network’s purpose is to make policies contribute to transformation in practice, including to help meet the UN’s global sustainability goals.

– It is relatively easy to create policies, but considerably harder to scale them up and achieve broad application. To meet the sustainability goals, it is not enough to experiment strategically – we must put our policies into practice, says Jakob Lindvall.

Inviting new actors to participate

He considers the Demand Acceleration methodology doubly interesting from this perspective. Partly because it enables public procurement to be used as a force for driving innovation and increased sustainability. And partly because the methodology is built on the premise that the new services developed must be scalable – meaning good solutions can spread more quickly within the public sector.

– Implicitly, the thinking about scaling also applies to the Demand Acceleration methodology itself. It is published under a Creative Commons licence, making it possible for other actors to both use and develop the methodology, says Jakob Lindvall.

During the ETIN network’s workshop, the enormous potential of public procurement to drive innovation was also highlighted. According to the World Bank, public procurement globally accounts for between 13 and 15 per cent of GDP annually.

Within the EU alone, this amounts to approximately EUR 2.4 trillion annually – many times more than global investments in R&D.

– But despite the fact that most countries have an explicit strategy for public procurement, only a small fraction of the money is used to stimulate innovation. Instead, the public sector often buys ready-made products off the shelf, even if they do not contribute to increased sustainability or even quickly become obsolete, says Jakob Lindvall.

Can support innovation in new markets

There is therefore great interest in how the Demand Acceleration methodology can be used to better harness the power of public procurement – not least in countries in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus, which are very active within UNECE. There, Jakob Lindvall sees an even greater need to support the market for sustainable and innovative solutions.

– There are numerous country- and region-specific reports pointing to the potential of increasing demand for new innovative solutions by using the purchasing power of the public sector. And the problem is that we cannot reach the sustainability goals if these countries do not follow along – but the same of course also applies within the EU.

Believes in an international pilot in 2024

Exactly how and in what way Demand Acceleration may be applied in a first international case, Jakob Lindvall does not dare speculate, but he is convinced it is not far off.

– There is great interest from many countries, so I would be surprised if we do not see a first international example within the coming year.