Compare and DigitalWell Arena are contributing to the UN’s work on innovation-driven procurement

UNECE is one of the UN’s five regional commissions, working to strengthen economic cooperation and sustainable development. In 2025, it adopted the Transformative Innovation Charter, which sets out how innovation policy can help address major societal challenges.

Work is now under way to translate that ambition into practical guidance.

International expert groups, known as drafting teams, have been established to support this work. One is developing guidance on innovation-enhancing procurement (IEP). Lina Svensberg from Compare leads the group, with her colleague Carolin Maule also serving on its core team.

Developing guidance for public sector organisations

The group is developing a Code of Practice with principles and guidance on how public sector organisations can use their demand to drive innovation. An accompanying assessment tool will help organisations understand their current capabilities and conditions, identify barriers and decide where to focus their efforts.

The aim is for UNECE to adopt the guidance and assessment tool in June 2027.

“Public procurement represents enormous purchasing power and influences which solutions are developed and have the opportunity to grow. We want to help public sector organisations use that power more deliberately to address the societal challenges they face,” says Lina Svensberg.

UNECE’s 56 member countries span North America, Europe, Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Their legal frameworks, institutional conditions and experience of using procurement to drive innovation vary considerably. The aim is therefore to establish common principles and a shared understanding, while allowing the guidance to be applied in different national contexts.

Lina Svensberg has also contributed to a review of Montenegro’s innovation system, where innovation-enhancing procurement is a priority. This work offers further insights into the conditions needed for public procurement to drive innovation across different national contexts.

Building on previous international work

Compare’s involvement with UNECE builds on several years of international collaboration. In 2024–2025, Lina Svensberg and Jakob Lindvall led work on innovation-enhancing procurement within UNECE’s Transformative Innovation Network (ETIN), an international network for knowledge exchange and policy development on innovation and societal transformation.

That work helped lay the foundations for the current expert group. Jakob Lindvall, who is also affiliated with Compare, now co-leads a parallel expert group under the same UNECE initiative, focusing on innovation ecosystems.

For Lina Svensberg, a key starting point is recognising that public sector demand can drive innovation and transformation while also strengthening businesses’ capacity to respond.

“We start with what the organisation wants to achieve and how the market can contribute, both now and as its capabilities develop. That understanding should guide the organisation’s choice and combination of tools. This goes far beyond choosing a procurement procedure, and procurement professionals cannot do it alone,” says Lina Svensberg

UNECE highlights examples from Värmland

Experience from DigitalWell Arena, the Compare-led Vinnväxt initiative, underpins Compare’s contribution to both expert groups. The initiative has developed the Demand Acceleration method, which helps public sector organisations explore specific needs and work with businesses to develop new solutions. The aim is for those solutions to meet the first customer’s needs and reach other customers.

Demand Acceleration has been used in several procurement initiatives with tangible results. Examples include Öppna Staden, a digital guide procured by Karlstad Municipality to help people with cognitive difficulties explore and access the city’s activities and services, and Hammarö Municipality’s citizen portal, which provides a single, personalised point of access to municipal services.

In a recent article, UNECE highlights the Karlstad and Hammarö procurements as examples of how public procurement can drive innovation and help address societal challenges.

“We bring our regional experience into the international work. In return, we can challenge our own assumptions and deepen our understanding, then put that knowledge to use here in Värmland,” says Lina Svensberg.