Impact stories

More than 50 countries and cities, from Argentina to Zambia, are pursuing open contracting reforms. It takes hard work, political will, technical skills, and sustained engagement.

Here we tell stories from around the world that show how open contracting is changing lives — from value for money to value for many. Better access to affordable medicines, healthier school lunches, and improving competition are just some of the results we are seeing. Even during the pandemic we have seen that buying fast and transparent is possible.

Get a backroom view on the people who made these changes happen – government officials, civic technologists, businesspeople, journalists, and citizens – and how open contracting data is driving reforms.

Impact stories

Issues

Countries

Story Types

Empowering auditors: Indonesia uses data-driven oversight to clean up its corruption-prone procurement sector

Better bike lanes in the Philippines: Civic groups won a budget for bike lanes, then followed the money

Paraguay’s procurement is open for small business

A red light for corruption: How the Dominican Republic is using open data, better processes & collaboration to fight corruption

How Lithuania fast-tracked green procurement

Digging out data to shine a light on public buying in Mongolia

Revolutionizing public procurement in Uganda: the power of citizen contract monitoring

Unlocking opportunities: How Ekiti State, Nigeria is enabling women businesses through better procurement practices

In Kazakhstan, opening up procurement boosts public oversight and prevents millions in wasteful spending

Improving climate resilience in flood-prone Assam, India

The Ukrainian DREAM: Making wartime reconstruction digital and accountable

Buying local, inclusive and green: How Iowa’s capital, Des Moines, is living its values through better procurement

Striving for data excellence: How the Netherlands’ TenderNed is enabling procurement insights for government and public users

Finland’s Hansel creates a digital trail of state spending

Empowering women and rural farmers through procurement in Palmira, Colombia

How Nuevo Leon increased participation and competition in its public infrastructure

Democratizing public procurement in Ecuador

Ancient kingdom, modern procurement: Edo State, Nigeria’s lessons from going digital and open in public contracts

How Albania’s e-complaints system reduces red tape for government suppliers

Going 100% green in Lithuania

Infrastructure procurement risks: What data-led analysis reveals in Indonesia

Bringing backroom deals into the public view: How the media reports public procurement

Behind Italy’s ‘small revolution’ in the fight for corruption-free contracts

Co-creation of the city: Manizales puts innovation and data at the heart of its strategy

Inclusive infrastructure: how open procurement is putting informal settlements on the map in Argentina

Meet the Kazakh corruption watchers cleaning up procurement

Procurement: the missing puzzle piece to follow the money in Kyrgyz Republic

Partners in crime prevention: How civil society and government worked together to open up public contracts in Indonesia

Using data analysis to spot gaps in access to maternal and child health services

Living with HIV: when life depends on public procurement

No filter on public spending: How a Kazakhstani journalist got 80,000 Instagrammers interested in procurement

A new open contracting model for disaster management in Assam, India

All eyes on the data: How Nigeria’s Dataphyte monitored $120 million worth of government projects using an open contracting approach

Australian Bidhive’s winning approach to bid management

Analyzing unit prices in public procurement in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Peddling openness: Mexico City’s journey to procure a better bike share system

Setting up for success: Data and public oversight for more transparent public procurement in Kosovo

Patients, experts, and openness: A powerful combination therapy for unaffordable medicines in Moldova

Diagnosis open: how open contracting is bringing down the cost of medicines in Chile

From open data to joined-up government: driving efficiency with BA Obras

Fight for life: how Ukraine is fixing medical procurement and serving patients better

Makueni: the small county leading action on open procurement in Kenya

Buy open, buy fast

Armed with open data: How Ukraine saved billions on defence procurement

Public works watchers: Making Nuevo Léon’s infrastructure projects more transparent and more competitive

Calling for accountability: how Paraguay’s open emergency procurement can help restore public trust

Opentender.net, the site helping Indonesians spot shady government spending

Tanzania: Zabuni app shaking up procurement landscape

How COVID-19 and collective intelligence transformed procurement risks into opportunities for transparency in Ecuador

Dhangadhi, Nepal: An open secret to building local infrastructure on time and budget

Open for business: Colombia’s data-driven procurement reforms increase competition

AppaltiPOP: Accountability for Italy’s public contracts

Tracking COVID-19 procurement in Kazakhstan: from red flags to cancellations

Watchdog journalism in Guatemala: the results of Plaza Pública’s fiscal monitoring

How emergency COVID-19 spending rallied open data activists in Nigeria to push for reforms

Government’s first online store driven by open data: How Ukraine’s ProZorro.Sale is turning bankrupt assets into gold

What can be learned about political advertising from contracting data?

Women win one in four contracts in the Dominican Republic thanks to inclusive procurement reforms

Building a campaign for COVID monitoring in Moldova in 60 days

Kyrgyz Republic: How open contracting can support small business

Making participation and use of open contracting data sustainable

Setting the sustainability standard for India’s healthcare procurement

FUNES, the corruption-detecting algorithm that ‘never forgets’

How data-savvy journalists in Kyrgyzstan are using open contracting to investigate corruption in public procurement

Cartelogy: A tool for fair competition and corruption-free public procurement in Malaysia

The right infrastructure in the right place, at the right time, for the right reasons

Better together: How Ugandans are improving procurement with data and dialogue

Opening up Moldova’s contracts. Progress and challenges

A little data goes a long way: How bidder analysis could boost competition in Colombia’s infrastructure contracts

All Mexico’s public contracts on one platform run by civil society

Bedrock for better public infrastructure in Honduras

How do you build a network of citizen corruption fighters?

Who wins the contracts: How Chile’s Observatorio de Compras is using open data to scrutinize competition in procurement

Mexico’s INAI launches new open-source tool to upload and visualize open contracting data

Open data and collective action: How student activists help neglected schools in Paraguay

How journalists in Bulgaria are using data to investigate abuse of EU funds in procurement