Memorandum of Understanding between Open Contracting Partnership and MURC

We are pleased to announce that Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co., Ltd. (Tokyo Japan, President: Satoshi Murabayashi, “MURC”) and Open Contracting Partnership (Washington D.C., USA, Executive Director: Gavin Hayman) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in order to collaborate in the reform of public procurement systems by digitalization in low and middle income countries (LMICs). This MoU aims to the public procurement reform of medical supplies. Through these collaborative activities, MURC and OCP will contribute to the promotion of global health.

1．Background

Public procurement accounts for around 20% of global GDP. The share of public procurement in the market is particularly high in LMICs. So, it has a tremendous impact on the economy, political and social environment. “Open Contracting” is a key reform mechanism of public procurement to improve transparency and accountability. In order to ensure access to health care services, public procurement systems need to be reformed.

The MURC’s Center on Global Health Architecture tackles global health issues and focuses on using digital technologies to improve the public procurement system. OCP works across sectors and along the whole process of government contracting to use the power of open data to save governments money and time for delivering better goods and services for citizens in the field of public procurement.

This MoU aims to promote the reform of public procurement systems in LMICs including digitalization and open data for the purpose of improving the efficiency of the supply of products such as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and medical devices and the enlightenment activities related to the reform of public procurement systems. There are different activities that can be organized together, like the implementation of innovative projects and promoting stewardship and advocacy as well as utilizing capabilities, strengths, resources, and networks of both parties.

2．Outlines of the two organizations

About the Open Contracting Partnership

We are a silo-busting collaboration across governments, businesses, civil society and technologists to open up and transform government contracting worldwide. We bring open data and open government together to make public contracting reforms more agile, more impactful and more durable. Spun out the World Bank in 2015, we are now an independent not-for-profit program based in Washington D.C. and fiscally sponsored by Fund for the City of New York. We work in over 30 countries around the world supporting systemic reforms, helping innovations jump scale and fostering a culture of openness about the policies, teams, tools, data and results need to power change.

Website: www.open-contracting.org/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/OpenContracting/
Twitter: twitter.com/opencontracting

About Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co. Ltd.

MURC is a think tank / consulting firm of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG). It has offices in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, and conducts diverse projects including consulting to companies, policy research for national and local governments, management information services, human resource development, and economic research.

The Secretariat of this MoU is MURC’s Center on Global Health Architecture that works on global health issues.

Website: www.digitalsociety.murc.jp/globalhealth/architecture/index.html
Facebook：www.facebook.com/cgha.murc/
Linkedin www.linkedin.com/company/25078975/