Intergenerational public procurement is an investment governance reform rather than a single instrument. Typically representing 20–30 percent of countries’ GDP, mainstream procurement practices tend to prioritise minimising immediate expenditure and award contracts based on the lowest price: they are underutilised as a strategic innovation tool for societal change . This commonly neglects long-term social value, environmental resilience and inclusive local development – putting Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) organisations and purpose-driven businesses at a disadvantage, whilst strengthening major established firms with benefits of scale and exploitative supply chains. Long-term public investments in areas such as community housing, transport, and digital public infrastructure (DPI) can be negatively affected by the ripple effects of suboptimal procurement choices – making it vital to incorporate accountability to future generations into public spending at every stage of the decision-making lifecycle. Applying an intergenerational fairness lens to public procurement embeds lifecycle costing, social and ecological impact criteria, and future generations’ wellbeing directly into legislation and policies, strategies, bid evaluations and contract management. Key measures include: shifting to outcome-oriented evaluation; integrating wellbeing, climate and equity indicators into award criteria; introducing SSE preferences; strengthening transparency through open contracting; and building institutional capacity for foresight-informed and participatory procurement. Barcelona (Spain) uses public procurement to advance social justice, digital sovereignty, and long-term urban resilience by embedding social, environmental, and innovation criteria, including reserved contracts and innovation procurement for future challenges. Bogotá (Colombia) has pioneered transport investments that prioritise sustainable mobility, long-term public health, equity, and environmental outcomes. Buenos Aires (Argentina) leverages its public procurement to actively reshape local markets by implementing gender-responsive certification and preferential systems for women-owned businesses, rebalancing historical structural inequalities that had previously favoured larger, male-dominated firms. Rather than requiring wholesale legal overhaul, intergenerational public procurement approaches are modular and can progressively align procurement and broader public finance management (PFM) systems with long-term public value and poverty eradication objectives. By steering substantial PFM and public purchasing power toward socially useful, locally embedded and ecologically sustainable activities, intergenerational procurement addresses structural poverty at its roots. It supports decent work, strengthens community wealth building, reduces future fiscal risks from stranded assets and environmental damage, and ensures that public funds contribute to durable wellbeing rather than short-term savings. In doing so, procurement becomes a strategic tool for redistribution, democratic accountability and long-term resilience, advancing poverty eradication through deliberate public investment choices rather than market competition alone.
