View of El Paso, TX. The Nowak Lab, with the Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program, is leveraging the procurement economy to empower small businesses, strengthen local supply chains, and foster equitable economic growth in communities like El Paso, San Antonio, and beyond. | ​Photo by Carol M. Highsmith

The Procurement Economy is expanding, a trend driven by growing investments and spending going through local, state, and federal governments. What happens here will help determine whether the economy is tilted towards a narrow set of large national conglomerates or a broader array of locally based, small and medium sized enterprises. The Lab believes supplier development is a necessity to facilitate local growth, build stronger domestic supply chains and foster greater economic competition.

The central goal of the Procurement workstream is to identify and disseminate strategies to use the expanding Procurement Economy to grow small and diverse local businesses, turning it into an exercise in market making and business building. There are three necessary actions for realizing the central goal –

1. Size the Procurement Economy by assessing the scale of spending by federal, state and local governments;

2. Capture the challenges facing local businesses, through interviews with local firms, governmental entities, local institutions and business support organizations; and

3. Make actionable recommendations to make the procurement system work better for small businesses and give local businesses the support they need to grow and scale.