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The lack of specific measures to support Māori businesses will be discussed at a conference in Auckland today.
In countries such as Canada, Australia, Britain, the United States and South Africa, government policy and corporate procurement approaches have boosted the number of indigenous or minority-owned businesses, improving socio-economic conditions.
Tania Pouwhare from The Southern Initiative, which is convening the Creating Shared Prosperity Conference, says social procurement policies have the potential to not only grow New Zealand’s economy but also tackle the country’s growing inequality issues.
In the past two years, the amount of services procured from indigenous owned businesses in Australia rose from $6 million to almost $2 billion, leading to a big increase in the number of aboriginal owned businesses.
The Southern Initiative has been working with Auckland Council and its council-owned organisations to change their procurement practices to include specific opportunities for Māori and Pacific businesses, and to outline specific social and environmental outcomes in their procurement.
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