The Inter-American Network on Government Procurement (INGP), is an initiative of the American countries constituted as a regional technical cooperation mechanism, composed by governmental institutions, headed by the national directors, who have the highest responsibility regarding the regulation, management and modernization of government procurement in the 32 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, who handle 15 to 20% of their countries GDP.

The Network had a gradual formation process from the first meetings held since 2003 between the heads of national offices and programs to modernize government procurement in the Americas. In the first instance, a network of Inter-American E-Government Procurement which was initiated in September 2004 and later, in June 2005, became the Inter-American Network on Government Procurement to expand labor issues and enlist other initiatives related to Government Procurement in the Americas. Since its creation in 2004, the INGP has become the most recognized body of regional technical cooperation in the field of government procurement which has focused, in recent years, on facilitating the exchange of experiences and best practices among its members, qualifying human resources working in national entities responsible for government procurement, generating and disseminating knowledge about the sector, promoting the incorporation of information technology and communication as tools of efficiency and transparency, and promoting regional coordination and harmonization in key aspects of national government procurement systems.

The Network has Constitutional Statutes, which were approved by the members of the INGP in 2008, in Panama City, and in which it appears that the Network is structured as follows: The Technical Secretariat, headed OAS, a President and an Executive Committee composed of representatives from member countries for the five geographical areas of the region; as well as by the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Development Research Center (IDRC), international organizations that support financially and institutionally the Network since its creation, in order to establish an area of cooperation in the hemisphere in the most important area of public administration and to convey to the citizens an image of credibility in their institutions in the area of government procurement.

The INGP is composed of governmental institutions, represented by the national directors of the 32 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean who, at the national level, have the ultimate responsibility regarding the regulation, management and modernization of government procurement; as well as by institutions that provide institutional and financial support such as the Organization of American States (OAS), which acts as Technical Secretariat of the Network, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Development Research Center (IDRC).

The activities of the Network enjoy the participation of various public actors related to government procurement of their countries in order to generate and disseminate learning, discussion, exchange of experiences and good practices in this area.

The INGP aims to strengthen the capacity of each country in order to increase efficiency and transparency in government procurement; generate and maintain spaces for reflection, mutual understanding, solidarity technical cooperation, training and exchange of experiences between the institutions of the Network, in order to help strengthen government procurement practices in the region and to build links between governments, civil society organizations related to government procurement and international agencies.

Provide procurement managers of the Americas, opportunities to cooperate in the analysis of lessons learned and best practices from leading institutions, and strengthen their capacity to define strategies and implement programs and projects to modernize government procurement.

Through the creation and dissemination of information, access to experts, the organization of workshops, conferences, cooperation between institutions, training of public officials and mobilization of technical support, we seek to help reduce the time, cost and risk of implementing initiatives such as the development of e-government procurement while increasing the quality and impact of the solutions adopted by each country.

The Network has an inter-American reach and includes the promotion of technical cooperation projects in the areas of interest identified by the countries.