The Centre for Research on Economic Development of South America (IDEAS Center) from the National University of San Martin (UNSAM) has executed over the past four years one of the components of the Program for Strengthening Public Procurement Systems in Latin America and the Caribbean through the incorporation of ICTs and the fomentation of the participation of MSMEs, funded by the International Development Research Center (IDRC) of Canada. This program has generated a significant amount of applied research on public procurement systems in the region.

On September 16, 2013, in the framework of the INGP Annual Conference, the closing workshop of the Program was held in order to present the main results of the investigations in this field, presenting the current state of public procurement systems in the region, identifying best practices and recommendations for improvement and on the other hand, there was a discussion about the challenges of building an applied research agenda that summarizes the contributions of policy makers, researchers and representatives of support agencies for the Inter-American Network on Government Procurement.