What it’s about
This guide from the Open Contracting Partnership shows how publishing procurement information in the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) can solve common problems in public buying. It describes five concrete “use cases” – Market opportunities, Value for money, Public integrity, Service delivery and Internal efficiency – and explains what each goal means, which stakeholders care and what data fields and indicators they need.
For busy officials, the takeaway is straightforward: start with the question you need to answer, then collect only the data that supports that question. Clear tables list the minimum OCDS fields for each use case plus sample metrics and red-flag tests, making it easier to prioritise data collection, set up dashboards or design risk-detection tools. Country stories (for example Colombia’s competition scorecards and Ukraine’s medicine savings) show the approach in action.
When to use it
- Planning a data reform: deciding which procurement fields to publish and why.
- Designing monitoring tools: building dashboards, competition scorecards or red-flag alerts for corruption risks.
- Improving service delivery or efficiency: tracking contract milestones, delays and payments to spot bottlenecks.