Social Dimensions of Public Procurement in Natural Risk Prevention

 

¹ University of Salento, Italy

 

Public procurement plays a central role in shaping preventive strategies for natural risks. This paper investigates how procurement rules can incorporate social vulnerability considerations into the allocation of public resources. Focusing on territorial contexts, the study analyses contracts for infrastructure, monitoring, and maintenance services, assessing their impact on community resilience. The legal dimension of procurement is examined as a tool for guiding preventive investments toward socially sensitive outcomes. The contribution argues that socially informed procurement enhances both legal legitimacy and preventive effectiveness, reinforcing the link between public spending and collective safety.

Building on this premise, the paper situates public procurement within the broader framework of risk governance, where prevention is no longer conceived as a purely technical activity but as a multidimensional policy integrating social, environmental, and institutional factors. In this perspective, procurement procedures become a strategic lever for anticipating risks, reducing exposure, and mitigating the differentiated effects of natural hazards on vulnerable populations. The analysis highlights how award criteria, contract design, and performance requirements can be calibrated to reflect territorial fragilities, demographic conditions, and socio-economic inequalities.

Special attention is devoted to the interaction between procurement law and principles such as proportionality, non-discrimination, and equal treatment, assessing their compatibility with vulnerability-sensitive approaches. The paper argues that the inclusion of social vulnerability indicators does not undermine competition or transparency, but rather redefines value for money in light of preventive objectives and long-term public interest.

Through a legal and functional analysis, the study demonstrates that preventive procurement contributes to strengthening institutional accountability and to aligning public spending with constitutional and administrative principles related to safety, solidarity, and sustainable development. Ultimately, the paper suggests that procurement law can operate as a normative bridge between disaster prevention policies and social protection goals, fostering resilient territories and more inclusive forms of public action.

 

References

Calabrò M., Di Martino A.; 2025: Exceptions to the Ordinary Rules for Awarding Public Contracts: the Volcanic Risk Paradigm. It. J. Pub. L.

Policy Brief: Legal Frameworks for Effective and Integrated Disaster and Climate Risk Governance