Virtuous alliances: SMEs and public enterprises co-creating environments of integrity for sustainable and inclusive growth

The Virtuous Alliances initiative focuses on the co-creation of integrity environments for sustainable and inclusive growth in Argentina’s energy sector. Its main goals are to:

• Raise awareness about the importance of integrity as a condition for improving the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and public, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the energy sector in Argentina;
• Strengthen SMEs and SOEs, through the incorporation and elevation of compliance standards;
• Promote preferential public policies and regulations in order to improve SMEs’ participation in public procurements, such as decartelisation mechanisms and the fight against corruption.

Over the past five years, the initiative has built alliances in 10 provinces, engaging over 660 representatives from the public and private sectors, civil society, academia, and specialists in 8 events and 4 roundtables.

The initiative developed and shared valuable information and recommendations on integrity in the energy sector in Argentina through its website (a central hub for resources, tools, and training) and 10 publications, including a diagnosis of integrity policies in SMEs and SOEs, policy papers with recommendations, a strategic positioning document, and toolkits for implementing integrity programmes in SMEs and SOEs.

Additionally, more than 380 people across 10 provinces received training on integrity programmes through 13 synchronous sessions, a virtual course, and 9 webinars, forming a consultation and knowledge-sharing network. 56 organisations supported these activities.

The initiative also developed a public policy proposal to enhance SME participation in public procurement, which was discussed through more than 30 meetings with the executive and legislative branches at the national and subnational levels, as well as private multi-stakeholder roundtables in three provinces of Argentina.

Over nearly five years, Virtuous Alliances has established itself as a unique, federal platform to address integrity challenges in Argentina’s energy sector - an industry crucial to the country’s economic and social development. Today, the energy sector finds in Virtuous Alliances unprecedented information on integrity, training tools for continuous improvement, and spaces for experience-sharing between companies and experts.

By adopting a collective and federal approach, reaching ten provinces across Argentina, Virtuous Alliances has produced valuable insights into corporate integrity in the energy sector. SMEs, large private and public enterprises, and government officials have not only recognised the importance of strengthening integrity but have also enhanced their capacity to prevent corruption in business operations. They have gained access to simple, practical, and adaptable tools that enable them to put these principles into practice.

Most importantly, the initiative has built strategic alliances, creating a trusted environment where businesses, government representatives, civil society, experts and academia can engage in open dialogue. This has enabled discussions on key integrity challenges within the energy sector and SMEs development agendas, fostering consensus to transform business practices and state-market relations, embedding integrity, transparency and competitiveness as pillars for long-term solutions that benefit the entire energy value chain. Despite political and economic challenges, the initiative has laid a solid foundation for a more transparent and integrity-driven energy sector.