How to accomodate supplier/contractor ?

External supplier or contractor play a vital role in the timely deliverance of quality service(s) or project deliverables.

The PMI school of thought as well as Quality houses like Six Sigma principles dictate that the customer organisation should help ensure that the supplier organisation also undertakes its internal busiiness process enhancement by increasing its project management maturity level and/or  adopting ITIL best practices models or on a higher note pursuing Six Sigma tools and techniques e.g. DMAIC. In other words, more efficient the supplier is - greater is the probability of receiving higher quality and and timely services.

However, the ground reality is different. In many parts of the world, for instance Middle East countries or African countries the local supplier is quite week technically and are equally bereft of resources to deliver adequate services. To add to the woe, some of them are typical authorised dealer of an International software product making the choice of the customer heavily restricted or for that matter giving it no other choice at all.

Under such prevailing situations, I would like to solicit the views and suggestions of esteemed forum members as to how far a customer organisation should go to help improve the conditions of the supplier. Should there be project/service budget and activities be dedicated towards this endeavor ?