GUIDANCE NOTEBUILDING GENDER-RESPONSIVEPROCUREMENT: LESSONS FROMRESEARCH AND PRACTICE

Suggested citation: UN Women. 2022. “Building Gender-Responsive
Procurement: Lessons From Research and Practice.” Guidance Note. March.
New York: UN Women, May.
Substantive Lead: Anna Gollub
Editors: Tina Johnson and Andy Quan
Designer: DESIGN plus d.o.o.
Acknowledgements: This publication was led by the Women’s Economic
Empowerment Section of UN Women as part of the flagship programme,
Stimulating Equal Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs, which is
supported by NAMA Women Advancement. Thanks to Emilie Combaz for
initial drafts of this research. Thanks to Jade Cochran, at headquarters
and all colleagues in country and regional offices who lent their expertise,
experience, and knowledge to the process.

GUIDANCE NOTEBUILDING GENDERRESPONSIVE PROCUREMENT:LESSONS FROM RESEARCH
AND PRACTICE

May 2022

TABLE OF CONTENTSACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

2

1. INTRODUCTION

3

Overview

3

2. FINDINGS

6

Institutions

6

Partnerships

7

Evidence

7

Capacity7

3. OPPORTUNITIES

12

4. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PUBLIC
AND PRIVATE PROCUREMENT

14

Public procurement

14

Private procurement

14

5. RECOMMENDATIONS

17

Institutions

17

Partnerships

19

Evidence

19

Capacity20

6. CONCLUSION

23

BIBLIOGRAPHY

24

APPENDICES

27

Appendix 1.
Overview of the 11 research documents
studied in this report27

Appendix 2.
Definition of GRP in UN Women’s
11 research documents

28

Appendix 3.
Main objective of the CO’s programmingon GRP in the country(implicit or explicit in the 11 studies)

29

Appendix 4.
CO’s theory of change on how UN Women’s
programming on GRP would broadly work
(implicit or explicit in the 11 studies)30

Appendix 5.
Ways proposed by CO’s to start implementing
GRP programming in their country, start-up
strategies and partners for collaborations(implicit or explicit in the 11 studies)

31

Appendix 6.
Lead question investigated in UN Women’s
11 research documents

32

Appendix 7. Programming areas andentry points for intervention identified in
the 11 documents

33

Appendix 8.
Topics the CO’s asked their 11 researchdocuments to examine (terms of reference,
study objectives or research questions,as mentioned by the study authors)

38

Appendix 9.
Specific information the CO’s requested
from the 11 studies in order to inform andimplement their GRP programming

40

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice1

ACRONYMS ANDABBREVIATIONSAGPOAccess to Government Procurement Opportunities (Kenya)COcountry office

BB BEE
GRP
ICT

M&E

IFMIS
SMEs

UN Women
UNGM
WEE

WEPs
WOB

Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (South Africa)
gender-responsive procurement

information and communication technology
monitoring and evaluation

Integrated Financial Management Information Systems
small- and medium-sized enterprises

United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
United Nations Global Marketplace
women’s economic empowerment

Women’s Empowerment Principles
women-owned business

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice2

1. INTRODUCTION
As part of its Flagship Programme Initiative called ‘Stimulating equal opportunities for
women entrepreneurs’, UN Women works with governments, the private sector, civil society
and women entrepreneurs in alignment with target 8.3 of the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs): “Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities,
decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage theformalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including throughaccess to financial services”.
Gender-responsive procurement (GRP)—the sustainable
selection of services, goods or civil works that takes into
account the impact on gender equality and women’s
empowerment—is a key pillar of UN Women’s strategy.
Its Corporate Guide to Gender-Responsive Procurement1
details the business case for sourcing from womenowned businesses (WOBs), the challenge and barriers
preventing WOBs from accessing and fully participating
in global and local value chains, and comprehensive‘how-tos’ that buyers can implement to increase
sourcing for WOBs. More recently, UN Women developed
a paper with the International Labour Organization(ILO) to explore the decent work and employment
dimensions of GRP2.
UN Women’s work in about 40 countries draws on
GRP strategies and knowledge. The present reportsynthesizes its relevant research in Brazil, Kenya, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa in order todevelop recommendations for programming and policy
development that can have a transformative impact
on the material realities of women entrepreneurs,
business owners and workers. The intended audience
is development actors, including government, civilsociety, UN and the private sector, who are planningor implementing such GRP policies and programmes.
The aim is that this knowledge will foster learning thatenables GRP advocates to scale up their programmes
based on evidence and practical experience.

1
2
3
4

Overview
Overall, the studies show that GRP, or even simply
women’s participation in procurement by large public
and private entities, remains extremely limited in theseven countries examined. The studies from Kenya,
Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa explore
how information, dialogue and advocacy help public
procuring entities make their formal frameworks andpractices of procurement gender-responsive3.
The study from Brazil has a private-sector focus,
exploring how internal practices to apply the Women’s
Empowerment Principles (WEPs)4 and good practices
in the fields of supplier diversity and sustainableprocurement can result in the participation of more
WOBs in companies’ supply chains.
The two studies from Pakistan focus on procurementby the Government and multinational companies anda supply-side mapping of women’s businesses.

UN Women 2017a.
UN Women and ILO 2021.
Appendix 4 presents each country office’s theory of change on how UN Women’s programming on GRP would broadly work.
The WEPs “are a set of Principles offering guidance to business on how to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment
in the workplace, marketplace and community. Established by the UN Global Compact and UN Women, the WEPs are informed
by international labour and human rights standards and grounded in the recognition that businesses have a stake in, and a
responsibility for, gender equality and women’s empowerment” (Empower Women n.d.).

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice3

Institutions

Partnerships

Evidence

Capacity

Strategic entry points and challenges for GRP depend on four factors: legal and institutional frameworks (institutions);
partnerships among different stakeholders (partnerships); data (evidence); and the capabilities of buyers and suppliers(capacity) in a country. This report is structured around those four categories.

The UN Women studies employ diverse approaches
to GRP, depending on the context.5• Six studies—on Nigeria, Pakistan (2), Rwanda andSouth Africa (2)—refer primarily to genderresponsive or gender-smart procurement, using the
purposely broad definitions offered by UN Womenin The Power of Procurement6 or in the United
Nations Global Marketplace (UNGM).7

5
6
7

8

• Three studies that are centred on public
procurement—Kenya, Senegal and South Africa—
refer to affirmative procurement, or affirmative
action, for women entrepreneurs and define this byreferring to the applicable national laws.
• Three studies—on Brazil and South Africa (2)—refer to concepts focused on the private sector,
namely the WEPs, supply chain diversity andsustainability and supplier diversity.8

Appendix 2 lays out the different definitions of GRP adopted in the 11 studies.
Chin 2017.
For example, the UNGM definition of GRP cited in the studies is: “the sustainable selection of services, goods or works thattakes into account the impact on gender equality and women’s empowerment, and actively seeks to reduce barriers to entry for
women’s businesses to benefit from business opportunities”.
For example, supplier diversity is defined as “the purchasing of services and goods from minority suppliers (Adobor and McMullen2007), which includes women-owned business enterprises” (FGVcelog 2019b, p. 4).

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice4

In all seven countries, the programming focuses on
increasing the participation of women entrepreneurs
and WOBs—typically SMEs—in procurement by
increasing their capacities and/or modifying policies
and practices on the demand side. As mentioned earlier,
UN Women and ILO (2021) have a broader definitionof GRP that incorporates a lens on employment andworking conditions. However, the traditional definitionof GRP is at the core of most of the countries’ work, andtherefore the lessons will focus mainly on GRP designedwith the aim of supporting women entrepreneurs andbusiness owners.
The wide range of GRP approaches reflects complex
power relationships between governments andenterprises that are not gender neutral. Focus canbe on the private or public sector and on the supply(workers and entrepreneurs/business owners) or
demand (buyers) side. While countries employ
different strategies, all must contend with the ultimate
challenge that procurement is guided and regulated
by values of competition and cost savings, which canleave scant room for a gender-responsive approachthat benefits those most left behind. Buyers seek tooptimize price and broader considerations about public
goods (e.g., human rights, decent work, environmental
protection) while women’s businesses struggle tocompete, especially in settings with high levels of

9poverty and inequality. The challenges are compoundedby corruption, favouritism and partisanship.
Nevertheless, despite the challenges, countries havedelivered tangible results.
In the Kenya study, 82 per cent of the businesses
surveyed that have embraced the Access toGovernment Procurement Opportunities(AGPO) initiative (as businesses owned by
women, youth or persons with disabilities)
report benefiting from it. Benefits range frombusiness expansion, greater profit margins,
greater stocks, increased employment and theability to pay fees, to provide for basic needs
and to purchase property.9

As this report will outline, strategic entry points andchallenges for GRP depend on four factors: legal andinstitutional frameworks (institutions); partnerships
among different stakeholders (partnerships);
data (evidence); and the capabilities of buyers andsuppliers (capacity) in a country. Additionally, it will
identify opportunities and compare public and private
procurement. Finally, recommendations are made to
inform further collective action in the area of GRP.

Kiriti Nganga 2017, pp. 10–11.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice5

2. FINDINGS
Institutions
Procurement systems reflect thevalues of the buyers, and thesecan be reproduced throughtheir actions. Women’s negative
experiences with procurement
processes can be due to lack of gender responsivenessand/or deficiencies in the procurement process andsystem. Dominant sexist norms and behaviours limit
and constrain many women’s autonomy when setting
up and running a business.
“[E]ntrenched traditional and patriarchal
perceptions restrict women’s mobility, limitsocial networks, discriminate based on genderor marital status, impose restrictions basedon reproductive and domestic responsibilities
and hamper decision-making powers and time
availability, hence strictly limiting their economic
activity and growth of businesses. These
factors force WOBs to operate in the informal,
lower value-added service sectors and homebased enterprises producing specifically forintermediaries. The situation results in limiting
WOBs’ access to financial literacy, business skills
and business acumen crucial for sustainablegrowth and many women fail to increase thescale of their enterprises enough to trigger
significant economic renewal”.10
The formal framework in a country matters forgender-responsive procurement (GRP), from laws andregulations to policies, even though it is not enough byitself to ensure that procuring entities will successfully
apply GRP. Legal and policy frameworks pose obstacles
to GRP when they ignore gender and/or lack precision,
enforcement, comprehensiveness or consistency(e.g., failing to meaningfully define WOBs or to set formal

obligations, targets and sanctions regarding GRP) or
leave agencies or departments with discretionary power
to shape their procurement. In addition, among SMEs
that are buyers, a number lack a formal procurement
policy altogether, let alone a gender-responsive one,even when they have a stated goal to practise GRP.
In the public sector, a set of laws, regulations,amendments, legal notices and processes make up theformal legal and institutional framework of procurement,
whether it is gender-neutral (Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda)
or includes provisions for GRP (Kenya, Senegal, South
Africa). There can be relevant elements at multiple
national or subnational levels simultaneously—for
example, at federal, provincial and municipal levels.
Other kinds of policies can advance GRP. For example,
provisions in favour of SMEs in procurement are helpful,particularly in contexts where SMEs are typically owned or
dominated by women. WOBs can also take advantage ofpolicies outside the realm of procurement, such as credit
support measures for SMEs. Preferential procurementin support of disadvantaged groups can enable GRP if it
includes women in the groups concerned.
In the private sector, the set of relevant formal policies,
mandates and strategies adopted by individualcompanies for GRP typically include: policies andprocesses on procurement, sourcing and structured
and competitive bidding; programmes for sustainability
or supplier diversity; any policies, mandates or
strategies for GRP developed at a high level; and any
initiatives for buying from or supporting womenowned suppliers or for GRP, be it as part of corporatesocial responsibility (Brazil, Pakistan) or as a result of
public laws for affirmative procurement (South Africa).
Beyond individual company policies, there can also bevolunteer industry codes on affirmative procurement.
Moreover, in South Africa, several sectors have adopted
Codes of Good Practice or Charters to apply the publicly
mandated Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment(BB BEE)11.

10 UNW Pakistan n.d.-a, p. 13.
11 These codes set goals and targets for procurement from Black South Africans and lay out the associated ratings for BB BEE scoring.
Once the codes are set, they are binding on companies in that sector. The sectoral codes include Black WOBs as a stand-alone
category of supplier and set targets for preferential procurement from them. The sectors that have adopted such codes since 2009
are: agriculture; finance; forestry; construction; ICT; marketing, advertising and communications; mining; property; transport; andtourism (UNW SAMCO 2019, p. 41).

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice6

Partnerships
GRP programming rests on
close collaborations with many
diverse stakeholders. The studies
took four major approaches topartnership.12
First, all of the studies recommend close collaboration
with women entrepreneurs and WOBs, sometimes
focusing on WOBs with the greatest likelihood of
success in procurement13, sometimes including moredisadvantaged WOBs. The major aim is to supportand empower them to seize opportunities in GRP andconsult with them to facilitate dialogue with public,
private and non-profit actors to improve women’s
position in procurement.
Second, findings from country offices (COs) working
with the public sector (Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda,
Senegal, South Africa) propose close collaborations withpublic officials, civil servants and political party leaders
to push for improvements in the formal framework andin the practices and capacities of public procurement
so that WOBs benefit as both direct and subcontracted
suppliers.
Third, lessons from the private sector (Brazil, Pakistan,South Africa) show a need for close collaboration withlarge private companies to encourage them to adopt
and implement policies to increase inclusion of WOBs
in their supply chains.
Fourth, studies for both the public and private
sector (Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal) propose close
collaborations with other relevant stakeholders suchas various professional associations (chambers ofcommerce, business associations, trade or industry
associations), women’s associations, the main private
and non-profit institutions promoting women’s
entrepreneurship, actors promoting gender equalityand development actors.

Evidence
COs conducted or commissioned
research to build evidence
to support GRP. The studies
employed
quantitative,
qualitative or mixed methods
to tackle contexts with scarce data on procurement,
business and gender together14.
The studies cover five major angles: the mappingof women’s businesses in a particular market; thecurrent state of participation of women’s businesses
in procurement; the supply-side barriers women
entrepreneurs face; the demand-side frameworks,
experiences and contexts that shape GRP practice incountries; and political and economic factors more
broadly.
The findings are especially meaningful whendisaggregated by business size, sectors or industries
and stage in value chains, as done for South Africa. On
the public sector side, such analyses covered issues
including processes during tendering, bid evaluation,
award and payment and the social, political, culturaland other nuances shaping public procurement (Nigeria,
Pakistan, South Africa). On the private sector side, theanalysis was structured around supply chains (Pakistan,South Africa).

CapacityThis section will go over the key
threads that are common in
the reports reviewed from theseven countries with respect
to capacity. First, it addresses
the capacities of procurement organizations in the
public and private sectors; and second, it discusses
the capacities of women and women’s enterprises.
Because capacity is such a cross-cutting area, thesummary will be organized by the same headings
the main report is structured around: institutionalframeworks (institutions); relationships among
different stakeholders (partnerships); data (evidence);
and the capabilities of buyers and suppliers (capacity).

12 Appendix 5 sets out each COs’ start-up strategies and partners for collaboration.
13 For example, the South Africa CO “has targeted 25,000 WoEs [women-owned enterprises] for support in accessing formal
procurement chains over the next five years [2020-2025], and 15,000 within the next three years—from 2020 to 2022. [...] The emphasis is on entry points which enable high impact, easier entry to market/ease of starting business/ease of doing business”(Mackie et al. 2019, p. 14).
14 For additional information on how the COs have designed their research on GRP, see Appendix 6, which identifies the leadquestion investigated in each study, and Appendix 8, which details the topics that the COs asked the research to examine.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice7

Panel discussion at the launch of the study report in Rwanda. From L-R, Ms Fatou Lo, UN Women Country Representative,
Ms Francoise Mubiligi (RWCE), Mr Augustin Seminega (MINECOFIN – RPPA) and Dr Monique Nsanzabaganwa (NFNV). 2019.
Photo: UN Women/Tumaini Ochieng

Capacity gaps for procurement organizations
INSTITUTIONS
The lack of requirements for andenforcement of accountability on GRP, withno sanctions for failure, can be problematicfor WOBs. Also, the absence of mechanisms for suppliers
to lodge grievances can prevent women from learning
why they did not get a contract and how to improvefor their next bid. Arguably, procurement entities canreproduce the gendered segmentation of markets byassociating women’s businesses only with sectors
where women are typically present in larger numbers.
Finally, it is worth noting that gender imbalances inprocurement staff may mean that GRP is considereda ‘women’s’ issue as opposed to a mainstream issue
that impacts everyone.
Corruption in procurement, where present, has gendered
implications specifically detrimental to women
suppliers. For example, in Nigeria, public procurement
is closely linked to “political partisanship and informal
patriarchal rules”15. Party financiers, chieftains andtheir proxies commonly dominate public procurement
based on the political party in power. Consequently,
15
16
17
18

even when WOBs meet the qualification for publictenders, “informal rules and partisan interests still tend
to reinforce their exclusion and limited participation
because very few women have ‘heavyweight’ status
within party structures”16.

PARTNERSHIPSIn terms of relationships, reliance on
pre-existing, exclusionary procurement
networks to choose suppliers is common.
Such physical and virtual networks are economiccultural and interrelated. They are often closed, inthat they tend to exclude those that are not actively
connected to existing networks because buyers lookfirst at those they know. The conditions for access are
more challenging for micro and small WOBs compared
to medium WOBs. In South Africa, white women havea small advantage over Black women in accessing
such networks17. In addition, the private sector often
requires an in-person pitch, which many women findvery difficult to do due to cultural reasons and low
self-confidence.18

UNW Nigeria 2018.
Ibid.
UNW SAMCO 2019, p. 85.
Ibid., pp. 59–60.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice8

EVIDENCE
With respect to data, there can also be
problems with data collection, monitoringand evaluation on gender in an entity’s
procurement or in its support to WOBs. For example,
some institutions have set up no data systems at all,while others lack a unified framework for this. Genderdisaggregated data typically fails to systematicallyintegrate intersectionality. Additionally, public andprivate actors may not agree to share their data publicly
to protect information they consider to be internal or
confidential.
Some procuring entities lack knowledge on women’sbusinesses and the country context for women
entrepreneurs. In many countries, there is a dearthof easily usable information about existing womenowned suppliers. More broadly, there may be a lackof good-quality data on WOBs. There are also few
easy and reliable ways for procuring entities to checkthat businesses are really owned and run by womenSometimes staff, including senior staff and operational
management, do not have an understanding of GRP
or do not have the tools to implement it, such as
integrated financial management information systems.
Additionally some procuring entities provide no support
or set conditions to access it that are out of reach formany WOBs.

In Kenya, WOBs name the following as punitive
obstacles:19• Having statements proving an active bankaccount, which is difficult for disadvantaged
businesswomen who rarely keep their earnings
in their accounts and instead spend themlargely to feed their children• Having won previous contracts, a problem for
women with a new business• Having audited accounts• Offering adequate reference letters.
During tender evaluation, the lack of information of thestatus of applications discourages a number of WOBs
from bidding (South Africa). During the course of thecontract, technical specifications that change, or that are
too vague, and a lack of follow-up and communicationon the part of procuring entities all pose problems for
women entrepreneurs (Senegal). After completion ofa contract, delays in payment are a major problem for
WOBs and deter them from engaging in procurement,
including in GRP initiatives.

CAPACITY GAPS: BUYERS
The above challenges can be present at
all stages of the procurement process.
For example, at the stage of tender calls,
buying entities often fail to adapt their channels ofcommunication, language and wording (in procurement
documents and even support services) to make themaccessible to women.
At the stage of (pre-)qualification, many financial
and non-financial conditions and requirements
structurally hamper WOBs, especially the ones run
by the most disadvantaged women. As part of this,financial requirements for bid security and performance
guarantees constitute a particular obstacle.

A ‘Buyer-Seller Forum’ in Kenya, where micro-entrepreneurs
were trained on business management and linked toservice providers including finance. 2021.
Photo: UN Women/David Mugo

19 Kiriti Nganga 2017.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice9

CAPACITY GAPS: SUPPLIERS
A full accounting of the capacity issues
faced by women’s businesses is far beyond
the scope of this report; however, thestudies confirm some common knowledge about thechallenges of entrepreneurship and business ownershipfor women.
For example, dominant sexist norms and behaviours
limit and constrain many women’s autonomy whensetting up and running a business.

Sometimes women’s businesses lack capacity for
effective bidding strategies, such as setting competitive
pricing or using collective bids through collaborations
or joint ventures. Further, women’s lack of awarenessoften applies to GRP, GRP opportunities and GRP-related
support.

These translate into real challenges for women whenit comes to accessing procurement.

In Senegal, women entrepreneurs’ widespread
ignorance about the applicable rules and procedures
dramatically lessens the impact of the legal provision
for affirmative procurement, as this:21

Women—especially more disadvantaged women—do
not know enough about how procurement works, often
leaving them dependent on men for this.

• Prevents many women entrepreneurs frombidding for tenders they would have had highchances of winning“[E]ntrenched traditional and patriarchal
perceptions restrict women’s mobility, limitsocial networks, discriminate based on genderor marital status, impose restrictions basedon reproductive and domestic responsibilities,
hamper decision-making powers and time
availability hence strictly limiting their economic
activity and growth of businesses. These
factors force WOBs to operate in the informal,
lower value-added service sectors and homebased enterprises producing specifically forintermediaries. The situation results in limiting
WOBs’ access to financial literacy, business skills
and business acumen crucial for sustainablegrowth and many women fail to increase thescale of their enterprises enough to trigger
significant economic renewal”.20• Exposes women entrepreneurs who have won atender to penalties and sanctions for not complying
with the specifications of the tender.

• Leads some women entrepreneurs to submit bids
that are of poor quality

Lastly, women make less use of the recourses available
to them in procurement procedures, especially forgrievance and redress.22

20 UNW Pakistan n.d.-a, p. 13.
21 KPMG Sénégal 2018, p. 3. This law ( the 28 July 2008 Act on Promoting and Developing SMEs) was repealed and replaced by theorientation law 2020-02 of 7 January 2020. A new law on public–private partnerships in Senegal (Law No. 2021-23 of 2 March 2021)
through its implementing decree (Decree 2021-1443 of 27 October 2021) provides for a 2 per cent margin of preference for women’senterprises. In the same vein, a draft small business act for the access of women and young people to public procurement througha quota of 15 per cent has been drawn up and awaits validation.
22 UNW Pakistan n.d.-a, p. 7.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice10

SYSTEMATIC GAPS
In addition to capacity gaps on the buyers’
and suppliers’ side, there are significant
gaps, obstacles and poor practices in the
products and services that public and private financial
institutions offer women entrepreneurs. Formal banking
and financing (e.g., through banks and credit support)
are not well designed for women entrepreneurs—
especially SMEs. Instead, women entrepreneurs haveto rely more on their personal contacts for funds. This
is noted by nearly all the country studies. In somecountries, even public systems to support financing andcredit for enterprises are out of reach for WOBs. Somefinancial institutions also exhibit gender discrimination
against women entrepreneurs (Rwanda).
In Kenya, public authorities have failed to allocate
funds to capacity-building on the AGPO initiative
for the suppliers concerned.23
In Nigeria, the Bank of Industry offers financial
and technical support to micro and small
businesses to promote their growth. However,support “comes with stringent criteria such as
proof of property ownership”.24
In South Africa, organizations tasked withsupporting WOBs seem to have neglected
those in rural areas, failing to provide them withresources and instead concentrating resourceson metropolitan areas. Public programmes forenterprise development, including for small
businesses, are not filling the many gaps
throughout the value chain for either small
businesses or WOBs.25

23 Kiriti Nganga 2017.
24 UNW Nigeria 2018.
25 UNW SAMCO 2019.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice11

3. OPPORTUNITIESDespite the challenges previously described, there arepositive signs. First, women-owned businesses typicallyconfirm they are willing to participate in some formof procurement, though whether this is in the public
or private sector varies. Second, well-established
WOBs offer a proven record of sustainability, revenue
generation and profit.
In Pakistan, many WOBs surveyed that “have grownbeyond the start-up stage” have proven to be sustainable,
to generate revenue and to be profitable, although
structural and social barriers have held them back fromgrowing as fast as businesses owned by men.26

In Pakistan, most of the well-established WOBs surveyed
were eager to grow through collaborations. They
also exhibited the characteristics to do so, including
improved business practices, social and family support,
appetite for risk and relevant professional and academic
backgrounds.29
In South Africa, findings from one survey show that the
majority of respondent WOBs were interested in joint
ventures with other WOBs.30

In South Africa, women entrepreneurs with at least
three years of experience in industry and enterprise are
the most successful. They are formalized, have suitablebusiness models, are industry compliant and are
certified at level 1 under BB BEE. Their entrepreneurial
attitudes and confidence are strong.27
Indeed, in a number of countries, well-established
WOBs have the same profitability as well-established
men-owned businesses.
In Pakistan, among a sample of comparable womenand men-owned companies in sectors of interest toProcter & Gamble Pakistan, WOBs had, on average,
a similar profitability rate of 22 per cent.28
Moreover, a number of well-established WOBs havethe willingness and potential to grow.

Under UN Women’s project, Building Social Cohesion
through Effective Women’s Leadership, women fromThatta, Sindh meet at the newly established ‘Peace
Cafe’, a safe place to mingle plus display and sell theirembroideries and handicrafts. Pakistan, 2021.
Photo: UN Women Pakistan/Anam Abbas

26 UNW Pakistan n.d.-b, p. 15.
27 UNW SAMCO 2019, p. 85.
28 UNW Pakistan, n.d.-b, p. 6.
29 UNW Pakistan, n.d.-a, p. 6.
30 UNW SAMCO 2017, p. 36

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice12

Third, in some countries, buyer entities that actuallypractise gender-responsive procurement (GRP) reportthat the quality of work and the skills that WOBs provide
are as good as those from men-owned businesses—
although in other contexts, buyers report the reverse,
as noted elsewhere in this report.
In Brazil, large companies using GRP reported
that they encountered no gender-related barriers
to buying from WOBs in terms of the quality orcompetences provided.31

Fourth, greater use of information and communication
technology (ICT), especially through e-procurement, has
the potential to facilitate WOBs’ access to procurement
because it can streamline the processes involved andhelp curb corruption32. However, ICT excludes moredisadvantaged women, such as those with no computersand no easy or reliable Internet access. In addition,some applications of e-procurement can structurally
inhibit GRP. For example, in electronic reverse auctions:“Because of the focus on price, non-price factors […]may be given insufficient attention. Such factors may
include aspects like delivery times, socio-economic
considerations, experience of tenderers and similar
aspects”33.
Fifth, in some countries, actors supporting GRP havecreated databases of WOBs.
In South Africa, by late 2017, women andindustry associations had documented andcreated a database of 304 WOBs that were fullycompliant and ready to do business with theGovernment. This was achieved with support
from UN Women. The database was then sharedwith the Department of Energy.34

Lessons learned sharing mission for women to see moringa production grown inthe backyard of a WOB, South Africa, 2021.
Photo: UN Women/Agness Phiri

31 FGVcelog 2019b, p. 2.
32 UNW SAMCO 2017, pp. 5 and 33.
33 De la Harpe 2012 cited in Edinger et al. 2017. An electronic reverse auction involves the presentation by tenderers, suppliers orcontractors of successively lowered bids over a scheduled period of time and the automatic evaluation of bids.
34 UNW SAMCO 2017, p. 36.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice13

4. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
PUBLIC AND PRIVATEPROCUREMENT
Public procurement

Private procurement

Women-owned businesses generally have negative
views on, or lesser preference towards, public-sector
buyers compared to private-sector buyers. For example,
in South Africa, WOBs perceive doing business with theState as “onerous and risky”.35

The studies found positive though mixed results andimpacts of gender-responsive procurement in theprivate sector. WOBs often have positive views, or apreference, towards working for private-sector buyers
compared to public-sector buyers, particularly because
payments are timelier and more reliable and because
there are chances for repeat business and growth.

First, in multiple countries, WOBs strongly perceive thepublic procurement process as corrupt and rigged.
In South Africa, ‘Tenderpreneurship’ is seen as
common—this local term refers to a person using“their political connections to secure government
contracts for personal advantage”.36
In Nigeria, public procurement is closely
linked to “political partisanship and informal
patriarchal rules”.37

Second, there can be intense competition on publictenders. In some countries, award decisions on publictenders emphasize price, not the quality of deliverables.
This lesser attention to quality can also continue to be a
problem during contract performance. In this context,
whereas the opportunity costs are higher, the chancesof repeat business are low since suppliers’ track record
is not a priority, as noted on South Africa.38
Third, a recurring theme on public procurement is thatpayments are often late and unpredictable, as flagged,
for example, in South Africa.39

However, private companies’ formal commitments
to GRP are not enough. By themselves, generalcommitments to sustainability or diversity in supply
chains often fail to translate into tangible plans andactions.
The study on large companies in Brazil showsthat, although many respondent companies
had a formal programme for sustainability or
diversity, only 10 per cent of them had developed
a programme for supplier diversity or initiatives
to buy from women-owned suppliers.40

An increasing number of procurement departments
in large companies include compliance and risk
management as top priorities and state that sustainableprocurement is important, or critically important, tothem.41 In addition, there are business benefits of buying
from WOBs.

35 UNW SAMCO 2019, p. xi.
36 Ibid., p. 59.
37 UNW Nigeria 2018.
38 Ibid., pp. 59–60.
39 Ibid., pp. x, 53–54 and 59–60.
40 FGVcelog 2019b, p. 2.
41 Ibid., pp. 4–5.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice

14

The study on Brazil’s large companies concludes
that buying from WOBs “can result in positive
benefits and does not increase costs”. 42
A significant majority of companies that already
implemented policies to buy from WOBs reported
that this:• Increased employee satisfaction and brandreputation• Mitigated risks• Helped develop local suppliers• Increased business opportunities• Did not increase costs, i.e., the companies
did not spend more with WOBs.

The case for private sector engagement
In a number of countries, given WOBs’ reluctanceto engage with public procurement and the greaternumber of entry points available in the private sector(due, for example, to greater diversity in the goods,
works and services procured than in the public sector),
private companies are better positioned than public
institutions to include WOBs in procurement in
the first instance.
In South Africa, small, medium-sized andmicroenterprises (SMMEs) that are accepted
into private-sector programmes for supplierdevelopment “have a significantly higher chanceof accessing formal procurement”.43 These
programmes, which are usually run by verylarge firms, are by far the most effective means
for WOBs to enter private procurement. The top
40 firms on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
account for the bulk of private procurement in the
country—and they all have supplier development
programmes.44

Supplier development programmes work well as an entry
point for women’s businesses as they offer an enabling
environment for small and medium-sized WOBs toaccess the resources they need to get procurement
opportunities. Once WOBs are in a worthwhile supplierdevelopment programme that offers ongoing support,
and once they deliver on their commitments, “there isa good pipeline, and the potential to grow”45.
Finally, large private companies may be well positioned
to advocate for GRP through communication and action,
given their high visibility in public life in some instances.
Large corporations provide significant
opportunities for GRP and can support it by:46• Leading and providing targeted training andnon-financial support to WOBs on skills andbusiness practices, including in accounting,marketing and corporate supply chains• Adopting more inclusive procurement
policies and practices, such as “working
with their existing suppliers to foster
more gender inclusive business practices”,
engaging prospective women-led suppliers
and highlighting opportunities for corporate
partnership with them
• Collaborating with formal financial institutions
to improve WOBs’ access to finance• Collaborating “with other private and public
sector stakeholders to create an enabling
environment”• Leveraging their marketing and advertising todrive “the development of a positive national
narrative around women entrepreneurship”.

42 FGVcelog 2019b, pp. 2 and 23–25.
43 UNW SAMCO 2019, p. 83.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid., p. 59.
46 UNW Pakistan n.d.-b, pp. 6 and 33.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice15

Remaining challenges with the private sector
There continue to be challenges with the private sector,
however. First, the networks and interactions crucial
to getting private procurement are harder for WOBs
to access and use. As reported in South Africa, women
entrepreneurs find it more difficult in the private
than public sector to access the physical and virtual
networks that provide information on technical issues
and potential procurement opportunities.
Second, it can be extremely difficult for WOBs
“to get on to a good supplier development programme”(e.g., in South Africa).47
Third, WOBs often find themselves subcontracted,
rather than directly contracted, in private companies’
supply chains. Although this has a number of

immediate benefits for the WOBs concerned, it caneventually limit their development if there is nopathway to grow and become a direct supplier.
In South Africa, for example, this has happened insupplier development programmes, which often do notprovide direct market access. Subcontractors typicallysupply the supplier development programmes, not thefirms themselves.48
Fourth, private-sector actors—even those signed up
to the WEPs—are loath to share details about theirprocurement, as observed in Pakistan. This is because
companies treat procurement policies, spending andprojections, as well as sex-disaggregated databases ofregistered suppliers, as strictly confidential.49

A Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) meeting in Nairobi. WEPs members
discuss and share best practices around principle 5 on enterprise development,
supply chain and marketing practices (2021).
Photo: UN Global Compact/Cynthia Kimilu

47 UNW SAMCO 2019, p. 59.
48 Ibid., pp. 59–60.
49 UNW Pakistan n.d.-a, p. 50.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice16

5. RECOMMENDATIONS
The country studies in this report demonstrate the diversity of contexts for practisinggender-responsive procurement (GRP). As such, the good practices and recommendations
offered here are adaptable to cross-cutting considerations that are country-specific, whether
related to factors including race, disability and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexualand queer (LGBTIQ+) issues. The studies also highlight that GRP requires combining andcoordinating multiple lines of action: revising the legal, regulatory and policy framework(institutions); continuously raising awareness (partnerships); filling information gaps andensuring transparency and accountability (data and monitoring); and improving practices andthe performance of actors on the supply and demand sides of procurement (capacity).

Institutions
Rights-based approaches: GRP
actions must be anchored onhuman rights and workers rights.
For example, for the private
sector, the gender strategy of the
Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) is founded on genderequality as an enabler of workers’ rights. It offersa fully developed theory of change, from root causes
and problem to strategies, outcomes and impact.50
In addition, multiple guides on gender-equitable value
chain development can help identify important issues
in designing more inclusive interventions.
While many companies are active women’s
empowerment advocates, the 2020 review of the WEPs
for the UN Global Compact offers sobering findings:
A mere 4 per cent of respondents tracked the percentage
they spend with women-owned businesses (WOBs), andjust 3 per cent reported on it publicly. Only 8 per cent hadrobust due diligence or assessment for suppliers andvendors, and only 6 per cent included gender in auditing
protocols, supplier scorecards or other tools to manage
supply chains or encouraged “their suppliers to trackprogress on gender equality”51. Similarly, an in-depth
study on Coca-Cola Company’s 5by20 programme—
meant to economically empower 5 million women
micro-entrepreneurs across its supply chain by the endof 2020—offers warnings about corporations’ rhetoric
on “smart economics” and “the business case for genderequality”. The review, based on engagements with
programme implementers and participants in Mexicoand South Africa, warns that women’s precarious
labour ends up being presented as entrepreneurship,
while concealing the structural causes of poverty
and impeding the sustainable development of theirbusinesses.52
Intersectional lens: Programming should beintersectional, with due account given to the interplayof structural inequalities that combine with gender(e.g., socio-economic class, caste, geography, age,
ethnicity, nationality, migration and refugee status anddisability). UN Women and procuring entities cannot
immediately remedy some of the severe inequalities
that prevent the most disadvantaged women suppliers
from participating in procurement. However, they canensure that everything they do has taken into accountstructures of inequalities, lowered any associatedbarriers as much as possible and used a transformative
approach. For example, while procuring entities cannot
immediately help women with little formal education
become more literate, they can use plain, concise
language in their documents and online information
about both procurement and available support, so thatliterate but less educated women can engage as direct
suppliers or as subcontractors.
GRP projects should strive to empower even the mostdisadvantaged suppliers by ensuring that any support
and capacity-building provided to WOBs on procurement

50 ETI 2018.
51 UN Global Compact and BSR 2020, p. 3.
52 Tornhill 2019.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice17reaches and is tailored to diverse businesses. At thesame time, stakeholders should recognize that not all
businesses can be suppliers, and it is essential for COs tohave typologies that distinguish survival or sustenanceenterprises, “steady state enterprises” and high-growthenterprises among WOBs.53
In this area, UN Women can learn from successful
experiences that have used an intersectional lens.
For example, in one province in Canada, efforts to“strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem for andinnovative capabilities of diverse women entrepreneurs”
suggest three lessons: approaches where “all are
welcome” are important; supporting women inmainstream organizations providing entrepreneurshipis needed; and enterprise supports that are “womenonly, feminist, and women-focused” are valuable.54
GRP stakeholders can also strive to make procurement
work better for all small businesses. As one study on
federal procurement in the United States concluded,
firm size is one of two “key determinants of bid likelihoodand success rates”55. The study found that smaller firms
were less likely to submit bids than larger firms and lesslikely to be successful, regardless of the gender of theowners56. In response, recent reports from countries
such as Canada can offer pointers to COs on advisingpublic entities about making public procurement work
for SMEs, including SMEs owned by women.
Similarly, partners’ programming should dedicate
more attention and action to developing sector-specificprogramming to tackle the effects of the gendersegmentation of businesses by sectors. As the study on
federal procurement in the United States concluded,
sector is the second determinant of bid success rate57.
The status quo, in which buyers choose the lowestpriced bids over gender equity, favours sectors where
men-owned businesses are concentrated, such as goods
producers (e.g., infrastructure), construction, defence and
ICT, whereas the sectors where WOBs are concentrated
systemically impede their bidding success.58

It is thus important to be aware of sectors where
women suppliers are currently concentrated andenable them to move to a different stage in the value
chain if they wish. One good example is women’sroles as food producers and entrepreneurs. Oxfam
International offers practical advice on what private
businesses can do and the “significant business casefor food companies to invest more in supportingand purchasing food commodities from female
smallholders”59. Simultaneously, COs should aim
to help women suppliers enter fields dominated bymen-owned businesses.
Tackle corruption: Governments should tackle corruption
in procurement while simultaneously strengthening
their laws on the protection of women to put a stop tofinancial or sexual corruption or favouritism in public
procurement. They should also strengthen the ethics
code of contracting authorities, evaluate its application
and regularly train officials in good ethical practices.
Such policies should address both general and genderbased forms of corruption in procurement. On a problem
such as sexual extortion, this means having appropriate
legal frameworks as well as policies and programmes
on awareness-raising, reporting mechanisms and data
and research.60
Advocates can consider framing the argument on
procurement reforms for GRP as a way for politicians,
public officials and civil servants to mitigate risks. For
example, the ‘anti-corruption risk assessment’ proposedby the UN Global Compact presents anti-corruption
reforms as protecting, rather than hunting down, public
servants and institutions. It emphasizes that the laws
about procurement set the norm, help reduce theinstitutional factors of corruption and therefore also
protect “public servants by minimizing their vulnerability
to corruption”61. This may be helpful in countries such as
Nigeria, where the fear of closing corruption loopholes
has led politicians and civil servants to significantly
resist the Public Procurement Act.

53 See, for example, Maheshwari et al. 2020.
54 Orser, Elliott et al., 2019, p. i.
55 Ibid., p. 508.
56 Ibid.
57 Ibid.
58 Ibid., p. 510.
59 Kirk 2012, p. 9
60 Feigenblatt 2020.
61 UNW Nigeria, 2018, pp. 17–18.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice18

Sustainability and resilience: Finally, programmingshould be integrated with efforts toward sustainability
and resilience with sensitivity to trends like violent
conflicts, public health crises and climate change.

Partnerships
Advocacy should involve actors
with actual influence over the
procurement areas concerned.
For example, in Nigeria, given the
deep politicization of government
procurement, GRP cannot be realized “by law reforms
only, but will also require identifying, renegotiating,and navigating the politics behind the reality”. Thus
UN Women’s advocacy “needs to include not justlegislators, but also political party leaders and headsof (specific) ministries, departments and agencies”.62
Strengthening the capacities of women’s associations
and industry associations is helpful, so they canconduct evidence-based advocacy towards public
or private buyers and procurement associations.
Additionally, mobilizing and organizing WOBs todemand change using public awareness campaigns
is a key strategy.63 Another important strategy isfostering champions for GRP among procuring entities
that establish and implement industry guidance orcodes on procurement.64 Procuring entities should
institutionalize collective and individual accountability
for GRP, especially at senior levels.65
Ensuring collaboration, coordination andcommunication between and within public procuring
entities can entail designating one institution within
the State as the leading entity in charge of achieving
the set objectives on GRP.66 To achieve a multi-sectoral
approach between and within government departments,

planning, finance and procuring departments should
coordinate, communicate and cooperate with eachother.67 This is also helpful to anchor the case for GRP
in a country’s macroeconomic policies by involving
ministries and departments such as those on finance,planning and SMEs.68

Evidence
To be effective, procuringorganizations and stakeholders
involved should ensure thatoutcomes, results and impacts
are publicly reported, monitored
and evaluated. Procuring entities need to move towards aculture of gender-focused audits69. Financial institutions
too should be encouraged to gather, analyse andcommunicate gender-disaggregated data about theirclients.70 Evaluation by the procuring entities themselves
should be complemented by reviews conducted byexpert third-party intermediaries and academics toproduce objective and rigorous evidence and ensurethat private and public initiatives for GRP are not “little
more than political and public relations posturing”.71
Publicity and integrity of data and knowledge are all
the more important given that a number of powerful
public and private procurement entities have refused
to open up access to their GRP initiatives or their data.
For example, academics who wanted to research CocaCola’s 5by20 programme in South Africa and Goldman
Sachs’ 10,000 Women in Rwanda were denied access.
These programmes of ‘transnational businessfeminism’ “revealed themselves as hypervisible yetlargely inaccessible and also as deeply protective of
their practices and of the knowledge produced aboutthem”.72

62 Ibid., p. 18.
63 bid., p. 21
64 UNW SAMCO 2019, p. 86.
65 Ibid., p. 8.
66 KPMG Sénégal 2018, p. 4.
67 Kiriti Nganga 2017, pp. 12–13.
68 UNW Nigeria 2018, p. 21.
69 UNW SAMCO 2017, p. 37.
70 UNW Senegal 2018, p. 5.
71 Orser, Riding et al. 2019, p. 513.
72 Allison et al. 2019, p. 62.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice19

Capacity
DEMAND SIDE
According to the country studies,
it is essential to specificallytarget not only an organization’s
procurement procedures and tools
but also its wider organizational practices. Procuring entities
should simplify and streamline the procedures, processes,
documentation and IT tools in their procurement, including
improving payments to suppliers so that they are paid on
time. This may require ring-fencing the funds for payment,
to prevent their reallocation and having procuring entities
pay interest on delayed payments73. It also involves putting
in place systems to connect buyers and suppliers.
Procuring entities should create mechanisms or tools
to connect buyers and WOBs as suppliers by gatheringand sharing gender-disaggregated data on women andmen suppliers and supporting the creation of supplier
databases.
The study from Pakistan suggests that an online
one-stop platform could provide support with:• Certification of WOBs
• An online WOB supplier’s directory• A networking platform for procurers andsuppliers• Supporting WOBs with their businessregistration and other legal obligations• Tailor-made capacity-building of WOBs on
effective tendering, validated by certifications• Capacity-building of buyers on GRP.

Meet-the-buyer sessions can also connect buyers and
WOBs suppliers in person.
Stakeholders working together must consult closely withdiverse WOBs to implement these recommendations,to ensure that changes are actually useful to WOBs
and do not reinforce the sectoral segmentation ofbusinesses.74 For example, evidence about the effects of
IT tools (e-procurement and e-commerce more broadly)on gender equality is mixed.75
E-commerce is not a silver bullet. In the context of digital
services, many women entrepreneurs’ possibilities
are bound by the platforms available to them. Digitalsolutions may reduce some of the discrimination womenface as business owners in face-to-face interactions;
likewise, reducing the number of intermediaries for atransaction enables women to reap more benefits fromthis.76 Yet, WOBs struggle when it comes to actions
such as securing licences and intellectual property
rights, negotiating customs procedures, navigating
logistics costs, particularly in rural areas, and accessing
appropriate finance because of the high barriers toentry; firms in developing economies face even greaterbarriers.77
E-commerce platforms are controlled mainly by giant
companies, which can put smaller companies such as
WOBs at a disadvantage and create extreme power
disparities. This could put more pressure on women’s
unpaid care work; drive women’s reliance on the
gig economy, which is precarious; reinforce tradeinequalities between the Global North and Global
South; and enable companies to extract and abusedata from women-owned companies.78
These strands of actions thus require wider organizationalchanges. To address this, stakeholders can unite around
the Women’s Empowerment Principles, through which
companies can advance gender equality and women’s
empowerment both internally and in their supply chains.79
Actors in the GRP space can update and localize the
Corporate Guide to Gender-Responsive Procurement80
for a comprehensive set of steps businesses can taketo improve their supplier diversity programmes andso on. Other guides exist, such as a recent one from
Femeconomy that identifies nine stages to creating
gender equality through procurement and offers ideas
on each of them: business case; baseline analysis;
stakeholder engagement; criteria and evaluation
framework; pilot programme; policy review andembedding the strategy; implementation plan and key

73 Kiriti Nganga 2017, p. 12.
74 Orser, Riding et al. 2019, p. 512.
75 See, for example, Gurumurthy et al. 2019a; ITC 2017; Sicat et al. 2020.
76 ICT 2017.
77 Suominen 2018.
78 Gurumurthy et al. 2019b.
79 See Empower Women n.d.
80 UN Women 2017a.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice20

milestones; embedding GRP in organizational systems
and performance evaluation; external communications;and ongoing benchmarking.81
Some provisions in existing, gender-neutral frameworks
on procurement can be leveraged towards GRP82.
For example, in Nigeria, the commitment to equity
and efficiency in existing procurement law and policy
provides a starting point to demand some genderaccountability.
To facilitate organizational change, procuring entities
can turn to the internal expertise they already haveamong their staff in human resources and, if available,
among staff tasked with diversity. These professionals
can apply their skills to supplier diversity instead ofleaving this to the procurement department alone.
They are likely to have relevant expertise in building
diversity programmes and can, for example, increase
employees’ knowledge and support of supplier diversity
by including this in employee trainings. They may also
have business contacts belonging to disadvantaged
groups, who could “facilitate networking and business
relationships between the company’s procurement
department and diverse suppliers”83. Another key area
to link with GRP is sustainability and enterprise risk
management departments, as found in Brazil.

Presidential Task Team capacity-building workshop for
women’s enterprises in Limpopo Province. UN WomenSouth Africa Programme Manager with partner from SEDA.
Photo: UN Women/Ayanda Mvimbi

Supply side
Country actors supporting GRP should help connect
WOBs with capacity-building on procurement given by
public, private and non-profit organizations in the formof trainings, mentoring, coaching and fully integrated
supplier development programmes. They should leave
no disadvantaged suppliers behind by ensuring thatany support and capacity-building provided reaches
and is tailored to diverse WOBs, including the moredisadvantaged ones and SMEs.
They should also help enhance WOBs’ financial
capacities. This includes advocacy to transformfinancing services so they meet women entrepreneurs’
needs and provide credit support, especially in rural
areas; collaborating with banks to develop tailoredproducts for SMEs;84 and considering creating a
one-stop platform to connect WOBs, procuring entities
and financial institutions.85 Support should also aim
to help women be more comfortable with navigating
the financial process, as their perceptions in this area
affect their willingness to seek financing and to thenbid on procurement.86
Actors supporting GRP should also enhance WOBs’social capital. This entails actively linking women
entrepreneurs into existing procurement networks,
supporting WOBs in registering on procurement
platforms, having women’s and industry associations
connect WOBs through a network on affirmative
procurement87, mentoring or coaching WOBs on
procurement and creating a platform for WOBs tocollaborate and build up their networks88. COs should
also combine supporting women entrepreneurs’ selfconfidence with giving them accurate views on theopportunities and challenges of accessing public andprivate procurement. One reason to do so, according to
one study on small-sized businesses in the United States,is that even when there is no evidence of discriminationin access to capital, women entrepreneurs’ perceptionof discrimination makes them temper their financing
and consequently limits their growth and their attempts
to access procurement.89

81 Femeconomy and 30% Club 2020.
82 UNW Nigeria 2018, p. 8.
83 FGVcelog 2019a.
84 UNW Pakistan n.d.-a, p. 49.
85 Ibid., p. 8.
86 Rasheed, 2004.
87 UNW SAMCO 2017, pp. 35–36.
88 UNW Pakistan n.d.-a, pp. 7 and 48.
89 Rasheed, 2004.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice21

Moreover, actors for GRP should improve WOBs’ access
to, and positioning in, local, national or international
markets. For example, they can help WOBs to have better
market information; focus on expanding industries(e.g. services) that are more accessible to them90;
enter supply chains through supplier and enterprisedevelopment91; develop tailored business models, suchas joint ventures, partnerships and subcontracting92;
form national or regional value chains; and adopt
niches93.
The aim should be to empower WOBs to have the choice
to be either direct or subcontracted suppliers. Each ofthese positions comes with advantages and drawbacks,and different WOBs will need or want different pathways.
In particular, experience from Canada and the UnitedStates suggests that, for SMEs, “subcontracting is asdifficult as contracting directly with governments”94.

In addition, actors for GRP can also help WOBs
achieve the right balance between integration andautonomy in relationship to the supply chain. This
will be particularly important for WOBs that startout with one large business (often owned by men)as their main client and for WOBs who become
regular subcontractors for a major contractor to alarge business (which may also be owned by men).
Retaining independence from businesses not owned
by women matters in itself for the women involved
and also because it is one of the criteria for businesses
to keep qualifying as WOBs95.In addition, a notable
study from the United States emphasizes that, forbusinesses owned by racial minorities to survive, theymust have diverse clientele and avoid over-relying
on public procurement96.The same advice is likely toapply to WOBs.

Participant during the fifth session of “Training of Women Entrepreneurs in Public Procurement” at IRMAP(Institut de Régulation des Marchés Publics) institute in Dakar, Senegal, 2021. The training is part of UN Women’s“WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS FINANCE INITIATIVE” (WE-FI) programme, which aims to remove financial and non-financial
barriers for women-led and women-owned SMEs.
Photo: UN Women/Adriana Borra
90 UNW SAMCO 2019, p. 85.
91 Ibid., p. 85.
92 UNW Nigeria, 2018, p. 32.
93 Orser, Riding et al. 2019, p. 495.
94 UNGM n.d.
95 Orser, Riding et al. 2019, p. 495.
96 UNGM n.d.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice22

6. CONCLUSION
This report synthesized 11 studies produced by UN Women on gender-responsive
procurement from seven countries. The key takeaway for actors who are planning andimplementing GRP interventions is that GRP can be adapted depending on several
contextual factors.
Institutions, as expressed through the legal frameworkin the country, provide the shape that GRP can take.
The countries studied built GRP norms strategically.
Strong affirmative action policies, for example, may
offer fruitful entry points for GRP, but these are likely to
be ineffective without accountability mechanisms suchas targets and quotas. Countries such as Pakistan, where
procurement law does not have a gender component,
may require other types of institutional interventions.
This is where data come in.
Data and evidence are the fuel of GRP. If a country orcompany does not have a GRP programme, it is possible
to find other possible points of engagement, but there arelikely to be challenges if there is no persuasive evidence
and data that supports the ‘business case’ for GRP. Dataand evidence also help monitor interventions to holdstakeholders accountable and assess efforts to introduce
and implement GRP. These data and evidence will go towaste without relationships and partnerships to help
pave the way for advocacy and doubled up efforts.
Partnerships among actors are the drivers of GRP. Many
actors who play multiple roles in markets, value chains
and societies must be coordinated to implement effective
GRP actions. By definition, a GRP programme requires
engaging with women’s civil society, such as women’sbusiness organizations as well as with gender experts
with local knowledge who can guide policy, advocacy
and action. However, partnerships take time to build.
Organizations such as UN Women with strong networks
are well placed to play a convening role, bringing together
the entire ecosystem of players in the GRP landscape towork together for collective action.
Capacity is the engine of GRP. Without this force of
momentum, GRP will not be possible. It is importantto acknowledge that not all players yet know how
to practically operationalize the vision of GRP, andwomen’s enterprises are not always equipped to

do business at the cost and quantities necessary tocompete. For this reason, capacity building is neededon both the demand and supply sides. On the demandside, capacity must be improved to create effective
institutions. Furthermore, it is essential to build an
evidence base and monitoring system, create supplierdevelopment opportunities for women suppliers bypartnering with other organizations and put in placemechanisms to increase capacity to implement GRP.
This could include investing in supplier databases andstreamlining payment systems that reduce transaction
costs for both buyers and suppliers.
On the supply side, there are many barriers that mustbe surmounted for women to be on a level playing
field when it comes to securing contracts. Women are
constrained by institutions and norms that view themas inferior to men and thus they often do not have thesame benefits of property rights, access to the paid
labour market and equal treatment when it comesto obtaining loans and accessing business networks.
Evidence and data about even the most marginalized
women in value chains should be collected, or they will beinvisible and it would be difficult to understand, promote
and respond to their needs which are different than theneeds of women who have more sustainable and formal
businesses. Relationships must be facilitated for women
to join business networks to gain access to communities
and networks that will help them to flourish. Finally, theymust have access to skills upgrading that is practical andrelevant to their situation.
To conclude, institutions, evidence, partnerships andcapacity combined have been shown to be effectivein the countries studied as a way to economicallyempower women in a transformative way. Development
partners can, through gender-responsive procurement,
improve the material realities of women and create anenabling environment for gender equality and women’s
empowerment.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice23

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to Source from Women-Owned Businesses– Corporate Guide to Gender-responsive
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De la Harpe, S. 2012. “The Use of Electronic
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Edinger, H., N. Magau, J. Nkume and J. Henz.
2017. “The Status of Affirmative Procurementin South Africa: A Supply-Side Perspectiveof Women-Owned Businesses in Public
Procurement.” Final Draft. Deloitte andUniversity of Pretoria for UN Women South
Africa Multi-Country Office (SAMCO), Pretoria.
[Confidential, not available online.]
Empower Women. n.d. “About | WEPs.”
Accessed 15 April 2020. www.weps.org/about.

ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative). 2018. “ETI Gender
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Feigenblatt, H. 2020. Breaking the Silence
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www.transparency.org/en/publications/breaking-the-silence-around-sextortion.
Femeconomy and 30% Club. 2020. “Creating
Gender Equality through Procurement.”
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FGVcelog (Centro de Excelência em Logísticae Supply Chain). 2019a. “Supplier Gender
Diversity in Supply Chains: Survey.” Escolade Administração de Empresas de São Paulo(FGV EAESP) in partnership with UN Women
Brazil Country Office, Sao Paolo.
______. 2019b. “Supplier Gender Diversity in
Supply Chains: Report 1: Survey Results.”
Draft. Escola de Administração de Empresasde São Paulo (FGV EAESP) in partnership with
UN Women Brazil Country Office, Sao Paolo.
GAA (Girls Advocacy Alliance) and COVAW(Coalition on Violence Against Women). 2019.
Safely Engaged: Addressing Gender-Based
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Gurumurthy, A., N. Chami and I.A. Anwar.
2019a. “Making the Digital Economy Work for
Informal Sector Women in India.” Policy Brief.
IT for Change, Bangalore, India. Accessed 25
October 2021. https://itforchange.net/sites/default/files/add/Making%20the%20digital%20
economy%20work%20for%20informal%20sector%20women%20in%20India_20thFeb.pdf.

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______. 2019b. “Gender Equality in the Digital
Economy: Emerging Issues – A New Social
Contract for Women’s Rights in the Data
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Feminsit%20Digital%20Justice%20Issue%20
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Maheshwari, P., A. Gokhale, P. Seth, N. Agarwal
and A. Makena. 2020. Mainstreaming GLI: An
Assessment of Women Owned Enterprises
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Development Research Centre (IDRC) andIntellecap. Accessed 25 October 2021.
https://www.intellecap.com/wp-content/
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ITC (International Trade Centre). 2017. “Closing
the Small-Business and Gender Gap toMake Trade More Inclusive.” In Aid for
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Inclusiveness and Connectivity for Sustainable
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Co-operation and Development (OECD) andWorld Trade Organization (WTO): 219–242.
Paris: OECD Publishing.

NextWin Services. 2016. Do Not Enter: Women
Shut Out of U.S. Government’s Biggest
Contracts. San Francisco, CA: Women
Impacting Public Policy (WIPP). Accessed 25
October 2021. https://www.wipp.org/resource/
resmgr/press_releases/WIPP_Do_Not_Enter_
Report_Fin.pdf.

Kiriti Nganga, T. 2017. “Kenya: Assessment ofAccess to Government Public Procurement
Opportunities for Women, Youth and Persons
with Disabilities – Final Report.” UN Women
Kenya Country Office, Nairobi. [Confidential,
not available online].
Kirk, L. 2012. “Gender Equality: It’s Your
Business.” Briefings for Business No. 7. Oxfam
International, Oxford, UK.
KPMG Sénégal. 2018. “Évaluation du Dispositif
de Discrimination Positive en Faveur desEntreprises des Femmes dans l’Accès aux
Marchés Publics au Sénégal” [Evaluationof the Mechanism of Affirmative Action for
Women’s Businesses in Access to Public
Procurement in Senegal]. Final Report NDS/
DSDS/OSF/2018/03/1510 for UN Women
Senegal Country Office, Dakar.
Lukiwski, T. 2018. “Modernizing Federal
Procurement for Small and Medium
Enterprises, Women-Owned and Indigenous
Businesses: Report of the Standing Committee
on Government Operations and Estimates.”
House of Commons, Ottawa, June. Accessed
25 October 2021. www.ourcommons.ca/
Content/Committee/421/OGGO/Reports/
RP9996115/oggorp15/oggorp15-e.pdf.
Mackie, G., C. Mollmann and J. Rowe-Setz. 2019.
“Develop a Typology for Women Owned
Enterprises in South Africa in the Context
of Increasing Access to Private and Public
Procurement Opportunities in South Africa.”
Final Report SAMCO/RFP/ADM2018/005.
Gender Research Alliance for UN WomenSouth Africa Multi-Country Office (SAMCO),
Pretoria.

Nyeck, S.N. 2015. “(Out)Bidding Women: Public
Procurement Reform Diffusion and Gender
Equality in Africa.” Wagadu: A Journal ofTransnational Women’s and Gender Studies 14:
13–56.
O’Rourke, A., C. Leire and T. Bowden. 2013.
Sustainable Public Procurement: A Global
Review – Final Report. Paris: United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP), December.
Orser, B., C. Elliott and W. Cukier. 2019.
Strengthening Ecosystem Supports for
Women Entrepreneurs: Ontario Inclusive
Innovation (i2) Action Strategy. Telfer Schoolof Management and Ryerson Diversity
Institute, Ottawa. Accessed 25 October
2021. https://telfer.uottawa.ca/assets/documents/2019/5515_TELFER-Orser-InclusiveInnovation-report_0419_final-aoda.pdf.
Orser, B., A. Riding and J. Weeks. 2019.
“The Efficacy of Gender-Based Federal
Procurement Policies in the United States.”
Small Business Economics 53(2): 491–515.
Rasheed, H.S. 2004. “Capital Access Barriers
to Public Procurement Performance: The
Moderating Effects of Ethnicity, Genderand Education.” Journal of Developmental
Entrepreneurship 9(2): 22–43.
Ravanera, C. 2020. Increasing Supplier Diversity
in Canada. March. Institute for Gender and theEconomy, Rotman School of Management,
University of Toronto, Canada.

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Lessons From Research and Practice25

Sicat, M., A. Xu, E. Mehetaj, M. Ferrantino
and V. Chemutai. 2020. “Leveraging ICT
Technologies in Closing the Gender Gap.”
Working Paper. The World Bank, Washington,
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pdf?sequence=1.
Stoian, D., J. Donovan, M. Elias and T. Blare.
2018. “Fit for Purpose? A Review of Guides for
Gender-Equitable Value Chain Development.”
Development in Practice 28(4): 494–509.
Suominen, K. 2018. “Women-Led Firms on the
Web: Challenges and Solutions.” Issue Paper.
International Centre for Trade and Sustainable
Development, Geneva, October.
Tornhill, S. 2019. The Business of Women’s
Empowerment: Corporate Gender Politics
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UN Global Compact (United Nations Global
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Empowerment and Business: 2020
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October 2021. www.bsr.org/reports/WEPAnnualReport2020.pdf.
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2015. “Flagship Programming Initiatives.”
UN Women, New York. Accessed 25 October
2021. https://www.unwomen.org/en/
how-we-work/flagship-programmes.
______. 2017a. “The Power of Procurement: How
to Source from Women-owned Businesses.
Corporate Guide to Gender-responsive
Procurement.” Manual. UN Women, New York.
https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/
files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/
Library/Publications/2017/The-power-ofprocurement-How-to-source-from-womenowned-businesses-en.pdf.
______. 2017b “Theories of Change for
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Transformative Results for Gender Equality
and Women’s Empowerment.” UN Women,
New York.

______ and ILO (International Labour
Organization). 2021. “Rethinking GenderResponsive Procurement: Enablingan Ecosystem for Women’s Economic
Empowerment.” UN Women and ILO, NewYork and Geneva, 2021.
UNGM (United Nations Global Marketplace).
n.d. “UN Women: Gender Responsive
Procurement.” Accessed 25 October 2021.
www.ungm.org/Shared/KnowledgeCenter/
Pages/PT_GRP.
UNW Nigeria (United Nations Entity for Gender
Equality and Women’s Empowerment Nigeria
Country Office). 2018. “Women Entrepreneurs’
Access to Public Procurement in Nigeria.”
Baseline Study. UN Women Nigeria Country
Office, Abuja.
UNW Pakistan (United Nations Entity for Gender
Equality and Women’s Empowerment Pakistan
Country Office). n.d.-a. “Stimulating Women’s
Entrepreneurship through Gender Responsive
Procurement in the Public and Private Sector.”
UN Women for Procter & Gamble Pakistan,
Karachi.
______. n.d.-b. “Supporting P&G in Finding
Potential Women Owned Businesses.”
UN Women for Procter & Gamble Pakistan,
Karachi.
UNW Rwanda (United Nations Entity for
Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
Rwanda Country Office). 2017. “Study on
Gender Responsive Procurement in Rwanda.”
New Faces New Voices Rwanda Chapter;
Gender Monitoring Office, UN Rwanda; andUN Women Rwanda Country Office, Kigali.
UNW SAMCO (United Nations Entity for Gender
Equality and Women’s Empowerment South
Africa Multi-Country Office). 2017. “The Statusof Affirmative Procurement in South Africa:
A Supply-side Perspective of Women-Owned
Businesses in Public Procurement.” Final
Draft. Deloitte and University of Pretoria for
UN Women, Pretoria. Confidential, not available online______. 2019. “Implementation Guidelines for
Gender Responsive Preferential Procurementin South Africa’s Public Sector.” Draft Baseline
Study. UN Women South Africa Multi-Country
Office (SAMCO), Pretoria.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice26

APPENDICESAPPENDIX 1

Overview of the 11 documents studied in this reportCountry
studiedNo. ofreports

References
FGVcelog (Centro de Excelência em Logística e Supply Chain). 2019a.
“Supplier Gender Diversity in Supply Chains: Survey.” Escola de Administração de Empresasde São Paulo (FGV EAESP) in partnership with UN Women Brazil Country Office, Sao Paolo.

Brazil

2

Kenya

1

Kiriti Nganga, T. 2017. “Kenya: Assessment of Access to Government Public Procurement
Opportunities for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities – Final Report.” UN Women
Kenya Country Office, Nairobi.

Nigeria1

UNW Nigeria (UN Women Nigeria Country Office). 2018. “Women Entrepreneurs’ Access to
Public Procurement in Nigeria.” Baseline Study. UN Women Nigeria Country Office, Abuja.

FGVcelog (Centro de Excelência em Logística e Supply Chain). 2019b.
‘Supplier Gender Diversity in Supply Chains Report 1: Survey Results.” Draft. Escola deAdministração de Empresas de São Paulo (FGV EAESP) in partnership with UN Women Brazil
Country Office, Sao Paolo.

UNW Pakistan (UN Women Pakistan Country Office). n.d.-a. “Stimulating Women’s
Entrepreneurship through Gender Responsive Procurement in the Public and Private Sector.”
UN Women for Procter & Gamble Pakistan, Karachi.

Pakistan

2

Rwanda1

UNW Rwanda (UN Women Rwanda). 2017. “Study on Gender Responsive Procurement in
Rwanda.” New Faces New Voices Rwanda Chapter; Gender Monitoring Office, UN Rwanda;
and UN Women Rwanda Country Office, Kigali.

1

KPMG Sénégal. 2018. “Évaluation du dispositif de discrimination positive en faveur desentreprises des femmes dans l’accès aux marchés publics au Sénégal [Evaluation of themechanism of affirmative action for women’s businesses in access to public procurement in
Senegal].” Final Report NDS/DSDS/OSF/2018/03/1510. KPMG Sénégal for UN Women Senegal
Country Office, Dakar.

SenegalUNW Pakistan (UN Women Pakistan Country Office]. n.d.-b. “Supporting P&G in Finding
Potential Women Owned Businesses.” Mapping Report. UN Women for Procter & Gamble
Pakistan, Karachi.

Edinger, H., N. Magau, J. Nkume and J. Henz. 2017. “The Status of Affirmative Procurement inSouth Africa: A Supply-side Perspective of Women-Owned Businesses in Public Procurement.”
Final Draft. Deloitte and University of Pretoria for UN Women South Africa Multi-Country Office(SAMCO), Pretoria.
South Africa

3

Mackie, G., C. Mollmann and J. Rowe-Setz. 2019. “Develop a Typology for Women Owned
Enterprises in South Africa in the Context of Increasing Access to Private and Public
Procurement Opportunities in South Africa.” Final Report SAMCO/RFP/ADM2018/005).
Gender Research Alliance for UN Women South Africa Multi-Country Office (SAMCO), Pretoria.
UNW SAMCO (UN Women South Africa Multi-Country Office). 2019. “Implementation
Guidelines for Gender Responsive Preferential Procurement in South Africa’s Public Sector.”
Draft. UN Women South Africa Multi-Country Office (SAMCO), Pretoria.

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice27

APPENDIX 2.

Definitions of GRP in UN Women’s 11 research documents
Country

Ref.

Brazil

FGVcelog
2019a, 2019b

Kenya

Kiriti Nganga
2017

Nigeria

UNW Nigeria
2018

Pakistan

RwandaSenegalDefinition of GRP
None stated as such
Reference to WEPs and to supply chain diversity and sustainability
Supplier diversity is “the purchasing of services and goods from minority suppliers(Adobor and McMullen 2007), which includes women-owned business enterprises” (p. 4)
None stated as such
Reference to “affirmative action targeting women entrepreneurs” (no definition given)“[T]he selection of services, goods, and civil works that considers their impact on gender equality
and women’s empowerment (Chin 2017)”

UNW
Pakistann.d.-a“[T]he sustainable selection of services, goods or works that takes into account the impact ongender equality and women’s empowerment, and actively seeks to reduce barriers to entry for
women’s businesses to benefit from business opportunities” (UNGM n.d.)

UNW
Pakistann.d.-b“[T]he sustainable selection of services, goods or works that takes into account the impact ongender equality and women’s empowerment, and actively seeks to reduce barriers to entry for
women’s businesses to benefit from business opportunities” (UNGM n.d.)

UNW
Rwanda 2017

KPMG
Sénégal 2018"[T]he selection of services, goods, and civil works that considers their impact on gender equality
and women’s empowerment (Chin 2017)”
None stated as such
Quotes from national law about special measures in support of women’s entrepreneurshipand of affirmative procurement for WOBs: “specific measures meant to foster the emergenceof female entrepreneurship are initiated, in line with the strategy of the Ministry for Female
Entrepreneurship. [...] A 15 per cent share of public tenders set aside for recognized SMEs isgranted to companies owned by women” (article 33 of the 28 July 2008 Act on Promoting andDeveloping SMEs)
None stated as such
Reference to ‘affirmative procurement’ (definition referring to South African Constitution:
implementing procurement policies that provide for “categories of preference in the allocationof contracts” and “the protection or advancement of persons, or categories of persons,disadvantaged by unfair discrimination”)

South
AfricaReference (without definitions, but citing UN and UN Women publications, among others) to:- gender-smart or gender-responsive procurement in the public sector- gender-responsive or gender-smart procurement and supplier diversity in the private sector
GRP mentioned in passing, defined as “the selection of goods, civil works or services that take
into account their impact on gender equality and women’s empowerment” (Chin 2017)“The selection of services, goods, and civil works that consider theirimpact on gender equality and women empowerment” (UNW definition)

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice28

APPENDIX 3.

Main objective of the CO’s programming on GRP in the country(implicit or explicit in the 11 studies)Country

Ref.

Brazil

FGVcelog 2019a, 2019b

Advance GRP in the supply chain of large private companies in Brazil, with a focus
on companies that have signed up to the WEPs (implicit)

Kenya

Kiriti Nganga 2017

Advance GRP in public procurement, taking advantage of the existence of adomestic framework (law, policies, institutions) already in place for GRP (implicit)

Nigeria

Kiriti Nganga 2017

Advance GRP in public procurement, with a focus on increasing the participationof women entrepreneurs and WOBs (explicit)

UNW Pakistan n.d.-a

Advance GRP in public and private procurement, with a focus on increasing theparticipation of women entrepreneurs and WOBs in procurement done by large
entities (explicit)

UNW Pakistan n.d.-b

Advance GRP in public and private procurement, with a focus on increasing theparticipation of women entrepreneurs and WOBs in procurement done by large
entities (explicit)

RwandaUNW Rwanda 2017

Advance GRP in public procurement, with a focus on increasing the participationof women entrepreneurs and WOBs (explicit)

SenegalKPMG Sénégal 2018

Advance GRP in public procurement, taking advantage of the existence of adomestic framework (law, policies, institutions) already in place for affirmative
procurement from women-owned SMEs (implicit)

Pakistan

Edinger et al. 2017

South Africa

Mackie et al. 2019

Main objective of the CO’s programming

Advance GRP in public and private procurement, with a focus on increasing theparticipation of women entrepreneurs and WOBs in procurement done by large
entities, taking advantage of the existence of a domestic framework (law, policies,
institutions) already in place for GRP (explicit)
In the private sector, this centres on the supply chain of large private companies,
with a focus on companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (explicit)

UNW SAMCO 2019

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice29

APPENDIX 4.

CO’s theory of change on how UN Women’s programming on GRP would broadly work
(implicit or explicit in the 11 studies)Country

BrazilKenya

Nigeria

Ref.

FGVcelog 2019a, 2019b

Main objective of the CO’s programming
Companies changing their internal practices to apply the WEPs and thegood practices established in the fields of supplier diversity and sustainableprocurement will result in the participation of more WOBs in the companies’
supply chains, to the benefit of both the companies and the WOBs (implicit)

Kiriti Nganga 2017

With the right support, the domestic Access to Government Procurement
Opportunities (AGPO) initiative will yield even better results in increasing theparticipation and share of WOBs (including businesses owned by young women or
by women with disabilities) in public procurement (implicit)

UNW Nigeria 2018

With the right advocacy and support, Nigerian public authorities (especiallyat national level) will make their formal framework and their practices ofprocurement gender-responsive, and WOBs will be able to make use of this toincrease their participation and share in public procurement (implicit)

UNW Pakistan n.d-a

Pakistan
UNW Pakistan n.d.-b

A. Overall, for public and private procurement:
Drawn from UN Women’s global strategic plan 2018-2021: “If (1) domestic andinternational public and private procurement policies and practices are genderresponsive, and if (2) the capacity of women entrepreneurs and their access tofinance, networks, information and local infrastructure is strengthened to enable
them to grow their businesses; then (3) the gender gap in economic opportunities
will be reduced; because (4) women entrepreneurs will benefit more equally fromvalue chains” (p. 15)
B. For private procurement by multinational firms such as P&G:
The combination of P&G’s buying power and UN Women’s support to potential
suppliers will stimulate equal opportunities for women entrepreneurs to accessprocurement opportunities from large companies. UN Women and P&G havepartnered “to deliver the skills and support women need to access procurement
opportunities from large companies”. The partnership aims to create a demand forgoods and services supplied by WOBs by fostering gender-responsive public andprivate procurement, and a robust supply “by addressing the gender gap in accessto entrepreneurial skills and finance” (p. 10)

RwandaUNW Rwanda 2017

With the right information, dialogue and support, Rwandan public authorities(especially at national level) will make their formal framework and practices ofprocurement gender-responsive, and WOBs will be able to make use of this toincrease their participation and share in public procurement (implicit)

SenegalKPMG Sénégal 2018

With the right advocacy and support, the domestic framework for affirmative
procurement from women-owned SMEs will yield even better results in increasing
the participation and share of WOBs in public procurement (implicit)

Edinger et al. 2017
South Africa

Mackie et al. 2019
UNW SAMCO 2019

With the right support, the domestic framework for affirmative procurement,
combined with support to WOBs, will yield even better results in increasing theparticipation and share of WOBs (including businesses owned by disadvantaged
women) in both public and private procurement (implicit)

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice30

APPENDIX 5.

Ways proposed by CO’s to start implementing GRP programming in their country,
start-up strategies and partners for collaborations (implicit or explicit in the 11 studies)Country

Ref.

CO’s start-up strategies and partners for collaborations

Brazil

FGVcelog 2019a,
2019b

Close collaboration with large private companies, especially ones committed to theWEPs, to encourage them to adopt and implement the inclusion of WOBs in their
supply chains (in both first and second tiers of the supply chain) (implicit)

Kenya

Kiriti Nganga 2017

Close collaborations, primarily with public officials and civil servants as well as with
WOBs, to improve how the AGPO initiative works so that it fully achieves its objectives
for women suppliers and WOBs (as both direct and subcontracted suppliers) (implicit)
Two strands of close collaborations (implicit):

Nigeria

Pakistan

UNW Nigeria 2018

UNW Pakistan n.d.-a- with public officials, civil servants and political party leaders: pushing for changes in
the formal framework and practices of public procurement- with WOBs: empowering them to seize opportunities in affirmative procurement(focus on women as direct suppliers)
A. UN Women’s WEE interventions (which focuses on excluded women groups in the
country) support:- Policies and plans enhancing women’s socio-economic empowerment(including women from marginalized groups and home-based workers)- Women benefit from decent work, income security and socio-economic development
Four strands of close collaborations:- with public officials and civil servants: pushing for changes in the formal framework
and practices of public procurement- with large private companies, especially ones committed to the WEPs: encouraging
them to adopt and implement the inclusion of WOBs in their supply chains (in both
first and second tiers of the supply chain)- with WOBs: empowering them to seize opportunities in affirmative procurement(as both direct and subcontracted suppliers in public procurement and as suppliers inboth first and second tiers of private supply chains)- with chambers of commerce, business associations and other relevant bodies:engaging them to support GRP and WOBs
B. For private procurement by multinational companies such as P&G Pakistan(explicit): This mapping study lays “the groundwork for more informed and targetedinterventions and support going forward” (p. 10)

RwandaSenegalUNW Rwanda 2017

Close collaborations with public officials, civil servants, women entrepreneurs, actors
promoting gender equality, development actors and other relevant stakeholders tohold dialogues and push for action to make the formal framework and practices ofpublic procurement gender-responsive, while empowering WOBs to better participate
in it (as both direct and subcontracted suppliers) (implicit)

KPMG Sénégal 2018

Four strands of close collaborations to improve how affirmative procurement fromwomen-owned SMEs works so that it fully achieves its objectives for women suppliers
and WOBs:- with public officials and civil servants: pushing for changes in their formal framework
and practices- with WOBs: empowering them to seize opportunities in affirmative procurement(as both direct and subcontracted suppliers), consulting them and facilitating theirdialogue with public, private and non-profit actors about participation in public
procurement- with associations of WOBs: consulting them and facilitating their dialogue withpublic, private and non-profit actors about participation in public procurement- with the main private and non-profit institutions promoting women’s
entrepreneurship: pushing for changes in their formal framework and practices

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice31

Country

Ref.

Edinger et al. 2017

Mackie et al. 2019South
AfricaUNW SAMCO 2019

CO’s start-up strategies and partners for collaborations
Four strands of close collaborations (explicit):- with public officials, and civil servants: pushing for changes in the formal framework
and practices of public procurement—”A strategic focus of the SAMCO Flagship
Programme is on strengthening the capacity of government institutions and officials
to promote gender responsive procurement” (UNW SAMCO 2019, p. 4)- with large private companies: encouraging them to adopt and implement theinclusion of WOBs in their supply chains (in both first and second tiers of the supply
chain)- with WOBs: empowering them to seize opportunities in affirmative procurement (asboth direct and subcontracted suppliers). UNW SAMCO “has targeted 25,000 WoEs
[women-owned enterprises] for support in accessing formal procurement chains overthe next five years [2020-2025], and 15,000 within the next three years – from 2020
to 2022. [...] The emphasis is on entry points which enable high impact, easier entry tomarket/ease of starting business/ease of doing business – this facilitates cost-effective
access.” (Mackie et al., p. 14)- with chambers of commerce, business associations and other relevant bodies:engaging them to support GRP and WOBs

APPENDIX 6.

Lead question investigated in UN Women’s 11 research documents
Country

Ref.

Brazil

FGVcelog 2019a, 2019b

What are the state of and factors in the participation of WOBs in the supply chains oflarge companies?

Kenya

Kiriti Nganga 2017

What are the state of and factors in participation in public procurement by businesses
owned by women, youth or persons with disabilities?

Nigeria

UNW Nigeria 2018

What are the state of and factors in women entrepreneurs’ participation in public
procurement?

UNW Pakistan n.d.-aWhat are the state of and factors of GRP in the public and private sector, and are theystimulating women’s entrepreneurship?

UNW Pakistan n.d.-b

Which are the existing WOBs that have the capacity to be integrated as suppliers into
the corporate supply chain of P&G Pakistan, and how can P&G and other corporations
improve accessibility for them?

RwandaUNW Rwanda 2017

What are the major challenges faced by WOBs in engaging in public procurement
processes, and what areas require policy dialogue and refinements to make public
procurement system more gender-responsive?

SenegalKPMG Sénégal 2018

What are the strengths, weaknesses and effects of the implementation of the2008 law about affirmative action regarding women-owned SMEs’ access to public
procurement?

Edinger et al. 2017

What are the state of and factors in WOBs’ participation in public procurement?

Mackie et al. 2019

What is the typology of WOBs nationally, with a view to improving their participation
in formal public and private procurement chains?

UNW SAMCO 2019

How can public officials best use policy provisions and regulations on preferential
procurement to best implement gender-responsive procurement from women
suppliers and WOBs?

PakistanSouth
AfricaLead question investigated

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice32

APPENDIX 7.

Programming areas and entry points for intervention identified in the 11 documents
Country

Ref.

Programming areas and entry points for intervention identified- Improving companies’ procurement policies and processes, with work to
a. incorporate social issues such as buying from WOBs into the policies and processes(e.g., in requests for information and requests for quotation)b. extend the process to buy from WOBs from an internal focus within the company to thecompany also asking its own suppliers to increase gender equality in their procurement policies

Brazil

FGVcelog
2019a,
2019b- Using companies’ programmes and initiatives for sustainability, diversity, supplier diversity or
buying from WOBs, with work to mainstream these into all functional areas of the companies,
especially procurement (against the current lack of take-up in procurement departments)- Helping companies with their processes to identify the gender and diversity of their first- andsecond-tier suppliers (helping companies go from not measuring this at all, or only vaguely, tomapping their supply base, to identifying the WOBs in their supplier database, including among
second-tier suppliers)- Work to gain support from companies’ top management, which is essential to adopting
initiatives for sustainability or supplier diversity- Making the case for GRP—both the benefits of doing it (e.g., business case or values-based case)and the risks of not doing it (e.g., public or customer pressures, brand reputation and risk mitigation)- Identifying third parties (private or non-governmental organizations) that companies finduseful to help them buy from WOBs
- Legislation and policies (including to further ease the requirements to register to AGPO and to bid)
- Anti-corruption action- Public institutions:a. Within each public entity, ensuring that the departments of planning, finance andprocurement have a multi-sectoral approach and coordinate, communicate and cooperate witheach otherb. Between public entities, ensuring that the names and AGPO serial numbers of enterprisesthat have won tenders are published (to avoid some businesses becoming dominant)

Kenya

KiritiNganga2017- Public processes, including streamlining registration to AGPO, simplifying tender documents
and ensuring prompt and full payments- Public tools for procurement—make the Integrated Financial Management System (IMFIS)
friendlier to users- Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) on AGPO, including:a. improving current practices in order to have data on the outcomes of the AGPO initiative(volume and spend going to intended disadvantaged groups)
b. producing research on the impact of AGPO (e.g., on job creation, business expansion, savings
or innovation through competition)- Capacity-building, communication and awareness-raising:a. on the demand side, at national and local levels (including on the AGPO initiative, reporting
about AGPO, IMFIS)b. on the supply side—WOBs—with, e.g., trainings- Financing: helping WOBs access financing

Nigeria(ctd. onnext page)

UNW
Nigeria2018- Research, including for use in advocacy:a. Before all else, conducting a survey on the state of WOBs in the country to complement thepresent baseline report and to provide the information required for further engagement
b. Research and advocacy around gender-responsive or affirmative procurement in the country
to make the case for it, tailored to the national macroeconomic context and policy- Legislation and policies, pushing for reforms and affirmative procurement/GRP using: policy briefs,
advocacy and a gender audit of the training products of the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP)- Anti-corruption action

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice33

Country

Nigeria

Ref.

UNW
Nigeria2018

Programming areas and entry points for intervention identified- Capacity-building:a. on the demand side, at national and local levels, through stakeholder workshops,
South–South learning and visits and technical assistance to procuring agencies
b. on the supply side—WOBs—with trainings on public procurement- Support to WOBs upgraded through facilitation of access to information, trainings(see above) and dialogue with policymakers- Legislation, policies and mandates:
a. in the public sector (including government setting of standard definition for WOBs,
introducing procurement quotas and tax exemptions for WOBs, removing limit on number oflots to allow splitting of lots)b. in the private sector (introducing GRP in companies’ mandate and policies, with quotas orother measures for greater inclusion, using advocacy and information on WOBs to make thecase for GRP to large corporations)c. in the public or private sector (certifying WOBs)

UNW
Pakistann.d.-a- Public, private and non-profit institutions:a. chambers of commerce and industry and business associations playing a more active role toidentify and support WOBs
b. in the public and private sector, recruiting and supporting more women in procurement
departments and training them on the job in GRP and in supporting suppliers throughcoordination and communicationc. in the private sector:- having more collaboration between corporations, formal financial sector, organizations in
impact and development sector and public sector for policy support, to create an enabling
environment and achieve greater impact- large corporations “[w]orking with their existing suppliers to foster more gender inclusive
business practices” (p. 33)- Processes in public and private procurement, including simplifying tender documentation
and bidding processes, adding language to encourage WOBs to bid, engaging with prospective
women-owned suppliers and highlighting opportunities for corporate partnership and holding
meet-the-buyer sessions (through collaborations between procuring entities, chambers ofcommerce and industry, business associations and one-stop platform)

Pakistan- Tools for public and private procurement, by creating:a. dedicated online information directory on WOB suppliersb. platform for WOBs to collaborate and build their networks among themselves and with
suppliers
c. more broadly, online one-stop platform bringing together WOBs, public and private procuring
entities and financial institutions to offer multiple tools and services (e.g., certification of WOBs,
online directory of WOBs, networking platform, support for WOBs on business registration andother legislation, capacity-building on supply and demand sides)
UNW
Pakistann.d.-b- M&E on public and private procurement, including disaggregating existing supplier data by
gender- Capacity-building, communication and awareness-raising:a. on the demand side:- capacity-building in the public and private sectors at national and local levels (on GRP,
including to incorporate gender-responsive stakeholder management and business ethics)- leveraging of large private companies’ “marketing and advertising capabilities to help redefine
the national narrative around women entrepreneurship” (p. 33)
b. on the supply side—WOBs: by offering trainings and non-financial support on generalbusiness skills and on procurement, provided through well-qualified public, private or non-profit
structures and through the online one-stop platform mentioned earlier- Support to WOBs, assessing their needs in capacity-building- Financing: Helping WOBs access financing (credit guarantee schemes, collaboration withformal financial institutions—especially banks for SMEs—use of previously mentioned one-stop
platform as a tool)

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice34

Country

Ref.

Programming areas and entry points for intervention identified- Research, including for use in advocacy: conducting a comprehensive countrywide study on
women’s participation in public procurement, about the specific challenges faced by different
categories of WOBs (rural vs. urban, levels of education, vulnerabilities such as disabilities, etc.),
about the factors likely to boost their participation and about specific actions needed to support
their participation

RwandaUNW
Rwanda2017- Legislation and policy: pushing for reforms within the existing framework and for changes to
add provisions for GRP (e.g., preferential treatment for WOBs, quotas), using advocacy carried out
through joint efforts by stakeholders from government, the private sector and civil society,as well as development partners such as UN Women- Public tools for procurement (advocate for a version of e-procurement in Kinyarwanda language)- M&E on public procurement (put in place a gender-sensitive monitoring framework to ensure
public procurement across sectors systematically mainstreams gender)- Capacity-building, communication and awareness-raising:a. on the supply side—WOBs: with trainings both on general business skills and on public
procurementb. towards the population at large: with community sensitization campaigns to address cultural
norms and stereotypes that hinder women entrepreneurs at work and at home (involving men
allies too)
- Financing: engaging the financial sector to design women-friendly financial products that meet
WOBs’ needs- Conduct research, including for use in advocacy, as soon as possible, including an exhaustive census
of women entrepreneurs to have a reliable database with all relevant information(age, degree, marital status, sectors, difficulties etc.)- Legislation and policy (clarifications and improvements to existing provisions and institutional
set-ups)- Anti-corruption action- Public institutions:a. naming the Authority for the Regulation of Public Procurement [Autorité de Régulation desMarchés Publics, ARMP] as the public institution in charge of meeting the 15 per cent target set out
in lawb. creating a coordination body or mechanism between the ARMP and other stakeholders,
especially women entrepreneurs’ groups, to check whether public tenders are actually allocated inline with the legal provision on affirmative procurementc. setting up a one-stop point of contact that can direct women entrepreneurs to the rightinformation and support (including public programmes and services)

Senegal

KPMG
Sénégal2018- Public processes, including streamlining and simplifying tendering processes and documents andadapting technical and financial requirements to the size and complexity of each tender- M&E on public procurement (make it compulsory for the lead agency to publish a national reporton gender and access to public procurement each year)- Capacity-building, communication and awareness-raising:a. on the supply side—WOBs—with:- widespread and accessible awareness-raising about the law on affirmative procurement towards
women entrepreneurs and about the main laws and programmes on access to public procurement- identifying and adapting the trainings and support given to WOBs including general businessskills, and offer these programmes through well-qualified structures and through media and ICTs
- capacity-building to meet the requirements to bid for and perform under public procurement
contracts
b. towards the population at large: with widespread and accessible awareness-raising about thelaw on affirmative procurement- Support to WOBs and WOBs’ associations through organizing dialogues with these actors to havetheir views on the laws, regulations, policies and support services (including trainings) relating to
women’s access to public procurement- Financing: encourage the financial sector to adopt policies for gender equality, to gather genderdisaggregated data, and to better meet WOBs’ needs (including by partnering with financial
institutions to help women entrepreneurs get guarantees, loans and credit facilities)

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice35

Country

Ref.

Programming areas and entry points for intervention identified- Research, including for use in advocacy:a. strengthen research findings through targeted focus groups, especially on awareness gaps
among WOBs, requested simplification and standardization of tender and bid documents, skills
required to participate in public procurement and specific areas of assistance required (with strong
attention to the differences between urban and non-urban areas and between key industries)
b. develop case studies of WOBs that have been successful in government procurementc. further understand the demand-side status quo, including the challenges faced by public entities
in targeting and engaging WOBs in their procurement processes

Edinger et
al. 2017- Legislation, policies and mandates:
a. in the public sector: making the framework coherent to facilitate access to government
procurement, mainstreaming gender and empowering women in procurement (in policy,
strategies, plans, supplier development plans, indicators, enforcement of compliance withaffirmative procurement, accountability mechanisms), adopting the principles and risk assessment
tools of the WEPs in order to empower women and requesting gender and diversity policies fromsuppliers and use this for business selection
b. in private sector: amending the sector codes and scorecards to promote WOBs and mobilizing
and facilitating a core group of industry champions to establish or better implement industry
guidance or codes on procurement- Public, private and non-profit institutions:a. UN Women:- based on available typology of WOBs in relation to public and private procurement, centre GRP
programming on facilitating partnerships and integrating support; focus GRP work on WOBs thatare start-ups and small enterprises in sectors that will be priorities for the country, prioritizing
stages in value chains that are easier for WOBs to enter and work in and focusing collaborations onpriority programmes in the public sector and on the top large private companies- act as a convener of women’s associations, and industry associations, to foster collaboration andsteer a more coordinated and targeted approach in support of WOBs’ increased participation in
procurement- encourage public and private buyers to have outreach programmes towards WOBs
- establish a ‘WOBs Global Board’South
Africa(cont. onnext page)
Mackie etal. 2019

UNW
SAMCO
2019

b. women’s associations, and industry associations, playing a more active role in more targeted
work for WOBs, under UN Women’s convening, by:- doing evidence-based lobbying towards the public sector (including joint lobbying for better
enforcement of affirmative procurement, for awareness and education campaigns to educate
WOBs on affirmative procurement and for use of e-tools in public procurement)- doing evidence-based lobbying towards the private sector (to channel corporate social investments
towards educating and upskilling WOBs so they can better access public tenders and to engage
large firms in these trade associations to prioritize WOBs when subcontracting for large publictenders)- carrying out or channelling awareness and education campaigns for WOBs about affirmative
procurement and available support in the public sector, with the campaigns run by UN Women,
public entities or women and industry associations themselves- facilitating networking, and promoting connections and matchmaking on procurement
opportunities for WOBs (through connections with other WOBs, with potential clients in the public
or private sector and with potential industry peers, clients and suppliers)- collaborating more with UN Women on enabling and empowering WOBs, by leveraging therespective entities’ knowledge and resources- having women’s associations seek partnerships with their sister organizations abroad, which
UN Women can facilitatec. public institutions:- analysing existing supply chains to establish a baseline of women suppliers and entrepreneurs- implementing strategic sourcing for GRP (gender transformation integrated in tenders andpre-qualification elements during demand management, in proposal evaluations during acquisition
management, in award and contracting and in evaluation of suppliers’ performance)- improving performance on GRP (benchmarking, auditing, building capacity and managing
performance)

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice36

Country

Ref.

Programming areas and entry points for intervention identified
d. private sector: properly executing industry codes and preferential procurement rules

Edinger et
al. 2017

South
AfricaMackie etal. 2019

e. Improving processes in public and private procurement, including redesigning the process of public
procurement at all stages to make them more streamlined, user-friendly and easier to comply with,from tendering and bidding to award, feedback, performance and payment, and inviting WOBs’
feedback on the process (improvement of process to be conducted through lean thinking and leanmanufacturing processes and through greater use of electronic tendering)- Tools for public and private procurement, by:a. shifting quickly towards electronic tendering technologies for public procurement, such asenterprise eTendering system or Electronic Reverse Auctions
b. using women’s associations’ and industry associations’ membership databases to assist interested
member WOBs looking for partners on bidsc. creating industry-specific databases of WOBs fully compliant and ready to do procurementwith government (creation through collaboration between specific public entities and women’s
associations or industry associations)- industry organizations or lead firms establishing or ramping up integrated supplier development
programmes for WOBs that are integrated (including financing, access to markets, business
management, participation in procurement, training and upskilling, peer networking, office space)- UN Women developing and hosting a national eLearning platform on public procurement for WOBs
- UN Women, public entities or women and industry associations running more awareness andeducation campaigns to educate WOBs on affirmative procurement and on available support tools andservices for WOBs in the public and private sectors

UNW
SAMCO
2019

- women’s associations and industry associations hosting or identifying workshops, seminars andother platforms to share knowledge and access to information with WOBs and helping WOBs with
networking relevant to procurement- mentoring WOBs
- WOBs engaging in self-learning and education around public procurement opportunities- Support to WOBs: assessing WOBs’ needs in capacity-building- Financing: helping WOBs access relevant commercial financing (e.g., invoice financing, finance basedon business assets, soft loans, preferential payment terms, access to finance)

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice37

APPENDIX 8.

Topics the CO’s asked the 11 research documents to examine (terms of reference, study
objectives or research questions, as mentioned by the study authors)
Country

Ref.

Brazil

FGVcelog
2019a, 2019b

Topics the CO’s asked the studies to examine- Measure the participation of businesses owned or led by women in the supply chains oflarge companies in Brazil- Understand the barriers faced in engaging them and how managers can improve thisparticipation- Investigate how much beneficiaries (women, youth, people with disabilities) participate ingovernment procurement opportunities (volume and value of tenders awarded)

Kenya

Kiriti Nganga2017- Identify barriers or challenges among women, youth and people with disabilities thatprevent them from fully using AGPO opportunities, including their level of awareness of AGPO
- Identify barriers or challenges among procuring entities in implementing AGPO, including
bottlenecks in monitoring, reporting, tracking systems and evaluation, at Public Procurement
Regulatory Authority and AGPO Secretariat- Provide recommendations to the relevant stakeholders (including policymakers, public
entities, UN Women and the African Development Bank) on how to help the AGPO initiative
meet its objectives- Identify the challenges women entrepreneurs face in accessing government supply chains- Describe and analyse the access of WOBs to government procurement

Nigeria

UNW Nigeria
2018- Investigate the common issues and challenges (e.g., access to information, financial andstructural capacity), as well as concerns and misconceptions that women face in accessing
public procurement- Provide recommendations, including key areas of opportunity for engagement, to assist in
overcoming key barriers and challenges faced by WOBs and female entrepreneurs- Review current public procurement policies and government procurement expenditure andidentify whether they give special consideration to WOBs
- Identify and review public procurement procedures, information on bids and requirements

UNW
Pakistann.d.-aPakistan- Explore whether women are specifically considered in procurement policies in the private
sector- Analyse the characteristics of public and private procurement from WOBs, and of the WOBs
involved in it (including number of WOBs, nature of business, industries, major clients, annual
turnover)- Analyse in depth the challenges faced by WOBs in public and private procurement- Identify WOBs’ needs for capacity-building, including on applications for procurement bids

UNW
Pakistann.d.-b- Identify potential WOBs that could become P&G suppliers and suppliers to other large
companies- Assess the capacity of these WOBs as potential suppliers to a large corporation- Identify opportunities for P&G and other companies to improve accessibility for WOBs to dobusiness with them

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice38

Country

Ref.

Topics the CO’s asked the studies to examine- Generate background information as a basis for facilitating a continuous dialogue on GRP
between government, women entrepreneurs, development partners and other stakeholders

RwandaUNW
Rwanda 2017

- Provide decision-makers in government, women entrepreneurs and stakeholders that
promote gender equality with a coherent proposal for furthering women entrepreneurs’
engagement in procurement tenders- Identify concrete approaches and steps to improve WOBs’ capacities to successfully compete
in public tenders- Take stock of the implementation of art. 33 of the Law no. 2008-29 of 28/07/2008
on the Promotion and Development of SMEs, in relation to the promotion of female
entrepreneurship in Senegal

Senegal

KPMG
Sénégal2018- Identify the weaknesses and biases that may affect its implementation:
a. Identify the constraints in public procurement that pose obstacles to women’scompetitiveness in public tenderingb. Check whether legal and regulatory provisions for access to public procurement match
WOBs’ lived experiences of thisc. Assess potential inequalities in the attribution of public tenders, depending on sectors,
competing bidders’ profiles and the amounts at play in tenders- Provide a baseline study that can be used as reference to monitor, through later studies,
the effectiveness of changes in policies and rules for WOBs’ access to public procurement- Provide recommendations to help WOBs better access public procurement, including on
WOBs’ competitiveness in public tenders- Provide an update on legislative and regulatory public procurement framework
developments and how these apply to WOBs

Edinger et
al. 2017- Re-investigate the supply side of public procurement to determine the key hindrances to
WOBs in competing for government tenders- Offer key findings and recommendations to fill knowledge gaps and provide a path forward
for stakeholders seeking to encourage greater participation and empowerment of WOBs
through affirmative procurement- Develop a typology of WOBs with the capacity and potential to take up public or private
sector procurement opportunities

Mackie etal. 2019- Define the state of women entrepreneurs, including main barriers, with a focus on
procurement opportunities- Provide a high-level context for public and private sector procurement parameters andenvironment in South Africa- Offer high level comment and recommendations of possible areas for intervention(including preliminary prioritization of possible points of entry)

South Africa

Assist public procurement officials to:- Gain deeper understanding of what is meant by gender equality, equity, women’s
empowerment, gender responsiveness and gender-transformative change in relation to
procurement
UNW
SAMCO
2019

- Gain deeper understanding of the objective of gender-responsive preferential procurement
practices in the public sector- Gain deeper understanding of the legal mandates for gender-responsive preferential
procurement- Use norms, standards and guidelines to develop strategies, workplans and indicators forgender-responsive preferential procurement- Improve performance and achieve policy targets for preferential procurement of womenand WOBs

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice39

APPENDIX 9.

Specific information the CO’s requested from the 11 studies in order to inform and implement
their GRP programming
Country

BrazilRef.

FGVcelog
2019a,
2019b

Specific information requested
Analytical mapping of:- Companies’ overall sustainability and diversity programmes and projects, and how these are
deployed to the functional areas of the company- How these projects are incorporated into the purchasing area of the company- Companies’ actual level of supplier diversity, mainly with a gender perspective, and whether
they measure the participation of women-owned suppliers in their supply base
- Companies’ potential or actual outcomes and barriers to purchase from women suppliers- Analysis of the formal procurement framework of AGPO

Kenya

KiritiNganga2017- Analysis of current state of participation of women in AGPO
- Analysis of supply-side barriers experienced by WOBs
- Analysis of demand-side barriers experienced by public procuring entities- Assessment of public systems to monitor, report on and track AGPO
- Analysis of the formal framework of public procurement and its implications for existing andpotential affirmative procurement or for GRP- Analysis of current state of participation of WOBs in national markets and supply value
chainsNigeria

UNW
Nigeria 2018

- Analysis of current state of participation of WOBs in public procurement- Analysis of supply-side barriers experienced by WOBs (including barriers to integration in theformal sector)- Analysis of demand-side practices in public procurement (social, political, cultural, and othernuances shaping the character of public procurement)- Analysis of how GRP fits into the national, regional and global macroeconomic context- Analysis of the formal frameworks of public and private procurement, and their implications
for existing and potential affirmative procurement or for GRP

UNWPakistann.d.-a- Analysis of demand-side procurement practices in public sector (especially public
procurement processes during tendering, bid evaluation, award and payment) and private
sector (supply chains)- Study of WOBs:
a. Analysis of current state of WOBs based on non-random sample (profile, nature ofbusiness, major clients, industry, company size, location)b. Mapping and profile of existing WOBs that have the capacity to become suppliers in
the corporate supply chain of multinational companies such as Procter & Gamble (P&G)
Pakistan, i.e., larger and more experienced WOBs in five selected sectors (information
about: personal and household situation; business size, sales and sector; business skills andopportunities; attitudes and goals; financing)

Pakistan

UNW
Pakistann.d.-b- Analysis of current state of participation of WOBs in public and private procurement- Analysis of demand-side action for WOBs and for WOBs’ access to procurement on the partof public and private institutions- Analysis of demand-side barriers to GRP experienced by public and private procuring entities- Analysis of supply-side barriers experienced by WOBs in public and private procurement- Assessment of public and private systems to monitor, report on and evaluate participation
by WOBs in procurement

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice40

Country

RwandaRef.

UNW
Rwanda2017

Specific information requested- Analysis of the formal framework of public procurement and its implications for existing andpotential GRP- Analysis of current state of WOBs (profile and comparison with men-owned businesses,
including number of WOBs, sectors, business turn over)- Analysis of current state of participation of WOBs in public procurement- Analysis of supply-side barriers experienced by WOBs
- Analysis of the formal procurement framework on affirmative procurement for womenowned SMEs
- Analysis of current state of participation of WOBs in public procurement, especially throughaffirmative public procurement for women-owned SMEs

Senegal

KPMG
Sénégal2018- Analysis of supply-side barriers experienced by WOBs
- Analysis of demand-side action for WOBs’ access to public procurement (including
affirmative procurement) on the part of public, private or non-profit institutions, with a focus
on those that promote women’s entrepreneurship- Assessment of systems to monitor, report on and evaluate participation by women-owned
SMEs, in public institutions and private financial institutions, as this relates to these WOBs’
access respectively to public procurement and financial services- Analysis of the formal framework of affirmative public procurement and of private
procurement related to thisEdinger et
al. 2017

South Africa

Mackie etal. 2019- Analysis of demand-side procurement practices in public sector (especially public
procurement processes during tendering, bid evaluation, award and payment) and private
sector (supply chains), with analysis disaggregated by business size, sectors and industries
and stage in value chains- Study of WOBs in report by Mackie et al.:a. Mapping and analytical typology of WOBs in South Africa, with focus on relation to
public or private procurement—analysis by stage of business development (represented bybusiness size), by sector and by stage in sectoral value chain
b. Analysis of the capacities of existing WOBs in South Africa to access public and private
procurement, especially for large buyers, with analysis disaggregated by sectors andindustries and by stage in value chains- Analysis of current state of participation of WOBs in public and private procurement,with analysis disaggregated by business size, sectors and industries, and stage in value chains- Analysis of supply-side barriers experienced by WOBs in public and private procurement,with analysis disaggregated by sectors and industries and by stage in value chains- Analysis of demand-side action for WOBs and for WOBs’ access to procurement on the partof public and private institutions

UNW
SAMCO
2019

- Analysis of demand-side barriers to affirmative procurement experienced by public andprivate procuring entities, with analysis disaggregated by business size, sectors and industries
and stage in value chains- Assessment of public and private systems to monitor, report on and evaluate participation
by WOBs in procurement- Implementation guidelines for gender-responsive preferential procurement in the public
sector, to assist departments to mainstream gender in procurement, to empower women, toimplement strategic sourcing principles and to improve performance to mainstream genderfor gender equality and women empowerment in public procurement

Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
Lessons From Research and Practice41

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their needs worldwide.
UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards
for achieving gender equality, and works with governments and civilsociety to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed
to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly
benefit women and girls worldwide. It works globally to make thevision of the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women andgirls and stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspectsof life, focusing on four strategic priorities: Women lead, participate
in and benefit equally from governance systems; Women haveincome security, decent work and economic autonomy; All womenand girls live a life free from all forms of violence; Women and girls
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Building Gender-Responsive Procurement:
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