Fostering gender-responsive public procurement: understanding the barriers and solutions to include women-led businesses in East Africa

According to recent research by Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) in partnership with Open Contracting (OCP) and the Institute for Social Accountability (TISA), Tanzania’s preferential procurement initiative falls short, notable in terms of its impact on women-led businesses. This policy brief cites low registration rates, insufficient contract allocation, a lack of data, and non-compliance by procurement entities as significant problems contributing to the scheme’s poor performance and makes a couple of recommendations.

Public procurement has the potential to empower women economically, but gender disparities persist in Rwanda’s public procurement landscape. While remarkable progress has been made in women’s political representation, this equality has not equally extended to public procurement. Recent amendments to the Public Procurement Act signal a positive shift towards addressing these disparities.

This report discusses the issue of women and women-led businesses (WLBs) being under-served in their ability to access public procurement contracts in Africa, despite the large amount of government spending on procurement each year. The report synthesizes research conducted in five African countries, focusing on WOBs and their ability to compete, win, and manage public procurement bids, as well as the challenges they face in doing so.

Rwanda has no specific definition of the concept of women-owned enterprises. Rwandan society is characterised by a patriarchal community structure which has translated into men’s dominance and women’s obedience. This is one of the issues when identifying women-led businesses. The report observes that businesses owned and led by women are disproportionately micro-enterprises. The implication of this is that there is a smaller pool of WLBs to not only participate in large value tenders but also qualify to take part in the bidding process.

Government procurement programmes provide a large untapped opportunity to increase women’s representation in non-traditional business sectors and tap latent potential of women engaging in government. The study in five different Eastern Africa counties aimed at identifying factors that keep women from accessing government procurement opportunities and measures instituted to overcome the barriers.