The vision of Empowering Women through Public and Private Sector Procurement (EWOPP) is a just and inclusive economy prioritizing the needs of women and women-led businesses in public and private sector procurement.
To build a more inclusive economy, encouraging equitable socio-economic empowerment of women and promoting gender equality through increased participation of women-owned and women-led businesses in public procurement.
To address the barriers that women face in procurement processes and systems, ensure transformative change and promote an integrated approach to women’s economic empowerment, founded on equity and inclusion.
We are a coalition of women building a more just and inclusive economy, encouraging equitable socio-economic empowerment of women and promoting gender equality through increased participation of women-owned and women-led businesses in public procurement. We work to address challenges women-owned and women-led businesses are facing when competing for public procurement opportunities. We promote gender equality through procurement. We encourage and support approaches that increase the number of women-owned businesses in public and private sector procurement. We support gender-responsive enterprises to facilitate the inclusion of disadvantaged and underrepresented women and encourage public and private sector agencies to integrate gender equality in their procurement processes.
These low numbers of women in public and private sector procurement may be attributed to barriers affecting women entrepreneurs. These include structural impediments intrinsic to the procurement system, such as demand aggregation requirements, competing priorities in procurement, and the complexity of the procurement process
We work with public sector agencies to mainstream gender and promote gender equality through public procurement. We work with public sector agencies to promote gender equality through the purchase of works, supplies or services...
Read MoreWomen’s economic empowerment has further implications for social issues such as child health, education, poverty, and the amelioration of gender-based violence. Social resilience is enhanced through women’s economic empowerment...
Read MoreWe work with public and private sector agencies to introduce gender requirements into public procurement policies and practices, in order to use public procurement as an instrument to advance gender equality...
Read MoreWe work with Local Governments address barriers faced by women in public procurement. We support local governments to adopt comprehensive approaches to gender-responsive procurement. To achieve this...
Read MoreWhile gender-responsive procurement strategies are still relatively new, they have yielded mixed results when it comes to increasing women’s participation within procurement. We have identified the following five types of barriers hindering women’s full integration into procurement systems: structural and systemic; legal and policy-related; cultural and societal; financial; and corruption-related.
These relate to the intersecting dimensions of gender and other forms of inequality. For example, access to platforms in which procurement opportunities are publicized may be limited. These sites require access to the internet, financial resources...
Read MoreThese focus on the absence of frameworks with provisions to grant public contracts to achieve gender-equality goals. Without legal frameworks to create such provisions, current practices favouring male-owned businesses will continue...
Read MoreThis includes the biases that affect women’s confidence in their skills and ability to become an entrepreneur. Often coming from discrimination and discouragement from personal networks, women report having reservations and a lack of...
Read MoreThey pose a challenge to women-owned businesses when accessing procurement opportunities include a lack of liquid assets to be used to honour the tender or when competing against other bidders. Other factors include the lack of available collateral.
Read MoreThese limit women’s participation in the public procurement process because they reduce trust in the bidding process and its competitive nature, and consequently discourage women-owned businesses from participating.
Read MoreWomen who engage in the public procurement process are sometimes vulnerable to sexual harassment and gender-based violence. This situation is exacerbated by the absence of a grievance-redress mechanism within most public procurement spaces
Read MoreThis is a major problem, especially for Women owned Businesses and deter them from engaging in procurement. Women report that payments from public sector institutions are often late and unpredictable...
Read MoreIn Uganda, many women report that they acquire information about procurement opportunities through men (male colleagues, relatives, and staff). This points to limited procurement information, but also insufficient mentoring and ...
Read MoreInformal employment is a greater source of employment for women in Uganda. Women are more likely to engage in necessity entrepreneurship and be in informal enterprises compared to men. The smaller scale and informal nature of...
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