Value for Women and the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) developed this research report to document the challenges and opportunities to empower women-led businesses (WLBs) in public procurement. The research examines the challenges WLBs experience in public procurement, explores some of the wider challenges of shaping gender-responsive procurement (GRP) policies and summarizes key reforms pursued by governments to create fairer and more inclusive procurement systems.

This report was created with the following audiences and objectives in mind:

– Public procurement officials, to increase understanding about the nature of the barriers WLB face in public procurement markets, and to recommend potential solutions, including the collection and use of data to inform strategies supporting GRP.

– Social policy design and implementation practitioners, to understand and incorporate linkages between policies and initiatives that support women’s economic participation and the procurement system.

– Entrepreneurial ecosystem actors (including but not limited to businesses development service providers, investors, banks, women entrepreneurs’ networks), to help identify challenges for WLBs and women entrepreneurs in accessing public procurement, which can be used to inform GRP initiatives and programs.

To see the report: please click Here.