Every year, governments in Africa spend over 60% of the national budget through public contracting yet less than 1% of the contracts are won by women-owned enterprises, excluding many women and exacerbating inequality. The contribution of lack of women’s participation in public procurement is significant yet not strongly recognized. Based on research by AFIC and partners in Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, the session aims to sensitize OGP stakeholders on the barriers and proposed solutions to women’s participation in public contracting in respective national action plans of OGP countries. It will recommend OGP countries to make commitments to promote women’s participation in public contracting in the National Action Plans.
OGP has the potential to mobilize political will and technical solutions to address the problem. The session will start with the moderators asking speakers to highlight the major policy, structural and social cultural barriers, existing good practices and strategies to increase the participation of women owned businesses in public procurement. This will be followed by engagement of the audience through a question-and-answer session to contribute to strategies the OGP community can undertake to increase women’s participation through the OGP platform. Before summing up, the moderator will request representatives of OGP member countries in the room to high one take away from the session.
Deputy Director, Africa Procurement law Unit, Stellenbosch University
Public procurement law professor, with interest in anti-corruption, sustainable development, international trade and development procurement, with a focus on Africa.
