What is gender-responsive public procurement
Definition of gender-responsive public procurement (GRPP)
GRPP is procurement that promotes gender equality through the goods, services or works being purchased. This means that buyers and suppliers examine the impact of all contracted activities on women’s and men’s needs, interests and concerns, and design and deliver contracts in a way that reduces inequalities. It does not necessarily entail higher costs, but does require knowledge and capacity.
Gender equality is a fundamental value of the European Union (EU). Promoting gender equality in all its activities is one of the EU’s tasks, required by the treaties ([1]). The EU’s gender equality policy objectives are wide-ranging, and include fostering equal economic independence for women and men, closing the gender pay gap, advancing the gender balance in decision-making, ending gender-based violence and promoting gender equality beyond the EU.
To achieve gender equality, EU institutions and Member States should apply gender mainstreaming to all their policies, laws and budgets.
Gender budgeting is a gender mainstreaming tool to achieve equality between women and men by focusing on how public resources are collected and spent ([2]). The gender dimension should be integrated into all phases of the budgetary cycle, from the budgetary proposals (ex ante) and throughout the spending itself (ex nunc) to the evaluation and control of the money actually spent (ex post).
An important element of public spending or expenditure into which the gender dimension can be integrated is public procurement contracts. In this way, GRPP can be considered a means of implementing gender budgeting.
EU institutions and Member State government departments or regional and local authorities ‘are important consumers whose procurement practices can (re)produce, increase or diminish societal (in)equality’ ([3]). When public authorities purchase supplies, works and services from companies, they can and should design public procurement processes and practices in a way that promotes gender equality; this is what GRPP is.
Context and purpose
EU context
According to the EU gender equality strategy for 2020–2025, ‘[t]he Commission’s guidance on socially responsible public procurement will fight discrimination and promote gender equality in public tenders’ ([4]). This is what is known as GRPP.
Socially responsible public procurement (SRPP), which GRPP is part of, is supported by the EU legal framework for public procurement ([5]).
Applying GRPP to promote gender equality from the beginning of the procurement cycle means asking questions such as: do the services, supplies or works I intend to buy have different implications for women and men, in all their diversity? Do women and men, in all their diversity, have different needs in relation to the services, supplies or works? Which social and labour laws and collective agreements that promote the equality of women and men at work are applicable to the contract? In this sense, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) defines GRPP as ‘the selection of services, goods and civil works that considers their impact on gender equality and women’s empowerment’ ([6]).
Purpose
Public procurement has great potential to promote gender equality.
Integrating the gender perspective into public procurement contracts and using them to promote equality between women and men form part of the efforts to achieve sustainable and socially responsible procurement ([7]).
Integrating the gender perspective into the public procurement cycle and contracts can lead to improved efficiency in government spending ([8]).More on the definition and purpose of gender-responsive public procurement
GRPP as a gender mainstreaming method and tool
In the European Union, contracting authorities can decide to use public procurement to achieve social outcomes, which can include gender equality, but these are not mandatory.
Mainstreaming gender by integrating a gender perspective into public procurement can ensure equitable access to public contracts and provide benefits by diversifying the supply chain. Hence GRPP can be considered a method of gender mainstreaming.
GRPP plays an important role in implementing other gender mainstreaming initiatives, such as gender budgeting. An important step to raise awareness about the links between GRPP and other gender mainstreaming methods and tools would be to recognise and make GRPP explicit in the legal and policy frameworks governing these other initiatives.
For guidance on how to implement GRPP in practical terms, the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) will produce a toolkit for contracting authorities and gender equality practitioners. The toolkit will explain step by step how to plan and implement GRPP.
The EU legal and policy framework
GRPP has a basis in the financial regulation (Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046) ([12]) and the EU legal framework for public procurement. The legal framework has evolved into a comprehensive set of rules and principles governing the award of public contracts ([13]). The three 2014 procurement directives aim to facilitate greater strategic use of procurement, including for the advancement of social objectives.
The European Commission explicitly states in its gender equality strategy for 2020–2025 that ‘[t]he Commission’s guidance on socially responsible public procurement will fight discrimination and promote gender equality in public tenders’ ([14]). As one of the first deliverables of the strategy, the Commission has proposed binding measures on pay transparency under the draft directive on pay transparency, which specifically addresses equal pay and the pay gap in the context of public procurement (in Article 21) ([15]).
In addition, GRPP is part of government spending and thus forms part of gender budgeting. Gender budgeting has a firm basis in the EU commitment to gender mainstreaming expressed in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) ([16]). The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have repeatedly called on the EU and its Member States to develop and implement gender budgeting ([17]).
Application of GRPP at different levels
GRPP can be applied at all levels of government. Examples of GRPP that can be implemented by contracting authorities at all levels, including EU institutions, include the following.
- In a contract for cleaning services, a government department consults with cleaning companies and their staff in order to determine the scope for improving work–life balance for cleaners (e.g. cleaning could be carried out during the working day rather than in the evenings).
- In a contract for uniforms, an emergency services provider examines the entire supply chain to ensure that all workers receive a fair wage, human and employment rights are respected and the uniforms are suitable and comfortable for both women and men employees to wear.
- In a contract for social housing, a local authority specifically considers how planning and design may affect women and men differently. This could include safety issues (e.g. lighting and visibility), access to transport, employment and childcare and the height or layout of facilities. In addition, during the procurement process, the authority aims to create employment and training opportunities for both women and men, including single parents and those seeking to retrain or re-enter the workforce.
- A state agency holds market engagement events which encourage businesses and social enterprises owned and operated by women to participate in tenders, for example by explaining procedures, considering feedback and ensuring that the structure and size of contracts is appropriate to encourage maximum participation.
- The European Commission launches a tendering procedure to commission a study on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the increase in homelessness among women suffering domestic violence. Selection criteria include prior experience in conducting gender studies. Award criteria require the team conducting the study to have specific expertise in homelessness from a gender perspective.
Enabling factors
Effective implementation of GRPP requires political commitment matched with technical capacity for gender mainstreaming. Engaged leadership is of particular importance in ensuring that gender equality is integrated into the public procurement cycle and that public procurement outcomes benefit women and men equally ([18]).
Key enabling factors of GRPP include:
- political will and political leadership;
- high-level commitment from public administrative institutions and structured collaboration between bodies/departments in charge of public procurement and those responsible for gender equality;
- improved technical capacity of civil servants;
- civil society awareness and involvement;
- availability of sex-disaggregated data to measure the impact of public contracts on women and men.
More on the key enabling factors of gender-responsive public procurement
How does GRPP work?
Promoting equality between women and men can be integrated into public procurement contracts, for example in the selection criteria (by excluding discriminatory companies), the contract award criteria (by including gender as a sub-criterion linked to the subject matter when evaluating the quality of the offer) and the contract performance conditions (through the obligation to take the gender perspective into account when carrying out the commissioned tasks).
GRPP can focus on the content of the contract: the measures that ensure that the end result takes into account the situation of both women and men.
To a certain extent, GRPP can also focus on the promotion of equality between women and men among contractors ([20]).
Overall, it is important to use the most inclusive language possible, referring to both genders (she or he, businesswoman/businessman, etc.). This makes contractors aware that their target audience (for a study, campaign, etc.) usually consists of both women and men.
Opportunities for GRPP under the 2014 procurement directives and the financial regulation are listed below for each of the stages of procurement, along with a box detailing an example ([21]).
Pre-tender stage
Prior to launching a tender, contracting authorities undertake various preparatory activities. This is an important stage for the implementation of GRPP, as it determines the way in which the authority will interact with the market to obtain the supplies, services or works it needs.
During this stage, it is necessary to reflect on whether the contract has a gender perspective ([22]). What is the ultimate target audience of the performance of this contract and does it consist of both women and men? Are there differences in the situations of those women and men ([23])?
It is important that the criteria and conditions relating to the promotion of equality between women and men be linked to the subject matter of the tender and not be disproportionate.
If the tender involves an area where there are differences in the situation of women and men, a request to take this into account should ideally be included in the aims of the tender.
Care should be taken with respect to the procurement principles of transparency, proportionality, equal treatment and non-discrimination to ensure that activities do not prejudice the procedure, for example by giving any one operator an unfair advantage or disadvantage.
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