Gender-responsive Public Procurement

Clear measures for monitoring and impact assessment are key to the successful development of the use of GRPP. This is important for identifying obstacles to and opportunities for GRPP, and to progressively increase levels of ambition. Effective monitoring and reporting require clear and simple indicators, such as the number of staff receiving training in gender issues relevant to the contract...

Contracting authorities may report on GRPP to funding bodies, gender equality bodies, national procurement authorities or others. They may also engage in public reporting. There are opportunities to link reporting on GRPP to broader policies relating to gender equality and strategic procurement. Less formal reporting, for example through the publication of case studies or news items on GRPP, can help...

Various strategies for monitoring of public contracts exist, including periodic review meetings, inspections, reporting and third-party audits. Monitoring may be carried out by the contractor itself (including in relation to any of its subcontractors) or the public body or, in some cases, third-party audits or inspections are held (e.g. to confirm compliance with equal pay, working conditions or whistleblowing provisions)...

Award criteria determine the outcome of a tender competition and are a key tool for addressing gender issues in the delivery of public contracts. Under the EU procurement directives and financial regulation, public buyers have the freedom to define a range of qualitative criteria provided that these are linked to the subject matter of the contract and allow fair competition...

Contracting authorities must prepare tender documents for publication prior to launching the procedure. These typically comprise several documents setting out exclusion grounds and selection criteria, specifications, award criteria and contract terms, as well as the contract notice , which must be published on the Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) portal if the contract value is above the EU thresholds. In addition...

The 2014 EU procurement directives introduced what is known as the light regime for social, health and other specific services. The services covered include healthcare and social care, education and training, community and cultural services, and events organisation. A higher threshold and less rigid rules are applied to these services than to other fields, while contracts in some of these...

The purpose of preliminary market consultation is to obtain a clear picture of which products, works and services are available and to inform economic operators about the upcoming tender. Preliminary market consultations can be used to scope out the market capacity to deliver gender-responsive outcomes, as well as to refine the contracting authority objectives. This can be done through informal...

Depending on the users/beneficiaries of the procurement, needs assessment may be a strictly internal process (e.g. office furniture or equipment is purchased) or may involve external people and organisations (e.g. social housing or a civic centre is constructed or a website/application is made accessible to the public). Needs assessment may be undertaken either formally (e.g. through a questionnaire or structured...

The use of GRPP to address gender equality successfully also depends on the extent of regular and informed collaboration between gender equality bodies and contracting authorities. Such collaboration can take the form of consultation, whereby the contracting authority (automatically) involves gender equality bodies when initiating the public procurement cycle. Likewise, gender equality bodies reach out to the public authorities with...

Legislation and strategies on GRPP are important tools to promote such public procurement and thus help to advance gender equality, but GRPP without adequate support structures remains a largely theoretical undertaking. Relevant support structures include capacity building, training and information materials that explain GRPP, its uses and its impact on gender equality, as well as mentoring/cooperation between public and third...

A further aspect of GRPP is the extent to which national gender equality action plans refer to public procurement as a tool to promote gender equality. This can take many forms, but GRPP needs to be specifically mentioned when such strategies refer to gender mainstreaming and/or gender budgeting, for example. Example of gender equality action plans: The fourth action plan...

GRPP is often subsumed under socially responsible public procurement (SRPP) strategies without being specifically referred to. However, when public procurement strategies include specific gender equality objectives, preferably at all stages of the procurement cycle, GRPP implementation does increase. Examples of public procurement strategies including gender equality as an objective In Spain, Barcelona’s sustainable public procurement objectives plan for 2020–2021 includes...