Gender Responsive Procurement in Asia and the Pacific

Gender-responsive procurement (GRP) is the selection of services, goods and civil works that considers their impact on gender equality and women’s empowerment. GRP is an important vehicle for enriching supply chains by broadening the range of suppliers of goods and services available to businesses and governments and for advancing women’s economic empowerment. GRP promotes the principles of buying from women-owned businesses (WOBs) to enable their equitable access to markets and buying from gender-responsive enterprises (GREs) in order to create more gender-responsive value chains.

Recognizing the importance of enhancing WOBs’ participation in business, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and UN Women studied how GRP can enhance, strengthen and create more inclusive supply chains by promoting policies and practices that enable WOBs to participate in them.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and UN Women have published the report: Gender-Responsive Procurement in Asia and the Pacific, An Opportunity for an Equitable Future to provides governments and private sector actors in Asia and the Pacific with findings and key recommendations to pursue more inclusive procurement policies and practices.