Understanding the Business of Gender-Responsive Procurement

We know that corporate purchasing power alone shapes diverse supply chains with the potential to make or break millions of businesses; the value of corporate contracts adds up to trillions of dollars worldwide. Yet for too long the gendered impacts of corporate spending have been overlooked and underappreciated. Unlocking opportunities for women entrepreneurs in value chains opens up opportunities for economic growth.

Gender-responsive procurement (GRP) is defined as the selection of services, goods and civil works that considers their impact on gender equality. GRP thus aims to support positive outcomes for women with procurement, which drives financial flows around the world. GRP can help resolve the current inequality we see in global procurement opportunities: while 1 in 3 businesses globally are owned by women, women win only 1% of the procurement spend of large corporations. Only 4% of companies set procurement targets for female-owned businesses and less than 5% provide training to women to compete for formal bid processes.

GRP promotes not only positive outcomes for women, but also for businesses. Corporations small and large are recognizing the vulnerability of their supply chains due to practices that either do not reflect their consumers’ values of gender equality and sustainable development, are risking non-compliance with human rights standards, or are missing out on the substantial contribution that women’s enterprises and gender-responsive enterprises can make to businesses.

Join this session, hosted by the UN Global Compact and UN Women, to learn more about the transformative potential of GRP and hear from global experts on why and how businesses can transform their supply chain practices to promote gender equality. 

During this session, you will learn: 

- What gender-responsive procurement (GRP) is

- The business benefits of GRP

- Strategic examples from companies practicing GRP