Experts at a webinar on Wednesday stressed gender-responsive public procurement policy for framing gender-enabling policy guidelines.
They also pointed out the barriers that are faced by Women Entrepreneurs in public procurement such as; lack of technological skills, lack of facilitation through policy, lack of sensitization, procedural complexity, knowledge gap on bidding process, financial incapability etc.
Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) in association with the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of and the International Trade Centre (ITC)’s SheTrades Initiative organized the 3rd virtual policy dialogue on " Gender-Responsive Public Procurement in Bangladesh: Interview Findings” on Wednesday to increase women’s participation in the public procurement in Bangladesh,.
Survey results, scored country assessment based on specific questions as developing, meaning of which is inclusion of Women Owned Business(WoB) in the country’s agenda is in place but not yet fully accomplished in case of public procurement.
Masud Akhter Khan, Director (Joint Secretary), CPTU in his speech informed that as the main authority of dealing the public procurement issue in Bangladesh, CPTU has been working very closely with World Bank & ITC to increase the capacity of WoB.
He stressed to take initiative to define the definition of ‘women owned businesses” and the Ministry of Commerce & Ministry of Women & Children Affairs may take initiative in that respect.
Ferdaus Ara Begum, CEO, BUILD made a presentation in that respect highlighting the findings of the survey conducted during Jan-Feb’21 for getting Gender Specific information on public procurement. Women entrepreneurs are not totally aware of the prevailing scopes for them in the public procurement domain.
Tanvir Ahmad, Country Coordinator, ITC SheTrades in his speech appreciated the joint initiative of BUILD & ITC for preparing Gender Responsive Public Procurement Roadmap.
Anahita Vasudevan, Associate Economic Affairs Officer, ITC- She Trades Initiatives in her presentation described the overall process and methodology to conduct the survey and explained the terms and definition of women owned business (WOB).
Nazli Hussain, CEO, PRAXIS Architects said that excessive qualification requirement to be engaged in the bidding process is one of the barriers. Qualification criteria should be simplified so that WEs would be able to bid in the procurement.
Abdur Rahim Khan, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce,Iqbal Ahmed, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Children and Women Affairs, Judith Fessehaie – Programme Manager,International Trade Centre, Farhana Rahman, Sr Vice President, BASIS and a number of women entrepreneurs from Dhaka and other regional districts participated and spoke at the meeting.
