STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS

How are solicitation and procurement decisions made, vis-a-vis gender?

• Procurement systems and partnership models commit to increasingly disburse funds to women- and girl-led organizations.

• Institutions offer subsidized loans to strategic clients/implementing partners (e.g., women's enterprises).

• Institutions designate procurements as either financing allocations or grants:

  • Procurements via financing allocations are determined by the level of gender integration (i.e., levels broadly attributed to the "gender continuum") of the activity/project.

  • Procurements through grants (i.e., based upon a set percentage allocated to SDG 5 initiatives) allow for greater flexibility and innovation in gender transformative efforts.

• Funds are directed to stand-alone technical assistance (including to women-owned businesses, development projects, and other sovereign [public sector financing] and non-sovereign [private sector financing] operations); financial designation is based on how gender is integrated in the program design and seen in outputs.

• Institutions require solicitations/acquisition to include gender.

• Institutions require a gender analysis at design of country strategies, projects, and activities, with findings reflected in institution documents and processes.

• Gender focal points provide technical assistance to clients/implementing partners during project development.

• Institutions invest in stand-alone gender equality-focused projects.

• Institutions analyze/quantify investments based on the “gender marker” (i.e., level of gender integration) retroactively; in this case, there is no requirement by the institution to ensure specific gender criteria is met at the onset of funding.

ENFORCEMENT MECHANISMS

How are solicitations and procurement efforts enforced to support the gender mandate?

• Institutions have internal budgetary percentage commitments to spend on gender, which are fulfilled through procurements.

• A competitive advantage exists among some institutions to provide loans to specific implementing organizations (e.g., feminist organizations, women-owned community-based organizations, etc.), if other donors aren't willing to do so, which serves as a "soft" enforcement mechanism for these institutions to follow through with these commitments.

• The gender hub/division/department screens all solicitations for gender to categorize according to institution protocol (e.g., OECD DAC categorization).

• Project designation/categorization in the procurement process (i.e., level of the activity’s/project’s gender integration) are stipulated and verified by a gender-focused secretariat, according to institutional guidelines and an independent review process.

• Internal percentage commitments of project designation/categorization in the solicitation process serve as an enforcement mechanism for the institution.

• Allocations/investments to women- and girl-led organizations are tracked by “gender markers”.

• The institution agreement officer is alerted if gender considerations are left out of the proposal, henceforth halting the procurement process until gender is in place.

• Gender-specific requirements are stipulated by the institution's gender hub/division/department (but in some cases, the implementation of these requirements is not routinely tracked, limiting accountability).

• Operational policies stipulate gender analysis and application requirements, for some institutions; for others, implementing partners are encouraged from the onset of the award to carry out a gender analysis.

• An institution-wide award exists to recognize best gender-integrated projects/initiatives that have been developed/enacted by different country offices/missions, vis-a-vis gender; this incentivizes enforcement (i.e., serving as a "soft" enforcement mechanism).

• Institution gender teams prioritize procurements according to the gender mandate as part of their duty/role. In this case, they hold themselves accountable, but they are not accountable to anyone in their assessments.

RECOMMENDATIONS

What conditions might improve enforcement of the gender mandate in solicitations and procurement structures?

START HERE: Set targets for the type and quantity of gender integrated investments, in order to hold institutions accountable to gender-related commitments.

• Reinforce institution-wide consideration of gender in project design, specifically linking it with implementation.-Instate a formal tracking/categorization system to note whether and how gender is included in solicitations, beyond reporting and post-procurement follow-up.

• Independent review processes of solicitations are effective and serve as a quality assurance function for project designation.

• Establish a formal, institution-wide tracking mechanism to determine whether and how (i.e., quality) a gender analysis is carried out. If country offices/missions track internally, ensure this information is channeled to all levels of the institution.

• Use evidence on the efficacy and transformative outcomes of funding women- and girl-led organizations, civil society organizations and/or community-based organizations to support enforcement of procurement practices. -The efficacy of enforcing the gender mandate in solicitations and procurements requires measurement of gender equality outcomes and should not only be assessed by the type of organization receiving the funding.

• Allow for flexible contracting processes to more easily fund women- and girl-led organizations, civil society organizations, and/or CBOs, in order to reduce barriers for commitments to be met by these implementing partners.

• Apply for the WEConnect International certification and/or membership to incentivize the institution to increase global inclusive sourcing and supplier diversity.

• Require the inclusion of gender-related scoring criteria in all solicitations.

• Include procurement/solicitations’ personnel in basic gender trainings that are offered by institutions to increase their capacity to recognize and assess gender content in solicitation responses and assume greater responsibility in gender integration.

• For institutions that have stand-alone procurement units, require that they hire gender advisors in order to advance gender integration across the solicitation and award processes.