BAN Launches Gender Responsive Procurement
By Mohamed Konneh
The Budget Advocacy Network with funding from Irish Aid on Tuesday 5th November 2024 launched the gender responsive procurement, a pathway to women's economic empowerment for inclusive growth in Sierra Leone.
The launching was done at the New Brookfields Hotel, Kingharman Road in Freetown.
Giving the rationale of the launch, BAN Coordinator, Abu Bakarr Kamara said the procurement accounts for 45 percent of Sierra Leone’s annual budget, making it a powerful level for empowering women led business and fostering inclusive economic growth.
Mr. Kamara noted that gender responsive procurement aimed at creating an equitable purchasing process that addresses gender disparities align with the goals of the gender equality and women’s empowerment Act 2022 and sustainable development goal 5.
He said in bid to understand how women led-business practices participated in Sierra Leone’s procurement landscape, studies around the gaps in procurement practices from a legal perspective, post practices and the barriers women faced in participating in public procurement were conducted to get a comprehensive approach to increasing women’s participation in public procurement in Sierra Leone.
‘These findings offer a comprehensive perspective on increasing women’s participation in the sector. Women remain underrepresented in procurement activities, though those who do participate majority win contracts,” Mr. Kamara said.
He said the data was gathered from big spending MDAs and ten councils and that the purpose of the research was to foster more inclusive procurement practices that is essential for positioning women-led businesses to compete fairly and affectively in Sierra Leone’s procurement landscape.
Making his presentation, the Executive Director of CARL, Ibrahim Tommy said key objective of the study was to identify gaps in the legal framework that undermine a gender responsive public procurement environment in Sierra Leone.
Mr. Tommy said the research reveals that primary objective of Sierra Leone public procurement are to ensure value for money and enhance the effective management of public resources.
He said the report provides a comprehensive legal analysis of the national procurement mechanism, assessing the gender responsive and compliance with regional sub-regional and international best practice.
Mr. Tommy noted that the study largely adopted the qualitative approach, which is mainly a desk review and analysis of law, regulation and policies.
“The research reveals that the primary objective of Sierra Leone public procurement are to ensure value for money and enhances the effective management of public resources. While the National Public Procurement Act mandates the NPPA to align with government policies of promoting the appointment and full participation of women in procurement, there is little evidence that deliberate standards and practices have been establishes to ensure the operationalization of these clauses,” Mr. Tommy said.
Caroll Hannon, the Head of Development for Irish Embassy in Sierra Leone in her statement said there has always been barrier for women doing business and among them include corruption which is one area that need to change.
“We need to make bold step in preventing issues of exploitation, corruption in the sector. When women led bossiness strive they help their community and family,” Caroll said.
She said there some positive legal framework and today should be a turning point to make gender responsive procurement transparent and inclusive.
Several recommendations were proffer including capacity building targeting training programs focused on building the technical skills required to manage large and complex procurement contracts for women businesses. This can include contract management, financial management, technical writing and compliance training.
