Rwanda Hosts International Roundtable on Sourcing From Women Owned Businesses

16 September 2014
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Rwanda Development Board (Kigali)
press release

Kigali, Rwanda — The Fifth Senior Executive Roundtable on Sourcing from Women Vendors in Kigali.was today opened by Oda Gasinzigwa, Rwanda’s Minister of Gender and Family Promotion. The event brought together over 50 decision makers in governments, corporations, trade support institutions and women’s associations. It discussed the challenges and opportunities to enhance their operations, especially in relation to procurement.

At the roundtable, the International Trade Centre (ITC) launched an initiative to increase the number public procurement contracts being awarded to women-owned businesses. In her remarks Minister Gasinzigwa welcomed the initiative, emphasising that Rwanda still has some way to go despite its achievements in empowering women.

“Some of the main causes of the limited share of women in accessing procurement contracts are limited information on procurement guidelines and regulations, limited knowledge about selection and bidding procedures and lack of affirmative action in the procurement regulations and procedures,” she said.

Minister Gasinzigwa added that there is a need to come up with strategic policies to uplift women so that they can compete with their male counterparts.

According to the ITC, only an estimated one percent of public-procurement contracts globally are awarded to women owned business or women entrepreneurs. To this the ITC Executive Director Arancha González said, “Women account for half the world’s population and have a concrete role to play in economic development.” She urged participants to work together to improve the one percent of public procurement that finds its way to women-owned businesses.

In addition to the initiative, a guide to help governments develop guidelines for public procurement was unveiled. The guidelines will facilitate the sourcing of more goods and services from women entrepreneurs by addressing the challenges they commonly face in accessing and participating in public procurement.

In Rwanda, the initiative is envisioned to help increase the participation of women-owned businesses, not only in public procurement, but also in public decision-making. In doing so, it will help Rwanda build on the work it is already doing to combat poverty and promote inclusive economic growth.

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