Research Project:
Enhancing the effectiveness of government procurement programs in achieving women's economic empowerment

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The Role of government in enhancing economic opportunities for women
(Strathmore University Business School, 2024) Strathmore Business School
The Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) East Africa initiative seeks to spur transformative change to advance gender equality in the world of work. GrOW East Africa is a partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett foundation, and Canada's International Development Research Centre. GrOW East Africa funded a research project by Strathmore Business School on Enhancing the effectiveness of government procurement programs in achieving women's economic empowerment in Kenya.
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Promoting gender responsive public procurement: strengthening the procurement ecosystem in Kenya
(Strathmore Univeristy, 2024) Kiraka, Ruth N.; Otieno, Hellen N; Kiraka, Ruth N.
Gender responsive procurement is defined by UN Women as ‘the selection of suppliers of goods, civil works or services that consider the impact on gender equality and women’s empowerment’ (Combaz, 2018). Gender responsive procurement seeks to promote gender equality by prioritising positive outcomes for female and male suppliers in the purchase of goods and services (Chin, 2017). Creating an ecosystem for gender responsive procurement involves establishing a supportive environment where various stakeholders collaborate to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment within procurement activities. In Kenya, the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) programme is an affirmative action that seeks to promote public procurement among marginalised groups by reserving at least 30 per cent of all government procurement for women, youth and persons with disabilities (The National Treasury, 2023). This policy brief focuses on women’s access to government procurement and highlights how the ecosystem can be improved to increase participation.
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Key challenges facing women seeking government tenders
(Strathmore University, 2023) Otieno, Hellen N.; Kiraka, Ruth N.; Kiraka, Ruth N.
This policy brief draws on evidence from an in-depth Kenya Country Study conducted by Strathmore University Business School researchers. The research project2 focused on the effectiveness of the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) initiative in enhancing women’s participation in public procurement and promoting their empowerment. Based on evidence from 25 counties, a key finding is that the AGPO initiative contributes to women’s empowerment. However, some barriers limit women from actively participating in and fully benefitting from the AGPO programme. This brief delves into specific barriers that undermine women’s participation and highlights gender responsive interventions that can help the government to achieve gender equality in public procurement.
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Access to government procurement opportunities and women empowerment in Kenya: policy interventions to bridge information gaps
(Strathmore University, 2023) Kiraka, Ruth N., Otieno, Hellen N.; Kiraka, Ruth N.
Public Procurement constitutes a strategic element of any economy. The level of public expenditure, if adequately and strategically managed through a sound procurement process can produce greater economic and social outcomes and impact. The Kenya Government initiated Access to Public Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) programme to facilitate enterprises owned by women, youth and people with disabilities to participate in government procurement opportunities, to economically empower them. This Policy Brief highlights information gaps in the AGPO programme that have undermined its uptake. It presents key findings of a research project that focused on the effectiveness of the AGPO initiative in enhancing women’s participation in public procurement and promoting their economic empowerment2 conducted in 25 counties. A key finding of the research was that the AGPO programme does contribute to women’s empowerment. However, there are information gaps and/or misinformation, that prevent many women entrepreneurs from participating in the programme. The Policy Brief offers recommendations on how these gaps can be addressed.
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This project sought to uncover barriers and determine how AGPO can be mobilized as an instrument for boosting women’s economic empowerment, particularly in the COVID-19 recovery. Using a mixed-methods approach, it evaluated AGPO and other relevant public procurement programs in Kenya in five key areas: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and impact. It also identified scalable solutions and the public and private sector actions required to make these programs more effective. The goal was to enhance Kenyan women’s access to and participation in public procurement opportunities to boost their economic outcomes and address the gender equality gap. As public procurement will play a key role in governmental responses for the post-crisis recovery, the project aimed to make an important contribution to building back better and more gender inclusive.
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