Open tendering complexity limits women's role in public procurement: Survey
The study identified several structural gaps including the absence of a standard definition for women-owned businesses and a lack of gender-disaggregated procurement data
Despite 90% of women-owned enterprises participating in public procurement, only 30% do so through the open tendering method. The majority — 60% — opt for the simpler Request for Quotation (RFQ) process, citing the complexity, resource constraints, and limited access to information associated with OTM, according to a recent survey.
In bidding, a Request for Quotation (RFQ) is a document used to solicit price bids from suppliers for specific products or services.
The findings of the survey, conducted by Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD), were shared during a policy dialogue held at the Six Seasons Hotel in Dhaka today (24 April).
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The event was jointly organised by BUILD, the International Trade Centre's SheTrades Initiative, and the Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority (BPPA), with support from the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Conducted between November 2024 and January 2025, the survey involved 40 interviews with policymakers, BPPA officials, procurement entities, and women entrepreneurs familiar with Bangladesh's public procurement landscape.
BUILD CEO Ferdaus Ara Begum presented the survey, which highlighted key challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. One major issue is the limited awareness of Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) policies, with more than half of women-owned enterprises (WoEs) and procuring entities unaware of them, potentially hindering the government's long-term development goals.
"Around 60% of WoEs are unaware of the SPP policies, while only 23% of procuring entities are fully familiar with them," she said.
The study identified several structural gaps: the absence of a standard definition for women-owned businesses, a lack of gender-disaggregated procurement data, and no gender-responsive monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems currently in place.
While BPPA is developing a gender-inclusive M&E framework, most procuring entities lack internal systems to track public procurement performance.
Speaking at the dialogue, women entrepreneurs said policy-level barriers are keeping women sidelined in public procurement.
They said the system is too complex, and women often lack the capital to absorb the risks of not winning a tender. Social and cultural barriers further limit their ability to network or navigate government offices, making participation difficult.
Policy Lead at SheTrades, Ma Diyina Gem Arbo, emphasised the need for a gender-responsive M&E framework and a standardised definition of women-owned businesses.
She called for capacity-building initiatives to help WOEs understand and engage effectively with the public procurement system.
BPPA CEO Mirza Ashfaqur Rahman acknowledged the challenges and said a high-powered steering committee, led by the Planning Adviser, is working on addressing them. He described SPP as a "paradigm shift" in embedding sustainability into procurement processes.
