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ATTRIBUTES
  • Supply Chain

SOURCE
  • UN Women

TYPE OF RESOURCE
  • GGuide

TARGET AREA
  • Strategy

TARGET UNIT
  • Procurement

LINK TO RESOURCE

The Power of Procurement: How to Source from Women-Owned businesses

UN Women
This is a guide for gender-responsive procurement that provides corporations and their suppliers with a deeper understanding of challenges preventing women-owned businesses from fully participating in local and global value chains. It discusses key procurement topics such as:

Overcoming challenges facing women-owned business enterprises: The private sector can reform corporate procurement policies and practices to be more inclusive to support to overcome challenges facing women-owned businesses. Strategic sourcing practices include:

  • Increasing access to information and social networks
  • Streamlining the application process
  • Streamlining the contracting process
  • Limiting contract sizes
  • Establishing appropriate award criteria
  • Providing feedback
  • Paying promptly

Building corporate capacity and commitment: To reach a stage where gender-responsive procurement has become an integral part of the corporate culture and practice, an organization can develop a corporate supplier development plan for women-owned businesses, identify opportunities for women-owned businesses in strategic sourcing and supply chain management, etc. There are eight guidelines for introducing best practices:

  • Establish corporate policy and top corporate management support
  • Develop a corporate supplier development plan for women-owned businesses
  • Establish comprehensive internal and external communications
  • Identify opportunities for women-owned businesses in strategic sourcing and supply chain management
  • Establish comprehensive supplier development process
  • Establish tracking, reporting, and goal-setting mechanisms
  • Establish a continuous improvement plan
  • Establish a second-tier supplier program

To access this resource and learn more, click here.