International
Trade Center (ITC) in collaboration with Gambia Public Procurement Authority
(GPPA), Tuesday concluded a two-day national stakeholders dialogue and capacity
building for women in procurement.
In
2018, ITC and the Ministry of Trade, launched the three-year She Trades project
in The Gambia, aimed at enabling Gambian women to benefit from economic
opportunities. It seeks to connect over 3 million entrepreneurs and women-owned
businesses to international markets.
Abdoulie
Tambedou, GPPA director general said the two-day policy dialogue is aimed at
developing a framework to support the increased participation of women-owned businesses
in public procurement in The Gambia.
“As
the autonomous agency of Government, responsible for the regulation and
monitoring of public procurement in The Gambia, we are ready to work with
stakeholders from relevant bodies including ministries to share experiences
lessons learnt and insights for improvement,” he said.
Mr
Tambedou said that the recent World Bank
report indicates that SMEs and women-led SMEs are playing critical roles in
economic growth and development and that, winning government contracts have
positive effects on firm-level dynamics.
Lamin
Dampha, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Trade said the participation of
women in any economy and trade would boost economic growth and more
inclusiveness.
Mr.
Dampha however, emphasized that there is need to translate this understanding
into action by ensuring that both the government and the private sector do more
for greater women inclusion in the economy.
“One
of the reasons why women-owned businesses have a very low rate of winning public
procurement contracts is the lack of access to finance compared to their
male-owned competitors,” he explained.
Dampha
observed that there is need to identify women specific difficulties in
accessing public procurement and come up with policy measures to address and
facilitate the inclusion of women businesses as suppliers to government and
government agencies.
Judith
Fessehaie, policy lead at International Center for She Trades Initiative said
2020 is a very important year for gender equality and women economic
empowerment, as it marks 25 years since the adoption of the Beijing declaration
and platform for auction.
She
added that it is also the second year since the adoption of the WTO declaration
on trade and women economic empowerment. Trade Ministers from all over the
world, 127 countries will fly to Kazakhstan for the trade and gender equality
agenda.
