Presentation: rapid assessment to inform Gender-Responsive Procurement (GRP) policies

A Rapid Assessment to Inform the Development of

GenderResponsive Procurement (GRP) Policies and Programming For UN Women Sal Forest Co., Ltd. March 9, 2023

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Introduction

“Sustainable Business Accelerator” A specialized research company founded in 2013, Sal Forest is focused on advocating sustainable business practices by conducting research projects, hosting workshops, and publishing online and offline publications.

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We Rise Together by UN Women Stronger Ecosystem

Support more public and private organisations to develop and promote policies and practices that advance SDGRP

More Supportive Business Models And Networks

Through resilient and inclusive business models and networking opportunities, WOBs and GREs have increased capacity to access markets

Increased Capacity Of Buyers

More Equitable Market Opportunities

Public and private buying organisations can better advocate for, promote and implement GRP

Creating platforms for WOBs and GREs to connect to larger public and private buyers

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What is MSMEs, WOBs, GREs, and GRP?

Source: Ministerial Regulations on the Designation of the Characteristics of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Act B.E. 2562 (2019)

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What is MSMEs, WOBs, GREs, and GRP? Women-owned Businesses (WOBs)

Gender-responsive Enterprises (GREs)

MSMEs that have (1) at least 51% ownership by women or (2) least 20% female-owned and (a) at least one women as chief executive officer, chief operating officer, president, vice president and/or managing director; and (b) 30 percent or more female on its board of directors, where a board exists. (UN Women, 2022)

Enterprises which integrate gender equality into their policies and practices, in alignment with UN Women’s Women Empowerment Principles, ILO’s standard and other international standard. (UN Women, 2017)

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What is MSMEs, WOBs, GREs, and GRP? Gender-Responsive Procurement (GRP) is defined as the sustainable selection of services, goods, or civil work that takes into account the impact on gender equality and women’s empowerment. (UN Women, 2022)

Supplier Diversity through Gender-Responsive Procurement (SD-GRP) An approach which promotes procurement from businesses that are majority owned and operated by traditionally underrepresented or underserved individuals or groups through GRP (UN Women, 2017)

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Flow of the Rapid Assessment 1

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Conduct mapping of stakeholders

Literature review of Thailand GRP landscape and profile

Assessment of capacity of stakeholders to understand their needs

Mapping of policymaking, demand side, supply side, and supporting organizations

• Review of existence and implementation laws, polices, infrastructure, and existing good practices

In-depth interview and a quantitative survey to assess the situation in policies and practices of gender equality, problems and obstacles in procurement process, and perspectives on supporting WOBs, GREs, and GRP.

• Review presence and profile of MSMEs, private company, public sector, and supporting organizations

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02

Why WOBs? & Their Ecosystem

1% of global public and private procurement spending, worth $11-13 trillion annually, goes to women-owned businesses (WOBs)

ITC. 2020, Making Public Procurement Work for Women.

UN Women. n.d. WEPs: Gender-responsive procurement.

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Why supporting WOBs? 1 Playing a vital role in promoting inclusive growth in developing countries. In Asia and the Pacific, nearly 60% of MSMEs are owned by women, with the majority being informal businesses. (Asian Development Bank and UN Women, 2022)

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Showing a positive impact on decent employment, poverty reduction, and overall economic empowerment • Hiring more female employees (17% more) than male entrepreneurs. (The Asia Foundation and APEC, 2013) • Using their income more effectively and to allocate a greater portion of their earnings to their families and children compared to their male counterparts. (World Bank, 2011) Facing more challenges than men when starting or expanding their business, including difficulties in obtaining investment credit to grow their business (OECD, 2017), lack of access to business skills, training, markets, technology, and social capital, combined with limited networking opportunities A key factor in Meeting goals of UN’s SDGs, corporate ESG and Declaration on Building a more Sustainable, Inclusive and Resilient Future: Unlocking Women’s Entrepreneurship in ASEAN (ASEAN, 2022)

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99.5% of all enterprises in Thailand are MSMEs, contributing 34.6% to GDP and 72% of the country’s total employment in 2022 OSMEP, 2022

(We do not know yet on how many % of them are WOBs)

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Stakeholders in GRP

1) MSMEs (Sellers) 2) Large Enterprises (Buyers) • Multinational companies • Listed companies 3) Government (Buyers & Policymaker) 4) Supporting Organization • Knowledge • Finance • Network

Source: UN Women’s internal document

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Key Research Results 14

Our Data Collection

Governmental Agencies

Large Enterprises

MSMEs & WOBs

Desk Research In-depth (30) Interview (5)

Desk Research In-depth (169) Interview (5)

Desk Research (512) In-depth Interview (17) & Questionnaire Collection (319) 15

Governmental Agencies Examples of supporting WOBs and GRP Direct support: • In 2021, 8 organizations signed a MOU to implement Gender Responsive • •

Budgeting (GRB) (DOP, 2021) OSMEP is drafting a definition for Women-Owned Businesses (WOBs) and conducting public hearings with various stakeholders.

An organization is considering adding gender responsiveness into MOUs with MSMEs

Indirect support: • The 2020 Ministerial Regulations require government agencies to procure at •

least 30% of goods or services from registered SMEs* (Thai SME-GP, 2022) The Social Enterprises Promotion Act B.E. 2562 provides benefits for registered social enterprises in government procurement

*who also receive a price advantage of up to 10%

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Large Enterprises Examples of supporting WOBs and GRP Direct support: • MNCs are pioneers in Supplier Diversity Gender-Responsive Procurement (SD GRP) with clear policies, committed budgets, targets, evaluations and KPIs • Some Thai companies ave started conducting internal research and segregating their suppliers' gender data to understand their WOBs suppliers Indirect support: • Various CSR programs support women entrepreneurs • Current capacity building and supports for their SMEs suppliers e.g. capacity building, linking to soft loans • Including gender equality in their ESG framework 17

MSMEs ● Despite having no policy, WOBs has several practices in promoting gender equality among their employees or through their products and services as well supply chain.

Challenges ● Various type of challenges facing (depends on stage and types of businesses)

As a MSME

As a WOB

COVID-19 side effect, human resources, misunderstanding in social enterprises, marketing, accessing to capital, ability to scale up, basic business knowledge, operations efficiency and etc.

Business networking challenge, focus shift because of motherhood, stereotyping, sexism, agism, maledominated views on women’s products

Source: interview

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Actions of MSMEs in Handing Business Challenges 0%

(n=319)

10%

20%

Selling on online platform(s)

79

Attending large company’s capacity building program

74

Joining government’s business competition or incubation

10 21 8

87 51

50%

60% 28

96

Developing its own selling platform

Fund raising

40%

159

Attending government’s capacity building program

Joining large company’s business competition or incubation

30%

70%

80%

90%

100%

91

40 42

32 7 16

4

14

19 2 10

Consumer goods

Tourism

Others

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Expectations of MSMEs for receiving knowledge support (n=319)

0%

10%

20%

Marketing

30%

40%

119

Accessing to funding sources

108

Product/service development

114

50%

21 76

16

70

Finance/Accounting

101

15

Domestic logistics

103

10

57

Exporting

102

10

52

94

Legal

88

15

Access to large enterprises’ procurement

88

8

Access to government procurement

84

Others

74

12

8

70%

77

18

Technology

60%

57 58 63 63

13 1 7 Consumer goods

Tourism

Others

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Characteristics of Each Procurement System Government procurement • Great opportunities & good credit reliability

• Endorsing SMEs through Thai SME-GP

• Limited by certain procurement laws

• Complex procurement process, with specific needs

• No gender lens applied for choosing suppliers yet.

Large enterprises procurement • Not limited by national laws • Viewed as more accessible by MSMEs

• Requiring MSMEs to meet several types of standards

• Complex document process • Few of them using gender or diversity lens for selecting suppliers 21

MSMEs by Thai SME-GP registration status (n=319)

N/A, 13, (4.08%)

N/A

Not registered, 260, (81.50%)

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Only 14.42%, had registered with the Thai SME-GP system.

•

Over 80% may miss out on business opportunities from government procurement.

Consumer goods, 25, (7.84%)

Registered, 46, (14.42%)

Others, 17, (5.33%)

Tourism, 4, (1.25%)

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MSMEs’s experience in joining government procurement (n=319)

N/A, 14, (4.39%) Winning procurement bids , 62, (19.44%)

Losing procurement bids , 14, (4.39%)

Never participated , 229, (71.79%)

Participation by size: 40% mid-sized, 33% small and 20% micro

• Winning Group: faced the challenges of complexity of document preparation, long payment period, and insufficient production capacity or service complications.

• Losing Group: cited their inability to meet high product quality standards or compete in terms of price.

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MSMEs’s experience in joining corporate procurement (n=319) (n=319)

N/A, 15, (4.70%)

Winning procurement bids , 51, (15.99%)

Losing procurement bids , 5, (1.57%)

Never participated , 248, (77.74%)

Participation by size: 60% mid-sized, 28% small and 11% micro

• Winning Group: faced the challenges of long payment periods, complex document preparation and compliance with various standards.

• Losing Group: reported that their products or services did not meet the standard requirements, cited a lack of production capacity, price competitiveness, and business experience.

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MSMEs’ Views on Gender-Responsive Procurement (GRP) Neutral, 21, (6.58%)

93.0% Strongly Agree, 216, (67.71%)

Agree, 82, (25.71%)

of them strongly agreed or agreed to launch their written gender equality policy to gain benefits from GRP

MSMEs' views on promoting WOBs and GREs for better access to GRP (n=319) 0%

20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Causing social and economic development with gender 19 equality

81

219

Leading to more gender equality in government and 18 large enterprise procurement

83

218

Enhancing female employees and labor 25 potential

82

211

93

196

Communication to public is required on importance of GRP

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Strongly disagree

Disagree

Agree

Strongly A gree

Neutral

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04

Recommendation

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Recommendations to the Government ●

Officially define WOBs and GREs to provide clarity and guidance for public

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Collect sex-disaggregated data from MSMEs

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Develop a government-wide GRP strategy

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Identify and remove barriers that prevent WOBs from participating in government procurement.

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Provide resources and support to WOBs to enable them to access the procurement system

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Set targets for the inclusion of WOBs in government procurement, monitor progress, and report on outcomes to ensure accountability and transparency.

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Recommendations to Large Enterprises ●

Promoting gender inclusive environment in organization and raise awareness among procurement

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Promote market opportunity for WOBs to access corporate procurement, built from current support for MSMEs

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Collecting sex-disaggregated vendor database and setting KPIs, monitor and report GRP progress

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Develop targeted policies for diverse suppliers (accountability)

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Among buyers, share examples and experience in GRP and learn from peers 28

Thanks!

Sal Forest Co., Ltd. 2 Soi Sukhumvit 43, Klongton Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 02 258 7383 www.salforest.com

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