On Thursday 21 May, the European Investment Bank (EIB) published a guidance note devoted to public procurement integrating gender equality, presented as a way of promoting equality between women and men in the projects it finances.
Thus, EIB recalls that public procurement represents around $13 trillion a year worldwide, or almost 13% of the GDP of OECD member countries. Yet, according to World Bank, only 1% of this public spending currently benefits businesses owned by women.
The note proposes a framework that would allow promoters of projects financed by EIB to integrate gender-related criteria throughout the procurement cycle, namely needs assessment, definition of objectives, selection of suppliers, award criteria and contract monitoring. An 11-step ‘roadmap’ is, in fact, set out to support public authorities.
EIB also underlines the economic interest of these policies. Reducing gender gaps in labour market could increase the GDP of emerging economies by almost 8%, while closing employment gaps between women and men could increase GDP per capita by almost 20% in the long term, according to the document.
EIB says that it has more than doubled its financing in favour of gender equality since 2018, and it has exceeded €30 billion over the past five years.
See the document: https://aeur.eu/f/m1x (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)