The Time is Now to Accelerate Women's Public Procurement: Snapshot: IFC, Women-Owned Businesses and the Supply Chain

The publication targets oil, gas, and mining companies, but its strong emphasis on supply chains makes it relevant to local public procurement and supplier development. The IFC publication also examines what motivates corporate buyers in these sectors. Research conducted in 2016 found that companies prioritizing supplier diversity by increasing the number of women-owned and women-operated businesses in their supply chain have a 133 percent greater return on procurement investments. These businesses also spend 20 percent less on their buying operations. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has pointed out that diversity in the contracting pool fosters innovation, reduces supply chain costs, and lowers the risk of disruptions in the supply chain. Oil, gas, and mining companies face several challenges in diversifying their supply chains, including difficulties in identifying women-owned firms that meet their corporate procurement needs. Many corporates do not see the business case for making the extra effort to reach out to women-owned firms. Large corporations often say that they do not know how to incorporate women into their supply chains in a way that is cost-effective and do not know how to find these firms. Research suggests that women-owned firms tend to be smaller and not as capital intensive, employing fewer people. This can make them harder to identify. Companies can improve their success rate in reaching out to and finding local women-owned businesses if they focus on identifying the specific sectors in which women are more likely to own and operate companies. The IFC's OGM toolkit provides companies with a step-by-step way to develop a women's procurement program. It offers four suites of tools to enable a corporation to improve its business through gender diversity, in four areas: increasing gender diversity in the workplace and boardroom, women-owned businesses and the supply chain, women and community engagement, and gender-based violence in the OGM workforce. Tool Suite 2 in the IFC's OGM toolkit presents a detailed business case for increasing the gender diversity of businesses that are part of an OGM company's supply chain. It identifies gender gaps in a company's supply chain and provides tools to help companies overcome these gaps by assessing and preparing, addressing, and monitoring and sustaining their approach to gender diversity in the supply chain. The IFC's OGM toolkit provides six tools in Tool Suite 2, including Tools 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, and 2.6. These tools help companies assess and prepare for gender diversity in their supply chain, address specific practical actions to increase gender diversity, and monitor and sustain their approach to gender diversity. The toolkit also provides a list of sectors that are promising for women-owned businesses, including translation and interpretation services, training for mining company staff, catering, sewing, crafts, logistical support, and support for off-site events and coordination of potential tourism and local excursions for "fly-in/fly-out" staff.