European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)

EIGE

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European Institute for Gender Equality, Gedimino pr. 16, LT-01103 Vilnius, Lithuania

EIGE.SEC@eige.europa.eu

+370 5 215 7444

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Gender-responsive Public Procurement (GRPP) is defined by EIGE as “a gender mainstreaming tool to promote gender equality through public procurement. GRPP is procurement that promotes gender equality through the goods, services or works being purchased. This means that buyers and suppliers examine the impact of all contracted activities on women’s and men’s needs, interests and concerns, and design and deliver contracts in a way that reduces gender inequalities. It does not necessarily entail higher costs, but does require knowledge and capacity”.

EIGE’s GRPP indicators attempt to measure the extent to which the following types of activities exist at the EU and national levels:

• Legislative and/or policy frameworks related to GRPP.
• Awareness of GRPP amongst buyers and sellers of public procurement.

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• Gender-responsive Public Procurement: defined by EIGE as “a gender mainstreaming tool to promote gender equality through public procurement. GRPP is procurement that promotes gender equality through the goods, services or works being purchased. This means that buyers and suppliers examine the impact of all contracted activities on women’s and men’s needs, interests and concerns, and design and deliver contracts in a way that reduces gender inequalities. It does not necessarily entail higher costs, but does require knowledge and capacity”.
• Buyers of public procurement: contracting authorities purchasing goods and services through public procurement processes.
• Sellers of public procurement: suppliers/contractors providing goods and services through public procurement processes.
• Pre-tendering stage of the public procurement cycle: This refers to the preparatory activities undertaken by contracting authorities prior to launching a tender. GRPP measures can be incorporated early on to ensure that a gender-perspective is proactively considered at each stage of the procurement cycle. As highlighted in EIGE’s GRPP toolkit, relevant measures under this stage could include preliminary market consultations, measures to define the subject matter, measures to choose the procedure, and the preparation of tender documents.
• Tendering stage of the public procurement cycle: This refers to the activities undertaken by contracting authorities in the process from definition of the scope and terms of a call for tender to the final award of the contract. During this period, contracting authorities may implement GRPP related criteria to ensure that the process promotes gender mainstreaming. As highlighted in EIGE’s GRPP toolkit, relevant measures under this stage could cover exclusion grounds, selection criteria, technical specifications, award criteria, and the request of labels/certifications by contracting authorities.
• Post-tendering stage of the public procurement cycle: This refers to the activities undertaken by contracting authorities after the award of a contract to ensure that the performance of the successful bidder complies with the conditions set out in the tender specifications and/or the final contract. As highlighted in EIGE’s GRPP toolkit, relevant measures under this stage could relate to contract performance conditions for GRPP in the areas of subcontracting, monitoring and reporting, and enforcement.

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EU Member States

2022

2022

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EIGE publishes the results in its dedicated Gender Statistics Database:

https://www.eige.europa.eu/gender-statistics/dgs

No regular news releases.

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https://eige.europa.eu/gender-statistics/dgs

No micro-data are disseminated.

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Documentation on the methodological approach adopted by EIGE to conduct research on GRPP in the EU can be found in the accompanying methodological report.

Please refer to sections 12.1 of these metadata.

After the consultation activities with procurement authorities were completed, the responses of researchers were quality assured. Quality assurance focused, firstly, on completeness, ensuring that all questions, including metadata, had been completed for each Member State. Secondly, metadata was used to check the accuracy of the information provided. All questions required that the source of the information was clearly identified in metadata. Where possible, this was an objective source, such as legal citation. Thirdly, data was compared and sense-checked across Member States to help identify issues of non-comparability.

For further information, please see: Quality Considerations for EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database

Overall, the data on Gender-responsive Public Procurement can be considered of good quality, collected from reliable sources and with careful application of a common methodology.

GRPP can be a driver to promote employment opportunities and social inclusion for women, providing opportunities for women at all stages of the supply chain and ensuring fair remuneration for women employees in the labour market.

Gender-responsive procurement measures can promote gender equality by helping to:

• Increase the participation of women in the workforce.
• Promote gender balance in sectors where women are underrepresented and prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
• Improve working conditions in fields where women are the main workforce.
• Combat the gender pay gap and promote fair remuneration.
• Improve work-life balance, and the distribution of care responsibilities in households.
• Diversify the gender composition of seller organisations and companies that provide public goods and services.

No user opinions have been collected.

All EU Member States are covered.

Accuracy refers to the extent to which the data collected and used to populate the indicators on GRPP is ‘correct’. In principle, the data accurately describes the GRPP landscape at the EU and national levels.

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GRPP data collected is comparable across Member States. Researchers adopted a uniform approach to data collection, including the focus on national level initiatives, measures in effect as of May 2022, and procurement measures with explicit gender focus (i.e., activities with a broader focus on socially responsible public procurement were not considered).

While inherent differences exist between countries’ approaches to public procurement, the GRPP methodology aimed to allow for such variation so that the measures covered in each country are as comparable as possible.

It should be noted however that the data collection approach was different for six Member States (Lithuania, Portugal, Austria, Romania, Czech Republic, and Luxembourg).

• Lithuania and Portugal: Interviews were conducted with a gender equality body in addition to interviews with a public procurement body.
• Austria and Romania: Interviews were conducted with a gender equality body, instead of interviews with a public procurement body.
• Czech Republic and Luxembourg: Findings based solely on desk research; no interviews were conducted with public procurement bodies or gender equality bodies to verify responses.

 Further details on the overall impact of these interview approaches on the findings can be found in the methodological report.

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The findings based on EIGE’s data collection have full internal coherence.

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None- data was collected through primary research.

The production of the indicators on Gender-responsive Public Procurement was a one-off activity.

Data collection was conducted through online desk research and interviews with public procurement authorities.

National researchers were contracted in each Member State to collect data on GRPP. Their role was to conduct online desk research, identify stakeholders to interview, conduct the interview, and compile answers in an online questionnaire.

Data validation procedures have been described at point 12 (Quality management).

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