Inclusive Public Procurement Opportunities, Barriers and Strategies (OBS) to Women Entrepreneur’s Participation in Public Procurement in Uganda

Abstract

The agenda and call to increasing Women and Women Owned Businesses (WOB) participation in public procurement is now a key policy area in both developed and developing countries. Influenced by the global declarations and the drive towards realisation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), countries have adopted affirmative action strategies aimed at ensuring equalisation of opportunities between men and women. For any country like Uganda to develop implementable strategies, not only is a situational analysis of the state of affairs necessary but a glance into the opportunities and barriers that mitigate their participation needs to be re-emphasised. Uganda is a country within the East African region whose expenditure on acquisition of goods, services and works to meet government objectives could be exploited to address the gender gap. The purpose of this article is to examine, using empirical findings collected from a crosssectional survey process the state of affairs regarding women’s opportunities in Uganda’s public procurement. The article specifically addresses three key issues: opportunities for women and their enterprises, the barriers to their participation and policy and management action strategies needed to address this dilemma. A framework for increasing participation is presented.