利用公共采购促进妇女的经济机会：巴西的见解（英）2026

Daniela M. Behr, Héloïse Groussard, and Natália Mazoni S. Martins*T his Brief examines how gender-responsive public procurement can serve as a powerful mechanism forwomen’s economic empowerment. Public procurement of goods and services represents one of thelargest single markets in most economies, yet women-owned businesses capture less than 2 percent ofthis global demand. In Brazil, where procurement accounts for about 12 percent of GDP, directingeven a fraction of this spending toward women-led enterprises could expand their access to finance, provide astable cash inflow, and create jobs. Brazil’s new Public Procurement Law and implementing Decree embedgender-responsive criteria that promote workplace equity and require contractors to employ women survivors ofdomestic violence. Complementary policies—most notably the National Women’s Entrepreneurship Strategy(Elas Empreendem)—strengthen skills, networks, and finance for women entrepreneurs in Brazil. The Briefargues that a new frontier lies in expanding these gains to women entrepreneurs more directly, couplinggender-responsive procurement with deliberate supplier-side access for women-owned firms and linkingentrepreneurship programs to public contract opportunities.Public Disclosure Authorized Access to markets is one of the most powerful enablers ofbusinessgrowth,yet women entrepreneurs continue to facesystemic barriers that limit their participation in supply chains andpublic procurement systems (IFC 2021; Ubfal 2024). A majorconstraintis the limited integration of women-owned andwomen-led businesses into public procurement systems, the verymarkets that represent some of the largest and most stable sourcesof revenue worldwide. Public procurement alone represents asubstantialshare of national economies,accounting for anestimated 10 to 20 percent of global GDP, totaling nearly US$9.5trillion in global expenditure annually (WTO 2015). Despite this,women-ownedbusinesses capture only about 2 percent ofprocurement spending, on average (McManus 2011; Vazquez andFrankel 2017; Vazquez and Sherman 2013). Channeling even asmall share of procurement to women-led businesses can generatestable revenue, improve bankability, and create jobs (Gabriel 2025;Srhoj and Dragojević 2024). Procurement can also serve as apowerful mechanism to improve access to markets for womenentrepreneurs, helping them scale their businesses and participatein the formal economy. Gender-responsive procurement is an importanttool for inclusive growth Gender-responsivepublic procurement(GRP)involvesleveraging purchasing and sourcing opportunities to promotegender equality and to support social and economic progressthrough gender-responsive measures at all stages and tiers ofprocurement and the supply chain (McManus 2011; Orser et al.2021; UN Women 2023). Governments can boost women’sparticipationin public procurement through a variety ofmechanisms: implementing quotas, conducting gender-responsiveneedsassessments,applying tie-breaker conditions,andestablishing selection criteria in the award stage—such as givingextra points to bidders with women in management or to thosefostering job and training opportunities for women in historicallyunderrepresented sectors, or excluding bidders who fail to meetgender-equality standards (EIGE 2021; UN Women 2023; WorldBank 2026; Wright and Conley 2020). GRP integrates genderconsiderations across all stages of the procurement cycle—fromplanning and bidding to contract execution—ensuring that publicspending contributes directly to gender equality and women’seconomic rights. GRP has, therefore, emerged as a key policy toolto level the playing field and expand economic opportunities forwomen and women entrepreneurs (Sarter 2020).Public Disclosure Authorized The focus of GRP has recently evolved beyond awardingcontracts exclusively to women-owned firms toward prioritizinggender-responsive enterprises: firms that actively promote gender Global approaches to embedding gender-responsive procurement in legal frameworks Table 1 violence. As such, Brazil stands out globally linking procurement tosocialprotection,integrating provisions related to gender-basedviolence in its procurement systems. While these measures markprogress toward gender inclusion in the labor market, a next frontierlies in building on these principles to further expand opportunities forwomen-owned and women-led businesses to participate in publicprocurement. equalityin leadership,employment,and workplace practices,regardless of ownership structure (Williams 2024). Economiesworldwide have taken concrete steps to integrate GRP into theirlaws, with Sub-Saharan Africa and high-income member-countriesof the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) leading the way, followed by growing momentum inLatin America and the Caribbean, as well as East Asia and Pacific(World Bank 2026). Around the world, there is great diversity inhow governments are integrating GRP into public procure