Prime
Let’s audit our gender inclusiveness
Benson Turamye
What you need to know:
Such celebrations should not just pass by like an annual ritual
This year, Women’s Day celebrated under the theme, Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow. This year’s theme was an opportune moment to muse over how we can continue to engage the women in Uganda’s development agenda, to sustainably take forward our development trajectory.
This is an occasion to look back at how far we have come as a country and indeed as humanity in harnessing the potential of women to address the development challenges of our times. The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) appreciates the significance of the female gender if we are to attain our development aspirations as enshrined in the National Development Plan and Vision 2040, plus other national, regional and international development instruments we subscribe to. Women constitute more than 50 perent of our population. Therefore, it is foolhardy to imagine that we can make any significant strides in our development journey without recognizing the importance of the biggest segment of our population.
The theme and celebration of International Women’s Day 2022 could not have come at a better time for the PPDA. It is at a time when the PPDA Act 2003, has just been amended by Parliament and subsequently assented to by the President, in June 2021 followed by the publication in the Uganda Gazette of July 2, 2021. The amendment of the PPDA Act, specifically section 59B, aptly resonates with the theme, Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow. The Act now, among other things, explicitly requires all procuring and disposing entities (PDEs) to “promote the participation of registered associations of women, youth and persons with disabilities, respectively.” It is thus no longer business as usual in public procurement. Government ministries, departments and agencies or PDEs will now have to clearly demonstrate that their procurement plans and contract awards are in tandem with the provisions of the law.
The PPDA will thus now be keener and more elaborate on its regulatory responsibilities in as far as gender issues are concerned. In addition to continuous engagement with women entrepreneurs to build their capacity in public procurement, the Authority will enhance its oversight role to ensure that PDEs adhere to the provisions of the law that engender gender.
The amendment of the PPDA Act will also fortify the already existing policy and legal and policy frameworks that promote local content in public procurement. This is particularly pertinent in respect to reservation schemes. A reservation scheme serves to set aside procurement opportunities to benefit a target group of providers such as women, youth, and the elderly depending on the objectives. It is a kind of affirmative action. The Authority issued guidelines on reservation schemes in 2018 as a point of reference for all PDEs. The reservation schemes, which also provide for increasing the input of local labour, goods and services in the public procurement, will tap into the potential of hitherto marginalized groups including women, youth, persons with disabilities and the elderly.
We also salute our partners in promoting women in public procurement. We are particularly proud of the collaboration with Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Limited (UWEAL), though which the PPDA has undertaken the equipping of potential women entrepreneurs, with knowledge and information to successfully bid for public contracts. The Authority is now poised to strengthen and take this collaboration further forward.
Our challenge and clarion call to our colleagues in the PDEs, is that such celebrations should not just pass by like an annual ritual. We, at the Authority, are now prepared to use the occasion to rally our efforts towards interventions that create a difference in public procurement for the female gender.
Mr Benson Turamye is the Executive Director, Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority
