Debate: Should women receive preferential treatment in public tendering?

The women’s 64 per cent representation in Rwanda’s Lower House as well as other senior positions in government has yielded tremendous results for us, so why not do the same for the tendering process which today has only 18 per cent of women winning tenders. Promotion of gender equality, which is the third of the eight Millennium Development Goals, spans across various aspects that affect women in tender issuing and these are all steps to achieving these goals. I understand that we don’t have as many women entrepreneurs that can readily bid for any tender at any amount. If you put a bid for $1 million, it is going to be very difficult for small and medium enterprises owned by women to meet the requirement, but for the case of orders like $100,000, it is possible. Much as the government has to enforce this, they have to put in place measures to boost women entrepreneurs to readily compete for any tender and with time, gender balance among bidders and winners of tenders becomes naturally balanced or even more on the women’s side. Early this month in an interview with The New Times, Innocent Bulindi, the Chief Executive of Business Development Fund, a company affiliated to the Development Bank of Rwanda that supports small and medium enterprises access loans and also provides advisory services, said that there has been a notable improvement of the percentage of women applying for and getting loans. Women in Rwanda are already trying so hard to make a difference and match up to men’s speed like the example above, it is only fair that the government stretches out a hand to help them leap from stage to stage and move fast for national development. Some of the foundations for business and development of abled entrepreneurs is education. In 2012, the Ministry Of Education recorded 97.5 per cent enrollment for girls at primary level and another big percentage at secondary level. Going by a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report published in the same year, Rwanda has the highest enrollment rates in primary education in Africa. The country has also registered success in observing gender parity; with girls’ net enrolment rate of 98 per cent compared with 95 per cent for boys. Most of whatever is supposed to be done has been done, now it’s the government’s policy as well as competitive women businesses that are left. We have every single reason to pass a policy to support women tendering in competition with men. In conclusion, standards are there to stay; the question is, how does one get to meet those standards? We have almost everything in place to meet those standards and we also need to give our women a little push to get there. patrick.buchana@newtimes.co.rw Let the market players fight it out Globally, affirmative action or positive discrimination has been seen as a viable option to balance the gender equality scale. Whenever members of the female sex have not fared well in a particular aspect, the remedy mostly suggested has been to give them a soft landing or easy way through it. On face value, that brings about the desired impact, a fair representation of women on the table. But not without some effects; some areas like business should remain competitive and open. That improves quality of products and services in the market as well as gives value for money to consumers. Globally, numbers from trade organisations point out that female entrepreneurs receive a mere one per cent of the total public tenders. The revelation has elicited reactions from feminists and gender activists all calling for immediate action to change the status quo. Among the suggestions made is locating or earmarking a specific portion of the tenders to women entrepreneurs. That line of thought suggests that the best way through it is to keep them away from competition posed by male entrepreneurs. But any trade expert can tell you that doing that only serves to keep the gender activists and a section of feminists contented but it won’t solve the underlying issue. It would cause women entrepreneurs to slacken as they are sure that a specific portion of the market has been reserved for them, it would kill competition and innovativeness of the players in the market. It would be in a way accepting that women are weak and deserve a soft landing through complex matters. It would be accepting that when a particular population of the society doesn’t perform well in an aspect, the best way through is to give up on improving their capacities and capabilities and putting them on a charity programme. At the risk of coming off as gender insensitive, inconsiderate or even chauvinistic (which I am not) if we believe that there is not a difference in the capabilities of the sexes, we should let them fight it out. We should stop with the hand holding and level the playing ground for all the players. As has been the case in other fields, there are women entrepreneurs who have stood out and gone ahead to win tenders that their male counterparts couldn’t stand a chance. These women have done so unaided or without a sympathy aid from authorities. By doing so, they have rightfully claimed their position on the ‘table’; they have gotten to where they are because they deserved to be there. Rather than handing out tenders sympathetically to them, let other women entrepreneurs learn from these women. collinsmwai@gmail.com

Lifestyle

Debate: Should women receive preferential treatment in public tendering?