Key Topics Across Infrastructure Sectors

Strengthen Women's Role in Community Engagement

Community engagement is part of the greater stakeholder engagement process of a PPP. If the community engagement process can build broad community support for the PPP it is more likely to be successfully developed. Women are often less represented in community engagement activities, in particular due to social, cultural and language barriers as well as lack of safe transport or childcare. A well-thought-out community engagement strategy that reaches out to women's representatives and facilitates the participation and effective engagement of local women can help public and private sector parties to understand the full range of issues that need to be addressed thereby avoiding risk and potential conflict and helping to ensure community buy-in to the PPP.

Legal Documents

Canada/United States

• Gordie Howe International Bridge Project - Canada Michigan Crossing Agreement of 2012 mandates a Community Benefits Plan to be delivered as part of the Gordie Howe International Bridge project that includes a workforce development and participation strategy as well as a stakeholder communication and engagement strategy.

Tools

• PPP Gender Toolkit, 2024 - The Toolkit is an initiative between the World Bank, the Global Infrastructure Facility, and The Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF). This toolkit provides practical tools and guidelines for developing gender responsive PPPs. Gender responsive PPPs incorporate design features, measures, and specific actions for reducing gender inequalities (or closing gender gaps) within the community stakeholders that the project affects directly or indirectly.
• Community Engagement Guidance Note: An Approach to Inclusive Development of the Caribbean Communities by Securing Local Participation Throughout the Project Lifecycle - Effective Community Engagement: A Guidance Note for Development Practitioners Working in the Caribbean, Caribbean Development Bank, Government of Canada, European Union and Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) November 2021 - This guidance note has been developed in response to the need to strengthen community engagement in projects supported by the BNTF and other development partners and in light of the Bank’s strategic emphasis on engagement and sharpened lens on safeguarding vulnerable communities. The note has a specific focus on vulnerable groups, including females, and contains strategies to ensure that women and men benefit equally from community engagement. 
• A Guide to Community Engagement for Public-Private Partnerships draft of June 2019 - The draft guide was open for public consultation until 31 December 2019 to capture inputs and recommendations by all relevant stakeholders. Consultation Phase 1 is open. 
• Unlocking Opportunities for Women and Business, A Toolkit of Actions and Strategies for Oil, Gas, and Mining Companies, IFC 2018 - Tool Suite 3: Women and Community Engagement contains many tools and strategies that can be applied respectively to PPP infrastructure projects, including a stocktaking questionnaire for gender in community engagement (table 3-B), a Checklist "Preparing for Community Assessments" (table 3-C), Sample Baseline Assessment Questions that Probe Gender Differences (table 3-E), questions to include in a gender-sensitive social impact assessment (table 3-H) as well as sample indicators to measure gender impacts of oil, gas and mining (table 3-J).
• Strategic Community Investment: A Good Practice Handbook for Companies Doing Business in Emerging Markets, IFC 2010
• A Strategic Approach to Early Stakeholder Engagement– A Global Practice Handbook for Junior Companies in the Extractive Industries, IFC 2014 - The handbook provides guidance and practical advice on how to approach stakeholder engagement throughout each stage of a project. Table 2.1 links the project cycle and key stakeholder activities.
• Stakeholder Engagement: A Good Practice Handbook for Companies Doing Business in Emerging Markets, IFC 2007 - Appendix 3 provides sample content of a Stakeholder Engagement Plan.
• Water, Gender and Citizenship - Involving men and women in the management of water and sanitation services, Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), Latin America and the Caribbean, World Bank, 2007 - Report on Small Town Pilot Project in Peru (STPP) promoting inclusive citizen participation, involving both men and women, in decisions on the management of water and sanitation services.
• Strategic Communication for Privatization, Public-Private Partnerships, and Private Participation in Infrastructure Projects, Daniele Calabrese World Bank Group 2008 - Publication reviews the experiences of the World Bank and its clients in employing public communication programs during the processes of privatization and private sector participation. Drawing from academic and policy research as well as from case studies, it highlights good practices and identifies lessons learned through an examination of successes and failures, also with regard to the most vulnerable groups, including women.
• PPP Reference Guide, 2.5.1 PPP Stakeholder Communication and Engagement

Target Women as Consumers, Beneficiaries, and Users of Infrastructure Services

Men and women have different needs, preferences and constraints with regard to services provided by PPPs. For instance, women have often limited financial means and tend to be more concerned about costs, in particular if the new or upgraded service through the private provider results in higher tariffs, fees, tolls or other charges; safety and security issues also need to be addressed in the design of projects to attract female users; different user patterns of men and women, (e.g. regarding the use of roads) may also require specific design features. In addition, women benefit often tremendously from access to basic infrastructure services, such as clean water, reliable electricity and digital services or safe transport as it reduces a lot of time they often spend on unpaid work and connects them to economic opportunities, education, and social services.

Taking the views of women and men as consumers, beneficiaries and users of infrastructure into account when planning, designing and marketing services provided by PPPs can result in better project design, improve policy and pricing decisions and more targeted marketing and outreach.

Learn more about how to integrate gender across the PPP project cycle to ensure to maximize the impact of infrastructure investment for women as customers, users and beneficiaries.

Improve Safety and Prevent Gender-Based Violence

Construction of large PPP infrastructure projects can expose women and girls to an increased risks of sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse as well as gender-based violence (GBV). A high influx of male workers into communities which may be rural, small or remote, often together with land redistribution (e.g., due to resettlement) can make local females who live or work near the construction site extremely vulnerable. Female construction workers face also an increased risk of sexual harassment and GBV in addition to the regular safe and health hazards on the site. In addition, women can become victims of sexual harassment and GBV at the workplace, as contractors and as users of infrastructure services provided by the PPP.

Reducing GBV and other health and safety risks makes business sense for all project partners. It avoids negative publicity and reputational risk and avoids costs for businesses caused by absenteeism, lower productivity, and increased turnover. Investing in the prevention of GBV, such as mandatory use and implementation of a code of conduct for all (sub-)contracts as well training and awareness raising can reduce these costs and enhance efficiency.

Addressing GBV: PPP Procurement and Contracts

Private partners of PPP projects who sub-contract part of the works or services to contractors play a central role in preventing GBV and good practices to manage labor influx risks are emerging.

Embedding clear GBV requirements in procurement processes, respective contracts and ensuring compliance with these requirements is a critical mechanism to address GBV risks (Good Practice Note, Addressing Gender Based Violence in Investment Project Financing involving Major Civil Works, World Bank Group, 28 September 2018). One key principle of the Labor Influx Guidance Note of the World Bank of December 2016 is to build social and environmental mitigation measures into the civil works contracts. For further recommendations see Working together to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse: recommendations for World Bank investment projects, World Bank Group 2017.

Codes of Conduct

A code of conduct where private companies make a clear statement that they do not tolerate GBV and that they want to ensure that employees are trained and held accountable for upholding these values can be an effective tool to prevent GBV. The submission of Codes of Conduct that will apply to the contractor's employees and subcontractors is mandatory under the new Procurement Framework of the World Bank Group.

Sample Codes of Conduct:

• Vanuatu Aviation Investment Project - Codes of Conduct developed for the World Bank Vanuatu Aviation Investment Project, as adapted from Codes of Conduct developed by the United Nations are included in Annex 5 of the publication Working together to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse -recommendations for World Bank investment projects, World Bank Group 2017. Under the Vanuatu Aviation Investment Project, provisions have been embedded in bidding documents for runway civil works that stipulate contractor responsibility for the implementation, enforcement and monitoring of a Code of Conduct covering GBV. Contractors are also responsible for development and implementation of a complimentary Action Plan to ensure effective implementation of the Code of Conduct.
• The policies and code of conducts published by the Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Task Force may also serve as useful model documents when preparing codes of conduct.

Addressing GBV: Further Reading and Resources

• Integrating gender in PPP Procurement & PPP Contracts
• Addressing Gender-based violence in the workforce in: Unlocking Opportunities for Women and Business - A Toolkit of Actions and Strategies for Oil, Gas and Mining Companies, Tool Suite 4, IFC 2018 - Contains tools to help companies to assess the climate around sexual harassment and GBV in the workplace and host community; to implement appropriate policies, codes of conduct and trainings to address and prevent these issues from occurring; and monitor progress.

Integrate Women-owned Businesses in the Supply Chain

Women-owned businesses are typically under-represented in the supply chain of PPP projects. One reason for this lack of participation is that local women-owned businesses are often small and concentrated in just a few industry sectors. Limited access to financial and non financial services as well as land are key barriers for women-owned businesses. In many contexts, particularly where women have limited access to finance, women-owned businesses also struggle to meet procurement requirements for major companies.

Women-owned businesses are, however, often well-placed to engage in PPP projects, increasing the success and social acceptability of these projects. Small to medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) are a key driver of economic growth, and women-owned enterprises account for approximately 30-37 percent (8–10 million) of all SMEs in emerging markets.

What is a women-owned business?

A woman-owned business should at a minimum include: At least 51 per cent independent ownership by one or more women Unconditional control by one or more women over both long-term decision-making and the day-to-day management and administration of the business operations, and Independence from non-women-owned businesses Source: The Power of Procurement: How to Source from Women-Owned Businesses - Corporate Guide to Gender-Responsive Procurement, UN Women 2017.

PPP Legal Framework

Laws and regulations that encourage the participation of women-owned businesses are preferential procurement provisions in relevant guidelines, policies or legislation. They can help to ensure that supply and associated contracts are awarded to women-owned businesses.

Legal restrictions that limit the ability of women-owned businesses to participate in the supply chain of PPPs need to be taken into account when assessing PPP legal frameworks. Examples are laws where women need their husband’s permission to start a business or open a bank account, where they are not allowed to own a business, or gender-biased land allocation practices and inheritance laws as well as barriers in using non-land assets as collateral that result in limited access to finance. See also Gender-responsive Legal Framework Assessment.

Gender-sensitive Procurement and Contracts

The participation of women-owned businesses on the project level can be facilitated through gender-sensitive procurement and contracts where opportunities to work with women-owned businesses have been assessed and identified.

Examples are bidding requirements and PPP contract provisions that promote the participation of women-owned businesses as well as qualification and award criteria that require, for instance, the development and implementation of gender-inclusive supplier diversity codes of conducts or establish targets or quota for training and employment of women-owned businesses across the supply chain.

Supplier Diversity Codes of Conduct

Supplier diversity codes of conduct ensure that (sub-)contractors engage a larger variety of suppliers. Diversity in supply chains facilitates a wider variety of high-quality suppliers and makes business sense: Companies with supplier diversity programs spent 20% less than competitors on purchasing operations and have lower numbers of procurement staff.

Examples:

• Supplier Diversity Code of Conduct - template developed by WEConnect International and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Companies can sign on to the code, which serves as a strong signal to internal and external stakeholders about intent to update procurement policies, community engagement, and monitoring and evaluation metrics in support of more engagement with local women-owned businesses. The code’s objective is to de ne company commitments and lay the groundwork for a more specific and detailed plan of action to increase gender diversity in the supply chain.
• Gender Equality in Codes of Conduct Guidance - Developed by BSR with support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and expertise of the Evidence Project/Meridian Group International. Guidance offers a gender-sensitive analysis of codes of conduct principles—with a primary focus on women—and makes recommendations on how companies can strengthen their clauses to promote gender equality in the workplace, with a specific focus on developing and emerging markets-based supply chains.

Learn more about actions across the project cycle that strengthen the role of women-owned businesses in PPP projects.

Strengthening the Role of Women-owned SMEs in the Supply Chain: Further Reading and Resources

• Women, Business and the Law measures legal and regulatory barriers to women’s entrepreneurship and employment in 190 economies. It provides quantitative measures of laws and regulations that that facilitate or hinder gender-equality and women’s economic participation in seven areas: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing incentives to work, going to court, building credit and protecting women from violence. Links to all relevant laws and regulations organized by country and indicators are provided on the Women, Business and the Law website.

• SMEs and Women-owned SMEs in Mongolia - Market Research Study, International Finance Corporation (IFC) 2014 - The report highlights the key trends, challenges, and opportunities for Mongolian SMEs in three areas: enabling environment, supply and demand prospects for financial and non-financial services, and demand for and access to finance, with a particular focus on women-owned businesses.

• The International Trade Centre's guide Empowering Women through Public Procurement, of 2014 provides an overview of the challenges faced by women-owned businesses to participate in public procurement markets and offers tools to address these challenges as well as means to stimulate increased entrepreneurial activity by women-owned businesses. Table 1 contains further legislation examples authorizing preferential procurement policies for women-owned enterprises.

• Gender, Trade and Public Procurement Policy – Kenya, India, Australia, Jamaica, Raymond Mark Kirton, Commonwealth Secretariat 2013 - This report investigates how an inclusive government procurement policy, coupled with the effective management of scarce resources, can accelerate sustainable economic outcomes. It discusses the extent to which public procurement policies are gender equitable and considers the importance to integrate gender considerations into public procurement and trade policy. The publication presents four case studies on public procurement policy and practices taken from Commonwealth countries, with a particular emphasis on emerging gender-specific dimensions.

• Women Entrepreneurs, Policies to Support Women’s Entrepreneurship Development in the MENA Region, OECD October 2012 (English and Arabic) - This publication provides an overview of approaches and measures in MENA-OECD Investment Programme economies to promote, support and advance women's entrepreneurship development in the Middle East and North Africa. It covers such issues as access to credit and business development services and information on data collection and research on women entrepreneurs in the MENA area.

• Women, Entrepreneurship and the Opportunity to Promote Development and Business, Carmen Niethammer, Policy Briefs, Brookings Institution 2013 - This brief provides an overview of the global landscape of women’s entrepreneurship and highlights some of the typical challenges women face in accessing credit, training, networks and information, as well as legal and policy constraints. It focuses in particular on potential solutions and enablers by drawing on practical experiences from the public and private sectors in both emerging and developed markets and concludes that innovative partnerships, particularly when private and public sector entities are involved, are beginning to make a dent, with the potential for large-scale impact.

• Strengthening Access to Finance for Women-Owned SMEs in Developing Countries, International Finance Corporation (IFC) October 2011 - A number of factors have been investigated as limitations to SMEs that are managed/operated by women, including institutional and regulatory issues, lack of access to finance, relatively low rates of business education or work experience, risk aversion, confinement of women’s businesses to slower growth sectors, and the burden of household management responsibilities. As access to finance is repeatedly identified as a major constraint to women entrepreneurs, this report sets out to analyze the issues involved in improving access to finance for women-owned businesses.

• Empowering Women: Legal Rights and Economic Opportunities in Africa, Mary Hallward-Driemeier and Tazeen Hasan, World Bank 2011 - This publication reviews the extent of gender inequality in legal rights to property and access to justice, and discusses the implications of that inequality for women’s economic empowerment in Africa. It also discusses the extent to which the law can play a catalytic role for economic development and women’s economic empowerment.

• Women in Infrastructure Works: Boosting Gender Equality and Rural Development Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Labour Organization (ILO), Gender and Rural Employment Policy Brief # 5, 2010 - This policy brief explains how rural infrastructure programs can enhance women’s participation and benefits – as workers during construction, as entrepreneurs and as beneficiaries of the assets created.

• Scaling Up: Why Women-Owned Businesses can Recharge the Global Economy, Ernst & Young, 2009 - The report makes a business case for supporting women entrepreneurs as means to driving economic growth. It highlights gender-specific obstacles when it comes to doing business including examples for discriminatory laws.

• Public Private Partnerships – Promoting Gender Equity – The Gender and Growth Assessment for Uganda, Gender Entrepreneurship Markets (GEM) initiative of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - Summary of the results of a Gender and Growth Assessment (GGA) that was undertaken at the request of Uganda's Minister of Finance and sought to find out the constraints Ugandan women entrepreneurs face.

Useful Links:

• EmpowerWomen.org - EmpowerWomen.org is an open global platform that promotes collaboration, learning and innovation to advance women’s economic empowerment. It connects women and men in more than 190 economies with development partners from the private sector, civil society, academia, governments and international organizations.

• Female Entrepreneurship Resource Point - The Female Entrepreneurship Resource Point responds to increasing demands for best practices and tools to integrate gender in private sector development and entrepreneurship promotion programs, and to address the needs and constraints faced by female entrepreneurs. It is designed to have two functions—provide practical guidance and recommendations, and serve as a clearinghouse of programs, emerging research and data on the topic.

• Global Banking Alliance for Women - Program launched in 2007 that aims to promote women’s entrepreneurship through building the capacity of financial institutions to serve women customers.

• IFC: Gender Overview - This online resource offers a wealth of knowledge on topics related to gender inclusion in the private sector. The resources are categorized under different headings, in particular Employment, Entrepreneurship & Supply Chain and Leadership. See also Gender at IFC.

• UFGE – The Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality aims to maximize returns on investment by promoting gender-smart approaches in country-level policy dialogue, investment and lending, technical assistance, and advisory service. In connection, the new Private Sector Window of the UFGE which the IFC manages, aims to close gaps between men and women as employees, entrepreneurs, consumers, suppliers and leaders in the private sector.

• UN Women - UN Women is the United Nations Entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system, which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment and brings together resources and mandates for greater impact.

• Women’s Entrepreneurship in the Americas (WEAmericas) - WEAmericas leverages public-private partnerships to increase women’s economic participation and address three key barriers women confront when starting and growing SMEs: access to training and networks, access to markets, and access to finance. Through these collaborations, the United States and its partners will (1) provide training and mentoring to women entrepreneurs throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, with a focus on business growth; (2) Support market access initiatives in countries throughout the region; and (3) Launch and expand initiatives to facilitate women-owned SMEs’ access to credit and other financial services.

Promote Female Employment and Corporate Leadership

Women tend to be less represented in the workforce and leadership positions of PPP projects, including (sub-contractors) and providers of financial services. Investing in gender diversity in the workforce and management makes business sense as it leads to a wider talent pool, enhanced productivity and corporate performance and staff retention.

PPP legal framework

The PPP legal framework can promote equal employment opportunities for jobs related to infrastructure projects through strong policies and laws relating to anti-harassment and discrimination, equal pay for equal work, procurement guidelines, policies and legislation or policies that promote the employment of both gender by recommending measures regarding the training and education of both gender and the removal of structural and discriminatory constraints.

Gender-sensitive PPP procurement and contracts

On the project level female employment can be encouraged through gender-sensitive procurement as well as provisions in PPP contracts that promote female employment, such as targets, quota, the provision of child care, or training depending on a thorough assessment of the elements that hinder women to participate in the workforce in a particular country.

See e.g., Public-Private Partnership Agreement for the Management and Operation of the Skukuza Airport in the Kruger National Park.

Learn more about actions across the project cycle that can promote female employment and leadership in PPP projects.

Promote Female Employment and Corporate Leadership: Further Reading and Resources

Listed below are various publications and useful links that deal with legal issues related to supporting female participation in the workplace, in higher qualified positions and in the boardroom.

• Gender Diversity in Jordan – Research on the Impact of Gender Diversity on the Economic Performance of Companies in Jordan, International Finance Corporation (IFC) 2015 - The report reveals both the opportunities and challenges for Jordan in its effort to increase women’s participation in boards and offers suggestions and recommendations to encourage greater gender diversity in the boardroom. Chapter 8 lists examples of laws, regulations and other national initiatives that aim to enable increase gender diversity at the workplace, including female entry into management or nomination to the corporate board (e.g. quotas, disclosure requirements, diversity guidelines requiring companies to implement corporate policies and strategies). Related to the report see also Women are Key for Corporate Success blog by Ahmed Attiga of 10 December 2015.
• Investing in Women’s Employment: Good for Business, Good for Development, International Finance Corporation (IFC) October 2013 - This report was produced by WINvest (Investing in Women), a World Bank Group partnership with the private sector for promoting women’s employment. It outlines how investing in women’s employment has led to enhanced business performance and productivity for companies in diverse countries and sectors and provides guidance on the best ways of gauging the benefits of women’s employment, including longer-term benefits.
• Women in Infrastructure Works: Boosting Gender Equality and Rural Development, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Labour Organization (ILO), Gender and Rural Employment Policy Brief # 5, 2010 - This policy brief explains how rural infrastructure programs can enhance women’s participation and benefits – as workers during construction, as entrepreneurs and as beneficiaries of the assets created.

Useful Links:

• International Labour Organization (ILO) - Gender, Equality and Diversity Branch (GED): The GED of the International Labour Organization is responsible for promoting equality and respect for diversity in the world of work. It provides policy advice, tools, guidance and technical assistance to constituents including with respect to promoting more inclusive workplaces, and ensuring that policies, programs and institutions are gender-responsive.

• SheWorks - Private sector partnership led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) that aims to improve employment opportunities for women.

• IFC: Gender Overview - This online resource offers a wealth of knowledge on topics related to gender inclusion in the private sector. The resources are categorized under different headings, in particular Employment, Entrepreneurship & Supply Chain and Leadership. See also Gender at IFC.

• UFGE – The Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality aims to maximize returns on investment by promoting gender-smart approaches in country-level policy dialogue, investment and lending, technical assistance, and advisory service. In connection, the new Private Sector Window of the UFGE which the IFC manages, aims to close gaps between men and women as employees, entrepreneurs, consumers, suppliers and leaders in the private sector.

• UN Women - UN Women is the United Nations Entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system, which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment and brings together resources and mandates for greater impact.