🧩 The Challenge
Public procurement accounts for around 12% of GDP1 in many economies. Partly because of the money involved and the scale of many projects, procurement can be a powerful tool to promote female entrepreneurship, improve working conditions for women, and get them jobs in traditionally male-dominated industries like transport. Transport projects can integrate women into employment and supply chains, as evidenced by several World Bank-supported initiatives.
🛠️ The Intervention
The Roma, Europe’s largest ethnic minority, faces significant challenges, including limited access to transportation and jobs, along with other minority ethnicities in the country. Recognizing this, the World Bank supported the North Macedonia Local Roads Connectivity Project (P170267) (2019–2026), which promotes employment for Roma men and women in public works.
During the preparation, the project began with a detailed assessment of the needs of Roma women, Roma men, and non-Roma women regarding road infrastructure, public transport, and employment in transport.2 Findings revealed that poor infrastructure disproportionately impacts Roma communities and that entrenched social norms, combined with welfare disincentives, keep Roma women away from jobs on road works.
In response to these challenges, the project’s bidding documents were revised to include a requirement for road construction companies to hire women (both Roma and non-Roma) as well as Roma men. While the targets were not ambitious, they were designed to raise awareness and encourage the private sector to engage with and employ ethnic minorities.
Between 2021 and 2024, the project hired 271 Roma men for public works projects, but it faced some challenges in providing similar opportunities for Roma women, with only 17 women being recruited. Social norms and expectations presented a significant barrier; construction jobs are traditionally considered to be for men only. Another barrier was the country’s social welfare policy, which discourages disadvantaged groups from seeking short-term employment because of the potential loss of their government stipends.
Besides the efforts to include women and ethnic minorities in road works, the project has recently launched a Call for Proposals to provide grants to municipalities for implementing small community-driven infrastructure projects. Community participation including those of ethnic minorities will be a required condition for receiving the grants. The grant will fund activities such as the improvement of bus stops, children’s playgrounds, and urban equipment for small squares in villages and cities.
💡 Lessons Learned
The project highlighted the importance of aligning public procurement changes with broader social policies and cultural norms. It also demonstrated that while there is some support for using procurement to promote women and minority ethnicities, practical tools and guidance remain scarce. There is a need to record and share successful approaches for incorporating social considerations into procurement processes. Lastly, the project showed the importance of flexibility in adapting strategies to overcome challenges identified during implementation.
Note: Maja Lazarevska, Director of the Project Implementation Unit, reviewed and cleared this case study.
1 Erica Bosio and Simeon Djankov. 2020. “How large is public procurement?” World Bank Blog: https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/developmenttalk/how-large-public-procurement.
2 Kurshitashvili, N., Hadzi-Vasileva, Kristina., Bekim, I., Vukanovic, S., 2020. Assessment of Barriers and Opportunities Using Gender and Roma Lens in North Macedonia: Case of Transport. World Bank.