Breaking into Supply Chains: Experimental Evidence on Procurement Training for Women-Owned SMEs

Rachel Cassidy, David McKenzie and Kalyan N. Neelamraju

No 11481, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Women-owned-or-led small and medium-sized enterprises (WSMEs) are underrepresented in public and corporate supply chains worldwide. There is growing interest in promoting SMEs’ and WSMEs’ integration into value chains, but limited causal evidence whether interventions to support their participation in procurement are effective. This paper conducts a phased randomized controlled trial to estimate the impacts of corporate procurement training for WSMEs in Colombia. The program increases procurement knowledge and readiness, resulting in a ten percentage point increase in registrations to corporate portals, and an eight percentage point increase in the likelihood of submitting a bid. Impacts on winning bids are concentrated in WSMEs with prior procurement knowledge or experience, whose probability of winning a contract increases by eight to nine percentage points. These impacts are approximately twenty percent of the control means. More broadly, the paper illustrates how complier-weighted treatment effects can be used to evaluate programs delivered through a funnel-shaped participation process, common in private sector development interventions.

Date: 2026-10-07
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