The bid documents usually include a draft PPP contract to be signed by the contracting authority and the private partner after the end of the bidding process. Gender commitments can be enshrined in the draft PPP contract and other key project-relevant agreements. This primer focuses on the PPP contract,64 as it is at the center of the partnership and defines the relationship between the contracting authority and the private partner, their respective rights and responsibilities, and the risk allocation between them.
i. Gender Commitments, KPIs, and Incentives for Compliance in PPP Contracts
The PPP contract can ensure that the gender actions envisaged during appraisal are translated into enforceable commitments measured against corresponding indicators.
In contrast to traditionally financed infrastructure projects, the PPP contract typically measures the performance of the private partner against a set of criteria defined in KPIs. These focus on what a project is intended to achieve (outputs) rather than the methods and materials used to achieve those goals (inputs), thus giving the private partner the opportunity to develop innovative solutions intended to reduce overall life-cycle costs, while delivering the intended level of service. Compliance with these KPIs is incentivized through a payment mechanism that connects performance with bonuses, penalties and/or payment deductions.
This mechanism provides an opportunity to systematically integrate two elements-specific long-term gender commitments plus gender-sensitive indicators that can be accurately reported-in PPP contracts, to monitor and assess outcomes, and to ensure compliance of these standards through deductions and penalties.65 Although KPIs usually focus on project performance and service quality, rather than socio-economic objectives66 such as gender equality and women's empowerment, this practice is shifting towards providing a stronger emphasis on social sustainability in PPP frameworks and projects.
Table 4: External Tools and Guides with Sample Indicators
| Sector | Tool |
| Energy | Examples of Assessments, Actions, and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) in the Energy Sector, Integrating Gender Considerations in Energy Operations, ESMAP, 2012, Annex I. |
| Extractives | Potential Indicators for Monitoring and Measuring the Impact of a Gender- Sensitive Approach to EI Projects, Gender Dimensions of the Extractive Industries, World Bank, 2009, Annex I. |
| Extractives | Unlocking Opportunities for Women and Business, A Toolkit of Actions and Strategies for Oil, Gas, and Mining Companies, IFC, 2018 (contains indicators, such as Indicators to Monitor Progress on Supply Chain Gender Diversity Goals, Tool 2.6). |
| Multi-Sector | Priority Indicators, Gender Impact of PPPs, IFC, 2012, Table 3.1. |
| Multi-Sector | Tool Kit on Gender Equality Results and Indicators, Asian Development Bank (ADB), 2013. |
| Transport | Output Level Performance Targets or indicators, Gender Tool Kit-Transport, ADB, 2013. |
| Water | Suggested Indicators for Gender-Sensitive Monitoring and Evaluation, Toolkit for Mainstreaming Gender in Water Operations, World Bank, 2016, Annex II. |
ii. How Can Gender Commitments be Integrated in PPP Contracts?
When drafting PPP contracts, the project team needs to decide how identified gender commitments can be included. The following list highlights the main provisions in PPP contracts that are relevant to the integration of gender issues, along with examples of how these entry points could be used to achieve the gender goals of a project:67
• General commitment to environmental and social standards-include a clear statement regarding the gender benefits both parties expect the project to achieve.
• Integration of safeguards documents-include gender commitments detailed in ESAPs, resettlement plans, and so forth, to make them legally enforceable.
• Commitments related to procurement-include commitments related to procurement (for example, a development of Code of Conduct or Supplier Diversity Plan, together with a requirement to pass on all gender-specific requirements to sub-contractors, and an obligation to solicit, select and supervise sub-contractors in accordance with gender commitments).
• Commitments related to stakeholder engagement-include stakeholder-related commitments that target men and women separately (for example, household surveys to track users' satisfaction with new or upgraded infrastructure services, or income-generating activities enabled by the project).
• Commitments related to employment and/or entrepreneurship-ensure that commitments related to employment and/or entrepreneurship take concerns and priorities of men and women into account (for example, commitments around gender-sensitive recruitment, hiring, training, management and promotion of a diverse and competent work-force throughout all project stages; development of a strategic equality and diversity plan; development of a training plan; development of or compliance with child-care, equal pay for equal work, and anti-sexual-harassment policies; and provision of separate facilities).
• Effective monitoring mechanism-Establish clear responsibilities for monitoring between the private partner and the contracting authority:
a. Collection of sex-disaggregated data throughout the implementation phase, to measure performance against a baseline.68
b. Reporting obligations of the private partner that detail performance against gender commitments, based on sex-disaggregated data.
c. Obligations related to disclosure of project documents and performance data to ensure transparency and compliance with gender obligations, and to enable stakeholders to monitor performance of the parties.
• Grievance and redress mechanism-Establish a gender-sensitive grievance and redress mechanism (in coordination with local women and their representatives) to receive and facilitate the resolution of concerns raised by community members about the parties' performance, taking the special needs of women into account, who may feel more comfortable if they can talk with other women.
• Enforceable technical and performance requirements (KPIs) together with financial incentives to comply with set standards-Ensure that all key gender-specific technical requirements are included in the contract as outputs, and are measurable in terms of KPIs (such as requirements to include physical-design features that are beneficial for women [e.g., surveillance cameras, bus-stop ramps, and sidewalks]; to hire a certain number of skilled and unskilled local men and women during construction and operation; or to develop and maintain ancillary infrastructure that is needed).
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64 PPP contracts are, for example, concession agreements, implementation agreements, or BOT agreements.
65 See for example, WBI 2004, IFC, 2012, as well as Gender Review 2016.
66 IFC, 2012.
67 For an overview of environmental and social commitments to be included in contracts, see IFC, 2017.
68 Private parties typically have access to all information during construction and the long operational period of the project and may need to take on this task, while the public sector may also need dedicated staff and budgets to review and manage the additional information.