The government, as one of the biggest consumers in the macro economy, has the ability to influence outcomes such as gender equality and women's economic empowerment through deliberate acts such as gender-responsive procurement. It is an incontrovertible fact that women suffer from socioeconomic disenfranchisement due to gender equality, largely arising from deep-seated patriarchal convictions and practices. Given the correlational link between public procurement and macroeconomic outcomes such as economic empowerment, there is a need to reconfigure the architecture of public procurement regimes through gender-responsive procurement. Studies have unambiguously demonstrated that women-owned businesses that secure government contracts grow, mature and resultantly, contribute to varied macroeconomic outcomes. Women's economic empowerment confers many benefits, chiefly, economic growth and development. Economic growth and development have eluded the developing world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, partly because women suffer economic apartheid. Mostly, they are excluded from economic activities such as public procurement. The foregoing is also true in Botswana. While Botswana avows women's economic empowerment through public procurement instruments, these do not go far because they are not gender-responsive. The result is that in practice, women do not equally participate in public procurement. The overarching aim of this chapter is to discuss how gender-responsive public procurement can be used as an effective women's economic empowerment tool in Botswana and how a vulnerability analysis enriches approaches to economic equality between men and women. The chapter is steeped in the interpretive tradition and uses qualitative approach to analyze gender dynamics in Botswana is presented and analysis of web-based secondary sources such as policies and regulations is conducted.

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