Procurement at UNDP

In order to fulfil its mandate and achieve its vision of empowered lives and resilient nations, UNDP must procure a significant volume of goods and services. As a public organization entrusted with donor funds and committed to supporting developing economies, UNDP works to improve access to quality assured supplies in a cost effective and reliable way. We do this by abiding the following principles:

Best Value for Money, which consists of the selection of the offer that best meets the end-users’ needs and that presents the best return on investment. Best Value for Money is the result of several factors, including quality, experience, the vendor’s reputation, life-cycle costs and benefits, and parameters that measure how well the good or service allows the organization to meet its social, environmental or other strategic objectives.
Fairness, Integrity and Transparency, which ensures that competitive processes are fair, open, and rules-based. All potential vendors should be treated equally, and the process should feature clear evaluation criteria, unambiguous solicitation instructions, realistic requirements, and rules and procedures that are easy to understand.
Effective International Competition, understood as giving all potential vendors timely and adequate information on UNDP requirements, as well as equal opportunity to participate in procurement actions, and restricting them only when it is absolutely necessary to achieve UNDP development goals; and
In the best interest of UNDP, which means that any business transactions must conform to the mandates and principles of UNDP and the United Nations.

UNDP has to strictly observe its financial rules and regulations. While this may sometimes lengthen the procurement process, UNDP delegates a significant amount of authority to its Country Offices, has introduced more flexible methods for low-value/low-risk purchasing, and approves purchase orders electronically, all of which save time and money for the organization and its vendors.

More information on UNDP procurement is available here.

Hiring consultants

70% of UNDP's procurement expenditures are spent for services. These could be executed by companies or individuals. At the country office level, the first step in selecting Suppliers is often market research, particularly if the product or service has not previously been procured. Business Units may source Suppliers through an expression of interest for commonly procured goods, registration of prospective Suppliers at UNGM and/or business seminars, where applicable.
Every country office establishes and manages its own supplier database. Once a roster of potential qualified Suppliers has been generated, Business Units evaluate each Supplier's capabilities and resources to successfully perform on a contract, if awarded.

The key parameters, which guide Supplier appraisal, include:

Technical capacity to deliver the goods and/or services as per schedule
Financial strength, where the quick ratio is the most widely used test of a company's financial strength and liquidity
The commitment of management to comply with UNDP General Terms and Conditions; and Evidence of meeting national or international quality standards for the product offered; or evidence of national and international acceptance of its services
Production capacity to provide after-sales-service for the goods or services provided
Environmental compliance (i.e. ISO 14000 Certification) and
Participation in the UN Global Compact (preferrable, but nor mandatory).

INDIVIDUAL CONTRACT APPLICATION FORMS

Offeror’s letter to UNDP confirming their interest and availability for the individual contractor (IC) assignment –this form is required from all IC applicants and must be filled out to the best of the offeror's knowledge and sent back as a standard document indicating the offerror's financial proposals as well.

DOWNLOAD THE FORM HERE

Form P11 is the United Nations Development Programme personal history form required from all individuals applying for the Service Contract (SC) and Individual Contract (IC) modalities.

DOWNLOAD THE FORM HERE