Provision of Design Consultancy Services for the Renovation and Expansion of the Conference Faci ...

The United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON), the UN headquarters in Africa, was established by the General Assembly in 1996. Led by a Director-General, at the Under-Secretary General level, UNON serves as the representative office of the Secretary-General in Nairobi and functions as the representational and liaison agent with permanent missions, the host-country and other Governments, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations in Nairobi, as well as other organizations of the United Nation's system in Kenya. The UNON hosts the global headquarters for two programmes: the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). UNON also provides administrative and other support services to these programmes and the UN Resident Coordinator System. It provides joint and common services to other UN Country Offices, UN Regional Offices and UN entities based in Kenya. The UN facilities in Kenya were initially established in 1974 as home of the UN Environmental Programme and has rapidly evolved into a mega-complex serving the UN and its agencies in Africa. The conference facilities are in need of renovation and expansion and the Secretary General has proposed a major project to modernise and significantly enhance the existing facility. UNON has embarked on a major capital project, referred to as Renovation and Expansion of the Conference Facility project. The objective of this project is to meet the current and future conferencing needs and address foreseeable conferencing requirements of the Organization over the next 25 to 30 years. UNON is now seeking expression of interest from suitably qualified and interested vendors to participate in a Request for Proposal at a later stage, for the provision of design consultancy services for the renovation and expansion of the conference facilities at UNON. The design consultancy services are required to address the deterioriating conditions and the limited capacity of the conference services facility. In keeping with the history and values of the organization, the Design Consultant will be tasked with revitalizing the central core and the public face of the UNON facility in a manner befitting of the institution, and in particular the two headquarter entities there - UNEP and UN-Habitat.