United Nations Development Programme

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.