United Nations Children's Fund

UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child. Together with its partners, it works in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.

In all of its work, UNICEF takes a life-cycle based approach, recognizing the particular importance of early childhood development and adolescence. UNICEF programmes focus on the most disadvantaged children, including those living in fragile contexts, those with disabilities, those who are affected by rapid urbanization and those affected by environmental degradation.

UNICEF was created with a distinct purpose in mind: to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. It advocates for measures to give children the best start in life, because proper care at the youngest age forms the strongest foundation for a person’s future.

UNICEF upholds the Convention on the Rights of the Child to assure equality for those who are discriminated against and it works for the Millennium Development Goals and for the progress promised in the United Nations Charter. 

UNICEF is part of the Global Movement for Children – a broad coalition dedicated to improving the life of every child.  Through this movement, and events such as the United Nations Special Session on Children, it encourages young people to speak out and participate in the decisions that affect their lives.

The organization is active in more than 190 countries and territories through country programmes and National Committees.

UNICEF is dedicated to protecting children’s and women’s rights through helping them meet their basic needs and expanding their opportunities. Making essential supplies available, accessible and affordable is core to this commitment. UNICEF’s Supply Catalogue contains specifications for over 2,000 commodities that respond to the needs of children and their families.

The objective of Procurement Services is to offer UNICEF's knowledge, purchasing capacity and logistics expertise to the development partners, so that they can use their own financial resources and donor funds to procure life-saving supplies for children.  In this way, partners can use and learn from UNICEF’s expertise in their own efforts to help and ensure equity for children.  Procurement Services is built on partnerships and is not for profit.

Procurement Services is an integrated component of UNICEF’s country programmes of cooperation and has become an important entry point for UNICEF in helping to strengthen national capacity in planning for supply needs, selection of supplies and equipment and their effective delivery and distribution.

Procurement Services is a development mechanism that provides access to UNICEF’s supply networks, experience and expertise to procure strategic, essential commodities for children and to ensure that these are available at household level. It offers a broad approach to supply management, building on national capacities, and includes technical assistance and supply services. It is designed as a transitional mechanism for Governments and other partners until national public and private supply systems can effectively perform this role.

Procurement Services combines global reach with local knowledge, managed from UNICEF’s Supply Division in Copenhagen, in collaboration with the organization’s country offices covering 190 countries and territories around the world.    

In recent years Procurement Services were provided to partners in more than 100 countries, reaching over USD 1.65 billion in procurement value annually. The growth of procurement services in recent years underlines UNICEF's supply chain expertise, combined with its focus on meeting the MDG objectives, and is increasingly recognized by partners as a valued service in meeting their development goals.

Interested parties can contact UNICEF Procurement Services to find out more about the procurement process, submit a request, or for general enquiries. 

Quick links:

• Become a UNICEF supplier
• UNICEF supplies
• Procurement Policies
• Quality Assurance
• Bidding Opportunities
• Tender Calendars
• Contract Awards
• Suppliers Meetings

Yes, therefore the user should be automatically taken to the external website

e-Procurement system used by this UN organization: In-Tend

Contact email of the e-Procurement system: support@in-tend.co.uk 

How to participate in procurement opportunities requiring electronic submission on UNGM?

If a procurement protest needs to be submitted, click on the Ethics in UNICEF supply operations page. 

• Procurement value: 7.38B USD
• Number of countries the organization procured from: 182
• Percentage of total UN procurement: 24.96%
• Ranking by procurement value: 1st
• Top category: Pharmaceuticals, Contraceptives, Vaccines
• Top region: Europe

To learn more about the procurement volume of each UN organization, visit the Annual Statistical Report and use the interactive dashboard.