UNOPS is a leading purchaser of vehicles for humanitarian, peacebuilding and development purposes. Photo: Kjaer & Kjaer A/S

Coordinated international reach

We often deliver procurement services where local capacity is limited, such as in postdisaster and peacebuilding settings. Working closely with partners, UNOPS also builds and strengthens national capabilities for delivering procurement services.

UNOPS procures across 150 countries annually, with 73 percent of goods and services coming from developing countries or economies in transition in 2011.

Focus on quality

While cost is always paramount, we never compromise on the quality of goods, works and services we procure.

UNOPS employs a number of different practices for assuring quality, including sourcing from suppliers who apply good manufacturing processes and quality assurance programmes. In addition, we employ a variety of quality assurance practices ourselves, including the inspection of goods and work in process.

We also produce specific in-house quality assurance guides to support the procurement of common items needed for development, such as pharmaceuticals.

Price performance

With its global buying power, UNOPS enjoys considerable leverage with suppliers, passing cost-savings on to partners. UNOPS has established long-term agreements with vendors for many goods and services, thereby securing delivery and guaranteeing highly competitive prices. We also conduct secondary bidding exercises with suppliers where consolidated quantities and delivery locations would result in additional discounts.

An independent review of prices has shown that UNOPS achieves lower price levels than similar organizations for certain common goods.

Disaster response and emergency situations

UNOPS is well-positioned to quickly react to crises across the world. We use our procurement expertise, considerable post-disaster experience and knowledge of markets in challenging environments to help our partners rapidly mobilize their relief and recovery operations.

This includes using a range of procurement tools, such as our long-term agreements, UN Web Buy and other systems, to source supplies and ensure timely delivery and competitive pricing.

We recognize that timely procurement supports project success. UNOPS therefore monitors supplier performance to ensure punctual delivery, and includes mechanisms in its contracts to encourage performance compliance and avoid costly penalties.

In-country logistics

To facilitate in-country logistics and ensure the efficient, effective storage and flow of supplies from the port of entry to the final recipient, UNOPS can establish new distribution and transport systems and support existing ones.