Procurement policies
Read about the policies that guide our procurement activities. Suppliers are expected to have reviewed and comply by these policies.
UNICEF follows the common guidelines for procurement by organizations in the UN System. The objective of our procurement activities is the timely acquisition of the appropriate products, works and services, while addressing:
- UNICEF’s mandate
- Fairness, integrity and transparency, through competition
- Economy and effectiveness
- Best value for money
Further, UNICEF:
- Only purchases products and equipment to implement its mandate.
- Purchases primarily from manufacturers and authorized representatives.
- Evaluates and registers suppliers with which it does business.
- Uses primarily competitive tendering for all procurement.
- Invites an appropriate geographical range of suppliers to tender.
- Purchases products that comply with recognized technical standards.
- Does not purchase from companies employing child labour, nor manufacturers of land mines and their components.
Child labour
UNICEF fully subscribes to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in which Article 32 states that a child shall be protected from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. UNICEF reserves the right to terminate any contract unconditionally and without liability if a supplier is discovered to be non-compliant with applicable national labour laws and regulations with respect to child employment.
Landmines
UNICEF requires every supplier to guarantee that neither the supplier's company, nor any of its affiliates and any subsidiaries controlled by the supplier's company, is engaged in the sale or manufacture of anti-personnel mines or of components utilized in the manufacture of anti-personnel mines. The supplier recognizes that a breach of this provision will entitle UNICEF to terminate its contract with the supplier.
Related content
UNICEF Supply Division standard contractual texts
Adoption of e-signatures for procurement documents
UNICEF has introduced the use of electronic signature for procurement documents (purchase orders, service contracts and long-term agreements), which is a solution delivered through a third-party application, DocuSign. Vendors will be notified of any UNICEF procurement documents requiring their review and signature in an email notification from DocuSign (clearly marked with the name of the relevant UNICEF staff member). Please note that, even for documents issued as e-signature documents, vendors will still be able to print and sign on paper by using DocuSign’s Print and Sign function.
UNICEF e-submissions platform
UNICEF Supply Division and some UNICEF Country Offices are using an e-submissions platform for specific solicitation exercises. Please note that all open tenders are advertised in the usual way on United Nations Global Marketplace (UNGM) tender notices page – and that the project description in the UNGM notice will make it clear that the tender will be run through the e-submissions system.