united nations procurement statistics now available online · 2017-10-20 · funds and programmes...

2015 Annual Statistical Report on United Nations Procurement

152015 Annual Statistical Report

on United Nations Procurement

Copyright © 2016by the United Nations Office for Project Services Marmorvej 51, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of UNOPS.


Photo credits:

UNAIDS/Peter Caton, 2014Advocacy for equality and empowerment of women and young girls, Cambodia

Sopheap with her children.

Sopheap 35, has been an entertainment worker since 2007 and supports her mother, niece and two sons with her earnings, as well as sending money home to her brothers and sisters. She used to grow vegetables and fruit and sell them in the market but couldn’t make ends meet. She always liked to sing and used to be on local TV shows, but when she got married she was no longer invited. Her husband lives in the US and she only sees him sporadically. She started her career as an entertainment worker singing in a restaurant, but a year ago switched to her current workplace a beer hall.

Data: total UN procurement from Cambodia in 2015: 18.87 million USD

United Nations Procurement statistics now available onlineTogether with the publication of the 2015 Annual Statistical Report on United Nations Procurement (ASR), an online version of the report and statistics will be made available for the first time. This online version of the ASR will provide the possibility to analyse the procurement statistics electronically, with ability to search and filter by United Nations organizations, supplier countries and categories of goods and services. When launched, procurement statistics from 2013 to 2015 will be made available. The online ASR is available at www.ungm.org/public/asr.

www.ungm.org/public/asr

2015 Annual Statistical Report on United Nations Procurement 1

Table of contents

Glossary of terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 United Nations reporting on sustainable procurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 United Nations report on Global Compact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Total procurement of goods and services for operational activities of the UN system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Countries of supply to the UN in 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Ten major countries of supply to the UN system in 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries . . . . . . 12

Top twenty countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries supplying UN . . . organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Countries with the largest increases in procurement volume from 2005 to 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Procurement by organizations of the UN system in 2014 and 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries . . . . . . 16

Procurement by sectors of categories of goods and services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Sustainable procurement reporting in the UN system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries, and least developed countries 20 Total procurement by country groupings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and LDCs combined, by largest UN . . . . organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Country group procurement by category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

LDCs supplying UN organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Sustainable procurement in the UN system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Policy and strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

SP integration in the procurement process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Internal capacity building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Supply chain development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

UN procurement from Global Compact participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Sustainable procurement outlook for 2016. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Procurement by sectors and categories of goods and services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Total procurement by sectors of goods and services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Detailed procurement of the top five sectors by UNSPSC® family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Table of contents

2

Procurement profiles of the top twenty developing countries and countries with economies in transition . . . . 48 Afghanistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Argentina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Ethiopia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Iraq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Jordan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Kenya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Lebanon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Pakistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Panama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Republic of Korea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Russian Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

South Sudan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Sudan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Syrian Arab Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Ukraine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

United Arab Emirates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Procurement profiles of the DAC member countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Belgium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Czech Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Denmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Finland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Iceland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Japan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82


Table of contents

Luxembourg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Norway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Portugal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Republic of Korea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Slovakia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Slovenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Sweden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Switzerland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

United States of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Total procurement of goods and services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Total procurement of goods and services (by supplier country or country of contractor) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Total procurement by UN organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Procurement of goods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105 Procurement of goods by UN organization and country of supplier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Procurement of goods by country of supplier and UN organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Procurement of services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151 Procurement of services by UN organization and country of supplier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Procurement of services by country of contractor and UN organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Procurement profiles of 36 UN organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197

Share of UN organization for each procurement category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .234

Major purchase orders and contracts by UN organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .307

Annexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .630 Annex I Abbreviations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630

Distribution of countries and territories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631

Annex II Developing countries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632

Annex III Least developed countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634

Annex IV Economies in transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635

Annex V Developed countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636

Annex VI Category names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637

4

Countries

Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member countries

Developed countries; Developing countries; Economies in transition; and least developed countries

Goods

Member States

Organizations of the United Nations system

Procurement

Services

Glossary of terms

Throughout this report, the terminology “country” or “countries” refers to countries and territories as defined by the Statistics Division of the United Nations Secretariat. In all, there are 241 countries and territories. The designations employed do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.The assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories by the United Nations.

A key forum of major bilateral donors, DAC Member Countries work together to increase the effectiveness of their common efforts to support sustainable development. The DAC consists of 28 Member Countries, as well as the European Union1.

For analytical purposes, this report adopts the United Nations classification of the world into these broad categories. A composition of these groupings, provided in Annex II to Annex V, is intended to reflect the countries for which the United Nations provides financial/technical assistance. Please note that there is no established convention for the classification of countries within the United Nations system.

Objects of every kind and descriptions, including raw materials, products and equipment and objects in solid, liquid or gaseous form, and electricity, as well as services incidental to the supply of the goods if the value of those incidental services does not exceed that of the goods themselves.

In all, 193 sovereign states are recognized Members of the United Nations, and the United Nations General Assembly. Membership in the United Nations is open to all peace-loving states which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter2 and, in the judgement of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations.

Throughout this report, the terminology “United Nations organization(s)” refers to the United Nations, its subsidiary bodies – including separately administered funds and programmes – specialized agencies, research and training institutes, and other subsidiary entities.

The acquisition through purchase or lease of real property, goods or other products (including intellectual property), works or services

Work, duty or labour performed by a contractor pursuant to a contract. Rendering of services may involve the associated provision of utilities or facilities if specified in the terms of the contract. Typical examples of services include security, catering, cleaning, travel management, event management, IT services, training, freight forwarding, and consulting.

1 Please see: www.oecd.org/dac/dacmembers.html2 United nations Charter, Chapter II, Article 4

www.oecd.org/dac/dacmembers.html


Glossary of terms

This report presents procurement statistics from countries and territories that follow the United Nations standard country, area and region classification as defined by the Statistics Division of the United Nations Secretariat for statistical use. For more information on this classification, please visit: www.unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49.htm

Sustainable procurement practices integrate requirements, specifications and criteria that are compatible and in favour of the protection of the environment, of social progress and in support of economic development, namely by seeking resource efficiency, improving the quality of products and services and ultimately optimizing costs.

The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. By doing so, business, as a primary driver of globalization, can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere3.

The UNSPSC® is a publicly available multi-sector standard for classification of goods and services. It is a four-level category hierarchy presented as an eight-digit number; the four-levels are segment, family, class and commodity. For the 2015 ASR, procurement of goods and services are reported on segment or family level. The UNSPSC® is available in 10 languages4.

3 Please see: www.unglobalcompact.org4 Please see: www.unspsc.org

Standard country and area code classification (M49):

Sustainable procurement

United Nations Global Compact

United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC®)

www.unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49.htm%0Dwww.unglobalcompact.orgwww.unspsc.org

6

The Annual Statistical Report on United Nations Procurement (ASR) provides an overview of the procurement of the United Nations system in support of its operations, projects and programmes. The report provides a range of information about the categories of goods and services procured by the United Nations system, as well as the countries from which these goods and services were procured.

The 2015 version of the ASR is the 32nd edition of this publication, which was first presented in 1984. It was prepared by the Inter-Agency Procurement Services Office (IAPSO) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and submitted to the 39th session of the General Assembly. By Resolution 39/220, the General Assembly established a need for regular reporting of this type of information and encouraged organizations of the United Nations system to participate in this important exercise. Since 2008 the report has been compiled by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).

The Report includes statistics on procurement by UN organizations and by supplier/contractor country, including major purchase orders and contracts5 of United Nations organizations. This year, a number of changes have been incorporated into the report:

• In previous years, the ASR has focused on procurement from developing countries and countries with economies in transition. From this year onwards, the ASR will also include analysis of procurement from least developed countries

• To aid in gaining a better understanding of procurement by the United Nations, more emphasis is put on analysis and reporting on the variety of categories of goods and services procured

• A new section highlighting the procurement of individual UN organizations has replaced the previous section on the Top ten categories of procurement by UN organizations

• To enhance readability, major purchase orders for goods and contracts for services are now reported in one table

• The report is now supported with the availability of an online version of the different sections of the report to assist in conducting further queries etc. into the statistics. Visit www.ungm.org/public/asr

• A procurement profile is now available for every member state online.

In the context of the UN’s continued focus on sustainable development, the information conveyed by the ASR is also supplemented by sustainable procurement (SP) indicators. For last year’s report, a revised set of questions was developed for the participating UN organizations, which provided a better understanding of the UN system’s performance in terms of sustainable procurement implementation. The reporting framework provides a baseline on which progress regarding the integration of SP in the UN system can be measured.

Since 2007, the ASR has examined procurement by UN organizations from suppliers that support the United Nations Global Compact.6 This section of the report measures procurement by the UN system from suppliers that are United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) participants, and as such embrace universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. The UN system does not give preferential treatment to UNGC signatories, but strongly encourages suppliers to subscribe and support its underpinning principles.

Since 20087, the ASR has also featured a thematic supplement that focuses on a noteworthy topic in procurement. This year’s supplement, Future Proofing Procurement, profiles what different organizations and thought leaders in the public, private and academic arenas are doing to enable supply chains and procurement functions to be ready for the future. The thematic supplement will be available for download from the same sources as the ASR.

5 Combined value of purchase order or contract above $30,0006 See: www.unglobalcompact.org/7 For the 2014 ASR, no thematic supplement was published

Introduction

www.ungm.org/public/asrwww.unglobalcompact.org/


Introduction

This publication has been produced by UNOPS on behalf of the organizations of the UN system. UNOPS is grateful to UN organizations for their continuous support and contributions that make this publication possible. UNOPS hopes that this report provides useful information on the broad spectrum of procurement by the UN system, and continually strives to improve and refine the report to better meet the expectations and objectives of the UN Member States, donors, the business community and UN organizations.8

MethodologyUNOPS relies on participating UN organizations in the compilation and reporting of the statistics. The 2015 report compiles information supplied by 36 United Nations organizations in total, which is an increase from 35 organizations that provided data for the 2014 report. This year, the report again includes information from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and the Universal Postal Union, whereas the International Monetary Fund (IMF) did not submit their procurement data this year.

The statistical data on procurement of goods and services for operational activities is requested from UN organizations in the form of data on purchase orders raised in 2015. In addition to purchase order data, UNDP has also reported on the total value of their National Implementation Modality, through which UNDP is directly or indirectly involved in projects with implementing partners. This represents approximately $1.2 billion of the total procurement volume reported for 2015. For this year, to simplify, optimize and automate the data collection and compilation processes, utilizing the data available in information systems of the participating UN organizations, an online data-upload tool was developed. Participating organizations were requested to submit their data through the tool, whereby it was automatically validated and consolidated. To facilitate the online submission of data, UNOPS provided templates, together with instructions and guidelines to complete the reporting requirements.

The country data in the category “goods” is based on the country of supplier; the data in the category “services” is based on the country of contractor. Moreover, purchase orders and contracts for services are reported by contract amount and not by expenditures incurred. Due to the technical limitation of the procurement systems in use, many UN organizations cannot report data based on country of origin of goods, or on actual expenditures at the present time.

To enable reporting on categories of goods and services across all UN organizations, the participating organizations are requested to provide procurement data base on the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC®)9, or to provide mapping tables of own internal category codes to the corresponding UNSPSC® code. This year, to facilitate a more detailed reporting on categories, the participating organizations were encouraged to provide more granular detail of their procurement: in previous years, participating organizations were required to provide category data on UNSPSC® segment level, whereas this year, data was requested on UNSPSC® family level10.

The categorization of countries and territories used in the ASR adhere to those used by the Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The report uses the following designations: developing countries, countries with economies in transition, developed countries and least developed countries. The designations “developing”, “in transition”, “least developed” and “developed” are intended for statistical convenience and do not express judgment about the stage reached by a particular country or area in the development process.

The UN Annual Statistical Report presents all data in US dollars. Some organizations, have their budgets and accounting in currencies other than US dollars thereby necessitating currency conversion using an average annual conversion rate. Due to extreme exchange rate fluctuations, data presented in US dollars may show trends in terms of procurement volume increases or decreases that are the reciprocal of the trend shown by the data in the original currency.

8 The 2015 Annual Statistical Report is available online at: www.ungm.org/public/asr and at www.unops.org/ASR. 9 See: www.unspsc.org10 More information on UNSPSC® and UNSPSC® levels are available on www.unspsc.org/

www.ungm.org/public/asrwww.unops.org/ASRwww.unspsc.org/www.unspsc.org/

8

United Nations reporting on sustainable procurementAs in previous years, to enable reporting on the extent to which UN organizations have begun to integrate sustainability considerations into their procurement processes, a voluntary online survey with 13 questions was also conducted, in parallel with the data collection process for the Annual Statistical Report.

Recognizing some of the current limitations that exist in capturing sustainable procurement (SP) data11, the survey included both qualitative and quantitative metrics on SP, across the following key themes:

1. Policy and strategy

2. Integration in procurement process

3. Supplier engagement

4. UN Global Compact

To facilitate the data collection process and enhance the quality of the answers received, several questions were removed or modified from the previous year’s survey and some new ones were added. These changes were based on feedback received from participants over the previous three years.

In total, 32 out of 36 organizations responded to the survey (88 per cent response rate), 3 more than in 2014, and collectively representing 79 per cent of the total UN procurement spend for 2015.12

The analysis presented in the SP section does not reflect any judgements on any individual organization’s progress on SP. Rather it provides a snapshot of noteworthy trends within the UN system.

United Nations report on Global CompactFor the analysis of procurement from UNGC participants, purchase order (PO) data (organized by supplier name and country) from all UN organizations that submitted data for the full ASR, was cross-referenced with the list of UNGC participants as of 31 December 2015. For the purpose of consistency with previous years reports, POs under $30,000 as well as POs for which the supplier’s name was removed (e.g. for security reasons), were excluded from the analysis.

11 Many organizations that responded to the survey noted that their internal ERP systems are not set up to track the amount of SP conducted by their offices. As a result, the numbers provided in the report are estimates.12 This does not imply that 79 per cent of all UN procurement included SP considerations in their processes.


Executive summary

10

Total procurement of goods and services for operational activities of the UN system The overall procurement volume (goods and services combined) of UN organizations in 2015 increased to $17.6 billion, from $17.2 billion in 2014 ‒ an increase of 2.0 per cent13 (Figure 1).

The increase in the overall procurement volume from 2014 to 2015 is mainly attributable to a rise in volume from UNDP14. This increase was due in part to a large rise in the procurement of pharmaceuticals, and an increase in the reporting of activity related to UNDP’s National Implementation Modality.

Since 200815, the procurement of services by the UN system has exceeded its procurement of goods, which continues to be evident in 2015. In 2015, the total procurement of goods increased by $95.4 million, an increase of 1.1 per cent, while procurement of services increased by $242.5 million, a raise of 2.8 per cent.

United Nations procurement volume has steadily increased over a number of years, reaching the $5 billion mark in 2003, the $10 billion mark in 2007 and the $15 billion in 201216. The overall increase from 2009 to 2015 is attributable to an overall increase in procurement activities of the United Nations system as a whole, but some organizations have increased more than others; the increase in volume since 2009 is mainly attributable to a rise in volume from three organizations: the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) with $1,599 million, UNDP with $1,126 million and the World Health Organization (WHO) with $770 million. United Nations Procurement Division (UNPD) declined slightly during the same period with $399 million)17.

13 This year, 36 UN organizations reported procurement statistics as compared to 35 in 2014. This change in participating agencies represents a net value change of -$157.9 million of the total increase in UN procurement volume.14 UNDP’s procurement volume increased with $451.3 million from 2014 to 2015. UNDP procurement volume for 2015 also includes total values of their National Implementation Modality (NIM), through which UNDP are directly or indirectly involved in projects with implementing partners. For 2015, the reported NIM volume was approximately $1.2 billion.15 Source: 2008 ASR onwards16 Source: 2003 ASR, 2007 ASR and 2012 ASR respectively 17 Source: 2009 ASR.

Executive Summary

Services

Goods

Total procurement of goods and services, 2009-2015 (in millions of US dollars and percentage)

Figure 1

6,394 7,075 7,066 6,8087,634 8,525

8,620

7,4037,469 7,210 8,564

8,4498,713 8,955

13,79714,544 14,276

15,37216,083

17,237 17,575

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

18000

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

(46.3%) (48.6%) (49.5%) (44.3%)(47.5%) (49.5%)

(49%)

(51.4%)

(50.5%) (51%)

(50.5%)(55.7%)

(52.5%)

(53.7%)


Executive summary

Countries of supply to the UN in 2015The UN system procured goods and services from 224 different countries and territories in 2015, with 124 of these having an annual procurement volume of more than $10 million each in 2015. The next sections of the ASR summarize the UN system’s performance in increasing opportunities for suppliers in developing countries. In previous years, this section of the report highlighted the UN’s procurement from developing countries and countries with economies in transition. From this report and onwards, emphasis will also be made on procurement from the 48 least developed countries. For more detailed analysis, please see Procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries, and least developed countries section.

Ten major countries of supply to the UN system in 2015The 10 major countries supplying UN organizations in 2015 represented 44.8 per cent of the total UN procurement volume, an increase from 43.2 per cent in 2014. This included one least developed country (Afghanistan) and three developing countries (India, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates) accounting for $3.16 billion, or 18.0 per cent of the total UN procurement volume (Table 1).

In 2015, procurement of goods and services from Kenya represented 2.5 per cent of the total procurement volume. Procurement from Kenya consisted primarily of cargo transportation services, construction services and fuel. Goods and services from Kenya were primarily procured by the World Food Programme (WFP), UNPD, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNICEF.

Afghanistan has featured as a top ten supplier country since 2004, and in 2015, moved from the third- to the sixth-largest country to supply the UN system. This fall is mainly attributable to a decrease in procurement from UNPD. Procurement from Afghanistan consisted primarily of engineering services, management services, and rural development services. Goods and services from Afghanistan were primarily procured by UNDP, UNOPS and WFP.

The United Arab Emirates has featured as a top ten supplier country since 2013 and is now the third-largest country to supply the UN, with a share of total procurement volume in 2015 of 4.6 per cent. Procurement from the United Arab Emirates consisted primarily of fuel, food products, construction services and shelter equipment. Goods and services from the United Arab Emirates were primarily procured by UNPD, UNHCR, WFP and UNICEF.

India has featured as a top ten major country to supply UN organizations since 2000, and has maintained its position as the second-largest country of supply to the UN system in 2015, with a 7.3 per cent share of total UN procurement volume. This is the third-consecutive year where procurement from India was more than $1 billion in volume. Procurement from India included pharmaceuticals, nutritional supplements, medical equipment and management services. Goods and services from India were procured primarily by UNICEF, UNDP, the Pan American Health Organization and WFP. With a total volume of $994.0 million in 2015, India continues to be the largest country to supply to UN organizations with health-related goods and services.

Top ten countries supplying the UN system in 2015 (in millions of US dollars and percentage of overall procurement volume)

Table 1

United States of America 810.64 836.48 1,647.12 9.37%India 1,119.74 157.28 1,277.03 7.27%United Arab Emirates 712.23 92.91 805.14 4.58%Switzerland 133.09 610.18 743.27 4.23%Belgium 641.10 67.14 708.23 4.03%Afghanistan 47.82 580.21 628.03 3.57%Denmark 232.69 333.06 565.75 3.22%France 421.26 123.12 544.38 3.10%United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 167.23 346.75 513.98 2.92%Kenya 139.36 305.96 445.32 2.53%Top 10 total 4,425.17 3,453.09 7,878.26 44.83%Grand Total 8,620.06 8,955.24 17,575.30

Countries Goods Services Total % of total

12

Procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countriesGeneral Assembly Resolution 57/279 (2005) on procurement reform encourages UN organizations to increase opportunities for suppliers from developing countries and countries with economies in transition. In 2007, General Assembly Resolution 61/246 (2007), reiterated the request to consider procurement from developing countries. In response, UN organizations have placed more orders with suppliers from these countries.

In 2015, the procurement volume from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries increased to $10.8 billion18 (Figure 2), with a cumulative increase of 43.2 per cent from 2009 to 201519. In comparison, the cumulative increase in procurement volume from developed countries was 8.2 per cent for the same period.

In 2015, procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries represented 61.7 per cent20 of the total procurement volume, which is the same as last year. Procurement volume from least developed countries was $3.1 billion in 2015, which means that almost $18 of every $100 of procurement by UN organizations is from a least developed country. Procurement from unspecified countries decreased significantly to $35.8 million in 201521.

18 Details on volume from least developed countries available in data from 2013 onwards. For previous years, least developed countries are included in the total.19 Source: ASR 2009 to 201520 17.8 percent and 43.9 per cent from least developed countries and developing countries respectively21 $321.5 in 2014

United Nations procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries, 2013-2015 (in millions of US dollars)

Figure 2

Transition and developing countries

All developing countries

Least developed countries

3,077.2 3,402.1 3,128.3

7,575.98,401.8 8,527.9

9,010.5

6,671.37,228.5 7,718.0

9,748.5

10,630.6 10,846.3

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015


Executive summary

Top twenty countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries supplying UN organizationsIn total, procurement of goods and services from the top twenty countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries represented 38.9 per cent of overall UN procurement volume, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points from the previous year. For a detailed overview of procurement volume trends, types of goods and services procured, as well as the share of UN procurement for each of the countries listed in Table 2, please refer to the procurement profiles of these countries available from page 48 onwards.

Top twenty countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries supplying the UN in 2015 (in millions of US dollars and percentage)

Table 2

India 1119.7 157.3 1277.0 7.27%United Arab Emirates 712.2 92.9 805.1 4.58%Afghanistan 47.8 580.2 628.0 3.57%Kenya 139.4 306.0 445.3 2.53%Russian Federation 96.9 266.0 363.0 2.07%Ethiopia 97.8 225.8 323.6 1.84%Turkey 270.0 46.7 316.7 1.80%Lebanon 103.7 201.3 305.1 1.74%Sudan 170.4 115.9 286.3 1.63%South Africa 58.7 154.4 213.2 1.21%Jordan 82.3 127.9 210.1 1.20%China 131.3 82.9 214.2 1.22%South Sudan 39.7 159.3 199.0 1.13%Syrian Arab Republic 96.9 99.4 196.3 1.12%Republic of Korea 175.9 17.0 192.9 1.10%Panama 159.4 22.1 181.5 1.03%Argentina 108.4 72.0 180.4 1.03%Pakistan 71.9 105.5 177.3 1.01%Ukraine 71.4 98.2 169.6 0.96%Iraq 59.7 95.0 154.7 0.88%Top 20 3,813.45 3,025.72 6,839.21 38.91%Grand total 8,620.06 8,955.24 17,575.30

% of totalCountries Goods Services Total

14

Countries with the largest increases in procurement volume from 2005 to 2015As previously highlighted, the share of UN procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries has risen over the last years. The procurement from some of these countries has shown a larger-than-average growth during this period (Figure 3).

The following five countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries, representing the largest increase in procurement volume, saw their combined volume increase by more than $2.45 billion over the last ten years: Afghanistan, India, Kenya, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. Each of these countries saw their procurement volume increase by 200 per cent or more from 2005 to 2015.

Despite the decrease in the share of procurement coming from developed countries over the last ten years, some developed countries have seen their procurement volume to the UN system grow substantially since 2005. The United States of America, with an increase of $970 million (144 per cent), and Switzerland, with an increase of $455 million (158 per cent), witnessed the largest growth among developed countries in the last ten years.

Globally, total UN procurement volume rose by $9.2 billion from 2005 to 2015, where close to 75 per cent of that increase was from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries.

0 500 1000 1500 2000

United States of AmericaIndia

United Arab EmiratesSwitzerland

BelgiumFrance

DenmarkKenya

LebanonAfghanistan

TurkeyNetherlands

EthiopiaUnited Kingdom

South SudanRussian Federation

SudanSyrian Arab Republic

Republic of KoreaPanama

2005 2015

20052015

Countries with largest increases in procurement volume between 2005 and 2015 (in millions of US dollars)

Figure 3


Executive summary

Procurement by organizations of the UN system in 2014 and 2015Despite total procurement of the UN system having increased by $337.8 million in 2015, 15 of the 36 reporting organizations witnessed a decline in their procurement volume. Eight organizations saw their procurement volume increase by more than 20 per cent over their 2014 volume.22 UNDP and the International Labour Organization (ILO)23 showed an increase of more than $200 million each from 2014 to 2015.24 Figure 4 presents the procurement volume of the individual UN organizations in 2014 and 2015. The figure includes the percentage share of procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries.25

22 For a detailed list of procurement of goods and services by UN organization, please refer to table “Total procurement by UN organization” available on page 102.23 The increase in procurement volume for the ILO is attributable to procurement related to the renovation of the ILO premises in Geneva, Switzerland.24 These two agencies accumulated $673.6 million in increase in procurement volume from 2014 to 2015. The IMF did not report their procurement volume for 2015, which affected the total procurement volume negatively with $293.2 million compared to 2014.25 The right column in Figure 4 shows the percentage of the 2015 procurement volume from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries.

Total procurement by UN organizations, and share of procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries, in 2014 and 2015 (in thousands of US dollars and percentage)

Figure 4

0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000

UNICEFUN/PDUNDP

WFPUNHCR

WHOUNOPS

PAHOILO

FAOUNFPA

UNRWAIAEA

UNESCOUNOG

UN WomenWIPO

UNIDOUNONOPCW

UNAIDSITU

IFADUPU

UNFCCCIMOITC

UNOVUNV

WMOESCAPUNECA

UNUECLAC

ESCWAUNWTO

0

1,000,000 2,000,000 3,000,00050,000 1,050,000 2,050,000 3,050,000

UNICEFUN/PDUNDP

WFPUNHCR

WHOUNOPS

PAHOILO

FAOUNFPA

UNRWAIAEA

UNESCOUNOG

UN WomenWIPO

UNIDOUNONOPCW

UNAIDSITU

IFADUPU

UNFCCCIMOITC

UNOVUNV

WMOESCAPUNECA

UNUECLAC

ESCWAUNWTO

0

2015 volume2014 volume

2014 volume

2015 volume

UN WOMEN

UNPD

UNWTO 1.1% ESCWA 34.8% ECLAC 88.1% UNU 11.1% UNECA 46.9% ESCAP 80.5% WMO 6.2% UNV 0.8% UNOV 29.9% ITC 20.0% IMO 8.4% UNFCCC 0.4% UPU 10.5% IFAD 10.3% ITU 5.3% UNAIDS 70.5% OPCW 0.0%UNON 70.7% UNIDO 72.8% WIPO 6.6% UN WOMEN 54.7% UNOG 2.3% UNESCO 62.1% IAEA 17.8% UNRWA 83.4% UNFPA 44.3% FAO 73.8% ILO 10.7% PAHO 33.0% UNOPS 63.4% WHO 53.3% UNHCR 68.3% WFP 70.2% UNDP 75.1% UNPD 52.4% UNICEF 50.6%

16

Procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countriesFigure 5 displays the procurement volume by the ten largest UN organizations, which as a group represented 90.2 per cent of the overall procurement volume of the UN system26. The figure also shows the 2014 and 2015 share of procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries. Organizations are listed in descending order by total procurement volume in 2015. In total, procurement from these countries increased by $588 million from the top ten organizations.

Procurement by sectors of categories of goods and services27

In recent years, a majority of the UN system’s procurement has come from countries with developing economies. The following category analysis provides an overview of the distribution of categories of goods and services, indicating which categories are predominantly procured from developed countries and which categories are predominantly procured from the group of developing economies.

In 2015, 31 different segments of goods and services were widely procured from countries with developing economies (Figure 6). For each of those 31 categories, at least 66 per cent of the procurement volume came from countries with economy in transition, developing countries and least developed countries, and represented more than $5.5 billion of the 2015 procurement volume. Thirteen categories had more than 80 per cent of their procurement volume originating from countries with economy in transition, developing countries and least developed countries.

In contrast, five different categories of goods and services were largely procured from countries with developed countries, representing more than $1.0 billion of the 2015 procurement volume of the UN. For each of these five categories, approximately two-thirds of the procurement volume was from developed countries. For more detailed analysis on categories procurement by the UN system, please see section on Procurement by sectors and categories of goods and services, page 36.

26 A slight decrease from 90.4 per cent in 201427 Unspecified goods and services are excluded from this analysis

Share of procurement from developing economies by organization

(in percentage)

Total procurement volume by organizations (in millions of US dollars)

Procurement by organizations of the UN system from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and least developed countries, in 2014 and 2015

Figure 5

28.3%

71.1%

29.3%

56.8%

44.8%

85.8%

68.4%

76.3%

54.9%

52.4%

45.7%

69.2%

11.1%

33.0%

60.8%

54.9%

69.6%

76.7%

80.0%

61.6%

51.5%

00.20.40.60.81

Others

FAO

ILO

PAHO

UNOPS

WHO

UNHCR

WFP

UNDP

UN/PD

UNICEF

2015 2014

2,119

351

148

709

669

709

1,045

2,753

2,285

3,207

3,382

1,730

344

370

668

717

881

982

2,630

2,737

3,089

3,428

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000

Others

FAO

ILO

PAHO

UNOPS

WHO

UNHCR

WFP

UNDP

UN/PD

UNICEF

2015 2014

-0.9%

6.7%

3.7%

8.3%

-16,2%

10,1%

-18,2%

-2,0%

17,4%

4,0%2014

2015

UNPD


Executive summary

Developed countries Developing and transition LDC Unespecified

Distribution of categories of goods and services between developed, transition, developing and least developed countries, including 2015 total procurement volume (in millions of US dollars and percentage)

Figure 6

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Financial Instruments ProductsChemicals

Motor vehicles and partsIT and Communications Equipment

Land, building and structuresMedical equipment

Laboratory and Testing EquipmentFinancial and Insurance Services

Security and Safety EquipmentElectrical Systems Components

Personal and Domestic ServicesPharmaceuticals incl Contraceptives

Printing, Photo and AV EquipmentBuilding and construction MachineryEngineering and Research Services

Industrial cleaning ServicesPower generation machinery

Editorial, Design, Graphic ServicesTransportation and Storage Services

Public Sector related ServicesElectronic components

Industrial manufacturing MachinerySports and Recreational Equipment

Healthcare ServicesManagement and Admin Services

Building and Maintenance ServicesManufacturing components

Education and Training ServicesFurniture

Politics and Civic Affairs ServicesCleaning Equipment

Travel, food and lodgingPaper materials and products

Mineral and textile materialsMining and well drilling equipment

Office EquipmentMaterial handling machinery

Environmental ServicesDistribution Equipment

Farming, Fishing EquipmentPublic Order and Security Services

Services Industry EquipmentFood and Beverage Products

Domestic Appliances and ElectronicsStructures, construction components

Live plant and animal materialTools and general machinery

Farming, Fishing, Forestry ServicesApparel, luggage and personal care

Published productsMining, Oil and Gas Services

Musical instruments and ToysFuels and Lubricants etc.Organizations and clubs

Timepieces, Jewelry and gemstonesIndustrial manufacturing Services

Resin, rubber, elastomeric material

Developed Developing LDC Unspecified

Million USD0.46

98.370.0357.00127.47731.9587.10126.542.8728.1185.481118.2945.431614.35123.07103.77134.132356.485.3738.6013.9017.88278.43147.1992.563.149.4813.4957.4635.447.87189.601388.4942.20965.03133.2210.5570.231.34153.69135.72175.8772.1973.3822.6315.372923.47174.2136.45492.7850.93143.14604.807.65451.19391.360.0023

Total

18

Sustainable procurement reporting in the UN SystemWith its purchasing power of more than $17 billion annually, the UN system has the potential to significantly advance sustainable development through its procurement practices. This opportunity was further reinforced with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, which include targets for sustainable consumption and production. From the data collected from this year’s sustainability survey, there is a clear trend on the part of UN organizations to adopt or strengthen their ability to implement sustainable procurement. However, opportunities exist to advance the adoption of sustainable practices further along in the supply chain.

The sustainable procurement28 (SP) reporting section of the ASR provides a baseline against which progress on the integration of SP in the UN system can be measured. As in previous years, in 2015, the number of reporting organizations increased once more to 32 out of 36, which represents a response rate of 88 per cent. From the data collected, 91 per cent of reporting organizations noted pursuing some sort of SP activity, with the large majority focused on the development of a policy (41 per cent) or programme (41 per cent).

Analysing how SP is integrated in the procurement process, 2015 data reveals that an increasing number of UN organizations reported to have begun using whole life costing in the financial evaluations of their tenders (31 per cent more organizations than in 2014). In addition, sustainability aspects were increasingly embedded into contract terms (21 per cent more organizations than in 2014) and requirements definitions (6.7 per cent more organizations than in 2014). Environmental criteria continued to be the default application in requirements definitions (used by 23 organizations), whereas social or economic sustainability ones were less used (used by 15 and 18 organizations respectively). The percentage of organizations that trained their staff on SP, or made additional investments in capacity, also rose significantly over the previous year.

As in 2014, the 2015 data showed that increased collaboration with suppliers to encourage the adoption of more sustainable practices in the supply chain (for example, by verifying adherence with the supplier code of conduct or conducting additional sustainability pre-screenings), is still early in its implementation.

The analysis of the upstream of procurement from UNGC participants revealed an absolute decrease of 4 per cent to a total of 21 per cent in 2015. This decrease, however, was mainly due to the end of a UNGC moratorium on annual reporting for small and medium enterprise participants at the end of 2014, resulting in a large number of UNGC participants being removed. Importantly, the noted decrease was not uniformly distributed across all regions, as the value of procurement from UNGC participants based in Northern America increased during the reporting year.

28 According to the UN High Level Committee on Management Procurement Network (HLCM PN), “Sustainable Procurement practices integrate requirements, specifications and criteria that are compatible and in favour of the protection of the environment, of social progress and in support of economic development, namely by seeking resource efficiency, improving the quality of products and services and ultimately optimizing costs”. As adopted by the HLCM Procurement Network meeting in Vienna, February, 2009

Note: Based on the number of organizations which answered the SP survey. The main reason for the increase in the number of organizations reporting in 2015 is due to a move in the SP reporting methodology to an online format.

Organizations reporting on sustainable procurement, 2011-2015 (in number of organizations)

Figure 7

12 13

27 2932

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Number of agencies


Procurement from countries with economies in transition,

developing countries and least developed countries

20

Total procurement by country groupings The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the international community through General Assembly Resolution A/RES/70/1 (2015) in New York in September 2015, sets out an ambitious path through 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to eradicate poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind29. Nearly half of the population of the 48 least developed countries (LDCs) remain in extreme poverty as the UN takes on this global challenge in 2016. The ASR has reported an increase in procurement to the UN system from both developing countries and countries with economies in transition since the 2005 report. This year, the ASR has begun to report on an additional country grouping - least developed countries - where shortfalls identified from the SDG targets are the greatest.

In 2015, procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and LDCs combined increased by $215.9 million, where procurement from least developed countries decreased by $274 million over 2014 (Figure 8). However, compared to the previous year, the share of procurement from all developing economies has remained level with the 2014 share of 61.7 per cent, with procurement from LDCs representing a share of 17.8 per cent, a decrease from 19.7 per cent in 2014 (Figure 9). The share of developing countries and economies in transition has been steadily increasing over the last three years, from 41.5 per cent in 2013 to 43.9 per cent in 201530.

29 For more information on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, please visit www.sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs30 Procurement from unspecified countries was $43 million in 2015.

UN procurement from developed countries, countries with economies in transition and developing countries, and LDCs, 2013-2015 (in percentage)

Figure 9

Developed countriesTransition/developing countriesLeast developed countries

Unspecified countries

0.3% 1.9% 0.2%

39.0% 36.5% 38.1%

41.5% 41.9% 43.9%

19.1% 19.7% 17.8%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2013 2014 2015

Unspecified countries Developed Developing and transition economies LDC

United Nations procurement from developed countries, countries with economies in transition and developing countries, and LDCs, 2013-2015 (in millions of US dollars)

Figure 8

Developed countriesTransition/developing countriesLeast developed countries

Unspecified countries

6,280.0 6,285.4 6,693.0

6,671.3 7,228.57,718.2

3,077.23,402.1

3,128.3

54.9 321.5 35.80

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

18,000

2013 2014 2015

Mill

ions

Developed Developing and economies in transition LDC Unspecified countries

http://www.sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs


Procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries, and least developed countries

The distribution of goods and services procurement differs between the different country groupings (Figure 10). For developed countries, developing countries and countries with economies in transition, the distribution between goods and services has remained consistent around 50 per cent over the last three years. For LDCs, the distribution between services and goods has also been consistent at 70/30 per cent; this is due to the fact that the UN procures significantly more services than goods from these countries.

Procurement from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and LDCs combined, by largest UN organizations Figure 11 displays the top ten procurement volumes among UN organizations in 201531, including procurement from LDCs as a share of total procurement volume in 2014 and 2015. Organizations are listed in descending order by total procurement volume in 2015.

31 Ranking is based on the individual organizations procurement volume in relation to the total UN procurement volume, 2015.

UN procurement of goods and services from developed countries, countries with economies in transition and developing countries, and LDCs, 2013-2015 (in percentage)

Figure 10

GoodsServices

Developed countries Least developed countriesCountries with economies in transition and developing countries

52% 52%30%

48% 48%70%

54% 55%

32%

46% 45%

68%

53% 54%

29%

47% 46%

71%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2013 2014 2015 2013 2014 2015 2013 2014 2015

Developed countries Countries with economies intransition and developing countries

LDCs

Services

Goods

Share of procurement from LDCs by UN organization in percentage of LDC total 2015

Total procurement volume by organizations (in millions of US dollars)

Procurement by top ten organizations of the UN system from LDCs in 2015Figure 11

4.3%

2.9%

0.4%

0.0%

5.7%

3.0%

8.1%

25.8%

28.8%

10.9%

10.0%

4.5%

3.9%

0.5%

0.0%

5.9%

4.9%

4.5%

27.7%

24.0%

12.7%

11.5%

0.0%5.0%10.0%15.0%20.0%25.0%30.0%35.0%

Others

FAO

ILO

PAHO

UNOPS

WHO

UNHCR

WFP

UNDP

UNPD

UNICEF

LDCs Share of Total 2015 LDCs Share of Total 2014

1,687

351

148

709

669

709

1,045

2,753

2,285

3,207

3,382

1,730

344

370

668

717

881

982

2,630

2,737

3,089

3,428

- 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000

Others

FAO

ILO

PAHO

UNOPS

WHO

UNHCR

WFP

UNDP

UNPD

UNICEF

Total Procurement 2015 Total Procurement 2014

Total procurement 2014

Total procurement 2015

LDCs share of total 2014

LDCs share of total 2015

22

Together, this top ten represented 90.2 per cent of overall procurement volume of the UN system in 2015 and 95.5 per cent of the UN system’s procurement from LDCs. Procurement from LDCs decreased by $266 million from the top ten organizations compared to 2014.

Country group procurement by categoryIn 2015, UN organizations reported 34 per cent of their procurement volume on a United Nations Standard Products and Services Code® (UNSPSC®) segment level, with remaining 66 per cent reported on family level or lower, which provides further details into the categories of goods and services procured. In all, procurement was reported against all 57 UNSPSC® segments and 361 families, out of a possible 466 families.32.

Figure 12 looks at the UN system’s procurement volume at a UNSPSC® segment level, articulating procurement into five high-level segment groups. The figure shows that procurement from developed countries is dominated by services and end-use products, with a combined share of 89 per cent. Procurement from countries with economies in transition and developing countries follows a comparable distribution, where services and end-use products together made up 81 per cent of total volume. For LDCs, procurement of end-use products has a significantly smaller share of the total volume compared to both the other two country groups. Furthermore, the share of procurement of raw material and services is higher compared to the other country groups.

Figure 13 shows the distribution of 46 UNSPSC® family categories, each accounting for $50 million and more of the UN’s total procurement volume in 201533. At this more detailed family level, a few categories stand out with a particularly high share of procurement from developed countries or countries with economies in transition and developing countries, and LDCs.

Of the 46 UNSPSC® family categories displayed, 18 have more than 50 per cent of their total volume originating from developed countries. Fifteen of the UNSPSC® family categories have more than 50 per cent of their procurement volume from both developing countries and countries with economies in transition, and a total of 28 UNSPSC® family categories have more than half of their total procurement volume coming from countries with economies in transition, developing countries and LDCs combined.

32 UNSPSC® Segment is the highest level of the category hierarchy, with Family representing the next highest level. In all, UNSPSC® has four hierarchy levels.33 Remaining 315 family categories had a procurement volume below $50 million in 2015.

UN procurement of goods and services from developed countries, countries with economies in transition and developing countries, and LDCs, 2013-2015 (in percentage)

Figure 12

Developed countries Least developed countriesTransition/developing countries

2%

6%2%

43%

46%

1%

DevelopedRaw materials

Industrial equipment

Components andsupplies

End use products

Services

Unspecified G&S

9% 3% 2%

14%

54%

18%

LDCRaw materials

Industrial equipment

Components andsupplies

End use products

Services

Unspecified G&S

6%

3%

2%

40%41%

8%

Raw materials Industrial equipment

Components and supplies End use products

Services Unspecified G&S

ServicesEnd use productsComponents and suppliesIndustrial equipmentRaw materials

Unspecified goods and services



Components and supplies

Distribution of procurement between developed countries, countries with economies in transition and developing countries, and LDCs by largest36 UNSPSC® family categories (in percentage)

36 Volume above $50 million

Figure 13

Developed countries Developing and transition LDCs

90.2%

89.9%

84.7%

83.4%

79.3%

78.6%

78.2%

72.9%

70.5%

69.2%

65.6%

65.2%

64.5%

63.6%

61.5%

58.8%

51.8%

50.5%

47.9%

47.6%

45.8%

41.1%

40.2%

40.1%

38.5%

37.9%

37.4%

35.3%

33.8%

32.4%

29.6%

26.7%

26.4%

26.2%

25.1%

25.1%

23.5%

21.5%

19.3%

14.7%

13.4%

12.6%

12.0%

10.4%

10.2%

6.2%

36.7%

7.8%

8.3%

7.1%

11.2%

17.7%

16.4%

15.9%

19.0%

25.3%

30.3%

24.4%

34.8%

25.9%

24.9%

18.8%

36.8%

34.7%

19.1%

30.2%

40.1%

28.3%

55.0%

40.2%

52.8%

30.5%

44.7%

32.4%

50.7%

36.2%

38.9%

63.3%

72.7%

54.8%

56.5%

58.1%

65.6%

56.2%

32.4%

34.0%

36.9%

50.8%

54.5%

82.6%

89.0%

29.5%

69.8%

44.7%

2.0%

1.8%

8.2%

5.5%

3.0%

5.0%

5.8%

8.0%

4.1%

0.5%

9.9%

0.0%

9.5%

11.1%

19.7%

4.4%

13.5%

30.2%

21.5%

12.2%

25.8%

3.9%

19.7%

7.1%

31.0%

17.3%

30.1%

13.9%

29.9%

28.5%

7.1%

0.7%

16.0%

17.3%

16.7%

9.3%

20.3%

45.9%

46.6%

48.3%

35.8%

32.9%

5.4%

0.5%

60.2%

23.8%

18.5%

Data Voice or Multimedia Network Equipment or Platforms and Accessories

Software

Insurance and retirement services

Emergency and field medical services products

Prefabricated buildings and structures

Computer services

Motor vehicles

Building and facility maintenance and repair services

Writing and translations

Immunomodulating drugs

Computer Equipment and Accessories

Estrogens and progestins and internal contraceptives

Information Technology Service Delivery

Specialized trade construction and maintenance services

Clinical nutrition

Laboratory and scientific equipment

Management advisory services

Cleaning and janitorial services

Real estate services

Human resources services

Telecommunications media services

Camping and outdoor equipment and accessories

Comprehensive health services

Manufacturing technologies

Mail and cargo transport

Vocational training

Utilities

Business administration services

Transport services

Reproduction services

Environmental management

Amebicides and trichomonacides and antiprotozoals

Passenger transport

Containers and storage

Hotels and lodging and meeting facilities

Marketing and distribution

Professional engineering services

Security and personal safety

Community and social services

Storage

Humanitarian aid and relief

Fuels

Bedclothes and table and kitchen linen and towels

Prepared and preserved foods

Heavy construction services

Nonresidential building construction services

Other categories (volume below $50 million)

24

LDCs supplying UN organizationsThe classification of LDCs was officially established by the UN General Assembly in 1971 as the UN began to focus on the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of the UN system. Special measures were incorporated in their favour in the International Development Strategy for the UN in the 1970s. The First United Nations Conference on the LDCs was held in Paris in 1981, adopting a new programme of action for the LDCs. Continuing on that decision, the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2011-2020 was adopted by the Fourth UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries in Istanbul from 9-13 May 2011. The current list of LDCs includes 48 countries34, and they comprise more than 880 million people (approximately 12 per cent of world’s population), but account for less than 2 per cent of world’s GDP and about 1 per cent of the global trade in goods.

34 For list of the 48 countries, please see Annex III

Afghanistan 47.8 580.2 628.0 3.57%Ethiopia 97.8 225.8 323.6 1.84%Sudan 170.4 115.9 286.3 1.63%South Sudan 39.7 159.3 199.0 1.13%Uganda 45.7 79.0 124.7 0.71%Mali 35.5 87.0 122.5 0.70%Democratic Republic of the Congo 37.0 79.2 116.2 0.66%Liberia 39.7 56.9 96.6 0.55%Yemen 24.6 60.1 84.6 0.48%United Republic of Tanzania 28.9 43.5 72.4 0.41%Somalia 13.3 58.5 71.8 0.41%Chad 15.9 50.7 66.6 0.38%Nepal 17.8 48.7 66.5 0.38%Guinea 14.6 50.6 65.2 0.37%Senegal 17.8 46.9 64.7 0.37%Sierra Leone 18.3 43.2 61.5 0.35%Niger 31.3 26.5 57.9 0.33%Haiti 15.6 40.7 56.2 0.32%Bangladesh 15.9 39.6 55.6 0.32%Myanmar 26.2 27.8 54.0 0.31%Malawi 23.5 27.7 51.2 0.29%Burkina Faso 16.5 22.8 39.2 0.22%Central African Republic 18.8 18.8 37.6 0.21%Zambia 20.0 16.1 36.2 0.21%Rwanda 15.3 16.7 32.0 0.18%Madagascar 12.8 16.8 29.6 0.17%Burundi 11.3 17.3 28.7 0.16%Mozambique 8.9 18.6 27.5 0.16%Djibouti 2.5 23.1 25.7 0.15%Benin 6.2 14.6 20.8 0.12%Cambodia 3.6 15.2 18.9 0.11%Lao People's Democratic Republic 4.1 11.2 15.3 0.09%Mauritania 3.9 9.7 13.6 0.08%Guinea-Bissau 2.5 7.8 10.4 0.06%Togo 1.5 8.1 9.6 0.05%Gambia 2.0 6.0 8.0 0.05%Eritrea 2.1 5.8 8.0 0.05%Lesotho 1.4 5.5 6.8 0.04%Timor-Leste 1.3 4.8 6.1 0.03%Angola 1.4 4.6 5.9 0.03%Comoros 1.5 4.3 5.9 0.03%Equatorial Guinea 1.4 2.8 4.2 0.02%Solomon Islands 1.3 2.2 3.5 0.02%Vanuatu 0.4 2.9 3.3 0.02%Bhutan 1.5 1.3 2.9 0.02%Sao Tome and Principe 0.5 1.9 2.5 0.01%Kiribati 0.1 0.7 0.7 0.00%Tuvalu 0.0 0.5 0.5 0.00%Least developed countries 920.18 2,208.12 3,128.31 17.80%Grand total 8,620.06 8,955.24 17,575.30

Least developed countries Goods Services Total % of total

LDCs supplying UN organizations in 2015 (in millions of US dollars and percentage)

Table 3



In total, the UN system’s procurement of goods and services from LDCs represented 17.8 per cent of overall UN procurement volume in 2015 (Table 3). The largest countries in terms of supply to the UN are Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Sudan. For more information on what the UN procured from these countries, please see the country profile pages for the respective country35.

A further analysis of the ten largest categories of goods and services procured from LDCs (Table 4), shows that the largest procurement volume of services in these countries is: cargo and passenger transportation (11 per cent); building and maintenance services (4 per cent): and management and admin services (3 per cent). Procurement of goods from LDCs is mainly focused on fuels (3 per cent) and medical equipment (1 per cent)

35 Available at www.ungm.org/public/asr

Top ten goods and services procured by the UN system from LDCs in 2015 (in percentage)

Table 4

Procurement from LDCsTop 10 categoriesTransportation and storage services 329.4 10.53%Building and maintenance services 128.3 4.10%Fuels and lubricants etc. 91.1 2.91%Management and admin. services 88.4 2.83%Food and beverage products 73.7 2.36%Engineering and research services 63.3 2.02%Healthcare services 62.8 2.01%Politics and Civic affairs services 62.5 2.00%Public order and security services 58.5 1.87%Medical equipment 43.8 1.40%Top 10 total 1,001.7 32.02%Grand total LDC 3,128.3

Total % of LDC total

www.ungm.org/public/asr


Sustainable procurement in the UN system



IntroductionAccording to the High-Level Committee on Management Procurement Network: “Sustainable Procurement practices integrate requirements, specifications and criteria that are compatible and in favour of the protection of the environment, of social progress and in support of economic development, namely by seeking resource efficiency, improving the quality of products and services and ultimately optimizing costs”.37

With its purchasing power of more than $17 billion each year, the UN system has significant potential to help develop and shift local markets towards achieving more sustainable outcomes. In 2015, this opportunity was further reinforced with the adoption of the SDGs, which include targets for sustainable consumption and production.38

In 2015, more UN organizations participated in the voluntary survey than in previous years, confirming that sustainable procurement (SP) continues to factor increasingly into procurement decisions within the UN system. For the 2015 reporting period, 32 out of 36 organizations responded to the survey, collectively representing 79 per cent of the total 2015 UN spend of $17.6 billion.

37 High-Level Committee on Management Procurement Network (HLCM-PN) (2009) – Sustainable Procurement Statement, Adopted by the HLCM Procurement Network meeting in Vienna, February 2009.38 SDG 12 provides that the member states will promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities. For more information, please see: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg12.


Organizations reporting on sustainable procurement, 2011-2015 (in number of organizations)

Figure 7

12 13

27 2932

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Number of agenciesNote: Based on the number of organizations which answered the SP survey. The main reason for the increase in the number of organizations reporting in 2015 is due to a move in the SP reporting methodology to an online format.

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg12

28

Policy and strategyThe existence of an SP policy provides a sound basis on which to build a coherent, well-coordinated approach. This can enable the organization to formally communicate its intentions to both personnel and suppliers.

From the data collected through this year’s survey, there is a clear trend on the part of UN organizations to consider, adopt or strengthen sustainable procurement practices in their operations, through the development of an SP policy or programme (Figure 14). This number increased from 58 per cent in 2014 to 82 per cent in 2015. In addition, the number of reporting organizations not having implemented some sort of SP initiative decreased by more than half from 21 per cent in 2014 to 9 per cent in 2015.

SP integration in the procurement processThe following framework for integrating sustainability considerations into the procurement process focuses on three key areas: embedding sustainability criteria39 into requirements definitions; using or considering whole life costing40 in the financial evaluation; and including sustainability aspects in contract terms.

Compared to 2014, when integrating sustainability criteria into the requirements definitions was the most prevalent action taken by organizations, the data collected from this year’s survey noted that organizations have increasingly begun to use whole life costing in the financial evaluations of their tenders, in addition to embedding sustainability aspects into contract terms (Figure 15).

These trends indicate an evolution in the way that organizations integrate SP, and are further supported by the fact that organizations have begun to embed sustainability considerations into a greater percentage of their tenders (Figure 16). Importantly, however, in 2015 environmental criteria continued to be preferred over social or economic sustainability ones (Figure 17). This conclusion is consistent with 2014 findings.

39 Sample sustainability criteria suggested in the survey included: 1) environmental: energy or water efficiency, reduced waste or greenhouse gas emissions, limited packaging or similar; 2) social: hiring local labour, local capacity building or similar; and 3) reconsidering the need to buy, or similar.40 The definition of whole-life costing included in the survey: “the sum of all recurring and one-time costs over the full life span of a good, service, structure, or system. It includes purchase price, installation cost, operating costs, maintenance and repair/upgrade costs and remaining residual or salvage value at the end of ownership or its useful life”.

Adoption of policy to support SP programmeSP programme without a policyAny SP initiatives without a policy

No SP activities

Status of SP policy or programme adoption (2014-2015) (in percentage of reporting organizations)

Figure 14

21%9%

24% 41%

34%

41%

21%

9%

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

2014 2015

Num

ber o

f org

aniz

atio

ns Any SP initiatives without apolicy

SP programme without apolicy

Adoption of a policy tosupport SP programme

No SP activities



Integration of SP considerations in procurement tenders (2014-2015)41 (in percentage of reporting organizations and their respective tenders)

41 Many of the organizations that responded to the survey noted that their internal enterprise resource planning systems are not set up to track the amount of SP conducted by their offices. As a result, the numbers provided in the report are estimates.

Estimated SP integration in the procurement process (2014-2015) (in percentage of reporting organizations by type of activity)

Figure 15

Total number of reporting organizations

Number of organizations that undertake the action mentioned

2014

Sustainability criteria in the requirements definitions

Whole life costing in financial evaluation

Sustainability aspects in contract terms

2014 20142015 2015 2015

59%63%

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

2014 2015

Num

ber o

f org

aniza

tions


55%

72%

2014 2015Whole Life Costing in financial

evaluation

52%

63%

2014 2015Sustainability aspects in contract terms

Total number ofreportingorganizations

Number oforganizations thatundertake theaction mentioned

59%63%

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

2014 2015

Num

ber o

f org

aniz

atio

ns


55%

72%


evaluation

52%

63%




59%63%

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

2014 2015

Num

ber o

f org

aniza

tions


55%

72%


evaluation

52%

63%




2015

2014

Sustainability criteria in requirement definitions Whole life costing in financial evaluations

No estimate reported

No estimate reported

0-5% 0-5%6-10% 6-10%11-20% 11-20%Above 20%

Above 20%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Noestimatereported

0 % - 5 % 6 % - 10%

11 % - 20%

Above 20%

Sustainability criteria in requirement definitions

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Noestimatereported

0 % - 5 % 6 % - 10%

11 % - 20%

Above 20%

Whole life costing in financial evaluations

2014

2015

Figure 16

30

Integration of SP considerations in procurement tenders (2014-2015)42 (in percentage of reporting organizations and their respective tenders)

Internal capacity developmentDeveloping internal capacity through training and support is an important aspect of successfully integrating and advancing SP in procurement processes. According to the data collected through this year’s survey, reporting organizations recognized this fact and acted on it. The percentage of organizations that trained their personnel on SP rose from 34 per cent in 2014 to 53 per cent in 2015 (Figure 18).

In addition to training personnel, in 2015, 11 reporting organizations noted that they had made or planned to make additional investments (other than training) to enhance their own capacity to incorporate sustainability into their procurement processes. Some of these investments included: the development of supplier questionnaires, supplier training programmes and guidance documents, the development of paperless procurement systems and processes, and relevant policy updates.

42 Please see footnote #40.

23

15

18

0

8

16

24

32

Environmental Social EconomicEnvironmental Social Economic

SP training interventions (2014-2015) (in number and percentage of reporting organizations)

Figure 18

YesPlanned for next year

No

2014 2015

52%31%

34%53%

14%16%

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

2014 2015

Num

ber

of o

r

united nations procurement statistics now available online · 2017-10-20 · funds and programmes...

Documents