After a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Procurement Awards, an initiative coordinated by a cross-agency Project Team within the High-Level Committee on Management’s Procurement Network’s (HLCM-PN) Professional Development working group, are back for 2022 with one award category – Sustainable Procurement and Supply. Five teams from across the UN system made the shortlist for the award:
- Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) successfully launched its Smart Hospital Project, which focuses on improving hospitals' resilience, strengthening structural and operational aspects, and providing green technologies in the Caribbean.
- World Bank Group (WBG) in 2020 & 2021 conducted a thorough procurement exercise to integrate Facilities Management services for all of its Headquarter buildings in Washington, DC., aiming at ensuring that all facilities in the Headquarter campus are operated in a safe, flexible, and sustainable manner.
- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) provided a sustainable "Reopen schools WASH kit," as restrictions raised by COVID-19 started to become more flexible. The kit was locally designed and sourced, and allowed schools to guarantee a safe environment for their students.
- World Food Programme’s (WFP) corporate objective is a gradual phase out of conventional palm oil procurement by regional and country offices and switch to Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified palm oil in 2022, reducing the negative consequences of non-sustainable deforestation.
- United Nations Office of Project Services’ (UNOPS) project “Procurement of Medicines and Medical Supplies in Mexico” includes sustainability criteria in tenders, promoting gender and social inclusion and building the capacity of governmental institutions and suppliers.
The Sustainable Procurement and Supply award category is a Team award, which “recognizes successful and value-adding Sustainable Procurement and Supply projects,” and “rewards procurement and supply chain initiatives that are compatible and in favour of the protection of the environment, of social progress and in support of economic development” (UN Procurement Awards Concept Note).
The award winner will be announced on Thursday, 13 October 2022, between 14:15 and 15:00 (CEST) at the HLCM-PN meeting in The Haag. Watch the live streaming of the announcement on MS Teams through this link.
For more information about the UN Procurement Awards, please see https://www.ungm.org/Shared/KnowledgeCenter/Pages/UNProcurementAwards2022