The UN system procured goods and services from 192 different countries in 2013, with 123 countries having an annual procurement volume of more than $10 million each in 2013. The ten major countries supplying UN organizations in 2013 included four developing countries, with the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, India and Kenya accounting for 37.4 percent of the total procurement volume of the top ten countries of supply. This corresponds to a decrease in procurement volume from developing countries and countries with economies in transition within the ten major countries of 6.5 percentage points, down from 43.9 percent in 2012.
Country of Supply
The percentage share of total goods and services procured from the top ten major countries of supply to the UN system had a decreasing trend between 2009 and 2012, representing a widening of the geographical spread of the United Nations source of supply. For 2013, this downward trend has reversed, and the share of the top ten countries of supply to the UN in the total procurement volume has increased from 2012 to 2013 by 2.7 percentage points.
Procurement of Services by Region
Procurement is defined as the acquisition through purchase or lease of real property, goods or other products (including intellectual property), works or services. Services are 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.
These statistics have been produced by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) on behalf of the organizations of the United Nations system. The Annual Statistics Report (ASR), from which these charts derive, is published by UNOPS and available online: the link is provided in the header.
Currencies & Conversions
All data is in US dollars. Some agencies, have their budgets and accounting in currencies other than US dollars thereby necessitating currency conversion using an average annual conversion rate.
Metrics & Values
If shown, percentage values represent the percentage of total procurement (goods + services). Regional classifications are used when country information is not available. Purchase orders of value less than USD 1000 are ommitted from this chart. For improved presentation, financial values are sometimes rounded.
Information is supplied to UNOPS by 33 UN organizations in total. UNOPS relies on the participating UN organizations in the compilation and reporting of the statistics.
The data in the category goods is based on country of supplier; the data in the category services is based on country of contractor. Developing Countries & Countries with Economies in Transition (DC/ET): countries for which the United Nations provides financial/technical assistance.