India still the top UNICEF supplier country in 2013

In 2013, UNICEF procured $2.8 billion worth of services and supplies in more than 130 countries, according to its latest annual supply report. Consistent with UNICEF’s efforts to buy supplies where they will be used, two-thirds of its top 33 supplier countries last year — or countries in which procurement exceeded $10 million — have UNICEF development programs. The UNICEF supply chain — a process that involves budgeting, procurement, delivery, monitoring and evaluation, among others — is a critical component of UNICEF’s goal to protect the world’s most disadvantaged and excluded children. This supply chain becomes more complex in an emergency — and in 2013, UNICEF responded to emergencies in 34 countries and territories. Much of UNICEF’s large-scale supply response was directed toward emergencies caused by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, conflicts in the Central African Republic and South Sudan, and the civil war in Syria that has spilled over to Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Jordan, Lebanon, the Philippines, Syria and South Sudan are also among the 33 major supplier countries for UNICEF last year. Several of the main procurement sources are also in sub-Saharan Africa, where 59 percent of UNICEF supplies were used in 2013. Twenty-percent of ready-to-use therapeutic food — a peanut paste mixed with milk, vegetable oil, sugar and fortified with vitamins and minerals — was sourced in Africa as well. More than $2 billion, however, came from the same top 10 UNICEF supplier countries in 2012: India, the United States, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Denmark, the United Kingdom, China, Germany and Pakistan. A majority of these 10 countries were also home to the highest number of companies that were invited as bidders by the UNICEF supply division. While India had the most invitees — 242 companies from India were invited — the highest response rate, at 75 percent, was in France and Pakistan. Below is a slideshow that shows the top five suppliers — based on the combined local, country-by-country and international procurement values — from each of the 10 major UNICEF supplier countries in 2013. As in 2012, vaccines ($1.3 billion), pharmaceuticals ($197 million) and nutrition ($166 million) were the three main commodity groups in 2013. Meanwhile, health, water and sanitation, and education kits made up the largest orders at UNICEF’s global warehouse in Copenhagen, Denmark — reaching an all-time high of 362,000 in 2013. In 2014, UNICEF will start procuring the newly renamed “Hygiene and Dignity” kit, which will address the needs of women and adolescent girls as well as provide for a family of five instead of just two adults. UNICEF also plans to procure 190 million bed nets — among Switzerland’s and China’s main supplied commodities in 2013 — next year. The initiative is expected to protect 400 million people from malaria and potentially save the lives of 1.3 million children. Check out more practical business and development advice online, and subscribe to Money Matters to receive the latest contract award and shortlist announcements, and procurement and fundraising news.