Geared towards equipping members with information on how they can tap into the procurement opportunities offered by United Nations (UN), Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA) held a first-ever suppliers’ seminar in conjunction with UN and its Agencies as an initiative to increase market for local products through tapping into wider UN eco systems in various sectors.

Themed: ‘Local sourcing for sustainable business growth,’ the seminar encompassed aspects of the UN procurement process, requirements and associated vendor registration procedures.

According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) head of procurement, Rose Plang: There is need to increase vendor awareness of business opportunities with the UN as well as learn from the UN procurement values, policies, principles, buying profiles and how to access these opportunities in a bid to achieve implementation of the African continental free-trade area plan (AfCFTA).

In a breakdown of statistics showing the UN system procurement volume with Ugandan suppliers, there is a notable increase in regard to Ugandan suppliers’ contribution to the UN procurement, from USD160m-184m, which indicates potential economic development. The key players to this positive upsurge are the food and beverage products, taking approximately USD 29.7m, while transportation, storage and mail services, building and maintenance, management administration services, plant and animal materials and engineering make up for the rest of the products and services distributed that highly contribute to the USD 184m.

Participants were taken through a set-by-step process on how to register on the United Nations Global Market (UNGM) which basically has 3 levels of registration with different packages. These are the Basic, Level 1 and Level 2 which avail contract awards of USD 150,000, 500,000 and 500,000 and above respectively.

Additionally, to make business opportunities even more accessible for businesses, the UN secretariate is in the process of setting up an e-tendering platform called ‘Ariba’ which ideally uses supplier contact information in the UNGM to shortlist users for UN business opportunities.

UNGM contact information and business details must be right so as to get the right tenders and opportunities: procurement officer at Global Procurement Support Section (GPSS), Wambua

More to this, the United Nations offers a UN Procurement mobile application which offers real-time information related to business and tender opportunities, seminars and contract awards.

In line with the 2030 sustainable development goals, the UN puts in consideration human rights and environmental conservation and this is why decisions are now based on the associated risks the purchases we make and the kind of products that are manufactured.

“Sustainable procurement talks about making decisions that sets procurement into broader strategic contexts. The things we buy must have value for money, performance management, cooperate and community priorities,” said Ruth Plang.