Mater thesis in Procurement at UNICEF Supply Division
Organization: UNICEF SD
Location: Nordhavn, Copenhagen
Deadline for application:January 2010
Start Date of the Project: January 2011
Final delivery of findings:Apr 2011 (for non written findings to UNICEF), May 2011 (final report)
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Project description:
This project will be undertaken withina team of practitioners and academics.The academic part is expected to identify efficient procurement modalities that may be suitably appropriate for UNICEF. The intent of using academia is to ensure there is no bias or limitation to identifying modalities from having prior exposure to the public procurement and the UNICEF specific environment. This will be supplemented by best practices from a selection of other UN agencies and Public Sector Procurement Agencies.
Objectives of the Project
Identifying appropriate innovative alternatives to the current modalities of procurement, suitable for implementation within UNICEF’s financial rules and regulations.
To ensure that UNICEF maximizes the impact of their activities for children this project sets out to:
- Radically challenge the way they are undertaking procurement yet still comply with the principles of public procurement;
- Identify efficient and appropriate alternative options and modalities of procurement for low value procurement (<US $2,500) at country level.
Background to the Project
As an international public procurement agency, UNICEF procurement is cocooned in multiple rules and standard operating procedures to ensure compliance and conformance to public procurement principles. While these and current procurement modalities ensure compliance, they often limit innovation and change to improve the cost effectiveness and to maximize the benefit to the beneficiaries.
The organization has not extensively taken advantage of new Information Technology-based business models adopted in the commercial and increasingly in the not for profit sector. To ensure the best impact of the organization’s activities on their beneficiaries, the project sets out to radically challenge the procurement practices at UNICEF; identifying appropriate alternative options and modalities of procurement and delivery, to best meet the needs of the beneficiaries and strategic objectives of UNICEF.
One Strategic Shift at UNICEF Organisational Review calls for the refocus of the Supply Function on essential supplies and increased efficiencies. Much analysis has already been undertaken on the Supply Function within UNICEF identifying opportunities to enhance overall performance, including overly complicated procurement procedures being applied to low value procurement.
In analysing the procurement spend at UNICEF country office level , 52% percent of the purchase orders issued at country level make up less than 5% of the total value and have a value of less than US $2,500 each, requiring significant resource commitment for low value procurement.
Overview of the Project
This project will focus on finding alternative acceptable procurement modalities to reduce (i) the resources and time spent on the issuance of the low value purchase orders, and associated upstream bidding processes and (ii) overall timelines for procurement, increasing efficiencies and directly impact on the resource availability within the supply function.
By providing efficient acceptable alternative procurement modalities, this will enable the freeing up of resources to focus on more strategic supply objectives and strategies that can support UNICEF in achieving its overall objectives.
Scope of the Project
The sector of procurement in focus in this study is UNICEF country based procurement under $2,500, constituting more than 50% of the purchase orders issued yet making up less than 5% of the value of the overall procurement undertaken by country offices. Improvements in the efficiency of this procurement will have a widespread impact on the overall efficiency of the supply function.
The principal focus areas of this project will be
1. The identification of appropriate alternative procurement modalities for low value procurement (<$2,500) at country level;
2. Processing these through a series of filters assessing the suitability for UNICEF environment;
3. Assessing the risk of this/these methodologies;
4. Identifying best options based on the parameters of cost, quality, and time and resource requirement for implementation and the ability to implement the change;
5. Submit the most appropriate (as identified) for inclusion in the UNICEF Supply Manual, Book G
Main Data Sources
Using a combination of literature from Academia and UNICEF, as well as empirical data e.g. interviews, observation, or questionnaires.
•Research literature on innovative procurement, delivery and transactions management modalities;
•Research best practices in procurement and delivery;
•Prior Analysis and reports on UNICEF supply function including the Supply Function Evaluation, Category Management Analysis;
•UNICEF procurement data;
•Interviews with stakeholders.
Pre-Qualification:
At the end of their master studies in Industrial Eng., Purchasing, or equivalent.