Guiding Principles for Procurement of Health Products

All UNDP procurement activities related to health products, regardless of the funding source, is governed by the same policies, rules and procedures. As such, the procurement of health products for Global Fund-financed projects, and the procurement of health products with other sources of funding (e.g., government, World Bank), should be executed in full compliance with UNDP’s Programme and Operations Policies and Procedures (POPP), the Quality Assurance Policy for Health Products (QA Policy), and in accordance with the Health Procurement Architecture.

The following principles guide UNDP health procurement activities:

• Provide the best value for money [1]
• Embody fairness, integrity, transparency
• Engage in effective international competition
• Serve the interests of UNDP

[1] Value for money (VfM) is about providing quality products and services that meet the end-users’ needs and presents the best return on investment. VfM is often referred to as the 3Es—economy, efficiency and effectiveness—whereby economy means minimizing the cost of resources (doing things at a low price while complying with the UNDP’s quality assurance policy to ensure the quality and safety of the products); efficiency means performing tasks with reasonable effort (doing things the right way, often measured as cost per output); and effectiveness means the extent to which objectives are met (doing the right things, often measured as cost per outcome).