The Annual Report on UN Procurement has been published. The report provides a detailed analysis of the management of the impressive volume of goods and services purchased by the United Nations system as a whole. 2021 saw a record, with a total volume of 29.6 billion dollars, an increase of 32.5% on the previous year. As was to be expected, the main driver was the health sector, but significant growth was also recorded in other sectors.
Against this background, the positive figures attained by Italian companies are worthy of note. They achieved an annual volume of 351 million dollars, for 39 UN bodies, again an increase on the previous year.
In global terms, Italy is in 20th position as a UN supplier country, covering 1.19% of the organisation’s total procurement. The main areas of intervention were: Management and Administration Services (57.9 million), Transportation, Storage, Mail Services (47.4 million), Medical Equipment and Supplies (38.4 million), Engineering and Research Services (34.3 million), and Building and Maintenance Services (28.4 million). The main UN bodies purchasing from Italian companies are, in order: the World Food Programme (81.3 million), Secretariat (57.7 million, which includes the Department of Operational Support and supplies for peace-keeping missions, among others), the Food and Agricultural Organisation (39.7 million), the World Health Organisation (32.7 million), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (26.5 million).
A total of 7,193 Italian firms are accredited with the UN procurement service. 1,899 of them provided goods and services in the year, 69 of them for volumes equating to over 1 million dollars.
