Provision of Blood for the United Nations Peacekeeping Missions

1. The United Nations (UN) is conducting market research to identify potential suppliers of blood that is capable of supplying the UN Peacekeeping Missions. The United Nations requires approximately 150 units of blood per month, across all blood types, with quantities expected to vary in proportion to operational demands from UN missions. The UN seeks suppliers capable of collecting, processing, testing, storing, and distributing blood and blood products in accordance with World Health Organization standards and other internationally recognized standards and best practices (e.g., FDA, AABB, ISBT, EDQB, or equivalent). The supplier should be capable of the delivery of blood and maintenance of cold chain to UN Peacekeeping Missions and other UN offices. The current list of UN Peacekeeping Missions/Offices that require the delivery of blood includes UNMISS (South Sudan), UNISFA (Abyei Region, Sudan), MONUSCO (Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo), MINUSCA (Central African Republic), UNON (Kenya), UNSOS(Somalia), UNIFIL (Lebanon), UNDOF (Syria) and UNSOH (HAITI), with the possibility of expansion to additional locations as operational needs evolve. 2. Full Technical Specifications related to the above indicated requirements will be released with the solicitation documents. 3. Interested vendors must have attained an approved Level 2 registration with the UN Secretariat at the time of any award made arising from this planned solicitation. Interested vendors must also be registered for the applicable commodity codes stipulated herein. 4. Due to the high volume of communications, the UN Secretariat is not in a position to issue confirmation of receipt of responses, conduct a question-and-answer session pertaining to this Request for Expression of Interest (REOI) or provide any additional details concerning the upcoming solicitation. The purpose of this request is to identify well-qualified suppliers who wish to participate in the solicitation. 5. Responses must be submitted only once electronically as specified in the Vendor Response Notice below.