Conference Services for the 2019 International Conference on Gender Equality and Corporate Social Responsibility

Instruction to UNGM Vendors:

All quotations must be submitted via the UN Women Vendor Portal. You may access our portal under the "Links" tab (click "Go to link"). In order to have access to the full information, please click “Express Interest” and register your company under the UN Women vendor portal - this costs nothing and will only take a couple of minutes. The portal provides a simple, secure and efficient way of managing UN Women solicitation processes, reducing time and cost for both buyers and vendors. If you are registered already, the system will take you directly to the tender and the documents can be found under the “Tender Documents" tab.

All queries and/or clarification shall be received through this portal once you have registered, ensuring to include the solicitation reference number in the subject line of the correspondence. UN Women will respond to all questions received through the portal.


Dear Sir/Madam,

1. The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) is seeking quotation(s) for the procurement of Conference Services for the 2019 International Conference on Gender Equality and Corporate Social Responsibility.

2. To prepare a responsive quotation, you must carefully review, and understand the contents of the following documents:
a. This Invitation letter
b. Statement of Confirmation
c. Technical Information Questionnaire
d. UN Women General Conditions of Contract
e. Model Form of Contract

3. A contract may be awarded to the supplier having submitted a quotation representing the best value for money, i.e. lowest-priced technically-compliant of the proposed offers and meeting the following minimum evaluation criteria:
Technical responsiveness/Full compliance to minimum requirements of the TOR
Qualifications and experience of proposed staff/personnel
Comprehensiveness of after-sales services
Full acceptance of UN Women General Conditions of Contract
Earliest Delivery / Shortest Lead Time.

4. It is UN Women’s intention to issue the contract as presented herein the RFQ documents. Therefore, offerors should ensure any due diligence regarding the legal review and ability to be compliant to all contract terms and conditions is undertaken prior to the submission of your quotation. Submission of a quotation will be confirmation of accepting UN Women contract included herein.

5. In the case two (2) quotations are evaluated and found to be the same ranking in terms of technical qualification and price, UN Women will award contract to the company that is either women-owned or has a majority women employed. This is in support of UN Women’s core mandate. In the case that both companies are women-owned or have a majority women employed, UN Women will request best and final offer from both suppliers and shall make a final comparison of the competing suppliers.

6. UN Women reserves the right to accept or reject any quotation, and to cancel the process and reject all quotations at any time prior to the award of contract without thereby incurring any liability to the suppliers or any obligation to inform the suppliers of the grounds for such action.

7. At any time prior to the deadline for the submission of quotations, UN Women may, for any reason, whether at its own initiative or in response to a clarification requested by a supplier, modify the RFQ by way of a written amendment. All suppliers that have received the RFQ shall be notified in writing of any such amendments. To offer suppliers reasonable time to take any such amendments into account in preparing their quotations, UN Women may, at its discretion, extend the deadline for the submission.

8. UN Women’s vendor protest procedure provides an opportunity for appeal to supplier(s) who believe that they were not treated fairly. This link (http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/procurement/vendor-protest-procedure) provides further details regarding UN Women’s vendor protest procedures.

Suppliers, their subsidiaries, agents, intermediaries and principals must cooperate with the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) of the United Nations, UN Women Internal Audit and Investigations Group (IAIG) as well as with other investigations authorized by the Executive Director and with the UN Women Ethics Office as and when required. Such cooperation shall include, but not be limited to the following: access to all employees, representatives, agents and assignees of the supplier; as well as production of all documents requested, including financial records.
Failure to fully cooperate with investigations will be considered sufficient grounds to allow UN Women to repudiate and terminate the contract, and to debar and remove the supplier from UN Women’s list of registered suppliers.

9. UN Women implements a zero tolerance on fraud and other proscribed practices, and is committed to identifying and addressing all such acts and practices against UN Women, as well as third parties involved in UN Women activities. UN Women expects its suppliers to adhere to the UN Supplier Code of Conduct found in this link: http://www.un.org/depts/ptd/pdf/conduct_english.pdf.

10. This letter is not to be construed in any way as an offer to contract with your organization.

Yours sincerely,
Welder Mtisi
Operations Manager