Office of Supply Chain Management (Department of Operational Support)

The Office of Supply Chain Management is supporting a new Light Passenger Vehicle Pooling & Disposal Initiative to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and contribute to more sustainable UN operations. This initiative promotes the expanded use of vehicle pooling, moving from individually assigned vehicles to shared, centrally managed fleets. This approach helps improve use, reduce idle capacity, and enable more flexible, needs-based allocation of resources. In parallel, older and underused vehicles are being phased out and disposed of, lowering maintenance and fuel costs while improving overall fleet performance. A temporary pause on new procurement, where feasible, further supports more efficient use of existing assets. Through targeted, practical measures, OSCM continues to advance smarter supply chain solutions, supporting field missions while strengthening resource stewardship across the UN. Image: UN Photo/Evan Schneider

In close coordination with Business France and the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations, OSCM’s Enabling and Outreach Services organized a successful business seminar aimed at strengthening engagement between French businesses and the UN procurement system. The event contributed to ongoing outreach efforts to expand and diversify the UN vendor base. The seminar brought together current and prospective suppliers across sectors relevant to UN procurement and featured valuable insights from the Director of the UN Procurement Division, Neris Mercedes Baez Garcia de Mazzora. Participants were introduced to key aspects on how to do business with the UN, including the use of the UN Global Marketplace platform, as well as specific sourcing requirements in complex sectors such as aviation, transport, water and sanitation, renewable energy and healthcare. This engagement reflects the UN's broader enabling and outreach strategy to increase vendor participation, promote competition, and ensure access to a diverse pool of qualified suppliers. Alongside outreach in established markets like France, OSCM is placing an emphasis on engaging vendors from least developed countries and economies in transition, helping broaden and diversify the UN supplier base. These efforts are essential to achieving best value for money in support of the Organization's mandates. OSCM remains committed to transparent engagement with vendors, clearly communicating who we are, what we do and what we require from our partners.

Introducing the updated UN Procurement Mobile App, designed to make it easier than ever for vendors to connect with United Nations Secretariat procurement opportunities. With a modern, user-friendly interface optimised for mobile and tablet devices, the app gives you real-time access to requests for expressions of interest, tenders, contract awards, business seminars, statistics and more, wherever you are. New features include mobile vendor registration, allowing you to start your registration directly from your device, and customisable push notifications so you receive updates tailored to your business interests by location, sector, and content type. Available in all six UN official languages, the app ensures greater accessibility for suppliers worldwide. Stay informed, expand your reach, and never miss an opportunity to participate in a business opportunity with the United Nations Secretariat. 📲 Download now on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store and take the next step in partnering with us.

Interested in using data and analytics to improve global supply chain operations in the United Nations? The United Nations Office of Supply Chain Management (Department of Operational Support) is recruiting a Logistics Officer (Data Analytics & Business Intelligence), P-3 in New York. The successful candidate will work at the intersection of supply chain management, business intelligence, data engineering and analytics, supporting SAP Analytics/BI data models, reporting solutions, dashboards and data pipelines that enable evidence-based decision-making across the UN Secretariat. We're looking for professionals with experience in: ✅ Data analytics and business intelligence ✅ Data modeling and data pipelines ✅ Power BI, SAP Analytics Cloud, Qlik or Tableau ✅ Supply chain, procurement or logistics analytics ✅ SQL, Python or R 📍 New York 📅 Apply by 22 July 2026 #UnitedNations #DataAnalytics #BusinessIntelligence #DataEngineering #SupplyChain #Procurement #Logistics #SAP #PowerBI #UNJobs #Careers

The Damage Control Surgery (DCS) Working Group, bringing together over 60 medical experts from 18 United Nations Member States and technical partners, including the Global Surgery Foundation, has just completed its work on a new approach to delivering lifesaving surgical care in some of the world’s most challenging environments. The result: a standardized, mobile DCS capability framework designed to bring urgent care closer to the point of injury. Built for austere conditions, the modular setup integrates triage, surgery and post-operative stabilization, helping ensure patients receive critical interventions within the critical two-hour window for life saving surgical intervention, even when evacuation is delayed. This collaborative effort highlights the vital role of Member States in shaping practical, field-ready solutions. Part of a broader effort to strengthen care in the field, DCS works alongside aeromedical evacuation and innovations like the Walking Blood Bank Kit. The development of all three initiatives is funded by the UN Peace and Development Trust Fund. Next comes training, possible field validation and refinement, with the goal of helping ensure teams are better equipped to save lives when it matters most. 📸 Photo: A simulated injured victim is assisted by UN peacekeepers of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) during an emergency response training exercise (UN Photo/Victoria Hazou)

Operational readiness is built before an emergency occurs. The Walking Blood Bank Kit contains everything required to collect, label, store, transport and transfuse whole blood in the field: sterile collection bags, rapid blood-typing cards, validated cold storage, and transfusion sets, all in a portable, standardized package designed for rapid deployment under austere conditions. Training exercises at UNIFIL reinforced a critical principle: kit familiarity is not optional. In a live emergency, hesitation over equipment translates directly into lost time. In a haemorrhagic emergency, that time has clinical consequences. Hands-on kit familiarization has therefore been embedded into UNIFIL’s routine medical training cycles, ensuring that when the system is activated, every procedural step is executed without delay.

In areas affected by conflict and in remote locations, access to timely medical care is often limited. Initiatives like the Walking Blood Bank Kit are helping to close that gap—bringing life-saving capabilities directly to the field. Through practical training at UNIFIL, medical teams are learning how to safely collect, test, store, and transfuse blood under challenging conditions. This empowers them to make informed, rapid decisions in trauma scenarios, where the speed of response is operationally critical. Multidisciplinary collaboration across medical, laboratory, logistics, and command functions, together with rigorous training, is at the heart of this effort. By working together across roles and organizations, we can strengthen emergency response systems and ensure that more lives are saved, wherever they are at risk.

The Walking Blood Bank is more than a mission-level innovation. It’s a model with global relevance. In environments where infrastructure is limited or supply chains are disrupted, having the capacity to safely collect and transfuse blood on-site can transform emergency care. At UNIFIL, this pilot training demonstrated how standardized kits, hands-on instruction, and operational readiness can come together to deliver real impact. In haemorrhagic emergencies, the ability to act quickly saves lives. UNIFIL’s Walking Blood Bank protocol sets a target of having the  first blood unit available within 45 minutes from injury. This is aligned with international trauma standards that confirm early transfusion significantly improves survival outcomes. As this initiative grows, it has the potential to inform practices far beyond peacekeeping, supporting health systems worldwide, particularly in crisis-affected and remote settings.

The success of the Walking Blood Bank initiative depends not just on equipment, but on people. At UNIFIL, personnel have stepped forward, training, volunteering, and preparing to support one another in critical moments. This initiative builds on the strong culture of volunteerism already present in UN missions, transforming it into a structured, lifesaving system. By preparing pre-screened donors and training medical teams in the full transfusion workflow, the Walking Blood Bank Kit ensures rapid, safe responses in emergencies. In UNIFIL’s first Walking Blood Bank trial, volunteers were medically screened and enrolled as registered donors across all blood groups, including Low Titer Group O donors. Every trained individual strengthens the system. Every volunteer increases resilience. Together, they create a network capable of saving lives in mass casualty and haemorrhagic emergency scenarios.