The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
Where does the United Nations spend its funding?
Most detailed report to date highlights where $17.6 billion was spent by the UN in 2015.
- The Annual Statistical Report on United Nations Procurement examines the combined spending on goods and services of 36 UN organizations.
- More than $17 billion was spent in 2015, a growth of $400 million over last year.
Repeated resolutions have called for the UN to increase opportunities for suppliers from developing economies.
This year, UN funding spent in developing economies was $10.8 billion, an increase of $215 million from 2014. Overall, this amount makes up over 63% of the UN's total spend for its operations around the world.
"As we look towards financing the sustainable development goals, this report provides vital information to help us understand how we should focus our resources to help the most vulnerable people," said Grete Faremo, Executive Director of UNOPS.
The report compiled by UNOPS on behalf of the UN system, found that health-related purchases made up 23% of overall spending.
"Trends in the data are clear. Health spending is up. As a UN family it is our responsibility to use this data wisely, to make sure we align our spending with the status, needs and priorities of each country" Ms Faremo added.
The report provides categories and descriptions of goods and services purchased by UN organizations, as well as a new section outlining purchases by individual UN organizations. This is the first year the report has provided this level of detail.
For the first time, information on least developed countries has been extracted from the data, which traditionally has focused on groupings of developed countries, developing countries, and economies in transition. From this perspective, procurement from least developed countries fell by $274 million to $3.1 billion.
More details are available in the full report and supporting documents available here:
