{"id":972,"date":"2023-04-10T11:59:30","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T11:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sldp.ngo\/?page_id=972"},"modified":"2025-05-13T12:38:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T12:38:54","slug":"un-suppliers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sldp.ngo\/en\/un-suppliers","title":{"rendered":"UN Suppliers Dashboard"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_section full_width=”stretch_row_content” el_class=”nsection”][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text el_class=”mainpagestitle”]UN Suppliers Dashboard[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section][vc_section full_width=”stretch_row_content”][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”1180″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section][vc_section full_width=”stretch_row_content” el_class=”nsection” css=”.vc_custom_1613190721336{margin-bottom: 50px !important;}”][vc_row content_placement=”middle”][vc_column][vc_column_text el_class=”teamtitleorange”]Introduction to the UN Suppliers Dashboard<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text el_class=”ncontent”]Since the onset of the Syrian uprising in 2011, the catastrophic humanitarian situation has made Syria one of the largest recipients of humanitarian assistance in the world. Much of this aid is facilitated by the United Nations (UN), which continues to operate within a highly restrictive and challenging environment. Recognizing the critical need for greater transparency and accountability in humanitarian procurement processes, the Syrian Legal Development Programme (SLDP) undertook an in-depth investigation into UN procurement practices in Syria. This resulted in the publication of a ground-breaking report, the first systematic and quantitative effort to examine how private companies\u2014including those implicated in serious human rights abuses\u2014have benefited from UN contracts.<\/p>\n

By analyzing official Syrian gazette records, open-source intelligence, and conducting interviews with UN staff, businesspeople, and civil society experts, the report scrutinized the backgrounds of the top 100 private and public-private suppliers in 2019 and 2020. These suppliers accounted for approximately 94% of total procurement spending during the period, allowing the research to draw broad conclusions about the nature of the procurement system. The findings highlight several serious concerns, including the awarding of contracts to entities linked to sanctioned individuals, human rights violators, and intermediaries operating with limited transparency. It is estimated that nearly 47% of UN procurement funding during the years studied was awarded to suppliers classified as risky or highly risky, such as Desert Falcon LLC, co-owned by a militia leader directly implicated in war crimes.<\/p>\n

To support humanitarian actors and procurement officers in addressing these risks, SLDP, in partnership with Human Rights Watch, developed a Human Rights-Compliant Procurement and Risk Assessment Tool<\/strong>. This tool was specifically designed to assist in identifying suppliers potentially involved in conflict-related human rights abuses, offering a framework that aligns with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Rather than making due diligence prohibitively resource-intensive, the tool focuses on egregious and well-documented violations, including arbitrary detentions, torture, unlawful attacks on civilians, property rights violations, and extrajudicial killings. It provides procurement officials with objective indicators to assess suppliers\u2019 risk levels and to make informed decisions aimed at preventing complicity in human rights abuses.<\/p>\n

Building upon these foundations, SLDP, in collaboration with the Observatory of Political and Economic Networks, conducted a comprehensive mapping of UN suppliers in Syria<\/strong> for the years 2019-2020, 2021-2022, and 2023<\/strong>. This dashboard presents the results of that mapping exercise, offering an interactive platform where users can explore the profiles of the top 100 private and public-private suppliers contracted by UN agencies. Each supplier is classified according to their human rights-related risk level, based on the criteria developed in the Risk Assessment Tool. The size of each circle in the visualization corresponds to the volume of procurement funding the supplier received. Users can double-click on a supplier\u2019s name for additional information or use the search function to locate specific suppliers.<\/p>\n

We encourage all users to consult the following key resources for a deeper understanding of the methodology, risk categories, and findings:<\/p>\n