Evaluation Committee/ Panel

A committee made up of an odd number of members (at least three) with the necessary technical and administrative expertise to give an informed opinion on tenders or grant applications.

BVM

Short for “Best Value for Money”; the best combination available of monetary and non-monetary requirements that an organization can get from its selection of suppliers.

HPCs

Short for “Humanitarian Procurement Centers”. Are not-for-profit organizations specialized in the technical and commercial management of supplies and services necessary for the implementation of humanitarian actions. They can provide technical assistance in procurement or supply pre-established stocks, purchasing or logistics capacity

ISO

Short for “International Organization for Standardization”. An independent entity that has been thinking and standardizing the formulas that describes the best way of doing something.

Certification

Guarantee that a product and/or company has followed a quality process.

Lead time

The time between initiation of the acquisition of the goods and services up to the time of delivery.

Market Analysis

An essential component of context analysis, collecting information that will be useful to program the intervention and how to implement it.

Market Research

Activities and means to identify suppliers in a specific market.

Negotiated Procedure

Procedure without prior publication of a procurement notice, in which the Contracting Authority consults the candidate or candidates of its choice and negotiates the terms of the contract with one or more of them.

Procurement

The process of identifying and obtaining goods and services

Purchase

The specific function associated with the actual buying of goods and services from suppliers.

QA

Short for “Quality Assurance”; A procedure to ensure the quality of products or services by preventing mistakes and defects in manufactured products and avoiding problems when delivering products or services to beneficiaries.

QC

Short for “Quality Control”; checks to ensure quality in a product or a service.

Quality

All the elements and characteristics which constitute the product and which contribute to its compliance with the defined technical specifications.

Sourcing

Identifying and working with appropriate suppliers.

Services

Intellectual and non-intellectual services.

Segregation of Duties

Principle by which must have more than one person to complete a procurement activity.

TCO

Short for “Total Cost of Ownership”; Cost involved in buying and using a product over time.

Tender Procedure

The overall process of putting a contract out for tender, starting with the publication of a procurement notice and ending with the award of the tendered contract.

Works

The design and/or the execution of a rehabilitation, construction, etc. in accordance with the previously specified requirements.