A UNDP knowledge product is “a branded published piece offering new insights and analysis that advances learning or increases understanding about a development issue and leads to improved development policies, programmes, practices, products, skills and competencies.” It is produced for the purpose of informing or influencing decision-makers, professionals or the interested public. Knowledge products may be classified under eight types: report, technical paper, guidance material, contributing paper, findings, dataset, brief, and think piece.
Quality assurance for UNDP knowledge products is a three step online process conducted by the Issuing Office. The Issuing Office appoints a Knowledge Product Focal Point who: a)Submits the planned knowledge product details (scope of work, budget, target audience etc.); b)Once the knowledge product is produced, assesses it against the quality standards, and c)Uploads the product for publishing on UNDP's public site. Two key decision points in the process certify the product meets the criteria. It is the role of the Approver, the authorizing officer within the issuing office, to: a) “Approve” is when the approver -the authorizing officer- certifies that the knowledge product has been adequately justified and its design details have been satisfactorily thought through to proceed with the production stage, and
b) “Clear” is when the approver certifies that the product fully meets UNDP’s quality standards and can be finalized and issued. At each step the authorizing officer signs off on the Online Quality Assurance process.
Following its publication, the issuing office is also able to track and monitor the impact and the performance of the published knowledge product.
All UNDP knowledge products must meet six quality standards: (1) the product is relevant to the organization’s or programme’s priorities; (2) the product demonstrates thought leadership; (3) the product is well-designed and internally consistent; (4) the product is assured of reaching its intended audience; (5) the intended impacts are clear and measurable; (6) an appropriate roll-out plan is included. To certify these standards are met, the approver/authorizing officer signs a Quality Standards Certification form through the online quality assurance process.
A set of nodes that run containerized applications. Containerizing applications packages an app with its dependences and some necessary services. They are more lightweight and flexible than virtual machines. In this way, Kubernetes clusters allow for applications to be more easily developed, moved, and managed. Kubernetes clusters allow containers to run across multiple machines and environments: virtual, physical, cloud-based, and on-premises. Kubernetes containers are not restricted to a specific operating system, unlike virtual machines. Instead, they can share operating systems and run anywhere.
An offeror, or a prospective, registered or actual supplier, contractor or provider of goods, services and/or works to UNDP. Vendors may include individuals, private or public entities, whether parent, holding, subsidiary, affiliate, and may be a consortium, partnership, a government agency or a non-governmental organization. Non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations acting as UNDP Implementing Partners, and Responsible Parties as well as grantees receiving grants or prize challenges or similar form, directly from UNDP, are also considered Vendors. The following are considered Vendors. Agents: Agents include Employees, officers, advisers, representatives, owners, shareholders or subcontractors of the Vendor for which the Vendor is responsible under this Policy. The following are not consideered vendors.Individuals or entities described as “vendors” solely for Atlas/Quantum purposes, where all payees are referred to as “vendors”. For any payee for whom a purchase order is to be raised or to whom a payment will be made, a vendor record has to be properly set up in Atlas. This includes international or national staff members, who are not “vendors” for the purposes of this Policy.Individuals or entities, other than Agents, that are, and with whom UNDP does not have a direct contractual or financial relation with UNDP, or where UNDP’s sole role is to issue a payment on behalf of a partner.Individuals or entities contracted by other agencies, funds and programmes that report into the UNGM. UNDP Service Contract, and PSA holders are not considered Vendors for the purposes of these procedures.
Purpose and Mandate. The Vendor Review Committee (VRC) is an internal technical administrative body located at UNDP Headquarters in New York, created by the Bureau for Management Services (BMS) and tasked with making recommendations to the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) for consideration in rendering the final UNDP decision regarding Vendor Sanctions.
Those UNDP staff members selected to participate in a Panel Review Process (PRP), with the roles described in paragraph 36 of the Vendor Sanctions Policy.
Contributions to UNDP Regular Resources from Governments of States Members of the United Nations, of the specialized agencies or of the International Atomic Energy Agency;