Provision of contractual services with a vendor to supply print and electronic books for UNECA

Provision of contractual services with a vendor to supply print and electronic books for UNECA

The Vendor shall provide comprehensive supply of demand-driven academic and scholarly resources from reputable publishers relevant to the work of ECA. Services should cover both print and electronic resources, including books, monographs, edited volumes, conference proceedings, reference works, and other scholarly publications. The Vendor shall demonstrate the capacity to identify, source, procure, and deliver requested resources efficiently and in a timely manner in response to firm orders, standing orders, continuation orders, and urgent requests.

The Vendor shall:

• Maintain access to a broad network of international, regional, academic, professional, and specialized publishers.
• Supply publications in ECA’s working languages, including English, French, and Arabic.
• Provide acquisition support services, including title discovery, bibliographic searching, ordering, fulfillment, delivery tracking, and customer support.
• Support standing orders, continuation orders, and series management services.

Demonstrate the ability to source specialized, hard-to-obtain, and out-of-print publications where available.

• Provide title recommendation and collection development support upon request.
• Maintain appropriate confidentiality and data protection measures consistent with United Nations requirements.
• Demonstrate business continuity arrangements to ensure uninterrupted service delivery throughout the contract period.

In the performance of all services, the Vendor shall act in accordance with ECA instructions and in the best interests of the United Nations, ensuring professionalism, reliability, transparency, responsiveness, and accountability. To support ECA’s programme of work, the ECA Library seeks to engage a qualified Vendor with demonstrable experience in the supply of authoritative scholarly, scientific, and technical publications in both print and electronic formats. The required resources span a broad range of disciplines, including economics, social development, gender equality, trade, regional integration, climate change, natural resource management, private sector development, innovation and technology, governance, public finance, statistics, and related social sciences. The contract shall be established as a Long-Term Agreement (LTA) for 2 (two) years with the possibility of renewal for an additional 2 years and a maximum contract duration of four (4) years. 2+2.

Specific Requirements/Information SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS / INFORMATION (IF ANY)

1. E-Book Content Provision

The Vendor shall:

• Provide streamlined access to eBooks from research-level academic and scholarly publishers, including both individual eBook titles and curated subject collections.
• Support full-text and chapter-level downloads for offline use in accessible formats such as PDF, EPUB, or equivalent, where licensing permits.

2. Print Book Services

The Vendor shall:

• Supply scholarly monographs, edited volumes, conference proceedings, reference works, and other academic publications relevant to ECA subject areas, and deliver them to all required ECA locations, including ECA Headquarters in Addis Ababa and sub-regional offices in Lusaka, Rabat, Niamey, Kigali, Yaoundé, and Dakar.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

1) This REOI does not constitute a solicitation. UNECA reserves the right to change or cancel the requirement at any time during the EOI or solicitation process. Thus, submitting a response to this REOI does not automatically guarantee that your company will be considered for receipt of the solicitation when issued.

2) UNECA also reserves the right to send the Solicitation Documents to companies who were identified through additional market research or other means to source the UN requirements.

3) Women-owned businesses and businesses owned by persons with disabilities are encouraged to participate

3) Vendors must be registered in UNGM under the UNSPSC code 55101500 and 55101524, in order to participate in the solicitation for this requirement.

All questions which the vendors have must be sent through the above email address not later than 3 days before the closing date.