Procedures for Competitive Selection of Grants to Implementing Partners
In accordance with UNITAR Policy Guidelines for Agreements to Implementing Partners, all grants
valued at $100,000 and above are subject to competitive selection unless exception criteria apply(e.g. government agencies having domain rights). Refer to Policy Guidelines.
Grant Notices
1. The Hiring Unit prepares the Terms of Reference (ToR)/specifications of the Grant Notice using
the Grant Notice template and sends it to the Partnership and Resource Mobilization Unit
(PRMU) to the email address agreements@unitar.org.
2. PRMU will review the Grant Notice before publishing on UNITAR’s website and any otherselected media based on project requirements. Grant Notices are announced for a period ofthree weeks.
Acceptance of applications
3. PRMU will receive and file all applications in response to a Grant Notice.
4. PRMU will establish a log of complete and signed applications that have been received by theapplication deadline (complete applications).
5. PRMU will circulate the complete applications to the Hiring Unit. The Hiring Unit will establisha short list of preferably three applicants.
Review and assessment to applications
6. PRMU will establish a Grant Review Committee (GRC), composed of a representative from theHiring Unit, a representative from another Division, and PRMU in an ex officio capacity. PRMU
will identify the representative from the other Division in consultation with the Hiring Unit.
7. PRMU will convene the GRC to review and assess the merits of the applications. The
assessment/review will consider compliance with specifications/terms of reference, technicalmerits of the proposal, the qualifications of the applicant, delivery schedule and the financialoffer. In general, the principle of best value for money should be observed, although delivery
schedules and other criteria may also be taken into consideration.
8. PRMU will chair the GRC and ensure that the minutes of meetings are recorded. As an ex
officio member, PRMU will not have decision-making powers.
9. Based on its review and assessment of the applications, the GRC shall rank the shortlisted
applicants (e.g. first rated applicant, second rated applicant, ...). Not all short-listed applicantsneed to be ranked, however. In the event there is no agreement between the Hiring Unit
member and the other GRC member, a third representative from a non-Hiring Unit Division
will be asked to join the GRC and review and assess the shortlisted candidates.
10. The Hiring Unit will contact the first ranked applicant and proceed with a Due Diligence
Assessment (DDA), which shall be reviewed by PRMU. The DDA is an internal document andshall not be shared publically with the IP or outside of UNITAR.

Contracting and announcement
11. If the DDA is favourable, the Hiring Unit will initiate the drafting of a Grant Letter of Agreement
and its annexes using UNITAR’ Standard Grant-out Agreement template. If the result of theDDA is unfavorable, the Hiring Unit will determine if the first-ranked applicant should be asked
to address the concerns raised in the DDA and/or implement mitigation measures, or if thesecond-ranked applicant should be assessed. If there is no ranked applicant that receives afavorable DDA, the Hiring Unit may be required to:a. Establish a new short list of applicants for consideration;b. Issue a new Grant notice.
12. Once the selected applicant has signed the Grant Agreement with UNITAR, its name and theamount of the Grant will be published (unless measures may prevent public announcement),
and other shortlisted candidates notified of the outcome. Applications including any personal
data of unsuccessful applicants will be destroyed within 2 years of the date of submission,
unless the unsuccessful applicant inform UNITAR otherwise.