Tent Procurement Glossary
The terminology a UNHCR, UNICEF, IFRC, ICRC, IOM, or NGO procurement officer uses when sourcing relief tents and plastic sheeting — defined plainly, with how each term maps to BNC's Karachi catalog.
25 terms · alphabetical · last reviewed 2026-05-12
- CIF — Cost, Insurance & Freight
- Seller pays for shipment and insurance to the named destination port; risk transfers to buyer at origin port once goods cross the rail. Common in sea-freight humanitarian POs to East Africa and MENA.
- DAP — Delivered at Place
- Seller delivers to a named destination ready for unloading; seller bears all transport risk and cost; buyer handles import clearance. Often used by NGOs that want a turnkey landed price without managing freight.
- EN 13823+A1 — Single Burning Item Test
- European fire-classification standard measuring lateral flame spread, smoke production, and flaming droplets from a single burning item. The IFRC/ICRC/IOM unified plastic-sheeting spec requires minimum class D-s2-d2.
- EXW — Ex Works
- Buyer collects from seller's factory gate and handles all subsequent transport, customs, and risk. Lowest seller obligation; preferred by INGOs that consolidate at a regional hub.
- FOB — Free on Board
- Seller delivers goods cleared for export and loaded onto the vessel at the named port. Risk transfers to buyer once goods are on board. The default Incoterm for sea-freight relief-shelter procurement.
- FRT — Family Relief Tent (16 m²)
- UNHCR's standard family shelter: a 4 × 4 m floor footprint, double-layer fire-retardant cotton canvas with PVC ground cloth, steel ridge-pole frame, sleeps a five-person family unit. A 23 m² variant exists for larger households or communal use.
- GSM — Grams per square metre
- Fabric weight per unit area. Cotton canvas in relief-tent service usually runs 280–510 gsm — heavier weights are more durable but harder to airlift. IFRC plastic sheeting targets 200 gsm body weight within a 187–231 gsm tolerance.
- HPT — High Performance Tent
- UNICEF's school and child-friendly-space tent program at three footprints: 24 m² (single classroom), 48 m² (double classroom), 72 m² (assembly hall / cold-chain warehouse). Full standing height, mosquito mesh, reinforced canvas attachment points.
- Incoterms (FOB, CIF, EXW, DAP)
- The International Chamber of Commerce's standardised trade-delivery rules. Every UN/NGO PO names an Incoterm so seller and buyer know who pays what (transport, insurance, customs) and who bears risk at each leg. The 2020 revision is current.
- ISO 9001
- International quality-management-system certification. Verifies the supplier has documented procedures for production, inspection, and corrective action. A prerequisite for most UN supplier rosters and large institutional buyers.
- ITB — Invitation to Bid
- Formal procurement tender requiring sealed price bids against a fixed specification. Lowest compliant bid usually wins; technical-quality scoring may apply on complex shelter lines.
- LTA — Long-Term Agreement
- A multi-year UN framework contract pre-qualifying a supplier on price, spec, and delivery terms. Subsequent purchases are issued as call-off orders against the LTA without fresh tender — speeds emergency response.
- MoU — Memorandum of Understanding
- A lighter procurement framework than an LTA — defines roles, pricing terms, and quality clauses ahead of individual POs but is not a binding purchase commitment. Common between manufacturers and INGOs operating in-country.
- NCND — Non-Circumvention Non-Disclosure
- An agreement protecting agents and intermediaries in deals where one party introduces another; the introduced party agrees not to circumvent the introducer on follow-on business. Common in commodity brokerage and agent-driven humanitarian procurement.
- POE — Port of Entry
- The customs-clearance point at which goods enter a country — an airport, sea port, or land border crossing. The POE drives Incoterm choice, transit time, and tariff treatment.
- RFP / RFQ — Request for Proposal / Request for Quote
- A buyer's solicitation document. RFQ is price-driven against a fixed spec; RFP includes a proposal narrative (capability, references, methodology) alongside price. ITBs sit beside both at the more-formal end.
- RPP — Reinforced Plastic Sheeting (IFRC/ICRC/IOM)
- The unified plastic-sheeting specification used across IFRC, ICRC, and IOM: 4 × 6 m bale, 200 gsm body weight (187–231 gsm tolerance), 500N minimum tensile per ISO 1421-1, EN 13823+A1 class D-s2-d2 fire retardancy, white sun-reflective coating both sides over black-fibre opacity core, aluminium eyelets every 100 cm.
- Stockpile
- Pre-positioned supply held at strategic depots for rapid emergency deployment. UNHCR, UNICEF, IFRC, and WFP each operate stockpiles; UNHRD operates joint stockpiles for the UN system.
- TIR Carnet
- International road-transport customs guarantee under the UN TIR Convention. A TIR carnet seals cargo through multiple borders without re-inspection — critical for overland Karachi → Afghanistan → Central Asia or Türkiye → Eastern Europe routes.
- UNGM — UN Global Marketplace
- The joint UN supplier registry and tender portal at ungm.org. Suppliers register here once to be visible to UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNOPS, and ~40 other UN entities; ITBs and RFPs are published here.
- UNHCR Procurement Manual
- UNHCR's internal procurement reference, defining buyer process, supplier obligations, evaluation criteria, and ethics rules. Available publicly on the UNHCR website; sets the procedural baseline INGO procurement teams often adopt.
- UNHRD — UN Humanitarian Response Depot
- The WFP-managed network of six humanitarian-response depots: Brindisi (Italy), Dubai (UAE), Accra (Ghana), Las Palmas (Spain), Panama City (Panama), Subang (Malaysia). Holds pre-positioned shelter, NFI, and food stocks for partner-agency draw-down within 24–72 hours.
- WFP CBT — Cash-Based Transfers
- The World Food Programme's modality for delivering aid as cash/vouchers rather than in-kind goods. Not a shelter procurement line item itself, but relevant context — CBT growth shifts country-office budgets, which influences how much in-kind shelter stock is purchased per response cycle.
- Winterization
- Cold-climate modifications to a shelter system. Typical adds: double-layer canvas with insulating air gap, stove jacks, snow-load rating on frame, heavier ground cloth, thermal liner. UNHCR's winter-grade FRT carries these as standard for Türkiye, Syria, Afghanistan, and Eastern European winter responses.
BNC frequently quotes CIF Port Sudan, CIF Mombasa, CIF Jeddah for sea-freight orders.
BNC quotes DAP for road-corridor orders into Afghanistan, Türkiye, and Gulf consignees.
BNC's IFRC-spec 4×6 m tarpaulins are tested to EN 13823+A1 D-s2-d2; certificate available per batch.
BNC's EXW point is the C-86 Clifton Karachi factory; ex-works pricing is the basis for all other Incoterms.
BNC's primary FOB point is Karachi Port (Jinnah International Container Terminal).
BNC has supplied FRT-spec tents to UNHCR and partner agencies since the 1990s. See /for/unhcr/16m2/.
BNC stocks fly canvas 280 gsm, body canvas 410 gsm, and ground sheets 510 gsm for FRT specs.
BNC manufactures HPT-equivalent tents in all three footprints. See 24 m², 48 m², 72 m².
BNC routinely quotes EXW Karachi, FOB Karachi Port, CIF destination port, and DAP overland for the relief corridors it serves.
BNC operates an ISO 9001 quality-management system at its Karachi factory; certificate shared on supplier-qualification request.
BNC bids on UNGM ITBs and INGO ITBs through its sales desk; capability statement, ISO certificate, and sample assay reports submitted with each bid.
LTA status is the procurement-relationship endpoint BNC is pursuing with UNHCR Copenhagen and UNICEF Supply Division.
BNC operates under MoUs with several Pakistan-based INGOs that distribute relief shelter through the UNHCR and UNICEF country-office channels.
BNC engages with brokered procurement under NCND when an introducing agent requires it; preferred default remains direct manufacturer-to-agency contract.
BNC's most-used POEs for outbound shipments: Karachi Port (sea), Jinnah International KHI (air), Torkham (land to Afghanistan).
BNC turns RFQs around within one Karachi business day on stocked SKUs; RFPs take 3–5 working days for the proposal narrative + sample dispatch.
BNC manufactures RPP to spec at its Karachi factory; see /for/ifrc/4x6-tarpaulin/.
BNC has supplied stockpile replenishments into UNHRD Dubai and UNHCR regional stockpiles; ready stock at the Karachi warehouse can refill any stockpile within 14–21 days FOB.
BNC works with TIR-authorised carriers for overland consignments into Afghanistan via Torkham and Chaman crossings.
BNC's UNGM registration is an active procurement workstream; capability statement and ISO certificate are part of the registration package.
BNC's quote responses and capability statements are formatted to align with the UNHCR Procurement Manual's evaluation criteria.
BNC has supplied shelter into UNHRD Dubai for onward dispatch into MENA and East Africa responses; Dubai is the relevant hub for Karachi-origin stock.
BNC tracks CBT-share trends because they shape Year-Plus-One stockpile-replenishment volumes from UNHCR and UNICEF country offices.
BNC manufactures winterized FRT variants on order; see /for/unhcr/winterized/.
Need a quote against a specific spec?
Send the spec — FRT, HPT, RPP, custom — with volume, destination, and Incoterm. We come back the same Karachi business day with a price, lead time, and the relevant certifications attached.
Karachi factory · Est. 1994 · ISO 9001 · UN/INGO supplier since 1990s