Global Roster of Inclusive Digital Economies Investment Experts

Consultant

Contract

This is a International Consultant contract. More about International Consultant contracts.

Background

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 46 least developed countries. With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development.

UNCDF’s financing models work through three channels: inclusive digital economies, connecting individuals, households, and small businesses with financial and digital eco-systems that catalyze participation in the local economy, and provide tools to climb out of poverty and manage financial lives; local development finance, that capacitates localities through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance to drive local economic expansion and sustainable development; and investment finance, that provides catalytic financial structuring, de-risking, and capital deployment to drive SDG impact and domestic resource mobilization. By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to Sustainable Development Goal-SDG 1 on eradicating poverty and SDG 17 on the means of implementation. By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a broad diversity of SDGs.

UNCDF has a unique capital mandate within the UN development system. It provides investment capital and technical support to both the public and the private sector. Its ability to provide capital investment, in the form of seed capital grants, reimbursable grants, loans, and guarantees, and to provide technical assistance in preparing investable portfolios of projects within clear financial and development additionality, makes its mandate complementary to those of other UN entities. It also positions UNCDF as an early-stage investor to de-risk investment opportunities that can later be scaled up by other partners, including UN entities, international financial institutions, philanthropic foundations, and private sector investors.

Project Description.

In 2019 UNCDF launched its strategy “Leaving no one behind in the digital era” based on over a decade of experience in digital finance in Africa, Asia and the Pacific to drive the development of digital economies, riding the rails of digital finance, in LDCs. UNCDF recognizes that reaching the full potential of digital financial inclusion in support of the Sustainable Development Goals aligns with the vision of promoting digital economies that leave no one behind. The vision of UNCDF is to empower millions of people by 2024 to use services daily that leverage innovation and technology and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. UNCDF applies a market development approach and continuously seeks to address underlying market dysfunction. The strategy mobilizes UNCDF’s agenda on building inclusive digital economies across clean energy, agriculture, health, education, transport and last mile connectivity, all riding on the rails of digital finance.

The ‘Leaving no one behind in the digital era’ strategy, to promote digital economies on the rails of digital finance builds upon and constitutes a logical integration of UNCDF interventions in financial inclusion and digital, developed over many years. The legacy of UNCDF intervention programmes was built through a range of country/regional programmes and global thematic initiatives, which has established a very strong reputation for UNCDF vis-à-vis donors and peers.

For more information refer to www.uncdf.org.

Scope.

As UNCDF’s Inclusive Digital Economies practice is planning to increase the number of investments under the ‘Leaving No One Behind in the Digital Era’ strategy, UNCDF’s IDE practice is establishing a non-exclusive roster of Investment Experts with extensive experience in impact investment related to technology companies, financial service providers and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as per the above typology, who could be called upon to assist the investment management process and specific investment transactions from origination and sourcing to disbursement and evaluation.

Specifically, the IDE practice seeks experts in the below categories of specializations to support:

• Pipeline origination and sourcing
• Loan, guarantee and third-party managed fund transaction level support
• Finance/impact investment landscape analysis and real economy research

The consultant must have proven knowledge and implementation experience in one or more of the following subjects:

• SME finance
• Impact investment, including pipeline sourcing and origination and transaction pre-assessment, assessment and due diligence
• Market analysis of investment landscape / opportunities for SMEs, fintech, etc.
• Project finance
• Private equity
• Venture capital

The consultants in this non-exclusive roster will be called upon to support the UNCDF activities across the above listed three key verticals. Subject to their availability and interest for specific missions, the consultants included in the roster may be tasked with activities such as providing technical assistance and support to UNCDF and its partners. These tasks may support in-country work or global efforts at the corporate level.

Apart from generally focusing on LDCs where UNCDF operates, the roster seeks experts specifically with experience, preferably based in-country, of working with these countries of focus: Nepal, Bangladesh, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal, Zambia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Niger, Papa New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, DRC.

Applicants to the roster must indicate the specific subject themes listed in this TOR as their preferred area of work. Offerors should also indicate which LDCs specifically they have experience in and where they are based as the roster is aiming to find experts with local knowledge of countries where UNCDF operates.

Successful Offerors to these requirements will be added to UNCDF roster of experts to be engaged on assignments on an on-call basis, following a secondary competition. The Experts will work closely with the IDE, and LDC Investment Platform, team and complete certain tasks related to his/her expertise.

The roster is described as “non-exclusive” which implies that UNCDF is not limited to sourcing experts on the said roster, and reserves the right to solicit offer from other sources external to the roster.

Duties and Responsibilities

Specific Objectives.

UNCDF has a capital investment mandate and can deploy, in addition to grants and technical assistance, loans and guarantees to accompany the growth of markets. UNCDF’s use of loans and guarantees is rapidly growing, with a steep increase in the issuance of loans and guarantees over the past two years.

UNCDF has experience supporting companies from startup and early-stage levels on through growth- and expansion stage levels. The organization’s support is customized to the enterprises’ need through a mixture of technical assistance, grants, and increasingly, catalytic loans and guarantees from its own balance sheet. In addition to on-balance sheet loans and guarantees UNCDF further offers debt and equity investments through its third-party managed funds, e.g. the BUILD fund.

These catalytic investments, from both UNCDF’s balance sheet and the BUILD fund, accompany the growth of private sector companies and aim to create powerful demonstration effects in terms of business models’ viability and sector “investability”. By helping companies grow their businesses, achieve commercial sustainability, strengthen their balance sheets, and build credit history, UNCDF aims to unlock further private capital to companies that serve last mile communities, to scale up what works and to foster local economic development. UNCDF aims to focus on the “missing middle” of companies, those that are considered too big to access microfinance loans and too small as being too risky to access commercial investments offered by mainstream financial institutions and other investors. More specifically, UNCDF seeks to offer loans and guarantees to enterprises in the below categories:

• Enterprises with tech-driven/digitally enabled business models across Finance, Green Economy & Clean Energy, Agriculture, Food processing, Food Security & Nutrition, Education, Health, Transport, Health, Education, Transport and Telecommunications & last mile connectivity sectors (e.g. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs)
• Financial Service Providers (FSPs) including Financial Institutions (FIs) and Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs),
• Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that leverage use of technology to improve efficiency, organizational performance and customer outreach across Finance, Green economy & clean energy, Agriculture, food processing, food security & nutrition, Education, Health and Transport sectors.

The scope of services will be specific to the UNCDF or country requirements that will arise during their implementation of UNCDF programmes/project. The indicative categories and broad scope of services is described as follows:

Overall objective: assist the UNCDF IDE practice, and counterparts at the UNCDF LDC Investment Platform, in dealing with increased number of investment transactions under the ‘Leaving No One Behind in the Digital Era’ global strategy and help position UNCDF in an investment space which is lacking access to finance. The Expert will also support on project finance transactions, advise on processes and policies related to conducting investment transactions and conduct finance/impact investment analysis and research.

Deliverables and Schedules/ Expected Outputs.

Since the contract that will be issued to the consultants successfully selected for a call-off work is an Individual Contract (IC), the payment terms shall be based on the acceptance of outputs described in the call-off TOR. Extension of contracts shall be without additional cost if there are delays and no additional deliverables are required. No time-based payment (daily, monthly, etc.) shall be made.

The Expert shall act as subject matter expert in one or more of the specific areas listed below:

Pipeline origination and sourcing

• Issue open calls to originate prospective deals. Submit documentation and launch report.
• Validate submissions to open calls and conduct shortlisting and pre-assessments to refer prospects to UNCDF Investment Platform or third-party managed funds. Deliver submission review report.
• Identify prospects in need of Technical Assistance (TA) or grants to make more investment ready and support in providing appropriate TA package. Deliver review report.
• Partnering with different actors in the impact investment space to source deals. Deliver engagement report.

Transaction level support

• Conduct assessment, due diligence and creating necessary documentation in partnership with the UNCDF Investment Platform. Deliver relevant documents and reports.
• Join Impact Investment Committee meetings to present prospective deals. Deliver meeting report.
• Support in monitoring and evaluation of investees. Deliver monitoring and evaluation reports.
• Advise on the preparation and execution of IDE investment transactions. Deliver relevant documents and reports.
• Advise on how to design policies, tools, and processes to comply with standard requirements and methods comparable with other development finance institutions. Deliver review report and developed documentation and tools.

Finance/impact investment landscape analysis and real economy research

• Conduct finance landscape analyses across LDCs where UNCDF operates, depending on specific country expertise and experience, including regulatory landscape related to finance and investment. Deliver final finance landscape analysis report.
• Identify partners for UNCDF to scale investment transactions. Deliver partner engagement report.
• Advise UNCDF on how to partner with other financial institutions in different financial structures. Deliver partner engagement report.
• Provide expert advice in how to best position UNCDF vis-à-vis current finance and impact investment landscape and how to scale investments under the digital strategy. Deliver relevant report.
• Advise UNCDF in expanding its investment portfolio according to mandate and related principles. Deliver relevant report.

Approach and Methodology.

The IDE practice shall be responsible to oversee the management of the roster (i.e. Roster Manager), as well as the monitoring of the cumulative payments to each of the individuals in the roster, tracking cumulative payments, ensuring alignment of call-off TOR with this TOR, monitoring frequency that the vendor has been invited but do not respond, and other Contract management concerns, while ensuring timely submission to Procurement Oversight Committees where needed. The Roster Manager shall also ensure proper maintenance of a centralized database containing Roster listing, cumulative Spend, Key Skills and other related vendor information which will be regularly updated, ensuring that it is tamper-proof and with secure access.

The roster shall be closed after three (3) years and, if there is continued need, UNCDF shall conduct a new round of open competitive process to create a new roster that will serve UNCDF needs. The said selection process shall take into consideration lessons learned from the management of this roster, as well as performance records of the vendors who have been contracted for any specific work over this period.

Price and Schedule of Payments.

Payment will be made against acceptance of each deliverable defined in the call-off TOR. The consultant shall be required to submit Certificate of Payments summarizing the work rendered during a given period. Payments shall only be released upon submission of ALL of the following documents accumulated on a monthly basis:

• Email call-offs from the Director – IDE, or other designated supervisor for the specific call-off;
• Output Submitted to Director – IDE, or other designated supervisor for the specific call-off, in fulfillment of the requested services;
• Written acceptance of the output duly signed by the Director – IDE, or other designated supervisor for the specific call-off; and
• Approval of the monthly invoice by the Director – IDE, or other designated supervisor for the specific call-off, which shall serve as an authorization to disburse the payment.

Contract prices will be fixed and “all-inclusive” based on the contractor’s financial proposal, and shall be based on lump sum amounts according to the schedule of payments defined in the call-off TOR.

A fixed daily fee submitted by the applicant will remain the same for the entire life of the roster, and no changes may be allowed. This daily fee will be indicated in the roster. Payments will be made to the consultant based upon successful completion of the Assignment, as defined within the Terms of Reference. The daily fee is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant during the period of the contract, including professional fees, out-of-pocked expenses, insurance, risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions, and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract. Payments will be based on timesheets and invoices approved by the supervisor.

Experts will be compensated based on their submission of Certificate of Payment (COP) indicating the outputs delivered which shall be in accordance with the payment terms agreed in the contract.

At the end of every call-off, payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant for record and reference purposes, including an indication of whether or not the expert shall remain on the roster.

The call-off for the services shall be formalized by virtue of an email request from the Director - IDE team, or other designated supervisor for the specific call-off. All other originator of any call-off email shall not be considered official and cannot be used as basis for invoicing for services rendered, except the ones transmitted by the Director – IDE team, or other designated supervisor for the specific call-off. The call-off email shall indicate the nature of the services required, and the number of days to complete the services. The work that will be indicated in any call-off e-mail MUST fall within the broad framework of services listed above.

Call - off Process

Contracting Arrangement:

The offerors that will obtain a minimum passing in the technical evaluation will be included in UNCDF IDE’s roster of Investment Experts for a period of up to a maximum period of three (3) years. Entry into the expert roster system does not necessarily imply that a contract with UNCDF is guaranteed nor any financial commitment from UNCDF. This will depend on forthcoming needs and the expert’s successful selection through an approved secondary competitive selection process that will be undertaken, described in the Standard Operational Procedure (SOP). A secondary competition would be undertaken in the following manner:

1. Where a request for services arises – a specific Terms of Reference (TOR) outlining the outputs and payment terms for each assignment shall be provided;
2. UNCDF shall transmit such TOR to at least 3 rostered experts selected from the Roster with the experience and qualification most appropriate for the assignment and aligned with the qualifications required by the TOR. A minimum of three (3) technically responsive offers shall be required. If this number is not achieved, a justification must be provided, including explanations from the invited rostered experts on why they are not able to submit a proposal;
3. This email shall seek confirmation of their availability and submission of their financial proposal, using the standard template;
4. When the 3 or more offers are received, then the desk review and evaluation of the rostered experts will be completed, and
5. A contract shall be awarded accordingly [as per applicable standard operating procedures, to the most technical compliant and the proposal that offers the best value for money].

In the event that only one response is received for a call-off, UNCDF may solicit proposals from other sources, but may also proceed with the award of the call-off contract, provided that it is supported by evidence of wide circulation among rostered experts, and other evidence of attempts to expand the competition. UNCDF reserves the right to cancel the call-off or conduct another round of secondary competition as the situation may necessitate.

When the selected expert is found to have achieved the highest combined score has an ongoing assignment with UNCDF that have conflicting timelines, or when the ongoing work is less than 80% completion, and hence workload and timely completion could potentially be a concern, UNCDF reserves the right to award the contract to the second-ranked highest combined score, provided that the price is within UNCDF’s budget for the assignment.

If an expert in the roster has not responded to an invitation, nor explained the reason for non-submission of an offer, for a maximum frequency of six (6) times during the life of the LTA, the vendor shall not be invited for any call-off and shall be removed from the roster.

An expert in the roster that has had recurring or unresolved performance issues on record after two (2) call-off engagements, the Vendor shall be removed from the roster and shall not be invited for the rest of the life of the LTA.

UNCDF will set aside a shortlist a number of recommended experts in the roster and these experts may directly be contracted without going through an additional second competitive process as outlined above.

Expected duration of the contract/ assignment

Successful offerors are to stay on roster for a period up to 3 years.

Duty Station

The consultant will not be required to report to the office. He/she is expected to render services from his/her home base, except when the call-off TOR specifically requires presence in a given location. In the event that there will a travel outside of his/her home base, if the duty so requires, it will be paid for by UNCDF, in accordance with UNCDF travel policies as applied to consultants. If the travels are integral parts of the consultant’s approach to the work, and not defined by UNCDF, the said cost shall be borne by the consultant in his/her financial proposal. A separate ToR with clear deliverables, budget and timelines will be prepared and agreed prior to each field mission within the terms of this ToR.

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when traveling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org.

Competencies

Technical:

• Demonstrated expertise in the investment industry and financial markets, particularly around SME finance, with a specific focus on emerging and frontier markets, and key related areas
• Understands investments needs of enterprises and the mix of debt/equity required at different growth stages—from incubation to scaling up to commercial viability
• Proven capacity to design and supports the implementation of investment strategies and structuring solutions
• Strong quantitative and financial abilities, such as making financial projections and analyzing statistics and financial statements
• Experience researching investment and impact finance, particularly SME finance, at a global and national level
• Strong analytical writing skills; experienced in producing concise, executive level reports (PowerPoint) and presentations, training modules and materials
• Good interpersonal skills and experience in working effectively in a multi-cultural environment, with sensitivity to diverse opinions
• Excellent ability to engage with governments effectively, and/or executives of business, international organizations, and civil society
• Ability to translate complex technical ideas to a non-technical audience both verbally and in writing as evidenced in authored publications.

Core Competencies:

• Ability to promote the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNCDF
• Demonstrate integrity by modelling the UN's values and ethical standards
• Display cultural, gender, religion, race and age sensitivity and adaptability
• Demonstrate political acumen and calculated risk-taking

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience:

Education:

• Masters’ level qualification in finance, economics, accounting, public/business administration, law, social sciences, international relations, engineering or related fields is mandatory.

Experience:

• Minimum of 6 years of professional experience in the financial services industry, preferably with a focus on impact investing, venture capital, financing structuring and private equity and relevant fields, particularly around SME finance, with a specific focus on emerging and frontier markets, and key related areas. Experience in LDCs where UNCDF operates is required.
• Expert knowledge in topics related to and professional experience with investment banking, venture capital, private equity, impact investment, and related fields, as well as IFIs, particularly around SME finance, with a focus on emerging and frontier markets.
• Experience of working with impact investment and venture capital to build inclusive digital economies, particularly in agriculture, finance, clean energy, health, education, transport and telecommunications & last mile connectivity sectors.
• Extensive experience and capacity to design and support the implementation of investment strategies and transaction structuring solutions.
• Experience working with the United Nations, IFIs and/or multilateral organizations an advantage.

Language:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English is required;
• Proficiency in French is an advantage.

Evaluation process:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

• Preliminary Evaluation - Step I: Screening
• Technical Evaluation Weight - 70% x (Step II: 100 Points);
• Financial Evaluation Weight - 30% = Step III.

Step I: Initial Screening / longlisting

Applications will be screened and only candidates meeting the following minimum criteria will progress for further review:

• Education: Masters’ level qualification in finance, economics, accounting, public/business administration, law, social sciences, international relations, engineering or related fields.
• Experience: Minimum of 6 years of professional experience in the financial services industry, preferably with a focus on impact investing, venture capital, financing structuring and private equity and relevant fields, particularly around SME finance, with a specific focus on emerging and frontier markets, and key related areas. Experience in LDCs where UNCDF operates is required
• Language: Excellent oral and written communication skills in English, Proficiency in French is an advantage
• Mandatory submission of CV with examples of relevant professional achievements

Step II: Shortlisting by Review of a Profile

UNCDF will conduct a review of a profile (technical evaluation). Only offerors obtaining a minimum of 80 points in Step II will be considered as technically qualified and included in the Roster.

Criteria for Technical evaluation (100 points maximum):

• Relevant education - 20 points
• Expert knowledge in topics related to and professional experience with investment banking, venture capital, private equity, impact investment, and related fields, as well as IFIs, particularly around SME finance, with a focus on emerging and frontier markets. - 30 points
• Experience of working with impact investment and venture capital in agriculture, finance, clean energy, health, education, transport and telecommunications & last mile connectivity sectors - 25 points
• Extensive experience and capacity to design and support the implementation of investment strategies and transaction structuring solutions - 20 points
• Experience working with the United Nations, IFIs and/or multilateral organizations - 5 points.

Step III: Financial Evaluation

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

Lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated x 30.

Both individual consultants and individual employed by a company or institution are welcome to apply.

Any individual employed by a company or institution who would like to submit an offer in response to a Procurement Notice for IC must do so in their individual capacity (providing a CV so that their qualifications may be judged accordingly). Women offerors or women-owned businesses are strongly encouraged to apply.

Application Procedure

Interested individuals must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Detailed and up-to-date CV or P11. Please also provide up to 3 references’ email addresses.
• Completed and duly signed Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability that indicates the all-inclusive daily fee on page 1, point E and that is supported by a breakdown of costs table where only the personnel cost items (part I) are to be filled in as all assignments will be home-based (therefore Part II, Travel Expenses to Join duty station and Part III, Duty travel are no applicable and as such, are not to be filled in).

Please note that the UNDP Jobsite system allows only one uploading of application documents, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into one single file.

For the applicant’s references, the General Terms and Conditions for ICs that will be signed by and between the selected consultant and UNCDF is provided here: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General|%20Conditions.pdf

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Added 2 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: jobs.undp.org