Inclusive Digital Economies Consultant, West & Central Africa

Consultant

Contract

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

Background

The UN Capital Development Fund makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 47 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 two channels: financial inclusion that expands the opportunities for individuals, households, and small businesses to participate in the local economy, providing them with the tools they need to climb out of poverty and manage their financial lives; and by showing how localized investments — through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance — can drive public and private funding that underpins local economic expansion and sustainable development. By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to 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 number of different SDGs.

UNCDF is implementing its “Leaving no one behind in the digital era strategy globally with the goal to equip millions of people by 2024 to use innovative digital services in their daily lives that will empower them and contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. In West and Central Africa, several program at global, regional or country levels are implemented to achieve this vision and goal.

https://www.uncdf.org/article/4931/global-strategy-leaving-no-one-behind-in-the-digital-era

UNCDF requires Consultant with expertise in Digital Financial Services to provide technical advice to UNCDF’s program team in West & Central Africa as well as Madagascar in rasing awareness and adapting their project portfolio to the strategy. The assignment will include close collaboration with UNCDF’s teams at regional and country levels and various leads on different themes (energy, migrants, youth, insurance, gender mainstreaming), as well as key partners such as government agencies (BCEAO, BEAC, government ministries.) private sector (Financial Service Providers, Microfinance Institutions, Fintechs, SMEs, etc.) and development institutions (UNDP, EU, Regional Economic Commissions, etc.).

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Youth Specialist based in Dakar, the Consultant will be responsible for the following activities and deliverables:

Regional level activities:

At regional level, the consultant will support UNCDF in developing and expanding its relationship with BCEAO the Regional Economic Commissions, with BEAC as well as other stakeholders at regional levels that will help drive the inclusive digital economy agenda and to advise on .specific requests around policy and regulation for digital financial services.

Deliverables:

• Strategy, workplan to develop and materials to expand relationships with Regional Economic Commissions (REC) for key programs in the region including the Migrants & remittances program and the DFS for resilience program.
• Technical inputs/business case for UNCDF to engage in an MOU with Regional Economic Commission.
• Strategy, workplan and materials to support BEAC / COBAC on various key topics including gender, financial services, financial consumer protection and support to the design of the Regional Financial Inclusion Strategy.
• Strategy, workplan and materials to support the implementation of the G7 program on women’s digital financial inclusion in WAEMU.
• Curricula, training materials and presentations for specific workshops on (1) data automation, (2) gender mainstreaming and (3) open banking.
• Support the existing UNCDF/MCC research and Digital solutions to improve women smallholder farmers’ resilience to disasters
• Fundraising strategy for UNCDF’s regional or global initiatives;
• Technical inputs (revised theory of change, problem statement, value proposition, methodology, targets) to 2 regional fundraising proposals developed or supported

Country level activities:

At country level, the consultant will advise UNCDF teams to analyze fundraising opportunities for UNCDF in inclusive digital transformation and provide technical advisory to activities at country level. It will mainly cover the below countries Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, Gabon, Guinea, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Madagascar.

Deliverables:

• Technical review of UNCDF’s country level strategies, results, workplan for all countries to provide taking stock of lessons learned and recommendations.
• Curricula, materials and presentations for UNCDF country workshops with government partners to get buy-in for IDE Score Card https://ides.uncdf.org/homepage
• IDES reports drafted and sent to government in 4 countries
• IDES report drafted sent to government in 4 additional countries
• Technical inputs (revised theory of change, problem statement, value proposition, methodology, targets) to 2 national level fundraising proposals developed or supported

The table below outlines the list of key deliverables and due dates foreseen:

Deliverables/ Outputs

Target Due Dates starting from signature of the contract

Regional

Strategy, workplan Regional Economic Commissions (REC) validated

Month 1

Strategy, workplan for BEAC/COBAC validated

Month 1

Curricula, training materials and presentations for specific workshops on (1) data automation, (2) gender mainstreaming and (3) open banking.

Month 2

Strategy, workplan on the support to the implementation of the G7 program on women’s digital financial inclusion in WAEMU

Month 2

Fundraising strategy for UNCDF’s regional or global initiatives

Month 4

Support the MCC research and Digital solutions to improve women smallholder farmers’ resilience to disasters

Month 4

Technical inputs/business case for UNCDF to engage in an MOU with Regional Economic Commission

Month 4

Technical input to 2 regional fundraising proposals developed or supported

Month 7

Country

Review strategy, workplan, expected results of all countries in the region

Month 1

Curricula, materials and presentations for UNCDF country workshops with government partners to get buy-in for IDES

Month 4

IDE score card reports drafted and sent to government in 4 countries

Month 5

IDE score card report drafted sent to government in 4 additional countries

Month 7

Technical inputs to 4 country level fundraising proposals

Month 7

Final report indicating the support as technical advisor (input to documents, workshops, calls with partners, etc.).

Month 7

Competencies

• Ability to establish strong working relationships with various stakeholders’ institutions and administrators; media, civil society, and private sector leaders; international donors; and other stakeholders.
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment and being aware of political sensitivities.
• Ability to think and act strategically.
• Ability to support team to successfully deliver.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in economics, international development, or related field is mandatory

Experience:

• At least 7 years of experience in managing large-scale, high-impact program delivery projects for improving access to financial services is mandatory.
• At least three years of experience in implementing digital solutions in inclusive digital finance, especially for the most marginalized populations particularly in low/middle income countries is mandatory.
• Experience in managing groups of industry stakeholders (association management, conference moderation, event management) is preferred but not mandatory.
• Experience working in West and Central is mandatory
• Experience working with the UN system is preferred but not mandatory.

Language requirements:

• Proficiency in both French and English is mandatory.

Timeline, total number of working days, duty station:

• Timeline: 7 months from June 21 to December 21

Location:

Dakar, Senegal.

Standard travel costs and living expenses:

Travel: Travel, as deemed relevant by UNCDF, will be approved and arranged by UNCDF, following UNDP/UNCDF Travel Policy.

Progress Controls & Payments:

The Senior Digital Consultant must send a financial proposal based on a lump sum amount. Contract prices will be fixed and “all-inclusive” based in the contractor’s financial proposal; payments will be divided into lump sum amounts according to the schedule of payments below.

Payment will be made against satisfactorily completion of each deliverable. All payments shall be disbursed only upon written confirmation of acceptance of the outputs which and authorization for payment by UNCDF Youth Specialist. Disbursement of the final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

Deliverables/ Outputs

Payment in % of total contract price

Target Due Dates based on signature of the contract

Review and Approvals Required

Strategy, workplan Regional Economic Commissions (REC) validated

Strategy, workplan for BEAC/COBAC validated

Review strategy, workplan, expected results of all countries in the region

20%

Month 1

Youth Specialist

Curricula, training materials and presentations for specific workshops on (1) data automation, (2) gender mainstreaming and (3) open banking.

Strategy, workplan on the support to the implementation of the G7 program on women’s digital financial inclusion in WAEMU

20%

Month 2

Fundraising strategy for UNCDF’s regional or global initiatives

Support the MCC research and Digital solutions to improve women smallholder farmers’ resilience to disasters

Technical inputs/business case for UNCDF to engage in an MOU with Regional Economic Commission

Curricula, materials and presentations for UNCDF country workshops with government partners to get buy-in for IDES

20%

Month 4

IDE score card reports drafted and sent to government in 4 countries

20%

Month 5

Technical input to 2 regional fundraising proposals

IDE score card reports drafted and sent to government in 4 countries

Technical inputs to 4 country level fundraising proposals

Final report indicating the support as technical advisor (input to documents, workshops, calls with partners, etc.).

20%

Month 7

Application process:

Interested individuals must submit the documents mentioned below as proposals in order to demonstrate their qualifications (Note: the system does not allow multiple uploads of documents. Applicants must make sure to upload all documents in one PDF file).

All applications must contain the following information:

• Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies in relation to the Terms of Reference (TOR) and earliest availability information.
• CV or completed and signed P11 (available from http://sas.undp.org/documents/p11_personal_history_form.doc), indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
• Signed financial proposal: that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided at: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916.

Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

Step I: Screening

Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the following mandatory criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting:

• Master’s degree in economics, international development, or related field is mandatory
• At least 7 years of experience in managing large-scale, high-impact program delivery projects for improving access to financial services.
• At least three years of experience in implementing digital solutions in inclusive digital finance, especially for the most marginalized populations particularly in low/middle income countries.
• Experience working in financial inclusion in West and Central
• Proficiency in both French and English

Step II: Shortlisting (20% of technical assessment points)

UNCDF will produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate candidates by evaluating the following criteria with corresponding points (100 points):

Education/Experience:

• Master’s degree in economics, international development, or related field (20 points)
• At least 7 years of experience in managing large-scale, high-impact program delivery schemes for improving access to financial services (20points)
• At least three years of experience in implementing digital solutions in inclusive digital finance, especially for the most marginalized populations particularly in in low/middle income countries (15 points)
• Experience of working in financial inclusion in Africa (20 points)
• Experience in managing groups of industry stakeholders (association management, conference moderation, event management) (10 points)
• Experience working with the UN system (5 points)
• Written and spoken proficiency in English and French (10 points)

As applicable, only applicants scoring 80 points or more shall be considered for an interview.

Step III: Interview (80% of technical assessment)

An interview shall be conducted to candidates having scored above 80 points in the shortlisting.

Step V: Financial Evaluation

Only candidates with scores above 70% of the technical evaluation will be considered as technically qualified and will be reviewed further for financial evaluation.

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal: lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated x 30%.

Award Criteria

The contact shall be awarded to the best applicant whose offer have been evaluated and determined as: Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and Having received the highest combined weight (technical scores) 70% + financial 30%= 100%.

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 candidates or women-owned businesses are strongly encouraged to apply.

Apply now

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