International consultant to support feasibility study for the payment mechanisms for cash transfers in Tajikistan, 30 w/ds, Dushanbe, Tajikistan (extended deadline)

Consultant Programme & Policy

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For every child, Equal opportunities

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

UN agencies and development partners have been working with the Government of Tajikistan and humanitarian actors to strengthen capacities and delivery mechanisms for social assistance and humanitarian cash transfer programmes in the country. The efforts have been to strengthen coordination and form harmonized approach on design and implementation of cash transfers for both development and emergency contexts to ensure maximum effectiveness and efficiency. Keeping in view, the UN Country Team in Tajikistan initiated the establishment of an Interagency Cash and Voucher Assistance Working Group, henceforth called the Cash Working Group (CWG). The CWG in Tajikistan has been providing an interagency forum for cash coordination, where agencies collaborate, harmonize, and address key issues related to cash programming. One of the key challenges that the CVA actors in Tajikistan are faced with is a common understanding of the infrastructural and regulatory environment for CVA, even with an increased appetite for CVA expansion considering natural disaster and climate risk of Tajikistan and relevantly low-level likelihood of mass influx of refugees. Different CVA actors have attempted individual FSP mapping at their organizational levels, though they must be in a surface/light and less detailed, focusing on agency-specific procedures and needs. Still, a huge gap exists in understanding the financial and telecommunication architecture of Tajikistan when it comes to delivering cash transfers.

Against this backdrop, the Cash Working Group, with the co-lead of UNICEF and WFP, plans to conduct a feasibility study for the Payment Mechanism of cash transfers in Tajikistan using the Inter-Agency Social Protection (ISPA) framework for assessing the feasibility of various payment options. This feasibility study led by the CWG is coordinated jointly with all CVA and social protection actors. The joint study would lead to understanding and identifying viable cash delivery options considering their SWOT analysis, followed by a process to compare and select a payment service provider (PSP)/financial service provider or combination of payment service providers for the CVA interventions. The findings and recommendations are also expected to inform the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of Population (MoHSPP), the Committee on Emergency Situations and Civil Defence and other relevant government stakeholders to refine the payment mechanism for the government-led cash transfers. The feasibility study is driven by the premise that enhancing the financial inclusion of cash transfer recipients could offer an additional advantage to the overall delivery chain of cash transfers and help in achieving efficiency gains.

How can you make a difference?

The main objective of this assignment is to assess existing payment options and identify feasible potential payment options to the payment/delivery of cash to intended beneficiaries, both in the short and medium term, to ensure the efficient, accountable, secure, and cost-effective delivery of CVAs to targeted beneficiaries in both development and humanitarian settings of Tajikistan. Also, the part of the assignment is to conduct an in-depth assessment of existing and potential payment mechanisms, including analysis of the financial, telecommunication, and technological environment for cash transfer payments, and analyze the extent to which this mechanisms/infrastructure can be utilized/strengthened to enhance payment services of cash transfer, promote financial inclusion in Tajikistan.

DUTY STATION/DURATION:

Duration: 30 working days between June 2024 - October 2024

Supervisor: Social Policy Officer, UNICEF Tajikistan

This feasibility assessment is expected to be undertaken by a team comprising a National and an International Consultant. The International Consultant (under this TOR) will assume responsibility for the overall lead on approach development, develop the data collection tool/templates, process, supervise data collection, and analyse the data to produce a comprehensive report, while the National Consultant will support data collection, validation, and analysis of data under the supervision of the International Consultant.

The study is anticipated to rely on a desk review, key informant interviews, and structured interviews with key stakeholders of the payment mechanisms to be identified in collaboration with the CWG actors. Ideally, the interviews will adhere to the standardized questionnaire proposed by the ISPA Payments tool.

For this assessment, an Inter-Agency Social Protection (ISPA) framework for assessing the feasibility of payment options is recommended to be used in addition to any relevant tool assessing FSPs/PSPs for a humanitarian cash transfer, which typically cover the following areas:

1. Enabling environment: Analyze policy, legislation, regulation, and competition related to payment mechanisms/services. This will include conducting a high-level analysis of the financial, telecommunication, and technological infrastructure and landscape. It also involves a detailed mapping of the current and potential mechanisms for cash delivery in Tajikistan, with a focus on formal over-the-counter cash providers (Financial Service Providers), informal over-the-counter providers (Hawala), and mobile money providers based on banking and non-banking structure (Mobile Network Operators), including their geographic coverage e.g. a number of branches, mobile teams, ATM machines, Point of Sale (POS) machines, mobile money agents/merchants, etc. Additionally, map out the types of programmes and associated agencies currently using different delivery mechanisms in Tajikistan. 2. Accessibility and Convenience: The assessment should offer an analysis of the convenience and user-friendliness of payment mechanisms for beneficiaries, considering both direct and indirect costs of access, awareness, and literacy about the mechanism as well as the proximity of payment to beneficiaries ‘residences. It should also examine the appropriateness of the mechanism concerning the needs of target groups, including the poor, elderly, illiterate, women, disabled, refugees (both newly arrived and protracted caseload, statelessness person), displaced populations and others. The accessibility analysis should also investigate whether beneficiaries are informed about the delivery of payments and if they are provided with a choice of their preferred payment mechanisms and to find out if some type of beneficiaries would not be eligible to receive transfer due to lack of certain documents and identify alternative payment methods. 3. Robustness including operations, reliability, governance and security: This should examine the availability and quality of standard operating procedures for the payment process, know your customer (KYC) requirements, security and authentication, liquidity and the monitoring and supervision mechanisms in place to address grievances of the beneficiaries against poor service quality, errors, fraud, and corruption. The analysis should explore the key benefits and challenges that national and international humanitarian actors have encountered concerning the operational perspective of using any payment mechanism. Additionally, conduct a diagnostic assessment of the coordination and partnership arrangements between UN, humanitarian, government, and private sector actors related to the payment mechanism. 4. Integration including financial inclusion: This component of the assessment is expected to analyse the financial literacy and financial inclusion aspects of the payment services/mechanism. Integration also includes the payment mechanism's ability to facilitate financial inclusion and address other payment needs, such as making and receiving remittances, utility bill payments, person to person transfers and savings. It will assess whether beneficiaries can utilize electronic wallets for multiple services and if the payment service is integrated with any national identifier/identity, enabling access to various services and products by the Financial Service Providers (FSPs). The study will also investigate the interoperability of payment mechanisms. Lastly, it should also analyze the flexibility of the payment delivery mechanisms that allow for changes in transfer values and dynamic beneficiary registry lists to reflect programme entry and exit. Considering the comprehensive analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT), the assessment should present key risks and mitigation measures associated with each mechanism, along with recommendations for enhanced risk management for the promising mechanisms. The recommendations should be specific, considering the feasibility in distinct areas, accounting for the disparities between urban and rural locations, digital literacy and addressing the unique challenges in regions affected by natural disasters and conflicts. The final assessment report is expected to enable both national and international humanitarian and development actors in Tajikistan to identify areas for potential collaboration and enable them to ensure that humanitarian cash assistance and government-led social assistance are provided in an effective and accountable way, responding to different programme needs and contexts in the different areas of the country.

Tasks/Milestone: (in line with the scope elaborated in section-III)

Deliverables/Outputs:

Anticipated Timeline

Number of days

% of payment (maximum up to 5 payments)

Inception phase

A short inception report outlining the objectives, approach, methodology, and work plan, providing a

roadmap for the feasibility assessment process.

30 June 2024

3

20 %

Consultations were held with CWG and relevant stakeholders including government and key actors to agree parameters of the study, and research methodology

Literature/Desk review, Mapping and data collection tools (with feedback incorporated from the CWG)

Draft desk Review report

along with data collection

tools

15 August

2024–

15 August

2024

7

Detailed review of existing payment mechanisms covering financial

Infrastructure available to support G2P/humanitarian cash payment Mechanisms in line with the detailed scope presented in section IV of the TORs

Draft report for CWG

member's review

30

September

2024

16

30 %

Validation Workshop to present findings, SWOT analysis and recommendations with relevant stakeholders/Cash actors

Workshop report

30

September

2024

1

Finalization and submission of final report

Submit final report to

UNICEF

31 October

2024

3

50%

Total: 30 days

100%

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Education: An advanced university degree (at least a Masters) in economics, business studies, finance and credit, or any other related field)
• Work experience: At least 7 years of relevant experience in the area of banking, financial service providers, payment mechanisms for social protection or related fields. A work experience and knowledge of the Humanitarian Cash transfer principles is an asset.
• Demonstrated knowledge of the legal and regulatory frameworks for governance around financial services, preferably in Tajikistan/Central Asia
• Knowledge of the Humanitarian Cash transfer payment mechanisms and principles is desirable.
• Experience in analyzing and contributing to setting up payment mechanisms for cash transfer programs/social protection programmes is an asset (Evaluated through a sample of two reports).
• Languages: fluency in English is required. A candidate with Russian/Tajik Languages will be preferred.

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

• Cover letter/application/CV.
• A technical proposal with proposed approach to managing the consultancy deliverables, showing understanding of tasks.
• Financial proposal specifying consultancy fee, per day of work, requested for the tasks described in the Terms of Reference in USD as well as travel and subsistence costs: Round trip to Dushanbe (may be 2 times) and DSA 15 days.
• Contact of three references (recent direct supervisors)
• Sample of completed work/at least 2 reports relevant to this assignment.
• Applications without technical and financial proposals will not be considered.

Applications must be received in the system by 17 June 2024 on UNICEF website.

Candidates who already applied, not need to reapply.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.

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Added 1 month ago - Updated 11 days ago - Source: unicef.org