Senior Portfolio Advisor (Financial Health Consultant) – For Indian nationals only

Consultant

Contract

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

Background

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 47 Least Developed Countries (LDCs). UNCDF uses its capital mandate to support LDCs pursue inclusive growth. UNCDF promotes financial inclusion, also through digital financial services (DFS), as a key enabler of poverty reduction and inclusive growth; and it demonstrates how localizing finance outside the capital cities can accelerate growth in local economies, promote sustainable and climate-resilient infrastructure development, and empower local communities. Using capital grants, loans and credit enhancements, UNCDF tests financial models in inclusive finance and local development finance; ‘de-risks’ the local investment space; and provides proofs of concept, paving the way for larger and more risk-averse investors.

Hosted by UNCDF, the Centre for Financial Health is set-up as an umbrella platform towards convening a global coalition and thought leadership. The Centre for Financial Health acts as a convener, providing a platform to bring together global, regional and local actors committed to using financial and digital solutions to improve the financial lives of low-income families—helping them climb - and stay - out of poverty. The Centre creates space for thought leadership where best financial health practices and models are exchanged and lead to concrete action with governments and the private sector.

Scope of Work

Under the direct supervision of the Global Lead for Financial Health and Innovations, the Sr Portfolio Advisor (SPA) will be responsible for working and providing strategic guidance to the teams responsible for programme implementation and research to achieve different target goals of financial health (FH) portfolio and the underlying projects that are structured to drive impact and learnings. The SPA will provide guidance relating to shaping the execution blueprint, technical assistance to partners including Financial Service Providers (FSPs), and fintechs and other tech companies; identify peer-to-peer learning opportunities; and lead the development and dissemination of lessons learned and best practices in driving FH outcomes for women and women micro-enterprises, gig workers and the elderly which are the focus segment for the programme. The SPA will also work closely with the other key team members that include the Partnership Specialist, and the Measurement Team to ensure that all the aligned objectives for the portfolio is achieved.

The SPA will be expected to be home-based for this engagement, however, they will work from home until travel is possible in line with COVID-19 travel guidelines as dictated by UNCDF.

Duties and Responsibilities

Activities and deliverables expected by the SPA are as follows:

1. Provide overall programme support that includes providing oversight to the experiments undertaken as part of Financial Health. The SPA will be responsible for programme-related and projects-related technical oversight undertaken by the FH portfolio. These projects/sub-projects mainly relate to the work within Living Lab that are focused on addressing key determinants that are crucial to address the outcomes related to financial health.
2. Provide support on programme planning that can ensure that the projects are running smoothly and as per the donor requirements. This planning should also ensure that the projects are clearly driving intended results that includes achieving impact and learnings.
3. Provide support related to bridging the planning in relation to projects and the intended learnings output. The SPA would be closely working with the research and measurement team to ensure that the outcomes are mapped and measured in a way that the broader goals of FH programme is fulfilled. The learning outputs and other activities would also need to be communicated to external stakeholders and hence the SPA would work closely with the Lead and Communications Team to ensure that the plan and necessary resources are in place.
4. Support the ecosystem with knowledge sharing and best practices: The SPA will work closely with the lead and research team in acquiring specific insights and knowledge of the sector by sharing lessons learned and best practices with key stakeholders.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The table below outlines the list of key deliverables and estimated dates of completion:

Deliverables

Target completion from contract date

Payment terms in % of total contract price

Deliverable 1

• Blueprint for rolling out marketplace related to driving wealth creation for women micro-enterprises. – Report in PPT format

Mar 2022

15%

Deliverable 2

• SOP with respect to Living Lab engagement under Odisha. – Report in Word format
• Organize the meeting that includes agenda, update PowerPoint, approval documents, signed meeting minutes of empowered committee and working group. – Meeting Notes

Apr 2022

10%

Deliverable 3

• Blueprint for rolling out financial service marketplace that could provide channel for various services to be taken at last mile for women under the self-help group (SHG) programme. – Report in PPT format

May 2022

10%

Deliverable 4

• Document plan with system level intervention design addressing the challenges of informal workers. – Report in PPT format

Jun 2022

10%

Deliverable 5

• Plan drawn for the elderly engagement that allows for capturing the learnings and actions in a systematic manner. – Report in Excel format

Jul 2022

12%

Deliverable 6

• Detailed plan for launching the services like pensions, investments through the financial service marketplace set-up for the women under SHG programme. – Report in PPT format

Sep 2022

10%

Deliverable 7

• Organize the meeting that includes agenda, update PowerPoint, approval documents, signed meeting minutes (as required) with working group. – Meeting Notes

Oct 2022

10%

Deliverable 8

• Integration plan related to setting-up credit facility for unlocking capital for women micro-enterprises under the Living Lab. – Report in PPT format

Oct 2022

8%

Deliverable 9

• Operational plan to set-up mutual insurance model testing the healthcare needs for women in Odisha.

Dec 2022

8%

Deliverable 10

• One Blog/Issue paper on pathways for building financial resilience and security for women and women micro-enterprises.

Jan 2023

7%

TOTAL

100%

Institutional Arrangement

Duration: 12 months

Duty Station: Delhi, India with travel

All the travel will be requested by UNCDF management on a need basis and compensated on a reimbursable basis following the UNDP/UNCDF rules and regulations that state that consultants shall only be paid the most direct and most economical ticket, as will be quoted by the official UN travel agency. Any amount in excess of the said quotation, such as class and airline preference of the consultant, shall be borne by the consultant. The daily living allowance will be paid in amounts not exceeding the UN established rate.

Please note that UNCDF cannot guarantee residence permits or visas for consultants. Consultants are responsible for securing their work documentation. In the case of national consultants, applicants that are not nationals of the duty station requested will have to prove their residence status.

Provision of Monitoring, Progress Controls & Payments:

• The consultant shall work under the supervision of the Global Lead for Financial Health and Innovations.
• The consultant will organize periodic follow-up meetings with UNCDF to discuss the preparation of his/her travel missions.
• Payment shall be made only upon satisfactory completion and UNCDF’S written acceptance of each deliverable duly approved by the Global Lead for Financial Health and Innovations.
• Final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

Competencies

• Achieve Results
  • Demonstrates focus on achieving quality results and impact
• Engage and Partner
  • Establishes and develops networks that deliver powerful collaborations
  • Demonstrates and encourages teamwork and co-creation, internally and externally, to achieve joint objectives and results
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion
  • Treats all individuals with respect, considers ethical implications and responds sensitively to all differences among people
  • Demonstrates honesty and transparency

Cross-Functional Competencies

• Project Management
  • Ability to plan, organise, prioritise and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals

Technical Competencies

• SDG Finance
  • Financial Inclusion
  • Innovative Finance

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualification:

• A Master’s degree (or equivalent qualifications) in economics, public/business administration, social sciences, microfinance or a related discipline.

Experience:

• Minimum fifteen (15) years of relevant experience and demonstrated increasing responsibilities in a field related to financial services and digital that includes advisory, management or other related positions reflecting execution experience is mandatory.
• Minimum ten (10) years of experience in financial sector that includes banking or micro finance or digital financial inclusion, advisory or a combination of these areas is mandatory.
• Minimum five (5) years of experience in management of multi-stakeholders’ projects is mandatory.
• Minimum three (3) years of experience working directly in leading programme at country level with a multilateral/bilateral/foundations in development space related to financial inclusion.
• Minimum two (2) years of experience around distribution network with understanding around last mile challenges.
• Proven track record of publications in topics related to digital financial inclusion is desirable.
• Excellent skills in participatory methodologies and working with diverse stakeholders is desirable.
• Experience working with the financial industry or organizations in Asia and Africa regions is desirable.

Language:

• Fluent command of written and spoken English language is required. Knowledge of Hindi is desirable.

Application Process

Interested individuals must submit the following documents as proposals in order to demonstrate their qualifications. (NOTE: The system does not allow multiple uploads of document. 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 this Terms of Reference (TOR);
• Curriculum Vitae and/or Completed and Signed P11-Personal History Form with names and current contacts of three referees.

The following document is to be sent by email to financial.proposal@uncdf.org

Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal (do not upload your financial proposal online.) The financial proposal should be emailed separately to financial.proposal@uncdf.org with the subject line:86905: Senior Portfolio Advisor (Financial Health Consultant)

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested documents.

Evaluation Method

Applicants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

• Preliminary Evaluation - Step I: Screening.
• Technical Evaluation Weight - 70% (Step II: Desk review 40 points + Step III: Interview 60 points = 100 Points).
• Financial Evaluation Weight - 30% (Step IV).

Step I: Screening

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

• A Master’s degree (or equivalent qualifications) in economics, public/business administration, social sciences, microfinance or a related discipline.
• Minimum fifteen (15) years of relevant experience and demonstrated increasing responsibilities in a field related to financial services and digital that includes advisory, management or other related positions reflecting execution experience.
• Minimum ten (10) years of experience in financial sector that includes banking or micro finance or digital financial inclusion, advisory or a combination of these areas.
• Minimum five (5) years of experience in management of multi-stakeholders’ projects.
• Minimum three (3) years of experience working directly in leading programme at country level with a multilateral/bilateral/foundations in development space related to financial inclusion.

Step II: Desk Review

A desk review will be conducted to produce a shortlist of applicants according to the criteria listed below. Only applicants who obtain 70% of the points at this stage shall be invited for the next step.

• A Master’s degree (or equivalent qualifications) in economics, public/business administration, social sciences, microfinance or a related discipline. – 10 points
• Minimum ten (10) years of experience in financial sector that includes banking or micro finance or digital financial inclusion advisory or a combination of these areas. – 20 points
• Minimum five (5) years of experience in management of multi-stakeholders’ projects. – 15 points
• Minimum three (3) years of experience working directly in leading programme at country level with a multilateral/bilateral/foundations in development space related to financial inclusion. – 20 points
• Minimum two (2) years of experience around distribution network with understanding around last mile challenges. – 10 points
• Proven track record of publications in topics related to digital financial inclusion. – 15 points
• Experience working with the financial industry or organizations in Asia and Africa regions. – 10 points

Step III: Interview

All candidates who obtain more than 70% of the points at the desk review shall be invited to a panel interview.

Only applicants who have obtained scores above 70% of the technical assessment will be considered technically qualified and will be subject to further review for a financial evaluation.

Step IV: Financial Evaluation

All applicants must submit a financial proposal based on an all-inclusive lump-sum for the contract period. The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, consumables, etc.) that could be incurred by the individual consultant (IC) in completing the assignment are already factored into the lump sum amount submitted in the proposal. If applicable, travel or living allowance cost (if any work is to be done outside the IC’s duty station) should be identified separately. Do note that mission travels will be paid on a reimbursable basis and every travel has to be approved by UNCDF’s Programme Manager. The maximum reimbursable amount for each travel will not exceed the travel per-diem prescribed for respective locations (see https://icsc.un.org/).

The following formula will be used for evaluation of financial proposals:

Lowest priced proposal / Price of the proposal being evaluated x 30

Award Criteria

The contact shall be awarded to the best applicant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest combined score: Technical (desk review and interview) 70% + Financial 30% = 100%.

Individual consultants and persons employed by a company or institution are invited to apply.

Any individual employed by a company or institution who would like to submit an offer in response to a Procurement Notice for individual consultant must do so in their individual capacity by providing a CV so that their qualifications may be judged accordingly.

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

UNCDF is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

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