Background
UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 48 least developed countries. It creates new opportunities for poor people and their communities by increasing access to microfinance and investment capital.
UNCDF focuses on Africa and the poorest countries of Asia, with a special commitment to countries emerging from conflict or crisis. It provides seed capital – grants and loans – and technical support to help microfinance institutions reach more poor households and small businesses, and local governments finance the capital investments – water systems, feeder roads, schools, irrigation schemes – that will improve poor peoples’ lives.
UNCDF works to enlarge peoples’ choices: it believes that poor people and communities should take decisions about their own development. Its programmes help to empower women – over 50% of the clients of UNCDF-supported microfinance institutions are women – and its expertise in microfinance and local development is shaping new responses to food insecurity, climate change and other challenges. All UNCDF support is provided via national systems, in accordance with the Paris Principles. UNCDF works in challenging environments – remote rural areas, countries emerging from conflict – and paves the way for others to follow. Its programmes are designed to catalyze larger investment flows from the private sector, development partners and national governments, for significant impact on the Millennium Development Goals, especially Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, and Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability.
Established by the General Assembly in 1966 and with headquarters in New York, UNCDF is an autonomous UN organization affiliated with UNDP.
The Inclusive Finance portfolio in the Asia-Pacific region is composed of sector-based programmes that provide support to building inclusive finance sectors at the macro (policy), meso (financial infrastructure), and micro (retail) levels, as well as new thematic regional and global programmes related to value chain financing, mobile banking, clean energy financing, micro-insurance, and social protection, among others.
Countries covered by the UNCDF Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste.
The Inclusive Finance Analyst will work under the direct supervision of the IF Regional Technical Advisor based in Bangkok.
Duties and Responsibilities
Summary of Key Functions:
- Programme Development;
- Substantive communication and stakeholder engagement;
- Strengthen learning and accountability;
- Maintain effective management systems.
Programme Development
- Support research, development and inception of new inclusive finance projects and programmes;
- Support assurance of a constant pipeline of high-quality and well-resourced projects and programmes where UNCDF can add value to furthering the financial inclusion agenda in Asia;
- Thorough analysis and research of the political, social and economic situation in the country and preparation of substantive inputs to UNCDF related documents.
Substantive communication and stakeholder engagement:
- Strengthen communication and partnerships-building with key internal and external stakeholders on the latest issues emerging from IF programmes so that UNCDF positions itself as an important technical ‘go-to organization’ in Asia;
- RO/CO business processes mapping and preparation of the content of internal Standard Operating Procedures in Results Management.
Strengthen learning and accountability:
- Supporting the gathering and analysis of data and reporting from projects and programmes at regular intervals so that UNCDF strengthens its ability to learn to improve development practice;
- Enhance UNCDF’s ability to be more accountable for project performance and the achievement of development results;
Maintain effective management systems:
- Supporting the Regional Technical Advisor to follow-up on programmatic/operational issues emerging from missions and discussions with projects and country governments;
- Identification of areas for support and interventions within the thematic/sectoral areas assigned.
Impact of Results
The key results have an impact on the success of programmes at both country and regional levels within specific areas of cooperation. In particular, the key results have an impact on the design, operation and programming of activities, financial inclusion in Asia as well as high quality programming, project performance and development results.
Competencies
Functional Competencies:
Preparing information for advocacy
- Identifies and communicates relevant information for a variety of audiences for advocating UNCDF’s mandate.
Contributes into results through primary research and analysis
- Assesses project performance to identify success factors and incorporates best practices into project work;
- Researches linkages across programme activities to identify critical points of integration;
- Monitors specific stages of projects/programme implementation;
- Analyzes and reports country and regional situation to identify opportunities for project development;
- Participates in the formulation of project proposals and ensures substantive rigor in the design and application of proven successful approaches and drafts proposals accordingly.
Maintaining a network of contacts
- Maintains an established network of contacts for general information sharing and to remain up-to-date on partnership related issues
- Analyzes and selects materials for strengthening strategic alliances with partners and stakeholders
Enhancing processes or products
- Generates new ideas and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things;
- Documents and analyses innovative strategies/best practices/new approaches.
Providing inputs to resource mobilization strategies
- Analyzes information/databases on potential and actual donors;
- Develops a database of project profiles. Identifies opportunities for project proposals for presentation to donors.
Basic research and analysis
- Generates new ideas and approaches, researches best practices and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things
- Documents and analyses innovative strategies and new approaches
Fundamental knowledge of own discipline
- Understands and applies fundamental concepts and principles of a professional discipline or technical specialty relating to the position
- Possesses basic knowledge of organizational policies and procedures relating to the position and applies them consistently in work tasks
- Strives to keep job knowledge up-to-date through self-directed study and other means of learning
- Demonstrates good knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments
- Demonstrates in-depth understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments
Preparing information for global advocacy
- Identifies and communicates relevant information for advocacy for UNCDF’s goals for a variety of audiences;
- Identifies and takes advantage of opportunities for advocating for UNCDF’s mandate.
Establishing effective client relationships
- Researches potential solutions to internal and external client needs and reports back in a timely, succinct and appropriate fashion;
- Organizes and prioritizes work schedule to meet client needs and deadlines;
- Anticipates client needs and addresses them promptly.
Core Competencies:
- Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity;
- Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
- Self-development, initiative-taking;
- Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
- Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
- Creating synergies through self-control;
- Managing conflict;
- Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others. Promoting learning and knowledge; management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
- Informed and transparent decision making.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Master’s Degree or equivalent in Business Administration, Public Administration, Economics, Political Sciences, Social Sciences or related field.
Experience:
- A minimum of 2 years relevant working experience in knowledge management and/or communication and/or programme management related to financial services and/or microfinance;
- Experience with similar assignments in LDCs and developing countries in Asia;
- Awareness of key and emerging issues related to financial services and/or microfinance;
- Experience in developing research/project proposals and/or delivering research/project reports, with an ability to distill key elements/findings into concise, coherent language;
- Comfortable in presenting information in charts or other graphic forms and in making executive-level presentations;
- Experience in building different kinds of networks through excellent inter-personal and communication skills;
- Highly proficient in using ICT tools, including MS Office, and document formatting software such as Adobe Acrobat;
- Demonstrated capacity in using web-based management tools and systems;
- Familiarity with UNCDF/UNDP rules and procedures is an advantage
Language Requirements:
- Excellent command of the English language, with outstanding written and oral communication skills
Note:
Applicants are strongly encouraged to upload (as a *pdf attachment) the completed and signed UNDP Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.docx. Completion of all the fields is required.