UNDP Jobs - 50969- International Consultant-Community Banking-UPPR

International Consultant-Community Banking-UPPR

Location :

Home-based with field visit to Dhaka, BANGLADESH

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

13-Nov-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

30 Working days spread over 2.5 months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP 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. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Approximately 40 million people in Bangladesh live in urban areas, out of which 21 per cent live below the poverty line. Such poor urban households live in inadequate and insecure houses, often in unsanitary conditions. Difficulties in accessing employment are made worse by having little or no social protection. There is limited access to health and education opportunities. With one of the highest urbanization rates in Asia, this challenging situation will intensify.

The project

UPPR works with communities in 23 towns and cities across Bangladesh to develop the capacity of poor women to manage their communities’ development issues and tackle the needs they identify as most important. The project began in 2008 and seeks to reduce urban poverty in Bangladesh by sustainably improving the livelihoods and living conditions of 3 million poor and extreme poor people living in urban areas, especially women and children by August 2014. Key outputs include:

Urban poor communities mobilized to form representative and inclusive groups and prepare community action plans;
Poor urban communities have healthy and secure living environments;
Urban poor and extremely poor people acquire the resources, knowledge and skills to increase their income and assets; and,
Pro-poor urban policies and partnerships supported at the national and local levels

To achieve these outcomes UPPR works with over 2,500 Community Development Committees (CDCs). Over 90% of leadership in CDCs is provided by women and they manage the Participatory Identification of the Poor (PIP); the development of Community Action Plans (CAPs); and oversee the implementation of community contracts.

To provide this support, the Government of Bangladesh and the United Nations work together to manage and implement UPPR. It is the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) that hosts and executes UPPR at a national level. In the towns and cities in which UPPR works, it does it jointly with the Municipality or City Cooperation. UNDP manages the implementation of the Project, and UN-Habitat supports the components that work on improving living conditions. Beyond the contributions of these actors, the majority of funding is provided by UK aid (GBP 60 million).

The project has been extended from August 2014 to March 2015. In that period activities focusing on sustainability and establishing best practices are planned.

Savings and Credit Groups

The savings and credit groups (SCGs) are a key driver of mobilization and empowerment within UPPR. The aims of the savings and credit activities are to build solidarity and empowerment among community members, promote savings habit and build financial management skills, and provide access to financial services at an appropriate rate.

Background to savings and credit groups

In the initial stage of social mobilization, primary groups (PGs) are formed from the target population. The PGs are federated as a Community Development Committee (CDC). The CDC is accredited to the City Corporation or Pourashava with a constitution, which gives semi-formal mandate to operate savings and credit activities. Then, the project forms savings and credit groups (SCGs) from among PG members to initiate savings and credit activities. The SCGs are the settlement-level informal organisations undertaking collective actions to fulfill the needs of the community. These SCGs function as a unit of the CDC similar to PGs. Specifically, SCGs and CDCs manage group-based savings and credit services and access external resources to help economic promotion of member households.

The aims of the savings and credit activities are to build solidarity and empowerment among the PGs, promote savings habit and build financial management skills. Members in community-managed SCGs tend to avoid loans from non-community-managed sources due to the expenses related to interest and management fees and a preference to have funds which are entirely in their control.

The CDCs are the most important governance structure for the activities of the project. Therefore, two leaders from each PG represent her/his group at the CDC as its second tier organisation. The SCGs continue to function as settlement-level organisations for savings and credit services, while the CDCs deliver services for the larger benefit of all SCGs and other community members. However, savings and credit service provides for savings group members only.

By mid-2014, over 390,000 households were members of savings and credit groups. Total savings stood at USD 7.6 million and outstanding loans stood at USD 6.4 million.

The improved savings and credit group pilot

A series of reviews of the operations of savings and credit at SCG and CDC were conducted in 2010. These found that there were some challenges in the capacity and functioning of the groups and CDCs. In light of these findings a pilot for improved savings and credit system was launched. This included an improved record-keeping system and training for staff, community leaders and group leaders in the 10 pilot CDCs. These pilots demonstrated improved performance over time and by 2013 over 700 CDCs were operating the improved savings and credit system. By mid-2014 this had increased to 1,682 CDCs and accounted for 87 per cent of total loans.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant is expected to answer the following questions trough secondary data analysis, case studies of different UPPR towns and their savings and credit groups, and primary data collection with communities and project stakeholders:

Performance

Effectiveness in extending savings and credit services to extreme poor and poor households within the CDC population;
Levels of confidence amongst community members in SCG mechanisms;
Net savings and loan volume;
Rate of loan default within SCG;
Adherence to good governance practice as set out by UPPR guideline;
Capacity levels of leaders to manage SCGs; and
Capacity of SCGs to manage risk in the system.

Process

How effective are UPPR’s systems for supporting the performance of savings and credit groups;
What best practices can be learned from the UPPR approach to community banking and mobilization?
What aspects of the UPPR approach to community banking and mobilization have not worked well and could be improved in future programming?

Sustainability

What regulatory steps must the SCGs take in order to become registered and autonomous agencies?
How can challenges in this process be overcome?

The consultant’s work will have the following scope:

Review all relevant project guidelines, reports, and data including a review conducted in 2010 and a theory of change developed in 2013;
Develop an inception report which will outline the approach taken to answering the key research questions;
Undertake a field visit to Bangladesh and visit selected towns to gather best practices and lessons learned through primary research with community members and project stakeholders from UPPR, LGED, UNDP and UK aid;
Develop a draft and final report which outlines the approach taken and answers the key research questions in depth.

Expected Outputs

Expected outputs will include:

Inception report outlining approach to answering key research questions and timeline;
First draft report followed by Validation Workshop with power point presentation
Final report (both in PDF and soft copy in CD-ROM)

Impact of Result

The key results have an impact on the overall success of the country programme and reaching UNDP goals. In particular, the key results have an impact on attaining the sustainability at community level and it can also be an evidence of the effectiveness of the UPPR’s community managed Saving and Credit service initiatives and an operational strengths of the community in generating access to financial services which can be scaled up in future programming.

Institutional Arrangement

The work will be overseen by the International Project Manager of UPPR.

Duration of the Work and Duty Station

The work is estimated to require 30 working days over a Period of 2.5 Months. This position is home-based with one 14 days mission to Bangladesh inclusive of travel days;
UPPR will provide all necessary data and contacts. During the field visit UPPR will facilitate the visit and provide transport and office space as required. UPPR will not provide a laptop.

Final Products/Services

Develop a draft and final report which outlines the approach taken and answers the key research questions in depth. The report should be validated in a workshop before finalizing.

Competencies

Corporate competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards (human rights, peace, understanding between peoples and nations, tolerance, integrity, respect, results orientation (UNDP core ethics) impartiality;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

Development and poverty knowledge (especially in urban context);
Extensive knowledge of community financial services and community mobilization in development;
Proven research and evaluation capacities;
Proven ability to write very high quality reports (in the English language);
Excellent communication skills (written and oral).

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

Post graduate degree or equivalent in development studies/economics/finance & banking/business administration or related disciplines from a recognized university

Experience:

Minimum 10 years of proven experience in development sector/research/evaluation work
Extensive experience on community banking/urban community financial services/microfinance
Knowledge of urban poverty issues/integrated development of basic services/project evaluation for major donors/ UN agencies, especially developing business case.
Experience working in South Asia region and familiarity with the context of Bangladesh is desirable.

Language:

Fluent in spoken and written English.

Cumulative analysis

The candidates will be evaluated through Cumulative Analysis method. When using the weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70% mark in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Critera (Total 70 Marks):

Expertise in assessing community banking/financial services initiatives- 25 Marks;
Expertise in undertaking qualitative research, including with community members and project stakeholders- 15 Marks;
Expertise in researching and assessing community mobilization initiatives- 20 Marks;
Samples of similar work- 10 Marks.

Financial Evaluation Criteria (Total 30 marks):

All technically qualified proposals will be scored out of 30 based on the formula as provided below. The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to
the following formula:

p = y (µ/z)

Where:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
µ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Technical Proposal

A detailed CV entailing comprehensive work / assignment details will suffice for technical proposal.

Financial proposal

UNDP shall effect payments, by bank transfer to the successful bidder’s bank account, upon acceptance by UNDP (in consultation with LGD) of the deliverables as specified in the ToR. Payments will be made in tranches based on the following percentages and milestones.

Payment installments

1st Payment: 30% of the total contract amount will be paid upon approval of inception report;
2nd Payment: 30% of the total contract amount will be paid upon approval of first draft report and validation workshop;
Final Payment: 40% of the total amount will be paid upon approval and submission of final report.

Terms

The selected contractor will prepare and submit a work plan for approval and report progress.
Payment for services of the contractor will be made upon certification of the deliverable and submission of invoice by the International Project Manager, UPPR.