Background

UNCDF provides investment capital and technical support to both the public and the private sector. It provides capital financing -- in the forms of grants, soft loans and credit enhancement – and the technical expertise to unleash sustainable financing at the local level.

UNCDF’s work on inclusive finance seeks to develop inclusive financial systems and ensure that a range of financial products is available to all segments of society, including low income men and women, at a reasonable cost, and on a sustainable basis. UNCDF supports a wide range of providers (e.g. microfinance institutions, banks, cooperatives, money transfer companies) and a variety of financial products and services (e.g. savings, credit, insurance, payments, and remittances). UNCDF also supports newer delivery channels (e.g. mobile phone networks) that offer tremendous potential for scale.

Shaping Inclusive Finance Transformations (SHIFT) Programme

The ASEAN region is home to more than 600 million people spread across 10 countries. Continued growth and progress in poverty reduction will increasingly result from the determination of the ASEAN countries to promote regional integration and co-operation through the creation and deepening of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which will by 2015 “transform ASEAN into a region with free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labour, and freer flow of capital”. Despite the dynamism of the region, there are significant contrasts between and within the countries, with three LDCs coexisting with some of the world’s largest and most vibrant economies, resulting in 20% of the world’s poorest people living alongside some of the world’s richest. The relatively fragmented supply and distribution landscape and the accompanying dispersion of funding and investment are significant restrictions on the development of essential conditions needed to accelerate development of pro-poor financial markets and financial inclusion.

SHIFT is a regional programme that aims to transition, by the year 2020, at least six million low-income people from using informal financial mechanisms to formal financial services to invest in economic opportunities and manage risks in the ASEAN region, with a particular focus on: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam countries (CLMV).  It is envisioned that SHIFT will deliver a rapid improvement in the level of financial inclusion as a means of reducing poverty and vulnerability in the region, through the combination of direct impact interventions and market transformation interventions. Direct impact interventions are expected to contribute to at least 1 million people accessing and using regulated financial services as a result of technical and financial assistance to financial and support service providers. Market transformational interventions are expected to contribute to an additional 5 million people accessing and using regulated financial services by the end of the programme, as a result of improved data and knowledge, better investment climate, and targeted policies to accelerate financial inclusion, and more capable and mobile human resources. Women, including those migrating within ASEAN, will also be a population of interest for the program.

CleanStart Programme

CleanStart was launched as a global programme in 2012. The CleanStart Programme’s vision is to dramatically expand consumer financing for low-income consumers who want to transition to cleaner and more efficient energy. To make this happen it partners with microfinance institutions and energy enterprises – offering seed capital and advice – to test scalable financing solutions in varying market conditions.

CleanStart was first launched at the country-level in Nepal and Uganda, and will focus its new activities on Ethiopia, Cambodia (and another country in Asia or Africa). As a global programme, CleanStart aims to support low-income women and male consumers in six countries to transition to cleaner and more efficient energy through microfinance by 2017.

The programme is designed to provide risk capital and technical assistance to competitively selected financial service providers and energy enterprises to:

• Develop and refine scalable consumer financing models, including those which expand access or beneficial impact for women (Output 1: Finance for Clean Energy);
• Increase the ‘scale’ potential of these models by tackling critical bottlenecks in the value chain (e.g. distribution, consumer awareness) (Output 2: Technical Assistance for Clean Energy);
• Make research and tools generated in the process widely available to the industry,  including those which expand access or beneficial impact for women (Output 3: Global Knowledge and Learning);
• Advocate for positive industry-wide changes and broker partnerships with upstream value chain actors (e.g. investors, policy makers) (Output 4: Advocacy and Partnerships)
• CleanStart encourages the brokering of risk-sharing partnerships between downstream as well as upstream value chain actors, as well as de-risking some investment opportunities. In so doing, CleanStart is supporting a range of enterprises beyond microfinance institutions, and promoting financing solutions that go beyond credit for energy.

SHIFT Fund Facility

SHIFT seeks to change the behavior of financial institutions and the broader ecosystem of financial services providers, in order to respond to excluded groups, especially women and SMEs led by or primarily employing or serving women. However, behavior change can be challenging, due to socioeconomic and cultural norms. The Fund Facility will provide incentives to financial market actors to innovate and scale business models in ASEAN frontier economies of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam to target low-income consumer and business markets to more easily access and effectively use a range of low-cost and affordable financial services.

In order to accelerate the development of new and innovative business models for equitable financial inclusion, the programme will develop an innovation fund facility which will provide competitive performance based grants, technical assistance and resources to Financial Service Providers (FSPs). The innovation fund aims to reach about 800,000 beneficiaries (60 percent women) by the year 2020. This target specifically focuses on women due to SHIFT’s preliminary scoping which found the significant influence women’s purchasing decisions have on the ASEAN market, the development of new social trends increasing the demand for financial services (e.g. women mobility) and the SHIFT baseline assessment of the market which has further confirmed the demand for and value-addition of focusing on women’s economic empowerment.

The fund facility, through the provision of competitively sourced matching grants, aims to overcome market failures that would otherwise prevent a grantee from making an initial investment, either from the cost of information discovery, costs of mitigating risks or simple lack of available funding. Technical assistance can also be provided by SHIFT programme to selected shortlisted financial service providers (FSPs) or technical service providers (TSPs) to develop further their proposals and capacities.

The fund facility would place as much emphasis on the exit route of the grant funding as with the point of entry. Any successful project is likely to need additional liquidity and fixed capital to scale up its operations, and/or expand into new markets or related areas of business where it has expertise. By focusing more on exits, SHIFT can successfully ‘tee up’ fundees for larger funding – such as through private equity, venture capital, credit lines or other debt and equity arrangements – once the innovation fund grant component has been concluded.

Though there has been unprecedented investments in the renewable energy sector, the investment gap remains high and is widening.  Investigating the issues and opportunities specific to financing of the off-grid lighting sector – found that investors offered the least finds during the seed period of the life of a new company; this experience is shared in other technology classes. This lack of seed funding presents a challenge to start-up companies in the industry. There is an absence of an organized approach to creating deal flow for the capital that is beginning to assemble upstream for energy access.

It is in order to address this need the fund facility will invest in provision of grant capital and capacity strengthening to support the development of financially viable enterprises in the small-scale sector, either in the early or scale-up stages. The fund will replicate existing investment platforms but will focus on solving the barrier to market growth related to affordability of products at the consumer end.

The fund  aims to catalyse the private sector in the provision of basic energy services to underserved communities through end-user financing. It will foster new partnerships between energy enterprises, distribution channels and financial service providers for energy lending; and strengthen the capabilities of energy enterprises and financial service providers to provide end-user finance for clean energy.

Duties and Responsibilities

UNCDF is seeking to hire a Fund Facility Coordinator who will coordinate closely with SHIFT, CleanStart and other Programmes, including the Fund Investment Committee, programme constituents and an external fund management team hired by UNCDF to operationalize the fund.  S/he will be based at UNCDF’s Regional Office in Bangkok and will report directly to the UNCDF Senior Regional Technical Advisor.

Summary of key functions:

• Serve as the Secretariat to the Investment Committee;
• Contract management;
• Reporting, Monitoring and Evaluation;
• Networking and partnerships;
• Knowledge management.

Serve as the Secretariat for the Investment Committee focusing on the achievement of the following results:

• Assist with the set up and operationalization of the Investment Committee;
• Coordinate and quality check documentation for Investment Committee review and decision making, including due diligence reports;
• Coordinate pre-investment activities with potential grantees to increase visibility of the fund and quality of applications, such as developing marketing material, organizing information sessions/workshops;
• Facilitate pre-investment discussions with selected grantees, including setting up performance indicators, milestones, payment schedules and integrating gender equity principles in pre-investment decision making;
• Facilitate the proposal screening/evaluation process with the Investment Committee members.

Contract management focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Advise SHIFT, CleanStart and other programmes on how to structure the funding agreement in light of the grantees capacity and support required, ensuring the promotion of opportunities are gender balanced;
• Undertake scoping missions in some of the target countries to better understand market trends and commercial incentives;
• Prioritise thematic areas of different funding rounds or ‘windows,’ integrating gender equity considerations and ensuring preferential targets are reached;
• Develop implementation plan for the Fund, including Key Performance Indicators for effective fund management including  gender disaggregated data and reporting indicators;
• Develop and maintain calendar for each fund, rounds or ‘windows’;
• Assist with setting up the initial parameters of each challenge window and round, as well as its launch and solicitation of initial project concepts;
• Coordinate and assist Programme Managers with the development of various operational documents and tools  such as EoIs and RFAs, operational manuals, marketing strategy, Investment Committee ToRs, tools for proposal screening/evaluation and due diligence and funding agreements; ensuring systematic integration of gender aspects throughout the programme;
• Ensure that Fund activities and products are gender equitable, and highlight the specific priorities of SHIFT and CleanStart;
• Manage queries from stakeholders related to fund facilities and its processes.

Reporting, Monitoring and Evaluation focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Review relevance of Fund Theory of Change (TOC) and advice Programme Manager how Fund TOC contributes to the SHIFT TOC;
• Develop a monitoring system which is consistent and allows for performance measurement of the Challenge Fund Portfolio as a whole and is strategically aligned with performance measurement standards of the impact investment industry; including gender disaggregated access and impact;
• Propose systems to assess systemic change in the financial market as a whole as result of the Fund interventions;
• Evaluation (efficiency, effectiveness, results and impact) of Fund Facility performance and submission to SHIFT and CleanStart Programme Managers, partners and donors;
• Ensure the M&E system incorporates gender considerations and sex-disaggregated data, including specific reporting on gender challenges and achievements;
• Periodic review of fund facilities financial and operational risk by closely working with the external fund management team and advice respective Programme Managers.

Networking and partnerships focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Identify strategic partnership opportunities between potential grantees to meet the objectives of the fund facilities;
• Engage with key local stakeholders such as investors, sectoral institutions, government;
• Coordinate technical assistance to grantees/investees to resolve bottlenecks in implementation and target achievement;
• Assist selected partners in identifying strategic, financing or technical partnerships opportunities with others, and encourage public and private sector engagements;
• Map out possible connections with suitable private equity, venture capital, impact investors, angel networks and other sources of commercial funding, in order to assist grant recipients to scale up their successful innovative ideas;
• Elaborate a fundraising strategy and resource mobilization plan to ensure the fund receives enough resources.

Knowledge management focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Coordinate documentation of progress, performance, lessons learnt (e.g. fund management processes, at level of individual projects, at aggregate level through portfolio analysis etc.) and knowledge sharing for wider dissemination;
• Liaise with FSP/TSP and enterprise partners on M&E and knowledge management to improve buy-in from the partners, and so increase the reliability of the results reported;
• Adopt innovative approaches to ensure that the lessons learned are collected and disseminated, as well as the success stories so to ensure that other colleagues could learn from the SHIFT experience.

Impact of Results

The objective of this post is to assist UNCDF in designing and advising on the management of the fund facility that will provide catalytic funds to innovative businesses and technical service providers. The Fund Coordinator will manage a range of activities, including keep a close relation with relevant stakeholders. In particular, the Fund Facility Coordinator will assist the Programme Teams with sourcing necessary inputs from an external fund management team hired by UNCDF to develop a steady pipeline of investments.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

• Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents;
• Building support and political acumen;
• Building staff competence,  creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Building and promoting effective teams;
• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
• Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
• Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability;
• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
• Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
• Fair and transparent  decision making; calculated risk-taking.

Functional Competencies: 

Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda:

Analysis and creation of messages and strategies

• Creates effective advocacy strategies;
• Performs analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses.

Results-Based Programme Development and Management:

Contributing to results through provision of information

• Provides information for linkages across programme activities to help identify critical points of integration;
• Provides information and documentation on specific stages of projects/programme implementation;
• Provides background information to identify opportunities for project development and helps drafting proposals;
• Participates in the formulation of project proposals.

Building Strategic Partnerships:

Identifying and building partnerships

• Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build strategic alliances relevant to UNDP’s mandate and strategic agenda;
• Identifies needs and interventions for capacity building of counterparts, clients and potential partners;
• Promotes UNDP’s agenda in inter-agency meetings.

Innovation and Marketing New Approaches:

Developing new approaches:

• Seeks a broad range of perspectives in developing project proposals;
• Identifies new approaches and promotes their use in other situations;
• Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking;
• Makes the case for innovative ideas from the team with own supervisor.

Resource Mobilization (Field Duty Stations):

Implementing resource mobilization strategies

• Analyzes information on potential bilateral donors and national counterparts to recommend a strategic approach;
• Identifies and compiles lessons learned;
• Develops a resource mobilization strategy at the country level.

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

Developing tools and mechanisms

• Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;
• Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms.

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise:

In-depth knowledge of the subject-matter

• Understands more advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines;
• Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally;
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
• Demonstrates comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments.

Global Leadership and Advocacy for UNDP’s Goals:

Analysis and creation of messages and strategies

• Performed analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses;
• Uses the opportunity to bring forward and disseminate materials for global advocacy work and adapts it for use at country level.

Client Orientation:

Contributing to positive outcomes for the client

• Anticipates client needs;
• Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider;
• Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective;
• Solicits feedback on service provision and quality.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in economics, public/business administration, social sciences, or related fields.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of relevant experience at the national or international level in inclusive finance and MSE (private sector experience is considered a plus);
• Experience with similar assignments in at least one of areas of work (Fund Development, Fund Implementation and/or Fund Quality Assurance) in developing countries, including LDCs;
• Familiarity with the concepts on financial inclusion and a broad knowledge of related disciplines;
• Working knowledge of current developments in inclusive finance;
• Familiarity with technology such as ICT or renewable energy is a plus;
• Experience in project management, coordinating projects and supporting stakeholder engagement related to financial inclusion;
• Working knowledge of international donor organizations and experience in preparing proposals for funding;
• Experience in working on financial inclusion projects, with various type of financial institutions, and on capacity building of financial inclusion professionals;
• Experience in institutional assessments and capacity building, financial access and usage related interventions.

Language:

• Excellent command of the English language, with outstanding written and oral communication skills.