UNDP Jobs - 59128- Consultant for Impact Investment

Consultant for Impact Investment

Location :

Home-based with travel to CIS region countries

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

22-Aug-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Between September - December 2015

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

Approx.45 working days

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

Official development assistance and finance has helped improve socio-economic and political conditions in a range of developing countries globally. While much progress has been made, there is a growing recognition of limits of the way that ODA (not to mention the current constraints to public policy from the global crises and policies of budget austerity) has been disbursed as well as awareness that private sector and the market have a more significant role if the global community is to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. In this context, there has been an increased attention to impact investment and its value in development and public policy.

Social impact investment is an emerging trend that holds promise in addressing above noted limits. It helps leverage both public and private sector funding toward a system level policy issues (outcomes) in turn helping make development progress scalable and financially sustainable. Simply put, impact investing is the field of investment that explicitly takes into consideration the social impact, financial return and any potential trade-off between the two in a given investment opportunity. Over the last decade, it has become a significant driver of investment into public goods through the actions of charitable/philantropic foundations, ethical banks, individuals and of specialist impact investment funds. Not only has impact investment brought new funds into organisations targeting social and environmental objectives, it has also led to the creation of innovative public-private models of investment – such as SIPs - and has attracted the attention of policy makers across Europe and beyond.

While the first generation of impact funds was basically pursuing outputs (i.e. number of social enterprises funded), the second generation of impact funds is more oriented towards outcomes (i.e. number of previously unemployed people who have been employed for 24 consecutive months). The third generation of financial instruments targeting both social and economic return is going beyond that, working at system level to raise the quality of life of whole groups of people through coordinated intervention on a number of factors. As an example, to raise education levels in a neighborhood is necessary to increase health levels, support to working parents, safety, which may imply investing at the same time in prenatal nutrition, establishing breakfast clubs to increase children’s’ attention spans, setting reading clubs to mentor pupils, mums' associations to support young mothers, youth circles to provide peer support and developing new tech to facilitate communication between parents and teachers.

Duties and Responsibilities

This assignment aims to unpack the concept of social impact investment (SIB) in the context of development with the specific focus on the ECIS region (with the specific focus on and mindful of development similarities and differences of the 3 chosen countries), develop a compelling narrative for advocating for the approach, propose and design SIB prototypes in each of the 3 countries in order to test out its feasibility within and across different sectors and national contexts as well as within UNDP context (with prototypes aimed at the nexus of country and UNDP priorities), and line up a series of investors and potential partners to implement those prototypes. The underlining assumption and intention is to test out to what extent the SIB can leverage UNDP’s presence, experience and expertise in the region to support countries to meet their respective national and regional development priorities (SDGs, EU accession, etc). In this context, UNDP ECIS is looking for a consultant who will work with a 4-person team (representatives of ECIS Regional Hub, and 3 Country Offices) for the purpose of conducting the following:

Desktop research: analysis and inventory of impact investment cases in development and middle-income country context (with the specific focus on the 3rd generation impact investment). The research should specifically consider: i) areas/sectors of investment; ii) legal structures and financial modeling (eg. type of impact investment like payment-by-results, social impact bonds, etc), iii) sources of funding and types of investment, iv) specific attention to examples and context of EU and Eastern Neighborhood member countries, v) compelling narrative advocating for this type of an approach in development (assuming the research yields such conclusion).
Estimated number of days: 5. To be performed within 4 weeks of signing the contract;
Opportunities for investment: in-country research and mapping for investment opportunities in Belarus, Moldova and Armenia, specifically focusing on the nexus of country priorities and UNDP corporate priorities as outlined in the Strategic Plan. This will include: i) actual financial calculations of risks and opportunities within the identified sectors (eg. health and education costs of living in an energy inefficient home) as it is the basis for designing the investment projects as prototypes in an effort to test out the concept of impact investment in the 3 countries; ii) design of prototypes of SIB in each country, iii) based on the in country research, proposal for different types of organizational settings for impact investment in the 3 countries.
Estimated number of days: 35 (including missions to Moldova, Armenia and Belarus will include 4-5 days in each country) To be performed within 12 weeks of signing the contract;
Investor mapping: i) analysis of potential investors, traditional and emerging donors with interest to partner with ECIS on executing the prototypes (these encompass a range of national and international actors, those with current and potential interest in impact investment, multilateral and other financial organizations, bilateral donors, specialized agencies such as Sckoll and Ashoka, non and for profit enterprises with social mission at the core of their business model); ii) analysis of different impact investment mechanisms feasible for different countries (eg. diaspora funds, charity bonds, etc), and iii) analysis of potential public sector champions of the SIB approach in 3 respective countries.
Estimated number of days: 5. To be performed within 10 weeks of signing the contract.

Expected outputs/Deliverables

Inventory of impact investment cases in development and middle income countries (with suggestions for different models to be applied in the 3 selected countries based on the specific national circumstances and existing legislation and institutional frameworks);
3 impact investment opportunities/prototypes designed in the 3 countries;
At least 2-5 potential investors identified;
Recommendation for UNDP ECIS approach to impact investment.

Timeframe

Assignment to be completed within 3-4 months of signing the contract.

Competencies

The candidate should demonstrate the following competencies:

Corporate competencies:

Strong client orientation and accountability;
Creativity in deconstructing issues and coming up with solutions;
Effective both written and spoken communication;
Flexibility and adaptability to changes and tolerance to uncertainty;
Strong teamwork, especially considering the balancing act between regional and priorities of individual countries.

Functional competencies:

Sensibility to partnership building and maintenance, especially in light of the part of assignment focusing on resource mobilization;
Efficient planning and organization in regard to the assignment;
Ability to conduct system level analysis, to move beyond functional silos of development work and design interventions on an outcome level.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications/Education:

Masters degree (MA) required. It will be considered an asset if a candidate has a master’s degree in a field that is related to development or a field where a system-level analysis and inquiry plays a large role (eg. environment, conflict, architecture)
Research and lecturing on topics ranging from impact investment, social enterprises, strategic design and policy making. It will be considered an asset if a candidate has written academic or other publications on the topic, focusing on very specific real-life examples of impact investment and their analysis.

Experience:

Minimu 3 years of experience in system and impact investment, with specific emphasis on designing or running impact investment and social venture projects across a range of development contexts (added benefit of having worked in, advised and cooperated with different partners in the international development arena). It will be considered an asset if the candidate has had experience in both designing and running impact investment projects;
of which minimum 3 years of experience in designing institutional, legal, organizational prerequisites for impact investment funds;
Practical, proven experience in mobilizing funding and bringing a variety of investors (by variety, specific emphasis is placed on a diversity of partners who the candidate has been able to identify and bring on board for the impact investment projects and funds) on board for the impact investment projects.

Language skills:

Excellent writing, editing, and oral communication skills in English.

Evaluation of Applicants:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal.
The award of the contract should 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 (P11 desk reviews and interviews) and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only 5 candidates who will receive best score in P11 desk review will be invited for interviews.
Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation – max. 35 points:

Criteria A – Experience designing and running impact investment projects (max points: 10);
Criteria B – Experience in setting up and running impact investment funds (max points: 10);
Criteria C – Experience in mobilizing funding and bringing on board a wide variety of investment partners for impact investing–(max points: 10);
Criteria D- oral communication skills ( max. points 5);
Criteria E- relevant educational experience and track of publishing academic and other type of research on the topic (max. points 5).

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation – max. 15 points.

Only the highest ranked candidates who would be found qualified for the job will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Application procedures:

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. The application should contain:

Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position. Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application;
Filled P11 form including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees (blank form can be downloaded from http://europeandcis.undp.org/files/hrforms/P11_modified_for_SCs_and_ICs.doc); please upload the P11 instead of your CV;
Please make sure to provide sufficient information on past experience in similar assignments and a list of publications and/or links to relevant documents
Financial Proposal* - specifying a total lump sum amount in USD for the tasks specified in this announcement. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (number of anticipated working days and any other possible costs including mission travel to the 3 countries)
Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. fee, health insurance, vaccination and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services). Financial proposal should as well include costs related to missions to CIS region.

Payments will be made only upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations and in a satisfactory manner in line with completed deliverables.

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org

General Terms and conditions as well as other related documents can be found under: http://on.undp.org/t7fJs.

Qualified women and members of minorities are encouraged to apply.
Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.