Background

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 48 least developed countries (LDCs). With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. This last mile is where available resources for development are scarcest; where market failures are most pronounced; and where benefits from national growth tend to leave people excluded. 

Nepal has made significant improvements over the years in terms of financial services delivery outlets/channels offered through both formal and informal financial institutions. Despite that, the level of adults Nepalese above 18 years who are excluded from financial services remains significant. The data from the Finscope Nepal survey 2014 showed that only 40% of the population are banked, with significant disparities between the regions.

The central bank of Nepal, Nepal Rastra Bank had deployed various policy instruments to ensure that the financial services are able to make in-roads in remote and rural areas. Still financial services are concentrated in mostly urban and semi-urban areas, with Kathmandu valley region having the highest concentration.

Based on this, NRB, via its ‘Bank and financial institution regulation department’ has decided to design and set-up a platform that would provide updated and timely information. It is important that data and measurement tools are deployed for getting a more realistic picture of access and usage. The tool is aimed to provide a timely picture of progress around financial inclusion and be able to run various analytical reports to drive future policy interventions. The platform will also provide a pictorial view of financial infrastructure points across the country that will allow the department with regards to prioritizing approvals on new bank branches or channel points in various locations.

The department already has a basic reporting system in place that is managed in-house at NRB and operates on PHPMYSQL database system. The team at NRB is also trying to put in place a mapping of all financial institutions working through open source systems based on their current need. With the project the aim is to structure the platform and system in a way that long term utility could be drawn in regulatory reporting.

UNCDF is looking for a consultant with specific knowledge and understanding on data reporting and analytics work who could address NRB’s needs expressed below. The objective of the intervention is to strengthen the data collection and monitoring solution while setting up a platform for NRB.

The online tool is primarily envisaged to be in-housed at NRB with a secured interface. The tool is envisaged to have an internal utility at NRB and should also provide an external interface. The data presented and collected as part of this process shall become the baseline data-set for NRB to support policy making. It will serve the following NRB objectives:

• Policy analysis- The tool will assist NRB to critically analyze the impact of central bank policies.  For example, GIS analysis can estimate what percentage of Nepal’s population could not be served due to uneven distribution or concentration of banking points;
• Identifying underserved geographies- The tool will support NRB to easily identify underserved geographies and can help shed a spotlight on the scale of the inclusion problem;
• Developing policy interventions and incentives – The extent of inclusion could be the basis for developing and deploying new policy instruments that could guide the spread of financial services;
• G2P targeting- By overlaying the coordinates of access points, G2P programs can identify the most effective channel for delivering these payments to the poor.

The tool, that will be developed and deployed under the supervision and leadership of Nepal Rastra Bank, is proposed to be an online platform with the following featured capabilities:

• Capability to run analytics, driven mainly by data collected from NRB reporting from all forms of financial institutions and data collected from other different sources around mobile networks, poverty levels, population;
• Regular update of data: Platform should provide an interface to the financial and non-financial institutions licensed by NRB to submit data-set online related to mandatory reporting and related to financial channel;
• A link needs to be established through the Nepal Rastra Bank website to provide data access and login access;
• Mapping of existing financial services infrastructure across Nepal, in form of geo-spatial maps with location captured in latitude and longitude terms. This could be captured as part of the define data sets developed during the scoping exercise. Infrastructure points existing in Nepal comprise of Bank Branches, MFIs, Offsite ATMs, NRB regulated SACCOs, Remittance Agent, Mobile Money Agent, Branchless Banking Agent;
• The data set should as far as possible be clustered at the level of Village Development Committee (VDC) which is the lowest structure in administrative hierarchy. To be validated in consultation with NRB;
• The tool be set-up as a platform with public interface supported with key control measures to ensure data confidentiality. To be finalized in consultation with NRB;
• The tool should be open for future changes and integrations based on the need.  It should be noted that NRB already has a data portal and it would be envisaged to develop the new system as an extension of this, unless there could be serious issue with scale.

Please note that the consultant will not be allowed to bid for the platform and/or benefit from the system developed.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant will specifically undertake the following:

• Support Nepal Rastra Bank in scoping the data parameters that should be captured from the supply side institutions. The data parameters should have a clear balance of what providers could provide and what is needed at NRB for better objective assessment. The consultant can propose a road-map to phase in data collection;
• Assist with scoping the requirements of such a reporting and analytical system. Assist with writing the technical requirement based on which specifications (for an eventual RFP) could be developed and released for hiring a vendor firm;
• Support in selection of firm and provide oversight to implementation of the tool as per the objective mentioned in the background section;
• Assist NRB in thoroughly understanding the system requirements and the cost that they would have to accrue over long term.
• Support of the system vendor define the dash-board;
• Provide high quality technical inputs, training and advice to the team within NRB to accelerate the development and launch of product;
• Undertake discussions with providers to gauge the feasibility of the proposed reporting system at NRB. Also identify challenges and solutions aimed at providers for a continuous reporting of data with support from NRB and UNCDF;
•  Identify data layers (eg population, G2P beneficiary and so on) that could be included in the system and define ways to update them on regular basis with other stakeholders (CBS, Government Ministry and so on) With support from NRB and UNCDF;
• Review of the system post launch and its effectiveness in terms of reporting. The consultant shall identify challenges, propose solutions and develop next actionable steps for system scale-up.

Competencies

• 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;
• Creates networks, manages relationships and promotes initiatives with partner organizations;
• Managing conflict;
• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others;
• Effective spokesperson, engaging stakeholders and groupings, both Central bank, government ministers and private sector senior corporate leaders, to advance the development of data reporting system
• Excellent presentation and representation skills in multicultural contexts;
• Ability to translate complex technical ideas to a non-technical audience in both verbally and in writing.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in technology, economics, public/business administration or related discipline or the equivalent experience;
• Additional training related to setting up a data analytical platform.

Experience: 

• A minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in working on data analytics and reporting systems at international level;
• A minimum of two years of dedicated experience in implementing reporting system at central bank or an international organization;
• Knowledge of underlying systems, both software and hardware, needed for setting up a reporting platform is required;
• Working knowledge of current developments including innovative data collection and reporting methods is essential;
• Excellent attention to detail, a proactive approach to achieving key results, and a high level of thoroughness in a complex multitasking and matrix management environment is required;
• Experience in project management is required;
• Extensive experience working on developing data analytics dash boards, geo-spatial mapping is desirable;
• Experience in working with the highest levels of government is desirable;
• Understanding of issues related to financial inclusion, is desirable.

Language:

• Fluency in English.

Timeline, duration of assignment, duty station and expected places of travel:

• Timeline: 15 April 2016 to  30 November 2016;
• Total Number of Working Days for Assignment: 60 days in at least 3 missions;
• Location(s); Kathmandu, Nepal and Offsite with intermittent travel.

60% of the work (36 days) needs to be done onsite in Nepal (initial data scoping, outlining analytical outcome, process for data reporting, initial dash board structure, mid-evaluation of system deployments, final evaluation, testing and training).

40% of work (24 days) can be done remotely ( dash-board wireframe design, RFP for vendor, vendor evaluation, discussions with vendor on specifications or progress).

Please note that UNCDF cannot guarantee residence permits or visa´s for consultants. Consultants are responsible for securing their work documentation. Applicants that are not nationals of the duty station requested will have to prove their residence status.   

Please note that consultants already residing in the duty station will not be compensated for living expenses. 

Travel:

• Please provide a quote for 3 travels in your financial proposal. Notably an initial scoping and early consultation, a building/design visit, and then a final visit to finalise the recommendation for the platform;
• In case there are additional travel required it would be compensated as per the UN policies.

Provision of Monitoring, Progress Controls & Payments:

• The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the MM4P Country Technical Specialist;
• Payment will be made on periodical basis in accordance with number of days worked and upon satisfactorily achieved deliverables; All payments are subject to the clearance and approval of the direct supervisor;
•  Final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

Application

Interested individuals must submit the following 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 fle).

All applications must contain the following information:

• Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies in relation to the TOR;
• Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy;
• Curriculum Vitae;
• Completed P11 Personal History Form with names and current contacts of 3 referees (available from http://sas.undp.org/documents/p11_personal_history_form.doc);
• Financial proposal for the full months assignment outlining - Total professional fee (including professional fees, per diems in Katmandu (if applicable), Other professional expenses (such as insurance, taxes, etc.), Duty travel (return ticket from country of origin to Katmandu).Available at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916).
• References of the previous work undertaken in this field;
• Proposed methodology for conducting the work (Gantt chart with timelines).

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

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

• Preliminary Evaluation - Step I: Pre-Screening;
• Technical Evaluation Weight - 70% = (Step II: 20 Points + Step III: 80 Points = 100 Points);
• Financial Evaluation Weight - 30% = Step IV.

Step I: Screening

Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the following minimum criteria (listed under education and experience) will progress to the pool for shortlisting:

Step II: Shortlisting by Desk Review:

UNCDF will conduct a desk review to produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate candidates as per the following criteria.

• 20- Education/Qualification;
• 20- Functional competencies for assignment (analytical and references submitted);
• 30- Experience
• As applicable, only the first top 4 ranked applicants achieving minimum 49 points shall be invited for an interview.

Step III: Interview:

A competency-based Interview shall be conducted for the top 4 shortlisted candidates.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 56 points in the interview will be considered as technically qualified and will be reviewed further for financial evaluation.

Step IV: Financial Evaluation:

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

• Lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated x 30%.

Award Criteria:

The contact shall be awarded to the applicant whose offer have been evaluated and determined as responsive/compliant/acceptable; and Having received the highest combined weight (technical proposal & Interview) 70% + fnancial 30%= 100%.

Any individual employed by a company or institution who would like to submit an offer in response to a Procurement Notice for IC must do so in their individual capacity (providing a CV so that their qualifications may be judged accordingly). Women candidates or women-owned businesses are strongly encouraged to apply.