Background

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s least developed countries (LDCs). 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 and the Pacific, 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 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.  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 catalyse larger investment flows from the private sector, development partners and national governments, for significant impact on the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty, Goal 17: Means of Implementation.

Established by the General Assembly in 1966 and with headquarters in New York, UNCDF is an autonomous UN organization affiliated with UNDP.

Despite the rapid growth of the microfinance industry in the past ten years, it is estimated that between two and three billion people still lack access to a broad range of financial products and services on a sustainable basis. The situation is particularly dire in the LDCs, where often more than 90 per cent of the population is denied access to financial services from the formal financial system. UNCDF focuses its strategy on financial inclusion, which is universal access, at a reasonable cost, to a wide range of financial services, provided by a variety of sound and sustainable institutions. The range of financial services includes savings, short and long-term credit, leasing and factoring, mortgages, insurance, pensions, payments, local money transfers and international remittances.

UNCDF manages a number of initiatives that includes and promotes digital financial services (DFS).  It is in discussion to consolidate the technical assistance and research aspects of these programmes into a single team.  This team will serve UNCDF’s needs in regard to DFS component as part of EFA Myanmar country programme, and contributing to other on-going programmes like Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P) and the Better than Cash Alliance (BTCA), Shaping Inclusive Finance Transformations (SHIFT), Making Access Possible (MAP) and Roadmap, MicroLead, CleanStart and  other UNCDF country, regional and global programmes in future as may be required. 

UNCDF in Myanmar:

According to the 2013 Finscope survey, access to formal financial services in Myanmar stands at a moderate 30% of the adult population, however a majority are thinly served having access to only one product that often only partially meets household needs. The Myanmar Financial Inclusion Roadmap 2014 – 2020 was as a result developed by stakeholders and adopted by the government, in order to help increase the level and quality of access to and use of financial services. UNCDF has been a critical actor in the development of the Roadmap, in partnership with others having funded and implemented the Making Access Possible (MAP) diagnostic that provided the evidence base to develop the Financial Inclusion Roadmap.

UNCDF in partnership with other stakeholders, is now proposing a new project framework to further support the Roadmap process, through direct and concrete support to the Roadmap implementation process, and by deploying resources in the Roadmap priority areas where UNCDF capabilities and resources are aligned. The primary focus of the proposed Expanding Financial Access (EFA) programme is to support the Myanmar government in creating an environment that promotes an accelerated market development for financial inclusion, contributing to sustainable financing for development. Under the EFA programme, the initial scoping of digital finance was undertaken in October 2015 to act as a baseline for the DFS country strategy. This strategy document identified the areas of interventions that would be crucial to the development of the market, namely capacity building of policy maker (especially CBM) and development of projects with identified partners that can drive high value linkages. The work in Myanmar on DFS is funded with resources from EFA and MM4P programme.

UNCDF wishes to hire a full-time, on-site DFS expert to support for the coordination and implementation of the in-country activities in Myanmar. The consultant will have the overall responsibility for in-country activities and for the initial period of the contract he would specifically focus on few of the key deliverables as listed out in this ToR.  The on-site DFS expert will be based in the UNCDF office in Myanmar. The expert will be responsible and report to the Country Programme Specialist on the areas of in-country engagements, developments in market or related to the agreed work-plan, while keeping the other team members in loop. The Expert will also work closely on technical matters and work-planning, reviews and material produced with the Technical Specialist Asia.

In-order to achieve the objectives of this ToR and align the work of UNCDF around Digital with other in-country or regional initiative.

Information on UNCDF may be found at www.uncdf.org

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant will specifically work with regulators and actors on the ground to foster Digital Financial Services (DFS) eco-system in the country and work with the actors in the development of innovative ideas, plans and projects to enter or expand DFS (ecosystem, regulatory, customer, high volume, agent work streams) in the country. The key objectives of this short term engagement is following as below:

• To work with UNCDF country team in positioning it as key player in digital finance space;
• Build and strengthen relationship with Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM);
• Develop deeper relationship with market players and assist in forming partnerships that could be supported to drive market creation;
• Through the above partnerships create pipeline of projects for UNCDF;
• Assist the MoF to prioritize on activities related to One Household One Account; Closer and regular engagement with the donors for fund raising;
• Proposal development.

Based on the above objectives, the responsibility of the DFS expert for the short term period would be more focussed, though within the overall responsibility for in-country management of the programme that would have been associated with the long term position.

The below section outlines the areas of work that specifically require focus during this period of contract and also provides details on the larger in-country responsibility, of which some activities require attention even while during the short period of contract.

Eco-System Activities:

• Plan and prepare a workshop on DFS to introduce the program and set the context of higher level of engagements within the country;
• Prepare the ToR on setting up a working group within the country and take that through CBM and MoF for approval. Initiate & run one DFS industry working group meeting, towards the end of the initial contract (incl. all stake­holders regulators, donors, providers, MFIs, agents, etc.).

Policy and Regulations:

• Undertake discussions with CBM to outline areas of support or engagement around payment systems or others as identified to strengthen financial inclusion agenda;
• Prepare the ToR, assist with drawing in-principle agreement with CBM and agree on dates for undertaking a workshop around evolving retail payment systems for CBM with focus on new channels, instruments, implementation challenges, customer protection issues and role of monitoring and supervision. The workshop would be undertaken with assistance from Global Technical Specialist (GTS) of UNCDF;
• Plan, Prepare and coordinate implementation of workshop on developing the country strategy and road map for implementation with focus on implementing of One Household One Account (OHOA). Identify the current state of gaps and challenges, plan for a pragmatic road map to implement while clearly identifying needs for future. Work in coordination with the Technical Specialist of UNCDF working with Ministry of Finance to implement the Financial Inclusion Road Map.

Provider Work-stream:

• Engage market participants through short workshops on potential use cases around DFS that allows for developing linkages; (Some proposed use case for the workshop are as below);
• Digital Linkages in Microfinance;
• Agriculture Value Chain Interplay with Digital Financial Services (with product level examples);
• Driving payments top-down (esp. government) opportunities, challenges and key success factors.

High Volume Work-Stream:

• Identify potential projects (project descriptions) to support stakeholders to switch payments from cash to digital under OHOA /MFI/VC.

General In-Country Support Activities During The Period:

• Establish a ranking of existing Financial Service Providers (FSP) to identify potential partners and update this ranking continuously based on market dynamics;
• Foster partnerships between stakeholders to develop new business models and innovative ideas;
• For most promising stakeholders, provide technical inputs to project descriptions and support the TS DFS in assessing and appraising the projects;
• Collect necessary documents for UNCDF project endorsements and appraisals;
• Support potential/ identified FSPs to prepare proposal to apply to the market development facility in Myanmar;
• Challenge stakeholders about their DFS businesses and strategies in order to raise the level of innovation and creativity in country;
• Disseminate relevant publications and toolkits to stakeholders;
• Set and implement a regular call schedule with UNCDF partners;
• Plan, organize and manage the monthly progress call with TS FD.  Prepare agenda for the call and write meeting minutes. Develop monthly action plans;
• Support the TS DF to report on DF activities and developments in country.

The outputs of this overall engagement in short term work will be: 

• Build foundation for UNCDF intervention in the country around DFS;
• Capacity building of the regulator through at least 1 workshop;
• Action prioritizing meeting/workshop with MoF and other Government actors around OHOA;
• DFS working group in place and at least 1 meeting organized;
• At least 2-3 workshops that will lead to development of 2-3 project descriptions;
• Develop a proposal document for the expansion of the UNCDF DFS activities;
• Minutes of all the meetings in-country documented and available;
• List of in-country contacts available and updated;
• Draft ToRs for the workshop and other relevant documents  to be approved by UNCDF(viz agenda, technical delivery material like presentation, exercises, case studies, etc, invitee list, budget and so on). 

Competencies

Professional:

• Takes on innovation and new approaches and fosters innovation in others;
• Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking;
• Conceptualizes more effective approaches to programme development and implementation and to mobilizing and using resources.

Management/Client Orientation:

• Anticipates constraints in the delivery of services and identifies solutions or alternatives;
• Ability to interact and adapt communication with various management level at our partners;
• Proactively identifies, develops and discusses solutions for internal and external clients, and persuades management to undertake new projects or services;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities, and resolve problems;
• Focus on impact and results for clients and stakeholders;
• Builds trust in interactions with others, facilitates partnerships; excellent networking capabilities to link people/businesses from diverse horizons;
• Approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude and responds positively to feedback;

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• A Bachelor’s degree (Master’s Degree preferred) in technology, economics, public/business administration, social sciences, or related discipline or the equivalent experience.

Experience: 

• A minimum of seven years experience in progressively more responsible positions in the financial services, payments and/or telecommunications field is mandatory;
• A minimum of three years experience working with digital financial services especially agency banking and mobile financial services, particularly in their roll-out is mandatory;
• Experience working on DFS projects in rural areas or related to agriculture/ Value Chain finance, or G2P payments, or involving MFIsis mandatory;
• Experience in capacity building and advisory services to private and public actors is preferable but not required;
• Experience in Mekong Region preferred is preferable but not required.

Language:

• Fluency in English.

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

• Timeline – 3 months.
• Location(s) - Yangon, Myanmar with trips to Nay Pyi Taw.
• Total Number of Working Days for Assignment - Estimated Total Number of Working Days 66.

Travel:

Occasional travel may be required and will be compensated according to UN polices.    

Provision of Monitoring, Progress Controls & Payments:

• The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Country Programme 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 fromhttp://sas.undp.org/documents/p11_personal_history_form.doc);
• Financial proposal for the full months assignment outlining - Total professional fee (including professional fees, living expenses, Other professional expenses (such as insurance, taxes, etc.), Duty travel (return ticket from country of origin to Katmandu).

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% x (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 them.

As applicable, only the first top 4 ranked applicants achieving 70% of the points at this stage 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 49 points on the total of Steps II+III 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% + financial 30%= 100%.

Both individual consultants and individual employed by a company or institution are welcome to apply. 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.