Background
UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 47 Least Developed Countries (LDC). UNCDF uses its capital mandate to support LDCs pursue inclusive growth. UNCDF promotes financial inclusion, also through digital financial services (DFS), as a key enabler of poverty reduction and inclusive growth; and it demonstrates how localizing finance outside the capital cities can accelerate growth in local economies, promote sustainable and climate-resilient infrastructure development, and empower local communities. Using capital grants, loans and credit enhancements, UNCDF tests financial models in inclusive finance and local development finance; ‘de-risks’ the local investment space; and provides proofs of concept, paving the way for larger and more risk-averse investors. Please refer to www.uncdf.org.
Introducing Digital Finance In UNCDF
Recently, UNCDF has formulated its strategy ‘Leaving no one behind in the digital era’ based on over a decade of experience in digital finance in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. UNCDF recognizes that reaching the full potential of digital financial inclusion in support of the Sustainable Development Goals aligns with the vision of promoting digital economies that leave no one behind. The vision of UNCDF is to empower millions of people by 2024 to use services daily that leverage innovation and technology and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. UNCDF will apply a market development approach and continuously seek to address underlying market dysfunctions. Please refer to
https://www.uncdf.org/article/4931/global-strategy-leaving-no-one-behind-in-the-digital-era
Financial Innovation Lab
UNCDF is expanding its work to focus on digital finance and innovations to both help digital finance reach its potential for the poor, but also to better use digital finance and other services to achieve the SDGs, anchored through a new initiative that will grow into a multi-country effort. In each country, UNCDF will bring together companies to design, develop, test and refine digital solutions supported under a structured environment and with ready to use tools. Those digital companies will be connected to enabling stakeholders, such as regulators, universities, think-tanks, providers, companies, other labs, and industry associations. Inspired by how technology can leapfrog limitations and pain points in today’s user experience, as well as imagine new uses for technology to address access, literacy, security, and other barriers. Ultimately, to create innovative user experiences that will help low-income people move from distrust, disenfranchisement, and exclusion to become confident and empowered.
The proposed approach focuses on supporting innovative solutions delivered by:
- Traditional stakeholders (companies, providers, government) by building innovation mindset, team and processes
- Small and start-ups companies by providing access to finance, crowdsourcing, human centered design support, industry sandbox, business to business linkages that will allow to scale.
Duties and Responsibilities
Purpose of a Framework Agreement
UNCDF would like to enter into a Long-Term Agreement (LTA), with up to five (5) individuals that will perform the services described below. In UNCDF, an LTA is a framework agreement by and between UNCDF and an individual (“Consultant”) where the latter may, at any time within the duration of the LTA, be required to render the agreed services at fixed unit prices for a period of three (3) years. An “LTA” refers to a mutual agreement whereby the Consultant(s) will provide services as required, over a specific period. It specifies the unit price (daily rate) allowing for an LTA to be used when the Consultant’s services are needed.
Where a request for services arises, UNCDF can engage the individual(s) holding an LTA through a “call-off” of the LTA. Every call-off shall have specific tasks, scope of services and outputs to be delivered within a specific period. For this work, the call-off shall be formalized through the issuance of a Purchase Order, attaching thereto the TOR, and any other document relevant to the call-off. Financial commitments will only be established each time a Purchase Order for the specific services/TOR for Individual Contractor is committed.
The LTA shall have a cumulative ceiling amount that may accrue to the individual contractor during the life of the LTA, but said amount shall remain as an upper limit, and must not and cannot be interpreted nor understood as neither a financial commitment nor guarantee of business volume.
It is important to note that, under an LTA, UNCDF does not guarantee that any specific quantity of services shall be purchased during the term of this agreement. The LTA does not form a financial obligation nor commitment from UNCDF at the time the LTA contract is signed.
Duties and Responsibilities
The Innovation & Research Consultant(s) will support a variety research and execution of the innovation journeys with partners or as part of open challenge/cohort etc. in Asia. The outcome of these engagements would be successful execution of innovation program that would allow for testing and scaling of solutions by participants of the said program.
The objectives are:
- Develop capabilities for UNCDF’s program participants (i.e. Entrepreneurs, founders, employees) and assist them in their journey to create and valid their proposed solutions.
- Develop capabilities for organizations selected by UNCDF and assist them in their corporate innovation journey to create and validate their proposed solutions.
- To partner with organizations to look for inclusive digital innovation solutions that can benefit the underserved market.
The below table provides an indicative overview of the activities and deliverables that UNCDF will request to perform to the consultants:
Activities | Deliverables | Estimated Effort |
|
| |
Innovation Challenge | 100 days | |
Inception phase | ||
Conduct market research and provide problem statements for the following thematic areas:
| Market research reports (interviews, surveys) and problem statements. | 5 themes x 3 days = 15 days |
Project Design phase | ||
Development of content for innovation challenges that focus on financial health outcomes for each theme:
| Curriculum for each theme (presentation, case study, exercise and field plan) List of partners for the innovation challenge | 5 themes x 3 days = 15 days |
Delivery of Innovation challenge |
| |
Technical assistance to innovation challenges (which includes gamifications, design thinking and behavioral science) that focus on financial health outcomes for each theme:
| Report on the support provided to the participants | 5 themes x 12 days = 60 days |
Knowledge Management |
| |
Produce learning reports from all the following innovation challenges:
| Report on the learnings | 5 themes x 2 days = 10 days |
Corporate Innovation |
| 70 days |
Inception phase |
| |
Research and provide strategies for securing partners with ten (10) companies on the following thematic area:
| Reports for the partnerships of the companies | 10 days |
Project Design phase | ||
Development of content for relevant partners in corporate innovation on the specific thematic area as mention above. The content shall include:
| Curriculum of the innovation program | 4 themes x 3 days = 12 days |
Delivery of corporate innovation |
| |
Execution of content developed in the “Project Design phase”. |
| 4 themes x 10 days = 40 days |
Knowledge Management |
| |
Produce learnings from all the corporate innovation program executed in the “Delivery of corporate innovation phase” | Report on the learnings | 4 themes x 2 days = 8 days |
Competencies
- Ability to work in a team
- Ability to work independently with little supervision and ability to work under pressure
- Strong results-based management orientation
- Customer orientation, leadership, openness and innovation capabilities;
- Good computer skills and ability to work with MS Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint
Required Skills and Experience
Education
- Bachelor’s Degree in business, law, engineering, computer science, marketing, social sciences, psychology and/or related discipline is mandatory.
Experience and skills
- At least (5) five-years of experience working in the Asia-Pacific is mandatory;
- At-least 2 years of work experience in the space of behavioral science, iterative testing, deign thinking, gamification is mandatory;
- Experience in managing accelerator and incubator programmes, with a focus on financial products enabled by digital solutions, is preferred.
- Qualification in and/or significant experience using human-centered design (design research / design thinking) research methodologies, design thinking, Agile, Service Design and Lean Start-Up Methods is preferred; and
- Experience in interaction design or product design, is preferred.
Language
Fluency in English (written and oral)
?Monitoring and Progress Control
Monitoring of progress shall be measured both according to the activities of the consultant as well as the performance of the UNCDF partners.
The consultant must secure approval from UNCDF Regional Technical Specialist Asia prior to execution of the activities and deliverables
The consultant will report directly to the Regional Technical Specialist Asia in seeking approval/acceptance of outputs.
Payment will be made on periodical basis in accordance with number of days worked and upon receipt and approval of deliverables. All payments are subject to the clearance and approval of the Regional Technical Specialist Asia according to the schedule under the ‘deliverables’ section
The Consultant(s) is responsible for providing his/her own laptop during his/her engagement with UNCDF.
The contractor shall submit the invoices specifying the outputs delivered and the Certificate of Payment form for the approval of UNCDF.
The following supporting documents will serve as conditions for payments to an Individual Contractor(s): (i) submission of an invoice and Certificate of Payment (COP); (ii) review, approval and written acceptance of each deliverable by the Regional Technical Specialist (RTS) (iii) submission of a time-sheet and expenses with relevant supporting documentation;
UNCDF shall closely monitor the performance of the Individual Contractors, and such monitoring shall include the detailed tracking of cumulative payments ensuring that they do not exceed the approved limit of the LTA.
If the consultants fail to meet performance requirements detailed above, s/he will receive in first instance, a communication requesting an improvement in performance. Continued failure to meet performance requirements may result in termination of the call-off PO, the non-utilization of the LTA, until its expiration, and eventually non-extension of the LTA.
Application Process
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Proposers who shall not submit below mentioned documents will not be considered for further evaluation. (NOTE: THE SYSTEM DOES NOT ALLOW MULTIPLE UPLOADS OF DOCUMENTS THEREFORE APPLICANTS MUST MAKE SURE TO UPLOAD ALL REQUIRED DOCUMENTS IN ONE FILE). Failure to submit all the below mentioned documents may result in rejection of the application.
- A one-page cover letter responding to the competency criteria, indicating why the candidate considers himself/herself suitable for the required consultancy as well as stating the earliest availability.
- Detailed updated CV or P11, with at least two (2) signed professional references or three references’ contact details; Link to P11: http://sas.undp.org/documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc
- Filled in and duly signed Letter of Intent including a financial proposal which can be downloaded from:
- At least one (1) sample or detailed summary of works with relevant links – that you consider to be the best and most relevant example to this ToR.
Evaluation Criteria
Applications will be rated on both technical and financial submissions. The following selection method will be used: Highest rated proposal using the combined scoring method, which assigns the weight distribution between the technical and financial proposals. The overall combined score will be 100 points, where weight distribution shall be 70% technical (30% desk review + 40% interview) and 30% financial.
Step I: Screening & longlisting
Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the following minimum criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting.
Step II: Desk Review: (20 Points)
UNCDF will conduct a desk review to produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate candidates as follows:
Shortlisting scoring:
20%- Education/Qualification;
50%- Mandatory Experience.
30%- Preferred Experience.
As applicable, up to 12 applicants scoring the highest in the desk review and achieving minimum 70 points shall be invited for an interview.
Step III. Interview (80 points) :
An Interview shall be conducted with the top 12 shortlisted candidates
Step IV: Financial Evaluation:
The shortlisted candidates will be rated on both technical and financial submissions, providing a weight of 70% to the Technical offer (Desk Review (30%) + Interview (40%)) and 30% to the Financial offer.
The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:
Lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated x 30%.
AWARD OF LONG-TERM AGREEMENT (LTA)
The award of the LTA will be made to up to 5 individual consultants whose offers have been evaluated and determined (i) Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and (ii) Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when traveling 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. If the consultant is over 65 years old, UNCDF reserves the right to require full medical certification and clearance from the consultant’s physician prior to commencing the travel.
Please include all documents into one file while submitting your application.
References
UNDP’s Individual Consultant’s General Terms and Conditions are provided here:
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf