Historique

Making Access to Finance more Inclusive for Poor People” (MAFIPP) is a UNCDF programme, nationally implemented by the Bank of the Lao PDR (BOL) on behalf of the Government of the Lao PDR (GOL).  The programme was approved by the BOL on 5 July 2010.

Operating under the UNCDF Inclusive Finance initiative, MAFIPP is designed to expand financial services outreach to low income households and entrepreneurs in Lao PDR on an equitable and sustainable basis. Specific targets include an expansion of the microfinance sector by an additional 140,000 active savings clients and 70,000 additional loan clients by 2017.

To achieve this, the programme will adopt a sector based approach to deliver change at the Macro, Meso and Micro levels through three mutually reinforcing programme outputs including:

Macro-level Output:

  • Policy makers more able to improve the policy and regulatory environment in line with operational realities of financial service providers nationally and accepted good practice internationally.

Meso-level Output:

  • The financial sector development infrastructure will become more capable to meet the needs of financial service providers.

Micro-level Output:

  • Financial service providers will be more responsive to the financial service needs of poor households and micro-entrepreneurs.

At the Meso level one of the initiatives is to provide the support to the Banking Institute (BI). An integral part of the MAFIPP project result framework (output 2, Indicative Activities 10.3) is to increase the capacity building of BI with best practices. To that end MAFIPP is seeking to recruit an international consultant to support BI in designing and launching a Higher Diploma in Microfinance in Lao PDR.

Devoirs et responsabilités

This Terms of Reference (TOR) has been developed in response to an assessment of the required training and TA requirements of the sector institutions for the period 2011-2014 for enhancing the capacity of financial sector professionals in Lao-PDR, and taking into consideration the priorities requested by BI in September 2014 for operationalizing the Higher Diploma.

The objective of this Technical Assistance (TA) is to strengthen the BI through the development of curricula, training materials and the certification of trainers. The curriculum will contain fundamental concepts in microfinance and knowledge of best practice of microfinance for Bachelor Degree BI students. The teachers of the BI faculty will also receive training and coaching from experienced microfinance training specialist.

This TA is funded by AusAid under the MAFIPP programme and will assist BI to become a major player in building capacity of microfinance professionals and enhancing financial inclusion in Lao PDR.

 Scope of work

The scope of work consists of the followings:

Curriculum Development:

  • Review and Improve the Course Topics/Subjects of the Microfinance Higher Diploma that have already been developed by the BI and approved by the Ministry of Education;
  • Develop the following subjects/topics of the curriculum jointly with a team of lecturers of BI and advise on the composition of the related textbooks:Assist in teaching materials preparation and development;
  • Ensure that the Higher Diploma Program is consistent with both Ministry of Education requirements and international standards of excellence.

UNCDF will ensure that relevant approvals / copyright clearances for the use of international materials have been obtained, what implies that the consultant will limit the scope of inputs to materials publicly available, i.e. that can be obtained in soft copy at no charge.

Training of Teachers

Adjust the Job Descriptions for Lecturers according to the requirements of the new Curriculum.

Assessment of Capabilities of Assignment Lecturers.

Training of Lecturers in Specific Course Subjects (At least 6 courses).

Provide advice regarding the possibilities of developing external partnerships of the BI (within Laos in priority, possibly extending to the ASEAN-Region or globally).

  • Provide recommendations regarding the Capacity Monitoring System for lecturers.

 Provision of monitoring andprogress controls

Monitoring of progress shall be measured both according to the activities of the Consultants as well as the performance of the BI:

  • The Consultant must secure approval from MAFIPP prior to any on-site trip. The consultant will provide a brief TOR for each trip. Submissions should be made to the MAFIPP Technical Specialist;
  • The Consultant will conduct briefings to the MAFIPP Project Manager and Technical Specialist of UNCDF MAFIPP prior to departure of on-site missions;
  • The Consultant shall submit a mission monthly report on activities (no more than 5 pages) completed by the Consultant during that period.

 MAFIPP will provide highly skilled translators with practical, working knowledge of the subject matter for the translation of the textbooks contents provided by the consultant and to provide to the consultant inputs in English out of key materials in Lao language relevant to the subject(s) of the textbooks, so that the consultant may have access to English translations of specific laws, regulations, procedures, sector performance data and so forth that may influence, enhance or otherwise be relevant to the development of the text books and other training materials. MAFIPP will strive to select translator(s) with specific working knowledge of the topic(s) being delivered.

MAFIPP will assign a highly skilled translator/interpreter with a proven track record in banking/finance to work during the overall length of the on-site mission(s) of the consultant. Said person would work not only with translation but as a local technical counterpart when and as required.

The BI will make available a full-time working office space with desk and wifi-connection for both the international consultant and the local translator/technical counterpart.

Compétences

Functional Competencies:

  • Demonstrates commitment to human development principles and values;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Shares knowledge and experience;
  • Plans and produces quality results to meet established goals;
  • Generates innovative, practical solutions to challenging situations;
  • Conceptualizes and analyzes problems to identify key issues, underlying problems, and how they relate;
  • Demonstrates strong oral and written communication and educational skills;
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
  • Responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view.

Corporate Competencies:

  •  Demonstrates integrity by modeling the curriculum and ethical standards;
  • Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education:

  • Master’s degree in economics, finance, business or public administration or related field.

Experience:

  • At least 10 years of professional experience in micro and rural finance. Demonstrated knowledge and experience in microfinance project design, planning and management, particularly in Human Resources development;
  • Proven competencies in developing curricula for academic institutions to finance, inclusive finance, agricultural finance, economic development, financial education and the like;
  • Strong proven functional skills in training, advice, coaching, diagnostics, research and assessments, design;
  • Strong writing skills and track records in producing relevant reports and training materials;
  • High levels of communication and interpersonal skills and experiences in working effectively in a multi-cultural environment;
  • Sensitivity to diverse opinions and difficulties arising from differing social and cultural perceptions.

Language:

  • English proficiency required.

Requirements for submission of proposals:

All interested and qualified candidates should apply on-line using the following links:

  • UNDP Lao PDR Country Office website at http://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/operations/jobs/ or
  • UNDP Jobs at http://jobs.undp.org/

 In order to make submission please read the attached relevant documents:

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

 Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

Technical Proposal:

  • Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies in relation to the TOR and mentioning earliest availability;
  • Brief document (4 pages maximum) with the approach and the overall planning for this assignment;
  •  Curriculum Vitae;
  • Possibly samples of authored training materials.

Financial proposal:

  • Financial proposal stating the professional fees inclusive of living costs in Vientiane and travels from place of residence to duty station Vientiane covering 21 days of work;
  • Provide a breakdown of days of work on and off-site.

Note:

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR.  In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days). All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. UNDP accept travel costs not exceeding of an economy class air ticket.

 The award of the contract will 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 the above set of weighted technical and financial criteria.

Instructions for on-line submissions:

  • Step 1:  Please prepare all required documents electronically;
  • Step 2: Combine all documents in ONE SINGLE FILE (preferably in PDF however Word format can be also accepted) and upload to the UNDP Jobs using the links above;
  • Step 3: After that you will receive an auto reply from the UNDP jobs if your offer is received successfully.

 Cumulative analysis:

The award of the contract will be made to a consultant who 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 and financial criteria:
  • Technical Criteria weight; [0.7];
  • Financial Criteria weight; [0.3].

Only a consultant obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical rating would be considered for the financial evaluation.

For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1- Terms of Reference (TOR). TOR and General Terms and Conditions for Individual Consultants can be also downloaded at http://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/operations/jobs/ 

Note:

Any request for clarification must be sent in writing to the following e-mail: Cedric Javary

UNDP Lao PDR will respond in writing by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all consultants.

The copies of the response will be also placed on our web-site at  http://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/operations/jobs/ and linked to the current Procurement Notice.

Please note that only short-listed candidates will be notified.

Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

For more detailed information about UNDP Lao PDR please visit our website at http://www.undplao.org

All interested candidates are encouraged to visit the above web-site for updates.