UNDP Jobs - 106975- National Consultant on Private sector due diligenc

National Consultant on Private sector due diligence for the Innovation Challenge on Business Digitalization and E-Commerce Acceleration

Location :

Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

20-Jun-2022

Application Deadline :

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

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

30 working days (from 20 June to 20 August 2022)

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

30 working days (from 20 June to 20 August 2022)

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

The Royal Government of Cambodia has undertaken a series of broad-based reforms aimed at strengthening and diversifying the productive sector base and achieving economic/trade-related competitiveness growth. These strategic objectives are enshrined in the national development agenda, articulated by the Rectangular Strategy IV, the National Strategy Development Plan (2019-2023), the Cambodia Trade Integration Strategy Update (2019-2023), and the Cambodia e-commerce strategy which has been launched in November 2020. A common thread running through these policy instruments is the recognition of E-commerce as a driver of private sector growth, both from a domestic-market and international trade perspective.

The potential for e-commerce development is significant in Cambodia, promising to diversify the economy, provide new jobs, and increase financial inclusion, as well as contributing to improved lives and livelihoods. Cambodia has considerable advantages that could be leveraged to create ICT jobs and benefit the national economy. Yet E-commerce is relatively undeveloped compared to Cambodia’s neighbors and has not yet contributed to export diversification despite its potential in particular for agricultural commodities, handicrafts, and garments.

Some important considerations have been noticeably constrained the future growth in this sector, though. SMEs, in general, face a lot of challenges ranging from the lack of proper status, high transaction costs, to uncertainty related to incentives and regulations, and particularly e-commerce firms, IT start-ups and other segments in newly emerging areas. Remarkably, access to finance is reportedly the most burdensome and challenging for SMEs to find in the formal lending sector.

In this context, UNDP in collaboration with co-financing support from the Ministry of Commerce, Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) and Khmer Enterprise jointly implementing a key components of Cambodia’s e-commerce acceleration project (Go4eCam) that aims to boost domestic and international opportunities for small and medium enterprises through a digital platform. Under this component, there are two initiatives: the MSMEs Incubation on Digitalisation Programme and the Innovation Challenge Programme. The Incubation programme focuses on improving the basic functionalities and capabilities of MSMEs in their entrepreneurship to uptake the e-commerce solution to sell online domestically and internationally. Meanwhile, the Innovation Challenge will offer 70 awards, with a maximum prize of up to USD 5,000 per awardee, through the Innovation Challenge modality aiming at helping those MSMEs with no and little access to formal lending and to demonstrate the benefits the SMEs could gain by going digital and by doing so, they could reach out to wider markets and clientele.

Regarding the Innovation Challenge implementation status, the programme runs in two cohorts. Cohort 1 has completed the selection process by identifying 30 awardees, who will take three months to complete their innovation projects. In parallel, cohort 2 is calling for application until 15th May. It is expected that the remain 40 awardees will be identified through a complete selection process by late May or early June 2022. In accordance with UNDP’s private sector partnership principle, due diligence is a compulsory step to assess on potential risks associated with each private sector company as well as the partnership with UNDP.

Therefore, UNDP is currently seeking a National Consultant to perform due diligence for up to 70 MSMEs, who are selected awardees in the Innovation Challenge programme in both cohorts.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main objective of the proposed assignment is to conduct risk assessment for private sector entities for UNDP Cambodia. The assessment will cover up to 40 in cohort 2. The consultant will be provided with UNDP’s standard due diligence template for this assignment.

The assignment includes a sequence of, but not limited to, the main activities as below:

Perform first draft DDs for up to 40 selected MSMEs using the provided template
Submit the due diligence reports to UNDP for their review and feedback
Deliver final draft DDs incorporating comments from the UNDP team

Interested offeror must read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=91799 for more detail information about term of reference, instructions to offeror, and to download the documents to be submitted in the offer through online.

Competencies

Analytical skills, knowledge of e-commerce environment or ecosystem
Strong analytical mind and understanding of business-related requirements and constraints, with a focus on addressing them through training and capacity development measures
Be able to communicate with different stakeholders
Ability to adapt to different circumstances and to changes in internal and external environments

Required Skills and Experience

Education

At least Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in business administration, private sector development, social science, management, ecommerce, economic, or other related fields

Experiences

Minimum 5 years of combined working experiences in working with or research on MSMEs related topics in Cambodia
Demonstrate in-depth understanding of Cambodia’s private sector development and MSMEs development.
Proven extensive networks or/and ability to establish and maintain partnership with government partners, private sector, business association, and other relevant parties/development donors

Language Requirements

Khmer is mother tongue, plus written and spoken English

Please be informed that we don’t accept application submitted via email.

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

1. Proposal: Letter of explaining why they are most suitable for the work

2. Financial proposal (Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP)

3. Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references

Interested Offerors are required to submit application via UNDP jobsite system as the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP jobsite system. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your on-line applications submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an e-mail acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application, if necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email chanpisey.ky@undp.org and cc procurement.kh@undp.org . While the Procurement Unit would endeavor to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 5 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted in Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain update related to this Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice