The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 46 least developed countries. 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. UNCDF’s financing models work through three channels: inclusive digital economies, connecting individuals, households, and small businesses with financial eco-systems that catalyse participation in the local economy, and provide tools to climb out of poverty and manage financial lives; local development finance, that capacitates localities through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance to drive local economic expansion and sustainable development; and investment finance, that provides catalytic financial structuring, de-risking, and capital deployment to drive SDG impact and domestic resource mobilization.

By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to Sustainable Development Goal-SDG 1 on eradicating poverty and SDG 17 on the means of implementation. By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a broad diversity of SDGs. UNCDF strategy ‘Leaving no one behind in the digital era’ is 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.

OBJECTIVE

Under the supervision of the UNCDF Digital Country Lead and Regional Digital Hub Manager, the Digital Agriculture Specialist will:

1. Conduct pre-investment work based on demand from UNCDF,FAO/IC and partner IFIs
2. Design digital agriculture interventions in areas including digitization of value chains; replication of Agri Invest Initiative; capacity building of farmer organizations on digital transformation; and digitization of land tenure systems
3. Implement specific technical assistance related to digital agriculture interventions and possible delivery of specific funding (grants, loans and guarantees) by UNCDF.

       4. Review of implementation progress and knowledge management

SCOPE OF WORK

1. Conduct pre-investment work based on demand from FAO/IC and partner IFIs
   • Assess digital agriculture transformation potential, E-agriculture strategies and digital inclusive finance strategies
   • Develop digitization strategies of sub-sectors such as livestock and fisheries (neglected at the moment in terms of digital transformation as compared to crops);
   • Establish building blocks for digital agriculture transformation (farmers’ registries and digital literacy, rural connectivity and policy and regulatory framework);
   • Develop knowledge products for use by governments, international organizations, value chain actors and private sector.
   • Conduct pre-investment work on project identified to help them scale, and leverage the work done to strengthen the digital agriculture ecosystem.
   • Identify opportunities to scale-up project partners, by identifying and facilitating partnerships.
2. Design digital agriculture interventions in areas including digitization of value chains; replication of AgrInvest Initiative; capacity building of farmer organizations on digital transformation; and digitization of land tenure systems.
   • Establish linkages between UNCDF, FAO/IC partner IFIs (e.g. WB, IFAD, EU, EBRD, etc.) and governments (borrowing entities)
   • Facilitate discussions with IFI task managers and with decision makers in borrowing countries on specific eligible projects and programs for possible UNCDF technical assistance, grants and co-financing through loans and guarantees.
   • Develop concept notes and ToRs and assignment budgets
   • Design digital agriculture interventions carried out in the field (or remotely, depending on country COVID-19 restrictions) including technical, financial/economic, environmental and social feasibility, costing, risk management and implementation arrangements.
   • Develop detailed design inputs for the digital agriculture interventions according to partner standards for investment projects. These design inputs will define UNCDF technical assistance delivered as well as possible co-financing using loans and guarantees.

       3. Implement specific technical assistance related to digital agriculture interventions and possible delivery of specific funding

           (grants, loans and guarantees) by UNCDF.

• Deliver the technical assistance activities and funding as defined in Activity 2 above.
• Submit quarterly implementation reports according to the partner IFI standards on the agreed digital agriculture interventions and possible co-financing via grants, loans and guarantees.
• Support FAO/IC in the supervision of implementation of the agreed activities by UNCDF and in review of the implementation reports mentioned above.  

       4. Review of implementation progress and knowledge management

• Conduct implementation review of the agreed interventions jointly with FAO/IC or partner IFIs
• Prepare knowledge products (e.g. publications, videos, presentations, images) to disseminate learnings and outcomes related to the delivered support activities.

 Expected Outputs and Deliverables.

Payment Milestones

Payments shall be made only upon satisfactory completion and UNCDF’s written acceptance of each deliverable duly approved by the Regional Manager for IDE Asia:

DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT

Contract Duration: 6 months

Contract period: July 2022 till Dec 2022

DUTY STATION AND TRAVEL

Duty station: Home based with travel to Bangladesh

Travel: Possible travels to Bangladesh (Dhaka and other markets) in order to facilitate partnerships and provide technical assistance to Agri tech projects identified. Any travel will be paid separately by UNCDF following the UNCDF Travel policies and should not be included as part of the financial proposal of the applicant. As a matter of policy, travels of consultants in UNCDF are based on economy class and any cost above such standard shall be borne by the consultant.

PROVISION OF MONITORING AND PROGRESS CONTROLS

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the UNCDF Regional Manager in Asia.

The consultant will have daily communication during the contract period with UNCDF via email and Skype, for coordination and guidance purposes, ensuring consultants’ output quality and targets.

The Consultant is responsible for providing his/her own laptop during his/her engagement with UNCDF.

The following supporting documents will serve as conditions for payments to an Individual Contractor(s):

1. Submission of Certificate of Payment (COP)
2. Submission of invoice
3. Submission of all deliverables / workplan / progress report with the relevant supporting documentation
4. Review, approval and written acceptance of each deliverable by the UNCDF Regional Manager for Digital Hub for Asia and any other Project/Programme Manager designated by UNCDF Regional Manager

Language

• Fluent command of written and spoken  English language is required.

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards and acts in accordance with the Standards of Conduct for international civil servants.
• Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNCDF.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.
• Good interpersonal skills and experience in working effectively in a multi-cultural environment, with sensitivity to diverse opinion.

Functional Competencies:

• Strong analytical and writing skills and track record in producing relevant reports and other material.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTOR

Education

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in economics, international development, or related field is mandatory. An additional two (2) years of relevant work experience may be considered in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience

• Minimum 5 years of experience in managing large-scale, high-impact projects in digital finance and digital innovation in agriculture is mandatory.
• Experience of working in Asia will be a plus  
• Experience of managing innovation processes, bootcamps and acceleration programs is preferable.
• Knowledge and experience of digital solutions in a developing country context, demonstrated expertise in digital systems, strategies and policies and organisations and institutions as well as keeping abreast of developments in the global evidence base.
• Experience of implementing digital solutions in inclusive digital finance, especially for the most marginalized populations (refugees, women, youth) particularly in low/middle income countries.
• Understanding of and/or background in digital financing innovations to support and promote agricultural services in rural populations;

APPLICATION PROCESS AND EVALUATION

Application process:

Interested individuals must submit the documents mentioned below 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 file.)

All applications must contain the following information and should be submitted by 12 July 2022:

• Cover letter
• Complete and signed 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: The financial proposal shall specify a lump sum amount that is inclusive of professional fees and other incidentals that the consultant expects to incur during the performance of the work. For this purpose, please complete and submit the Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability (Please click here for document), please send it separately to the email address  financial.proposal@uncdf.org with the subject line: Digital Agriculture Specialist.

Evaluation:

Step I: Screening: Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the mandatory criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting.

Step II: Desk review (70 points).

A desk review will be conducted to produce a shortlist of applicants according to the criteria below. Only applicants who obtain 70% of the points shall be considered for financial evaluation.

Desk review scoring:

Step III: Financial Evaluation (30 points).

Only applicants who obtain a minimum of 70% at the desk review will be considered as technically qualified and will be reviewed further for 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 has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/ compliant/ acceptable.
• Having received the highest combined weight (technical scores) 70% + financial 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.