UNCDF Jobs - 110139- Digital Financial Services Analyst - IPSA 8

Digital Financial Services Analyst - IPSA 8 - Office-based

Advertised on behalf of

UNCDF

Location :

Kampala, UGANDA

Type of Contract :

IPSA (Regular)

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

13-Nov-22 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

IPSA-8

Duration of Initial Contract :

12 months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

12 months

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

Instructions to Applicants: Click on the "Apply now" button. Input your information in the appropriate Sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume and motivation. Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page. Please ensure that CV or P11 and the Cover letter are combined in one file.

The following documents shall be required from the applicants:

Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers.

A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position.

Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns or other materials.

Office/Unit/Project Description
UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s least developed countries. 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, and local governments finance the capital investments – water
systems, feeder roads, schools, irrigation schemes – that will improve poor peoples’ lives.

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. For further
detail on UNCDF strategy, refer to; https://www.uncdf.org/article/4931/global-strategy-leaving-no-one-behind-inthe-
digital-era.

UNCDF has been operating in Ethiopia since 1982 through its financial inclusion practice and Mobile Money for the
Poor Programme from 2012 to 2019. Currently UNCDF has developed a new Ethiopia country strategy covering the
period 2019-2024 which contributes towards UNCDF’s Global Inclusive Digital Economy strategy and envisions
leveraging the digital economy ensuring no one is left behind. As part of its IDE programme, UNCDF has launched
the Digital Financial service for resilience program in the country with two broader objectives: supporting the policy
and distribution of the digital finance access points in the country. The program intends to implement multiple
projects in partnership with the government and private sector players in the country.

To achieve these goas UNCDF is looking for a Digital Finance (DF) Analyst based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Institutional Arrangement
The primary contact for reporting for this TOR shall be the UNCDF regional office with a dotted line to Digital Finance
Lead based in Ethiopia. The contract is initially for 12 months with the possibility of renewal for another 12 months
based on programmatic needs, satisfactory performance, and availability of funds. If the position requires traveling,
the costs will be covered by UNCDF.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

1. Technical

a) Provide technical inputs to selected public and private partners in order to advance the Digital and Digital

Finance Ecosystem in Ethiopia and the East and South African (ESA) region.

b) Build UNCDFs Digital Finance leadership in the ESA region (with a priority focus in Ethiopia as a pilot country)

by providing technical inputs to UNCDFs publications.

c) Write technical documents such as Requests for Applications for partners, Presentations, meeting minutes,

project documents, project workbooks, and others as may be required.

d) Coordination and facilitation role in the implementation of assigned projects:

• Coordinate and work closely with other colleagues on learning, and networking events

• Facilitate follow up and monitoring field visits

• Liaises and work closely with project implementing partners

• Work closely with Knowledge Management and Comms team to increase visibility of UNCDF and

its partner’s work.

• Supervise and engage in with project implementation partners.

• Deliver technical assistance in the implementation of the projects by partner organization (on

assigned projects).

• Technical assistance to DFS providers and FinTech’s to develop or scale products that contribute

to the increase of women’s financial inclusion such as integrated innovations, women’s access to

mobile phones and/or digital/financial literacy. Development and usage of micro credit, saving and

insurance products.

2. Policy

e) Coordinate and support the DFS Working Group (WG) initiative of UNCDF ESA region.

• Support DFS WG operations and its move towards an association.

• Organise quarterly meetings and series of webinars for the Digital Financial service WG

• Assist the WG in the role of secretariate while providing technical assistance

• Create collaboration and learning sessions between working group members and by onboarding

other experts to fill the gap

• Develop relationships with other WG or associations in the DFS space regionally or in other areas

where experience can be leveraged.

• Builds relationship with members and other stakeholders that engage in the working group

3. Other

f) Demonstrates openness to change, ability to manage complex organisations and resolve problems.

g) Focus on impact and results for clients and stakeholders.

Competencies

Core

Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work

Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements

Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences

Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands

Act with Determination: LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously

Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

Thematic Area Name Definition

Digital & Innovation / Digital ecosystems Knowledge of how they work, understanding of the opportunities

/ and challenges for governments and society

Digital & Innovation / Digital business analysis / Ability to support digital business processes across a range of digital projects, programmes and activities.

Digital & Innovation / Facilitation of digital innovation / Ability to facilitate groups and individuals through a digital

innovation process

General (across the functions) Public relations / Ability to build and maintain an overall positive public image for the organisation, its mandate and its brand, while ensuring that individual campaigns and other communications and advocacy initiatives are supported in reaching the public

Cross functional competencies:

Strategic thinking

• Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritised plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities; linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions

• Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate

foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP

Project Management

• Ability to plan, organise, prioritise and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals

Digital Awareness and Literacy

• Ability and inclination to rapidly adopt new technologies, either through skilfully grasping their usage or through understanding their impact and empowering others to use them as needed

Required Skills and Experience

Minimum Qualifications of the Successful IPSA

Min. Education requirements
A Master’s degree in technology, economics, public/business administration, social sciences, or related discipline or the equivalent experience is mandatory.
Min. years of relevant work experience
A minimum of two years-experience in progressively more responsible positions in the digital financial services and/or telecommunications field is
mandatory.
Required skills

• Experience in working with the implementation of branchless banking and mobile financial services projects is mandatory.
• Experience working with private sector or international organisations in Africa. Demonstrated experience building partnerships, either public private partnerships or between private sector players is mandatory.
• Experience working on DFS projects in rural areas or related to agriculture/Value Chain finance, merchant payment, distribution network or G2P
payments or similar projects.
• Experience in supporting in a team and/or leading development of DFS product at any capacity.
• Demonstrated ability in interacting and adapting communications with regards to different stakeholders.
Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section
• Experience designing or building data systems is preferred but not mandatory.
• Experience designing and piloting DFS products in peri-urban and rural geographies is preferred but not mandatory.
• Experience in writing business cases, project and programme documents or similar type of documents is preferred, but not mandatory.
• Experience in capacity building and/or advisory services to private and public actors is preferable but not required.
• Experience working with regulators in the Central Bank on digital financial services is preferred but not mandatory.
Required Language(s) Proficiency in English is mandatory.
Professional Certificates n/a