Background
The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) was founded as an independent organization within the UN system in 1966, with a mission “to assist developing countries in the development of their economies by supplementing existing sources of capital assistance by means of grants and loans.
UNCDF works to enlarge peoples’ choices: it believes that poor people and communities should take decisions about their own development. Its programmes help to empower women – over 50% of the clients of UNCDF-supported microfinance institutions are women – and its expertise in microfinance and local development is shaping new responses to food insecurity, climate change and other challenges. All UNCDF support is provided via national systems, in accordance with the Paris Principles. UNCDF works in challenging environments – remote rural areas, countries emerging from conflict – and paves the way for others to follow. Its programmes are designed to catalyze larger investment flows from the private sector, development partners and national governments, for significant impact on the Millennium Development Goals, especially Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, and Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability. UNCDF Financial Inclusion Practice Area (FIPA) and Local Development Finance practice area will work with the consultant primarily on testing new systems and research and development.
Duties and Responsibilities
The Consultant will work closely with the KM/ loan portfolio Specialist (FIPA) and the Local Development Portfolio Specialist (LDF) to:
Programme Development (60%)
- Develop, coordinate, and implement plans to test the new loan management system during the configuration and implementation phase;
- Responsible for migration of the multi-currency loan portfolio to the new loan management system;
- Support the review of the relevant policies and use of the system and particularly the planning for allocations for grants and loans;
- Continued testing of the loan management system including financial analysis and full functionality of the system; Monitor and document post-implementation problems and revision requests (30%).
Develop, implement, and evaluate the Celoxis knowledge management programme:
- Identify how the program should work from program input through program outcomes and articulate any underlying assumptions;
- Follow up with the pilot group consisting of 10 members including knowledge management specialist, country technical advisors, regional technical advisors, and project managers who should be involved in the model development and pilot process;
- Implement the evaluation design that contains appropriate strategies for measurement, data collection, analysis, and reporting and utilization of results;
- Determine the main outcomes to be achieved through use of the software; Determine the future of Celoxis within UNCDF using the evaluation plan (30%).
Knowledge Management (40%)
- In addition, the consultant will also support the Knowledge Management Specialist in the maintenance and development of UNCDF’s internal knowledge management system -Intranet, and coordinate and prepare responses to policy queries from CO and HQ units (20%).
- Furthermore the consultant will support the preparation and implementation of the annual FIPA retreat, and support the preparation and coordination of relevant reports (20%).
In addition to the above two key areas of activity, the consultant will also:
- Contribute to the design and conduct of regular meetings, briefings and workshops with staff;
- Support the research agenda of FIPA including research on Agricultural finance;
- Evaluate the effectiveness and relevance of implementation activities for headquarters support functions and field operations;
- Draft briefing materials, staff papers and studies, as needed;
- Within delegated authority, supervise and guide the work of interns assigned to the unit;
- Perform other assignments as appropriate or designated by the KM Specialist.
Support to testing the loan management system, and KM are key to both UNCDF Practice areas (FIPA and LDF), ensuring that the products and services it brings to the Least Developed Countries [LDCs] are the best possible solutions to help the LDCs achieve the MDGs.
Competencies
- Serves and promotes the vision, mission, values, and strategic goals of UNCDF;
- Plans, prioritizes, and delivers tasks on time;
- Conceptualizes and analyses problems to identify key issues, underlying problems and how they relate to each other;
- Demonstrates effective written and oral communication skills;
- Plans and produces quality results to meet established goals;
- Generates innovative, practical solutions to challenging situations.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- A Master’s Degree or equivalent in international development, Financial management, Business administration or equivalent
Experience:
- Experience in research and development, platforms and technology;
- Demonstrated the ability to successfully interact with individuals of different cultural backgrounds which include willingness to try and understand and be tolerant of differing opinions and views.
Language:
- Fluency in English.
Evaluation of applicants:
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a “Lowest-priced among technically qualified candidates”.
The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose CV has been evaluated and determined as (a) technically responsive/ compliant/ acceptable, and (b) lowest daily fee. CVs will be evaluated based on:
- Relevant experience working in international development - 35 points;
- Experience in Knowledge Management and in research and development, platforms and technology - 35 points.
Application procedure:
Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. All the required documents should be compiled into one file which must be uploaded with your application online.
The application should contain:
- Recent CV with references;
- Proposed daily rate.