Historique

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. Established by the General Assembly in 1966 and with headquarters in New York, UNCDF is an autonomous UN organization affiliated with UNDP.

With support from Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (“DFAT” formerly AusAid) and by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), UNCDF launched Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P) in March 2012, a global thematic initiative to address the opportunities and challenges of implementing branchless banking and mobile money in challenging markets in Africa and Asia. 

MM4P’s long-term mission is to help low income and rural households in LDCs increase their financial security through appropriate, affordable and secure means to receive, manage and save money through these “digital financial services” (DFS). To do so, its intermediate goal is to help build inclusive digital financial sectors such that a wide range of digital financial services are provided responsibly, and at reasonable cost, by sustainable institutions in a well-regulated environment. UNCDF’s strategy to accomplish this goal is based on the financial sector development approach promoted by CGAP and others as the best means to increase access to finance. UNCDF has adapted this approach to DFS, which starts by defining the different stages of a market’s development and the range of interventions needed at different levels (i.e. macro, meso, micro, client) to move it across the stages. This combines a making markets work for the poor approach with UNCDF’s traditional operational model of directly supporting the most crucial level – retail service providers. UNCDF has pursuing this approach in Malawi and Laos since early 2013. During 2013, UNCDF has initiated full implementation of a range of activities in these two countries and launched its programme in Liberia and Nepal.

In early 2014, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation added its support to expand MM4P’s activities into Uganda. It is also working with new funds received by UNCDF for Nepal.   MM4P is negotiating a partnership with another funding partner to roll out MM4P activities in three additional countries in sub-Saharan Africa for a period of five years, including Francophone and Anglophone Africa.

MM4P requires a consultant with a solid background of Digital Financial Services and project management to assist with the ramp up and entrance into new markets, which also necessitates a strengthening of its current programme tools.   

Devoirs et responsabilités

Under the direct responsibility of the MM4P Programme Manager, the Consultant will specifically:

  • Assist in the ramping up of activities in Lao, Nepal, Uganda and Liberia and tracking these activities;
  • Assist the MM4P team in the revision of the lessons learned and updating policies, procedures, planning and reporting tools;
  • Assist in expansion into the three new countries;
  • Perform other related tasks as required by the MM4P Programme Manager.
Key activities:

In close collaboration with the MM4P Programme Manager the Consultant will provide assistance to the MM4P Programme, focusing on achievement of the following results:

  • Assist in the ramping up of activities in Lao, Nepal, Uganda and Liberia;
  • Assist in drafting TORs for short-term support to partners;
  • Review outputs from consultants and partners, providing feedback, edits and suggestions for improvements;
  • Review submissions from current and potential partners, including business plans, pilot plans, etc.;
  • Help prepare project appraisals for the consideration of the Investment Committee (IC) based on partners’ submissions and interactions;
  • Contribute to the planning process of local workshops and trainings, providing input on agendas and materials;;
  • Work with the MM4P to implement tracking system for activities ensuring the timely implementation of contractor activities and collection of all materials;
  • Assist the MM4P team in the revision of the lessons learned and updating policies, procedures, planning and reporting tools.
Support the revision of MM4P´s business case and project documents in the light of its expansion and shift to an ecosystem approach, including:
  • Programme policies;
  • Global strategies;
  • Country strategies;
  • Country work plans;
  • Partner work plans/technical assistance plans;
  • Country dashboard.
Support the assessment of the programme´s needs and provide expertise and inputs to the development and evaluation of technical specifications, such as:
  • Specifications for new products and services;
  • Concept notes for new projects.

Update the programme´s systems, tools and processes to support the new implementation trend, including:

  • Agreement templates with partners and suppliers;
  • Assistance Instruments (technical assistance, grants, other) with partners and suppliers;
  • Performance tracking tools (KPIs, dashboards);
  • Reporting templates for donors;
  • Reporting templates for partners;
  • Programme file and configuration management system.

Contribute to the update of the programme´s Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM), including:

  • MM4P Global Indicators;
  • MM4P Country Indicators;
  • Programme Result Chain;
  • Country Result Chain;
  • Support MM4P´s expansion to 3 additional countries.

Supporting program formulation for the additional countries including:

  • Business case;
  • Country strategies;
  • Country work plans.

Assist in developing plans and TORs for start-up activities in several areas (market research, learning agenda, tracking & monitoring), including:

Develop market research support plans:
  • On agent network (agent network assessment and diagnosis, research on rural agents, research on agent challenges, etc.);
  • On client’s needs, demands, behaviors and attitudes (customer adoption diagnosis, research on user experience, research on specific challenges, etc.);
  • On high volume payment streams (payment flows diagnosis, focused research on some payment streams, etc.);
  • On providers (data analytics, etc.);
  • Develop tracking and monitoring support plans (country tracker survey, service point mapping, etc.);
  • Develop learning agent support plan;
  • Baseline study of markets;
  • Contribute to legal and regulatory stocktaking efforts in host countries and share with others;
  • Contribute to the planning process of the first local workshops and trainings, providing input on agendas and materials;
  • Assist in developing relationships with key stakeholders in focus countries, and creating contact data base;
  • Assist in initial outreach efforts with stakeholders.

Other Activities:
  • Assist in the planning and preparation for the MM4P annual partners’ event in December;
  • Contribute to fundraising efforts by drafting budgets and text to include in proposals;
  • Contribute to knowledge generation and sharing activities of the programme;
  • Provide inputs to Knowledge management products;
  • Provide inputs to market research initiatives.

Compétences

Functional Competencies:
  • Excellent speaking and writing skills in English are necessary;
  • Proficiency in French preferred;
  • Excellent analytical skills;
  • Proven ability to manage projects;
  • Strong IT skills, including ability to work regularly with MS Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint;
  • Proven cross-cultural communication. The candidate(s) should be able to function effectively in an international, multicultural environment and manage a team consisting of multiple nationalities.

Core Competencies:

  • Promotes ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents;
  • Political acumen;
  • Builds staff competence,  creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
  • Builds and promoting effective teams;
  • Creates environment for open communication and fosters a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
  • Takes fair and transparent  decisions; calculated risk-taking;
  • Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modeling UN values and ethical standards;
  • Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Treats all persons fairly without favoritism;
  • Shows strong corporate commitment;
  • Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNCDF and UNDP

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education:
  • A Master’s degree in technology, economics, public/business administration, social sciences, or related discipline or the equivalent experience.
Experience: 
  • A minimum of seven (7) years’ experience in progressively more responsible positions in the financial services and/or telecommunications field;
  • A minimum of two (2) years’ experience working with branchless banking and mobile financial services;
  • Experience in working with the implementation of branchless banking and mobile financial services projects;
  • Experience in project management.
Language:
  • Fluency in  English and proficiency French.

Timeline, Duration of  Assignment, Duty station and expected places to travel:

  • Timeline -  August 1st 2014 up to 31 December 2014;
  • Location -  Brussels;
  • Estimated number of working Days for the assignment -100
Travel:
  •  Any travel expenses to join duty station (Brussels) must be quoted in the financial proposal;
  •  Occasional travel may be required and will be compensated according to UN polices.    

Application:

Applications close on 17 July, 2014, at 17:00 Central European Time.   Applications will be rated on both technical and financial submissions.

The best proposal that will be awarded the contract shall be selected through the following method. Highest rated proposal using the combined scoring method, which assigns the weight distribution between the technical and financial proposals as set out in the RFP.  The weight distribution shall be 70% technical and 30% financial. 
 
All applications must contain the following information:
  • Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies in relation to the TOR;
  • Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy;
  • Curriculum Vitae;
  • Completed 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 for the full months assignment outlining:
  • Total professional fee (including professional fees, per diems in Brussels (if applicable);
  • Other professional expenses (such as insurance, taxes, etc.);
  • Duty travel (return ticket from country of origin to Brussels).
 (available at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916)
 Both individual consultants and individual employed by a company or institution are welcome to apply. 
 
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). Please not that in such case the company institution will be asked to issue an [i]RLA.   Women candidates or women-owned businesses are strongly encouraged to apply.

Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA): A legal instrument between UNCDF and a Company/institution, according to which, the latter makes available the services of an individual delivering time-bound and quantifiable outputs that are directly linked to payments. An RLA is governed by the provisions of this policy.