Background

United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 48 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, with a special commitment to countries emerging from conflict or crisis. It provides seed capital – grants and loans – and technical support to help financial service providers reach more poor households and small businesses, and local governments finance the capital investments that will improve poor peoples’ lives.  Financial inclusion means universal access, at a reasonable cost, to a wide range of financial services, provided by a variety of sound and sustainable institutions.  The range of financial services includes savings, short and long-term credit, leasing and factoring, mortgages, insurance, pensions, payments, local money transfers and international remittances. Information on UNCDF may be found at www.uncdf.org.

Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P)

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. 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 is currently implementing this in eight countries (Laos, Nepal, Liberia, Malawi, Senegal, Benin, Zambia and Uganda).  With its programme management unit in Brussels, Belgium, UNCDF has placed technical teams in each of the focus countries of the programme.

In partnership and with financing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF or “the Foundation”) UNCDF started in Uganda in 2014. Having completed many initial stages of the programme around awareness raising, research, strategy and business planning, the work has narrowed to several crucial areas which are focused on reaching women and rural areas. The identified interventions over the next few years include: digitization of bulk payments (agricultural value chains, social welfare, education and potentially energy); agency banking; a few policymaker and regulator support efforts. This is done through direct technical assistance and grants DF providers, NGOs, agriculture companies, etc. as well as working with the government. 

Mobile has become the platform of choice for creating, distributing and consuming innovative digital solutions and services in Africa. The mobile industry is emerging as a strong contributor to economies in Africa. GSMA (2016) estimates that in 2015, the mobile ecosystem contributed to the African economy a total of $92 Million (direct) and $153 Million (both direct and indirect), respectively 4.1% and 6.7% of GDP. In terms of employment, this translates into approximately 1.3 million direct and 3.8 million (both direct and indirect) jobs created by the mobile ecosystem.  

GSMA further affirms that this economic impact could significantly grow with the launch of other value added services and if startups are allowed to take advantage of the existing technology platforms through API’s.

In terms of market readiness, on the demand side, there is growing interest from consumers in home-grown solutions that directly appeal to local interests and cultures, and that address unique social and economic challenges faced by consumers (GSMA, 2016). On the supply side, there is also growing momentum across Africa, through technology hubs, to develop innovative solutions that leverage the size and reach of mobile infrastructure, distribution channels, mobile payments and technologies to improve access to utility services for underserved communities.

The GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator programme estimates that there are approximately 310 active tech hubs across the Africa, including 180 accelerators/incubators, with top on the list South Africa (51 tech hubs), Kenya (26), Nigeria (23). These tech hubs have proven to be both creators of new jobs especially for the youths, and sources of solutions to tackle socio-economic challenges.

To enact the full potential of the start-up ecosystem, there is need for collaboration among various players to ensure new mobile based solutions are developed, and achieve scale and sustainability.

GSMA (2016) identifies some of the main action areas for the major stakeholders in this collaboration:

Government:

  • Support to tech innovation hubs and development of digital skills;
  • Prioritise digital inclusion;
  • Enable policies that allow infrastructure sharing, none discriminatory access to public infrastructure;
  • Ensure the poor are not excluded from mobile money by onerous KYC requirements;
  • Collaborate with innovators to digitize relevant data and information for end users.

Mobile operators:

  • Open and harmonize APIs to enable the full ecosystem ;
  • Collaborate with one another to enable innovators access to key platforms;
  • Embrace interoperability to ensure wallets are interconnected with other providers;
  • Accelerate outreach efforts to educate and support the local developer community about operator APIs and engage with them more broadly.

Donors:

  • Support innovation centers, especially in those markets with less capital from private-sector investors;
  • Learn and invest in new approaches to extend financial services to the underserved, especially women and rural populations; keep the needs of the underserved in focus for the mobile money industry; and advocate for enabling policy environments for digital financial services to reach scale.

Some progress is already happening in different countries on the continent. In terms of opening up API’s, some mobile operators have opened up to third party developers ushering in a new ecosystem engagement. These include: Orange in parts of west Africa, Safaricom in Kenya, Airtel in Malawi, Vodafone in Tanzania and Ghana, MTN in Zambia.

In the banking sector, Equity bank in Kenya has also opened up its API to third party developers.

In Uganda, while there is recognition among MNO’s and development partners that open API’s have the potential to foster innovation and development of new use cases for DFS (+), this area remains quite unknown to and untapped for most players in the mobile ecosystem.

UNCDF as a player (donor) in the DFS space in Uganda, believes that opening API’s will propel innovation in technology, business models and partnerships for enhanced digital services, which in turn will unlock and provide access to a variety of new use cases in sectors like agriculture, health, education, energy, transport and sanitation.

UNCDF would therefore like to take a step in enacting an industry discussion around this subject by organizing a high level workshop bringing together stakeholders in the Mobile Money Ecosystem.

Objective, outcome and participants of the workshop:

Objective:

  • Introduce the concept of open API’s to industry players in Uganda, and its potential to stimulate innovation in digital finance;
  • Discuss / Evaluate how open API’s can impact/benefit consumers, telco’s, banks, start- ups, regulators and the Ugandan economy at large;
  • Discuss case studies on open API’s in other emerging markets, and the lessons Uganda can learn from them;
  • Discuss and agree the best way for the industry to jointly move towards Open API’s in a harmonized way, including standardization, governance and regulatory aspects to ensure best outcomes.

Outcome:

  • Develop a framework report for adopting an open API standard for the Uganda market; including recommendations on how the standard can be designed, delivered and administered.
  • Identify and get commitment on from industry players on next steps for the Open API agenda in Uganda.

Participants:

  • Telecom operators
  • Banks
  • Tech hubs
  • Mobile Money Aggregators
  • Government / Regulator
    • Ministry of ICT
    • NIRA
    • NITA
    • Bank of Uganda
    • Uganda Communication Commission
  • FSDU
  • GSMA
  • CGAP.

MM4P is seeking an API expert who will facilitate this workshop and include invitees with experience in the subject matter.  

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will:

  • Deliver the workshop onsite (3 working days);
  • Write report offsite (5 working days).

Competencies

Professional:

  • Takes on innovation and new approaches and fosters innovation in others;
  • Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking;
  • Conceptualizes more effective approaches to programme development and implementation and to mobilizing and using resources.

Management/Client Orientation:

  • Anticipates constraints in the delivery of services and identifies solutions or alternatives;
  • Proactively identifies, develops and discusses solutions for internal and external clients, and persuades management to undertake new projects or services;
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities, and resolve problems;
  • Focus on impact and results for clients and stakeholders;
  • Builds trust in interactions with others, facilitates partnerships;
  • Approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude and responds positively to feedback;
  • Committed to team work, working with other stakeholders.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • A Master’s Degree in software engineering, economics, information technology or other related academic credentials is mandatory.

Experience:

  • Experience in Digital transformation and API is mandatory;
  • Experience in API design and implementation is mandatory;
  • Experience in delivering workshops.

Language requirements:

  • Fluency in English is mandatory.

Proposed Timeline: 

  • 20 May 2017 – 31 May 2017.

Location:

  •  Home-based and Kampala, Uganda.

Total number of working days for assignment: 8 working days.

Travel:

  • The consultant shall quote 1 return air ticket to Kampala, Uganda in the financial proposal.
  • Please note that UNCDF cannot guarantee residence permits or visas for consultants. Consultants are responsible for securing their work documentation. In the case of national consultants, applicants that are not nationals of the duty station requested will have to prove their residence status.  Please note that national consultants will not be compensated for living expenses.
  • For any unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNCDF and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Provision of Monitoring, Progress Controls & Payments:

  • The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Uganda Country Technical Specialist.
  • Payment will be made on periodical basis in accordance with number of days worked and upon satisfactorily achieved deliverables. All payments are subject to the clearance and approval of the direct supervisor.
  • Final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

Application: 

Interested individuals must submit the following documents 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:

  • Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies in relation to the TOR.
  • Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy.
  • Curriculum Vitae.
  • Completed 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).
  • Signed financial proposal for the full assignment outlining the total professional fee (including professional fees, per diem in Kampala and other professional expenses (such as insurance, taxes, etc.), duty travel (1 return ticket from country of origin to Kampala, Uganda). The form is available at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916).

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure that you have provided all requested materials in one PDF file.

Evaluation:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Preliminary Evaluation - Step I: Screening

Technical Evaluation Weight - 70% x (Step II: 20 Points + Step III: 80 points= 100 Points)

Financial Evaluation Weight - 30% = Step IV.

Step I: Screening

Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the following minimum criteria (listed under education and experience) will progress to the pool for shortlisting.

Step II: Shortlisting

UNCDF will conduct a desk review to produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate them.

As applicable, only the first top 3 ranked applicants achieving 70% of the points at this stage shall be considered for desk review.

Step III: Desk Review

A technical desk review shall be conducted for the top 3 candidates who achieved 70% of the points at the shortlisting stage.

Step IV: Financial Evaluation

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% on the total of Steps II (20 points) + III (80 points) 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 contract shall be awarded to the best applicant whose offer have been evaluated and determined as: responsive/compliant/acceptable and having received the highest combined weight (technical proposal & Desk Review) 70% + financial 30% = 100%.

Both individual consultants and individuals 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).

Women candidates or women-owned businesses are strongly encouraged to apply.

UNCDF 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.