Background

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 48 least developed countries (LDCs). 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. This last mile is where available resources for development are scarcest; where market failures are most pronounced; and where benefits from national growth tend to leave people excluded. 

Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P) is a programme launched by UNCDF in partnership with the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The MasterCard Foundation. MM4P provides support to branchless and mobile financial services in a select group of LDCs to demonstrate how the correct mix of financial, technical and policy support can build a robust branchless and mobile financial services ecosystem that reaches low income people in LDCs.

MM4P launched in Nepal in 2013. The preparatory phase of MM4P has been done in consultation with the Central Bank of Nepal, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) and with the permission of the Ministry of Finance, with a focus on research, awareness raising, assistance in strategy and business planning and working with the NRB. Since then MM4P in Nepal has been extending its activities, and one of key cornerstone of the work is with NRB and MoFALD on policy.

Nepal has made significant improvements over the years in terms of financial services delivery outlets/channels offered through both formal and informal financial institutions. Despite that, the level of adults Nepalese above 18 years who are excluded from financial services remains significant. The data from the Finscope Nepal survey 2014 showed that only 40% of the population are banked, with significant disparities between the regions.

The central bank of Nepal, Nepal Rastra Bank had deployed various policy instruments to ensure that the financial services are able to make in-roads in remote and rural areas. Still financial services are concentrated in mostly urban and semi-urban areas, with Kathmandu valley region having the highest concentration.

To understand and inform the policy making, eco-system payment flow diagnosis plays an important role.  It is proposed to undertake one, with the aim of providing a macro level and micro level view on the status of digital payments adoption and the gap that persist in market across various dimensions like customer, provider, infrastructure, and on policy front. This stock taking exercise has its own objective which are as below:

  • To feed into the development of the future  strategy including the visioning exercise;
  • To provide a baseline assessment on state of electronic payment service adoption and for further setting up of KPIs aligned to the vision;
  • Provide a comprehensive understanding to develop a robust oversight mechanism later by NRB.

To achieve the outcomes outlined as above for this stock taking, the exercise needs to be data driven so that the policy objectives that are laid later are clearly based on evidence. With these considerations, the following is the suggested scope for the exercise.

  • Quantitative Scoping
    • Eco-system payment flow mapping;
    • Mapping supply side payments data and demand side data from finscope survey of 2015.
  • Qualitative Scoping
    • Regulatory readiness;
    • Market readiness mapping including quality of services or products offered by different providers and infrastructure.

As part of this ToR the focus would be on conducting the eco-system diagnosis. The eco-system mapping of payment flows will aim at dimensioning the payment grid for Nepal. This would entail answering questions like, but not limited to below:

  • What are the various payment flows in the economy? How much of those payments are currently undertaken in cash vs digital?
  • What are the biggest volume of payments flows and how could priority be set-up for driving their transition?
  • How are consumers and merchants choosing to pay?
  • What share of transactions—by value and volume—are being done with different payment devices?
  • Demographics- who uses which payment instrument and why?
  • How are payment choices changing over time? How fast are they changing?

UNCDF is looking for a consultant with research background and knowledge of banking payment flows who would work in close collaboration with an expert on the subject who had conducted these payment flows in another country context before.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant will specifically undertake the following:

  • Work in close collaboration of an international expert who has worked on similar eco-system payment flow diagnosis. The international person would be responsible overall for the data analysis and production of report. The national consultant would assist the expert in the planning process, outlining the payment flows and zeroing on the information sources that will be used to populate the flows. He/She would also work on first level of data analysis and support in report writing as required. He/She would be fully responsible for gathering the data from various data sources and discuss it back with the international expert to draw conclusions.
  • Work under direct coordination with NRB Technical task force created for the stock taking and use the team as guide and mentor for outlining the sources and finalizing the outcomes. The national consultant would also be working on behalf of UNCDF with the task force.
  • National Consultant would be entrusted with field work that would include setting up interviews, conducting interviews or FGDs as required, documenting the minutes and working with the expert on driving the outcomes, which are broadly stated in the background of this ToR and also be updated during the planning process towards start of the exercise.
  • National Consultant would be entrusted with undertaking desk research based on the plan outlined (developed along with the international expert) for the completion of this work
  • The national consultant should ensure that at every step the NRB technical team is well informed of the progress and details are communicated in advance for getting the right guidance
  • The national consultant would support in writing and finalizing the report of this exercise and provide that in a manner that it could be utilized for later phases (development of the national retail payment strategy).

The consultant would work on as required in the later phases of this exercise and others as decided.

Competencies

  • Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
  • Self-development, initiative-taking;
  • Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
  • Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
  • Creates networks, manages relationships and promotes initiatives with partner organizations;
  • Managing conflict;
  • Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others;
  • Effective spokesperson, engaging stakeholders and groupings, both Central bank, government ministers and private sector senior corporate leaders, to advance the development of data reporting system;
  • Excellent presentation and representation skills in multicultural contexts;
  • Ability to translate complex technical ideas to a non-technical audience in both verbally and in writing.
  • Excellent attention to detail, a proactive approach to achieving key results, and a high level of thoroughness in a complex multitasking and matrix management environment.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: a Master’s degree in Business Administration, Economics, Payments System and Banking, Public Policy or Public Finance other relevant field is mandatory;

Work experience:

  • At least 3 years of progressive experience in their space as reflected in the title of this position is mandatory;
  • In-depth knowledge of local Nepal context related to their discipline is mandatory;
  • A good understanding of payment flows in the economy and also should have sufficient knowledge of banking space;
  • Background of conducting and documenting research studies;
  • Ability to manage a public and private sector dialogue between stakeholders to drive towards required outcome
  • Working in team settings in previous work would be preferable
  • Experience in project management.
  • Understanding of issues related to financial inclusion is desirable.

Language:

  • Excellent communication and written skills in both Nepali and English are mandatory.

Timeline, duration of assignment, duty station, total Number of Working Days for Assignment and travel:

  • Timeline: 01 June 2017 to 30 November 2017.
  • Duty station: Kathmandu, Nepal.
  • Total Number of Working Days for Assignment: 132.

Travel:

  • For unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.
  • Please note that UNCDF cannot guarantee residence permits or visa´s 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 consultants residing in the duty station will not be compensated for living expenses. 

Provision of Monitoring, Progress Controls & Payments:

  • The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the MM4P 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:

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 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 months assignment outlining: Total professional fee; Other professional expenses (such as insurance, taxes, etc.);

The financial proposal form is available at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916).

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

Evaluation:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

  • Preliminary Evaluation - Step I: Screening
  • Technical Evaluation Weight - 70% x (Step II: Shortlisting (20 points), Step III: Desk Review (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 by Desk Review:

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 a desk review.

Step III: Desk Review:

A competency-based desk review shall be conducted for the candidates. The maximum score for the desk review is 80 points.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% on the total of Step II (20 points) + Step III (80 points) will be considered as technically qualified and will be reviewed further for financial evaluation.

Step IV: 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 best applicant whose offer have been evaluated and determined as: responsive/compliant/acceptable and having received the highest combined weight (Shortlisting & Desk Review) 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). Please not that in such case the company institution will be asked to issue an RLA: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/vietnam/docs/Legalframework/Reimbursable%20Loan%20Agreement.doc.  

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.)

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.