Background

United Nations Capital Development Fund

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 48 least developed countries. 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.

UNCDF’s financing models work through two channels: financial inclusion that expands the opportunities for individuals, households, and small businesses to participate in the local economy, providing them with the tools they need to climb out of poverty and manage their financial lives; and by showing how localized investments — through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance — can drive public and private funding that underpins local economic expansion and sustainable development.

By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to SDG 1 on eradicating poverty and SDG 17 on the means of implementation. By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a number of different SDGs.

UNCDF’s Energy Access Initiative: CleanStart Programme

UNCDF, through the CleanStart Programme (2012-2020), supports low-income consumers to transition to cleaner and more efficient energy. By 2020, CleanStart aims to have over 500,000 households and micro-entrepreneurs make the switch to clean energy, which translates into 2.5 million people benefitting altogether.

To this end, the CleanStart Programme promotes access to finance across the energy value chain from customer to enterprise by investing in early stage, innovative business ideas from SMEs that have the potential to make a step-change in improving the accessibility, affordability, and reliability of modern energy for people, especially those at the last-mile. Business ideas should have strong commercial-viability potential.

The initiative has four programme components. The (1) investment component as described above is complemented by three other components that centre around (2) providing technical advisory services to get concepts and business plans investment-ready by CleanStart, as well as general advice and linkages to non-financial resources such as experts and business development opportunities during the life of the partnership; (3) knowledge and learning through customer insights research and Thinkshops to discuss trending market topics; and (4) advocacy and partnerships with strategic partners to jointly support the improvement of the energy access market ecosystem so that business models can scale.

CleanStart global is supported by the Austrian Development Cooperation, the Government of Andorra, the Government of Liechtenstein, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, and the Swedish International Development Agency.

Purpose of the Long Term Agreement

UNCDF  would like to enter into a non-exclusive Framework Agreement, also known as Long-Term Agreement (LTA), with one or more individuals that will perform the services described below on a need-basis.  In UNCDF, an LTA is a framework agreement by and between UNCDF and a company or individual where the latter may, at any time within the duration of the LTA, be required to render the agreed services at the agreed and fixed unit prices for a minimum period of 12 months, with potential extension for up to two (2) additional years, depending on satisfactory performance of the company.

Under an LTA, UNCDF does not guarantee that any specific quantity of services shall be purchased during the term of this agreement.  The LTA does not form a financial obligation or commitment from UNDP at the time the LTA contract is signed and that such an agreement is non-exclusive.   

Where a request for service arises, UNCDF can engage the individual on LTA through a “call-off” of the LTA.   
Every call-off shall have specific tasks, scope of services and outputs to be delivered within a specific period of time.   For this particular work, the call-off shall be formalized through the issuance of a Purchase Order, attaching thereto the TOR, and any other document relevant to the call-off.  Financial commitments will only be established each time a Purchase Order for the specific services/TOR for Individual Contractor is committed.

The LTA shall have a cumulative ceiling amount that may accrue to the individual contractor during the life of the LTA, but said amount shall remain as an upper limit, and must not and cannot be interpreted nor understood as neither a financial commitment nor guarantee of business volume.

The overall objective of the LTA is to support the Programme Teams in conducting due diligence on enterprises with prospects for investment, and as well as monitoring and measuring results of investment portfolio.

The two roles are combined given the need to understand the unique challenges that energy SMEs face to conduct nuanced due diligence of businesses, and vice versa – the need to know what support companies need post-investment.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Services

The Clean Energy Investment Due Diligence and Portfolio Monitoring Specialist(s) will manage collecting and assessing data from the energy companies and evaluate the impacts and results of the portfolio. Key work areas:

Key scope of services

Detail

Final products

Estimated number of days

  1. Measure the performance of the portfolio of UNCDF energy company grantees

 

  • Review portfolio companies’ submitted monitoring reports;
  • Participate in quarterly progress meetings with portfolio companies; and, following up, if needed, for additional information; 
  • Compile and contribute data for UNCDF’s reports to stakeholders;
  • Assess the effectiveness of the reporting tools and propose improvements.
  • Summary of quarterly progress review meetings with portfolio companies
  • Quarterly and annual portfolio reports which present the status of the portfolio from the various challenge fund windows.
  • Quarterly KPI data presentation based on data collected from portfolio companies.
  • Quarterly portfolio-level impact results in areas such as job creation, CO2 emissions reduction.

 

  • 7 days per month
  1. Evaluate portfolio results when partner companies request a milestone disbursement; and, prepare the necessary UNCDF assessment reports.

 

  • Review the deliverables for each milestone activity for completeness and acceptability;
  • Follow up with grantees on missing data;
  • Prepare the Milestone Checklist document, Assessment Report and Cover letter.

 

  • Milestone deliverable and disbursement documents. 
  • Training to partner companies on reporting and milestone request process. 

 

  • 7 days per month
  1. Conduct due diligence of enterprises that apply to the Renewable Energy Challenge Fund, and identify technical assistance needs of portfolio companies to assist with their growth and sustainability.

 

 

  • Review Expressions of Interests or full application packages
  • Develop due diligence tools and analysis
  • Prepare documents for submission to the Investment Committee and participate in Investment Committee meetings.
  • Identify technical assistance support needed for a grantee using key data from quarterly reports and milestone requests;
  • Outline an assessment of specific technical assistance needed for a grantee;
  • If needed, support the technical assistance team.

 

  • Due diligence tools for portfolio company selection based on the type of funding or challenge fund design.
  • Write-ups and scores on potential portfolio companies and analysis for the Investment Committee.
  • Technical assistance assessment of enterprises.
  • Technical assistance to companies.

 

  • 7 days per month

 

Duration of Assignment, duty station and expected places of travel    

The assignment, under this Long Term Agreement (On Call basis), is expected to have a duration of 3 years. The initial contract would be for one year with an option for renewal in subsequent years upon project needs, availability of funds and satisfactory performance of the consultants.
The individual contractor is expected to be Home-based with travel to countries where CleanStart operates in Asia and Africa, including Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand.   

The schedule of travel will be determined according to the requirements of each programme country.    

Travel costs associated to the assignment will be paid as reimbursable basis and following the UNDP/UNCDF rules and regulations which states that consultants shall only be paid the most direct and most economical ticket, as will be quoted by the official UN travel agency.  Any amount in excess of the said quotation, such as class and airline preference of the consultant, shall be borne by the consultant. Daily living allowance will be paid as per UN Rate. Lodging and terminal expenses shall not exceed those allowed within UNCDF policy. Please note that consultants that are home-based will not be compensated for living expenses.

Monitoring, Progress Control and Payment Mechanism

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the CleanStart Programme Manager and Programme Analyst, and in close collaboration with CleanStart partners. The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop and other tools to perform the services.

Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on the actual number of days agreed with UNCDF as reflected in the call-off (PO) and upon certification of satisfactory completion and acceptance of the output by the CleanStart PRogramme manager.

Supporting documents that will serve as conditions for disbursement are as follows: (i) submission of invoice and Certificate of Payment form;  (ii) review,  approval and written acceptance of outputs for  each deliverable by CleanStart Programme Analyst; (iii) submission of time sheet and expenses with relevant documentation; and (iv) authorization of payment disbursement from the direct supervisor.

 

Competencies

Functional Competencies

  • Strong business plan analytical skills;
  • Understands how small to medium scale enterprises serving low-income markets operate and their capacity constraints;
  • Excellent project management skills; able to manage multiple work streams effectively;
  • Good interpersonal skills and experience in working effectively in a multi-cultural environment, with sensitivity to diverse opinion.

Corporate Competencies

  • Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNCDF;
  • Demonstrate integrity by modelling the UN's values and ethical standards;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race and age sensitivity and adaptability
  • Driven by sense of mission to make monitoring and results measurement actionable.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

  • Masters Degree in Business Administration, Finance, Economics, Public policy, or other relevant fields.

Experience

  • At least 5 years hands-on experience providing business development support to enterprises;
  • At least 3 years experience in investment portfolio monitoring;
  • At least 2 years work experience  in one or more of the CleanStart programme countries.

Language

  • Fluency in English (written and verbal) is required.

Evaluation of Applications

Applications will be rated on both technical and financial submissions.  The following selection method will be used:  Highest rated proposal using the combined scoring method, which assigns the weight distribution between the technical and financial proposals.  The weight distribution shall be 70% technical and 30% financial.  
 
Step I: Screening/Longlisting

  • Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the following minimum criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting.
  • Masters level qualifications in Business Admin, Finance, Economics, Public policy, or other relevant fields;
  • At least 5 years hands-on experience providing business development support to enterprises;
  • At least 2 years work experience in one or more of the CleanStart programme countries

Step II: Shortlisting by Desk Review

UNCDF will conduct a desk review to produce a shortlist of candidates.
by evaluating the following criteria with the corresponding points (100 points)

  • At least 5 years hands-on experience providing business development support to enterprises (50 points;
  • At least 3 years experience in investment portfolio monitoring (50 points);

Step III: Interview

A competency-based Interview shall be conducted for the top 4 shortlisted candidates.
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% on the total of Steps II Desk Review(20 points) +III Interview (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%.

Application Procedure

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Proposers who shall not submit below mentioned documents will not be considered for further evaluation.

  • When applying for this consultancy position, please apply with your official name as shown in the government issued identification document (e.g. passport and/or driver license). Contract award is subject to this verification;
  • Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references; link to P11: http://sas.undp.org/documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc;
  • Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology, if applicable, on how they will approach and complete the assignment;
  • Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position. Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application;
  • Confirmation of interest and Financial proposal: Template for Confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal
  • Earliest Availability.

 Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when traveling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org.

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.

Please include all documents into one file while submitting your application.

References

UNDP’s Individual Consultant’s General Terms and Conditions are provided here:
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf