Background

United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)

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.

UNCDF CleanStart in Uganda

UNCDF’s initial investments in Uganda has leveraged in-country funding from the Embassy of Sweden in Uganda to co-invest in business model innovations in the solar power and clean cooking markets (Renewable Energy Challenge Fund, RECF), and the Department for International Development of the UK to in Uganda to promote industry-led off-grid solar market development in collaboration with the Uganda Solar Energy Association (USEA).  

UNCDF is supporting USEA to build up its governance and management structure, as well as incubate member services such as sales data collection, business development services, and Big Data customer research.

Objectives

The selected consultant will support the UNCDF team on two components of the Uganda Solar Energy Association Project:

1)    Delivering market intelligence to stimulate market expansion and investment in the Uganda off-grid solar sector, in collaboration with technical service providers and other strategic partners.

2)    Big data customer insights to stimulate customer-centric product development and policy advocacy to inform the national energy policy.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

Market Intelligence Component [Estimated level of effort: 85-90% of working days]

Design and undertake a sales data collection pilot for the solar energy sector including: (1) Scoping and preparation; (2) Planning & Setup; (3) Data collection; (4) Data processing and cleaning; (5) Reporting & Dissemination; (6) Strategic Review and Forward Planning. This work will be done in close collaboration with the USEA secretariat and other strategic partners, and includes:

Ongoing:

• Acting as main liaison between USEA (secretariat & board), strategic partners, technical service providers and UNCDF;
• Deliver trainings and support to the USEA secretariat and the local service provider(s);
• Working in close collaboration with the USEA secretariat to coordinate communications with USEA members participating in the sales data collection pilot;
• Assisting the USEA Secretariat with organizing meetings, consultations (including surveys), trainings and Thinkshops related to data collection and reporting;

Pre-Launch:

• Planning and development of a workplan for the data collection exercise;
• Undertaking a pre-launch scoping exercise in collaboration with USEA and other strategic partners – This will involve consultations with USEA members and other Ugandan solar companies;
• Updating the USEA members database;
• Defining the scope of the sales data collection pilot (Definition of product categories; Development of questionnaire for sales data collection; Identification of companies that will take part in the pilot are identified)
• Assisting USEA and UNCDF with liaising with the specialised local technical service provider;

Data collection:

• Assisting the local technical service provider to build the required data infrastructure and undertake sales data collection, quality control, maintenance and management of the database;
• Together with the USEA secretariat, oversee data collection, tracking of submissions, and provide ongoing support to respondents;

Reporting & Dissemination of Results:

• Coordinate and contribute to the development of sales data report(s) and other relevant materials and their dissemination;
• Capture lessons learnt and recommendations for future sales data collection exercises;

Big Data [Estimated level of effort: 10-15% of working days]

• Supporting the organization of trainings/workshops;
• Support the UNCDF team to deliver Big Data trainings;
• Document discussions with USEA and other partners and developments related to the above activities with a view to capture various developments later in UNCDF’s progress to the funder.

Duration of Assignment, Duty Station and Places of Travel

Contract Duration:  October 2018-March 2019.

The individual contractor is expected to be based in Kampala, Uganda, with possible travel outside Kampala, and one mission to Utrecht, The Netherlands (2-3 weeks).

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 and any daily living allowance quoted by the consultant will be only in amounts not exceeding the UN DSA Rate

Deliverables
 

The timelines indicated here are target due dates for the completion of services.  These are not to be interpreted as due dates for UNCDF release of payment, since outputs submitted are still subject to review and acceptance.   In the event that the completion of the outputs are delayed, UNCDF shall not be obliged to release the payments on these  dates, unless all conditions for payment disbursement cited in the succeeding section of the TOR have been fulfilled.

Monitoring and Progress Control

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the CleanStart Programme Manager and Programme Analyst, and in close collaboration with other consultants and CleanStart partners.

Consultancy fees will be paid upon (i) submission of invoice and Certificate of Payment form (ii) review,  approval and acceptance of outputs for  each deliverable by CleanStart Programme Analyst   (iii) authorization of payment disbursement from the direct supervisor.

Payments are based upon delivery of the outputs and/or services specified above, and written acceptance and certification of satisfactory completion by the CleanStart Programme Manager.

Competencies

Functional Competencies

• Strong analytical skills and aptitude for data;
• Able to produce concise, executive level reports and presentations (including tables and charts);
• Excellent project management skills;
• Good interpersonal skills and experience in working effectively in a multi-cultural environment, with sensitivity to diverse opinion;
• Fully competent with Microsoft Office;
• Knowledge of database management software is desirable.

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.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Bachelors level qualifications in business, finance, marketing, economics, accounting, sustainable energy, engineering, data analytics, or related fields;

Experience

• At least 3 years hands-on experience in project management;
• At least 1 year experience conducting market research for similar sectors;

Language

• Fluency in English is required.

Evaluation

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.

• Bachelors level qualifications in business, finance, marketing, economics, accounting, sustainable energy, engineering, data analytics, or related fields;
• At least 3 years hands-on experience in project management.

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 3 years hands-on experience in project management (60 points);
• At least 1 year experience conducting market research (25 points);
• Experience of the energy access space is highly desirable (5 points);
• Experience working in the solar energy sector in Uganda is desirable (5 points);
• Experience working with industry associations promoting clean tech or energy access desirable (5 points).

As applicable, only the first top 3 ranked applicants achieving 70% of the points at this stage shall be invited for a skype interview.

Step III: Interview
A competency-based Interview shall be conducted for the top 3 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
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;
• 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