Background

INTRODUCING UNCDF

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 47 Least Developed Countries (LDC). UNCDF uses its capital mandate to support LDCs pursue inclusive growth. UNCDF promotes financial inclusion, also through digital financial services (DFS), as a key enabler of poverty reduction and inclusive growth; and it demonstrates how localizing finance outside the capital cities can accelerate growth in local economies, promote sustainable and climate-resilient infrastructure development, and empower local communities. Using capital grants, loans and credit enhancements, UNCDF tests financial models in inclusive finance and local development finance; ‘de-risks’ the local investment space; and provides proofs of concept, paving the way for larger and more risk-averse investors.

With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” financing models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local development. UNCDF targets low-income and underserved populations and areas in the LDCs where resources for development are the scarcest; where market failures are most pronounced; and where increased national economic prosperity does not reach a large part of the population. UNCDF focusses on local development finance and inclusive finance, using its capital mandate paired with strong technical and policy support to help communities and individuals save, borrow and invest.

UNCDF’s objective is to develop inclusive financial systems in which a range of financial products are available to all segments of society, at a reasonable cost, and on a sustainable basis. UNCDF supports a wide range of providers (e.g. microfinance institutions, banks, cooperatives, money transfer companies) and a variety of financial products and services (e.g. savings, credit, insurance, payments, and remittances).

INTRODUCING DIGITAL FINANCE IN UNCDF

UNCDF manages several initiatives in LDCs in Asia and Africa, to develop an inclusive digital finance eco-system that offers a wide range of financial services specially for low income vulnerable communities. Specifically, UNCDF provides a mix of policy, technical and financial support to a range of government and private sector actors in each country, as well as invests in research and other public goods that benefit all market actors. By supporting the development of digital finance eco-system in these countries, UNCDF aims to increase the financial security of low income and rural households through access to appropriate, affordable and secure means to receive, manage and save money.

INTRODUCING UNCDF’S DIGITAL FINANCE INTERVENTION NEPAL

UNCDF launched its Digital Finance interventions in Nepal in 2013. In 2017, UNCDF secured a partnership with USAID to continue its digital financial services activities in Nepal through 2017-2019.

In 2017, Nepal Rastra Bank issued the Payment Service Provider (PSP) license to the first set of non-bank companies. This led to a growing number of registered customers using mobile wallets for a range of payment services. To gain market traction and business sustainability, PSPs are creating DFS infrastructure including business relationship with merchants for online payments, setting up agent points and driving bulk payment relationships. The advent of digital financial services in Nepal opened doors for testing and scaling up digital innovations by leveraging digital infrastructure to solve challenges in agriculture, energy, transport and other sectors specially in terms of outreach, payments and information.

UNCDF is currently supporting two non-bank digital finance providers in Nepal, IME Digital and Prabhu Management, that offer basic wallet services. Alongside, UNCDF is also supporting innovations that address challenges in agriculture. The Programme is collaborating with Prabhu Management in the digitization of the dairy value chain, Swift Tech/IME in the creation of a digital market for farmers and with SunFarmer in digitization of payments along agriculture value chains.

Apart from these projects, UNCDF is also supporting Tootle, to develop and implement a pilot of roving agents delivering door-step financial services. Currently these projects are either in preparation phase or in pilot implementation phase. Thus, the next 12 months are very critical for UNCDF in terms of continued technical assistance to the partners, so they can achieve targets as set for the pilot and further refine their business plans post pilot for scale up. A critical part of the support is to identify and facilitate eco-system partnerships between partners and other stakeholders, to develop use-cases that can help the pilots scale up.

UNCDF plans to hire a Digital Finance Consultant – National Nepali, who will be part of the existing Digital Finance team in Nepal and work closely with UNCDF partners to achieve the project results by providing regular technical assistance and facilitating partnerships within the eco-system.

Duties and Responsibilities

The DFS Consultant will report to the Regional Technical Specialist and will closely work under the mentorship of the DFS for agriculture Expert in Nepal. The DFS Consultant will be responsible to support the various partners to implement the project activities in accordance with the agreed work-plan and ensure the achievement of the project targets. The Digital Finance Consultant will be responsible to carry out following activities with specific deliverables:

Month 1 – Month 4 (Dec 2018 to March 2019)

Activities;

• To provide technical assistance to Tootle to design the work-flow for the roving agent model, design and implement the system integration between Tootle and partners and develop pilot plan
• Provide regular technical assistance to Mobile Krishi team for continuing the pilot implementation and achievement of project targets
• Support SunFarmer to implement digital solutions for agriculture and other business opportunity integrated in contract farming business
• Ad-hoc technical assistance to other DFS providers to scale-up their business including driving institutional partnerships

Deliverables:

• Tootle: workflow, system integration and pilot plan developed for the roving agents and packets/mails delivery through Tootle  pilot
• Mobile Krishi: Monitoring report of the Pilot-test solution completed, outlining targets achieved; scale-up plan for Mobile Krishi validated
• SunFarmer: Process documentation for digital payments for agri business, developing value proposition for at least one digital use-case integrated in agriculture business; pilot first set of digital payments for farmers
• Driving partnerships for driving business propositions for DFS providers; at least 1 use-case for each project/partner

Month 5- Month 8 (April 2019 to July 2019)

Activities;

• Technical assistance to Tootle on pilot deployment  of roving agent model
• Monitoring the Mobile Krishi roll-out and provide ad-hoc technical assistance to achieve sustainability and business  scale-up
• Monitoring SunFarmer digital payments and digital agri solutions roll-out and provide ad-hoc technical assistance to achieve sustainability and business  scale-up
• Ad-hoc technical assistance to DFS provider partners to scale-up their business including driving institutional partnerships

Deliverables:

• Tootle:  Roll-out report validated outlining the different services and pilot targets achieved; Lessons Learnt document validated
• Mobile Krishi : Business Scale-up plan developed; targets achieved as per the project plan
• SunFarmer: Scale up plan developed; targets achieved as per the project plan
• Driving at least one eco-system level partnership for each of the project contributing in their scale-up.

Month 9- Month 12 (August 2019 to November 2019)

Activities;

• Document project learning from Mobile Krishi, SunFarmer and Tootle projects and support KM team develop collaterals as per the agreed KM plan
• Ad-hoc technical assistance to new or existing partners or projects as conceptualized and finalized

Deliverables:

• KM products developed for different projects as per the country and project KM plan
• Deliverables as discussed and finalized with partners

Competencies

1. Open to work with challenging projects that required in-depth support to partners largely on operations levels
2. Experience in managing clients and partners—from early stage companies to mature organizations.
3. Solution-focused and medium-agnostic, willing to step out of your core skill set or discipline to find the correct solution to a challenge.
4. Fluency in the qualitative research and synthesis to ideation, prototyping, and implementation.
5. Open to work in multi-cultural and diverse team of professionals
6. Results-driven, problem-solver with structuring and analytic capabilities. 
7. Strong ability to think and act strategically, even in situations of ambiguity, to develop both short- and long-term visions.  
8. Inspires others, influences and builds trust.
9. Strong communicator that can serve multiple functions as needed  

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

1. Bachelors’ Degree in either economics, social or international development, finance, business administration, public policy or related field

Experience:

1. 3 years of professional experience in digital finance, social development, banking, microfinance, telecom or agriculture sector
2. Proven experience of independently managing projects/tasks with defined KPIs and timelines 
3. Previous experience of managing or implementing digital finance, agri finance or social development projects
4. Experience in developing and managing business relationships with private sector, government agencies/regulators and civil society organizations in Nepal
5. Experience in designing and managing qualitative or quantitative research is a plus
6. Experience in writing case study, research papers or other learning materials
7. Exceptional written and oral communications skills.
8. Prior experience working for the United Nations is a plus
9. Applicant should be a citizen of Nepal

Language:

1. Excellent written and oral English is mandatory.
2. Fluency in Nepali is a plus but not mandatory.

Timeline, total number of working days, duty station:

Timeline: December 2018 to November 2019

Total Number of Working Days for Assignment: up to 220 working days within 12 months

Duty station: Kathmandu, Nepal

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. UNCDF would cover the cost of stay for the selected person.

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 consultants residing in the duty station will not be compensated for living expenses.

Progress Controls & Payments:

Payment will be made against each satisfactorily achieved deliverables. All payments are subject to the clearance and approval of the Regional Technical Specialist – Asia.

Final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

Application process:

Interested individuals must submit the documents mentioned below as proposals in order to demonstrate their qualifications (Note: the system does not allow multiple uploads of documents. Applicants must make sure to upload all documents in one PDF file).

All applications must contain the following information:

1. Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies in relation to the Terms of Reference (TOR);
2. Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy;
3. Curriculum Vitae;
4. Complete 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)
5. Signed financial proposal for the assignment outlining: All-inclusive fee (including professional fees and other professional expenses, such as insurance, taxes, etc.), Available at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916). The consultant’s hosting is provided by UNCDF, therefore no DSA or living allowance is to be quoted in the financial proposal.

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

Evaluation:

1. Step I: Screening: Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the minimum criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting.
2. Step II: Technical Evaluation:

Shortlisting (20 points): UNCDF will produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate candidates as per experience requirements in the Terms of Reference. As applicable, only the first top 3 ranked applicants shall be considered for an interview.

Shortlisting scoring:

20- Education/Qualification;

20- Functional competencies for assignment;

30- Experience.

Interview (80 points): An interview shall be conducted for the top 3 shortlisted candidates.

1. Step III: Financial Evaluation: Only candidates with scores above 70% of the technical evaluation (70 Points or above) will be considered.

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal: lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated x 30%.

Payment will be made against each satisfactorily achieved deliverable. All payments are subject to the clearance and approval of the Regional Technical Specialist – Asia.

 Payment schedule is as follows:

Award Criteria

The contact shall be awarded to the applicant whose offer have been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and Having received the highest combined weight (technical scores) 70% + financial 30%= 100%.

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