Background

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 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 and the Pacific, with a special commitment to countries emerging from conflict or crisis.  It provides seed capital – grants and loans – and technical support to help microfinance institutions reach more poor households and small businesses, and local governments finance the capital investments – water systems, feeder roads, schools, irrigation schemes – that will improve poor peoples’ lives.

Digital@UNCDF: UNCDF is now formally expanding its work to focus on digital finance and innovations to both help digital finance reach its potential for the poor, but also to better use digital finance and other services to achieve the SDGs.  This will we anchored in a new initiative (referred to at present as digital@UNCDF) that will grow into a multi-country effort.  In each country, UNCDF will continue its work to increasing usage of digital finance but will do so with a focus on assisting countries, companies, communities and customers to achieve the SDG outcomes.  This will require bringing together companies to design, develop, test and refine digital solutions with support from experts and ready to use tools. Those digital companies will be connected to enabling stakeholders, such as regulators, universities, think-tanks, providers, companies, other labs, and industry associations. Together UNCDF intends to harness technology can eliminate customers’ pain points in today’s user experience, as well as work on use cases that will help vulnerable people (farmers, women, refugees, migrants, youth) move from distrust, disenfranchisement, and exclusion to become confident and empowered.

The proposed approach focuses on supporting innovative solutions by:

• Working with traditional stakeholders (companies, providers, government) by building innovation mindset, team and processes internally;
• Supporting small and start-ups companies by providing access to finance, human centred design support, business to business linkages that will allow to scale;
• Linking both sets of stakeholders together to build partnerships that allow innovations to scale.

Initial work on this approach has been done in Uganda and Nepal.  The first dedicated digital@UNCDF country platform will be Malaysia, the development of which started early in 2018. 

As part of this engagement, UNCDF would like to hire a Partner Relations Consultant to help UNCDF in building the necessary tools and processes to Manage Partner information for the Programme and lay out the foundations for the Advocacy Strategy of the programme. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the UNCDF´s Global Technical Specialist the Partner Relations Consultant will complete the following activities and deliverables.

1. Build a Digital@UNCDF pipeline of relevant partners and leads.
2. Complete a Mapping of donors & partners
3. Develop Fundraising templates
4. Design and set up a System to support Management in prioritizing partnership opportunities
5. Develop an advocacy plan for the programme.

The below activities have been outlined based on the some of the broader outcomes that have been outlined above and are representative and can be more than that.

1. Build a Digital@UNCDF pipeline of relevant partners and leads.

Activities:

• Design a Funding Pipeline document (Global/West Africa/Asia/Pacific).
• Test the pipeline and share updated pipeline reports with management every 6 weeks.
• Design and launch a weekly basis a funding bulletin.
• Map partnership events relevant to Digital@UNCDF and develop a partnership calendar for 2018.

Deliverables to be completed by the consultant and approved by UNCDF:

• Digital@UNCDF pipeline document.
• Pipeline report templates.
• Weekly bulletin templates.
• Partnership calendar tool template.

2. Complete a Mapping of donors & partners

Activities:

• Support UNCDF´s Regional Technical Specialists in developing donor mapping;
• Propose visual tools for donor mapping;
• Mapping donors & partners in Brussels;
• Develop partner contact database (excel/kumu);
• Develop a repository of references.

Deliverables to be completed by the consultant and approved by UNCDF:

• Regional donor mapping tool;
• 4 Technical specialists trained;
• Design for the donor mapping infographic tool;
• Partner contact database completed;
• Reference repository tool completed.

3. Develop Fundraising templates

Activities:

• Develop a Digital@UNCDF Expression of Interest/concept note/Full proposal templates;
• Develop email templates Digital@UNCDF to reach out funders/partners;
• Collect relevant administrative information to apply for funds.

Deliverables to be completed by the consultant and approved by UNCDF:

• Expression of Interest/concept note/Full proposal templates
• Develop email templates to reach out funders/partners
• Donor profile information dossiers

4. Design and set up a System to support Management in prioritizing partnership opportunities

Activities:

• Analyse the business case and needs of the Partner Prioritisation for the Knowledge Management, Result Measurements, and Operations teams working for Digital@UNCDF.

Deliverables to be completed by the consultant and approved by UNCDF:

• System designed.
• KM, RM and operations teams trained.

5. Develop an advocacy plan for the programme.

Activities:

• Desk research and intelligence gathering on EU funding opportunities 2018-2020;
• Design plan to increase visibility and network of Digital@UNCDF in EU community;
• Develop advocacy statements for UNCDF.

Deliverables to be completed by the consultant and approved by UNCDF:

• EU funding opportunities map;
• Visibility plan.

Competencies

• Excellent analytical skills;
• Strong oral and written communication skills;

• Focus on impact and results for clients and stakeholders;
• Builds trust in interactions with others;
• Ability to work with high level officials as well as local communities;
• Committed to team work, working with other stakeholders;
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• A Master’s degree in Project Management, technology, economics, public/business administration, social sciences, or related discipline or the equivalent experience is mandatory.

Experience: 

• A minimum of four (4) years of experience in EU Development Policies, External Affairs and funding cycles and or related experience is mandatory;
• Experience in managing EU funded projects/programmes is mandatory;
• Experience in working with United Nations Agencies;
• Working knowledge of current developments in microfinance, including one or more of the following: branchless banking, microinsurance, social performance, financial literacy;
• Working experience and knowledge of socio-economic issues which excludes various vulnerable groups, in particular women, from the financial sector and the strategies employed to address these;
• Working knowledge of international donor organizations and preferably experience in preparing proposals for funding;
• Experience with visual tools for donor mapping;
• Experience with data analysis/results-based management is an asset;
• Knowledge of Local Development Finance is an asset;
• Previous development experience in Africa, Asia or the Pacific is preferred;

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is mandatory, proficiency in French preferred but not required.
• Other EU languages are an asset but not mandatory.

Timeline, total number of working days, duty station:

• Timeline: 2 January 2019- 1 January 2020.
• Total Number of Working Days for Assignment: up to 240 working days.
• Duty station: Brussels, Belgium.

Consulting fees, standard travel costs and living expenses:

This is a local position UNCDF will only accept standard fees based on the local market rates (Belgium) and the experience of the consultant. UNCDF will not provide relocation expenses.

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.  

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.

Progress Controls & Payments:

Payment will be made against satisfactorily completion of each deliverable. All payments shall be disbursed only upon written confirmation of acceptance of the outputs which and authorization for payment by the Programme Analyst, MM4P.

Disbursement of the final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

Payment schedule is as follows:

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:

• Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies and motivation rationalizing how the applicant meets the qualifications and can deliver the requirements of the Terms of Reference (TOR);
• Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy;
• 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)
• Signed financial proposal for the assignment outlining: all-inclusive fee (including professional fees and other professional expenses, such as insurance, taxes, etc.). Template for this is aavailable 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: 

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

Step II: 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.

Step III: Technical test. Applicants from the shortlist will be requested to take a written test. The top 3 candidates shall be interviewed.

Step IV:

Interview (80 points): An interview shall be conducted for the top 3 candidates based on their test result.

Step V: 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%.

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.