Background

Background

United Nations Capital Development Fund and Inclusive Finance:

UNCDF is the UN’s capital development agency for the world’s least developed countries (LDCs). UNCDF uses its capital mandate to help LDCs pursue inclusive growth. UNCDF’s last mile financing models help eradicate poverty, mobilizing public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, which benefit poor people, small businesses, and under-served regions. These models focus on those areas where available resources for development are scarcest; where market failures are most pronounced; and where benefits from national growth tend to leave people excluded. UNCDF does this in two ways. First, by showing how localized public finance - through fiscal decentralization, innovations in municipal finance, and structured project finance - can drive public/private funding for essential infrastructure and services which underpins local economic expansion. Second, UNCDF supports savings-led financial inclusion which expands the opportunities for poor individuals and households and small businesses to participate in the local economy, providing them with the tools they need to better manage their financial lives, plan for the future, and climb out of poverty.

Shaping Inclusive Finance Transformations (SHIFT) Programme in SAARC countries:

UNCDF’s SHIFT SAARC programme is a regional market-facilitation initiative that seeks to stimulate investment, business innovations, and regulatory reform to expand the economic participation of and opportunities for low-income people, especially women, and small and growing businesses to be active agents in the formal economy across the SAARC region. At the regional level, the SHIFT SAARC programme framework is deploying its efforts on specifically removing market constraints limiting women’s equal access to economic opportunities and participation in the markets. SHIFT SAARC aims to reach at least one million low income people by 2021, 65% of whom are women, and 30,000 small and growing businesses be given access and use to financial services to secure opportunities for employment, enterprise development, and increased sustainable consumption. 

Bangladesh is the first country of implementation under SHIFT SAARC Programme with focus on accelerating uptake and usage of digital financial services (DFS) responding to the needs of expanding financial inclusion through digital pathways. The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has prioritized Financial Inclusion through Digital Financial Services (DFS) as one of the key strategies towards achieving middle income country status by 2021, as described in the Seventh Five Year Plan 2016-2020. Expanding financial inclusion through digital pathways is also crucial for the country in achieving the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Built upon these macro level national plans, SHIFT SAARC in Bangladesh’s approach is based on the principle that access to digital accounts can significantly improve financial inclusion and therefore provide needed solutions to low income people, women and Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) of Bangladesh to weather financial shocks and avail income generating opportunities.

SHIFT SAARC in Bangladesh focuses on narrowing the gender gap in financial access and usage through support for more enabling policy and regulations in DFS. The intervention is expected to lead to the presence of a critical number of providers that are willing to significantly invest in expanding digital finance infrastructure, offering greater value to women in particular through a wider range of financial services. The intervention also seeks to support people and businesses to take up DFS offering because of greater consumer protection. 

In addition, UNCDF initiative supports downstream market development, as a complement to the policy and regulatory work, focusing on providing integrated business solutions to small retail merchant leveraging digital pathways. This will contribute to widening retail payment systems in the country and increase flow of credit to MSMEs.

In implementing SHIFT SAARC programme, UNCDF is utilizing its proven programmatic blueprint based on four streams of work adapted for the Bangladesh context to achieve the following objectives:

Generate data on digital financial services to improve evidence and knowledge around Digital Financial Services (DFS) in Bangladesh (Data and Evidence):

The data collection and research component focuses on undertaking research activities to further inform DFS practice and policy, as well as to bring Bangladesh’s DFS knowledge and experiences to the global arena. The aim is to support the Government of Bangladesh’s (GOB) agenda about improving knowledge and information on DFS by providing evidence base for the private sector (suppliers) and others in supporting their efforts to innovate and find solutions for DFS. SHIFT SAARC in Bangladesh closely works with selected national research/policy organizations to further advance their capacities in research around DFS.

Strengthen technical knowledge through training and technical assistance, to support knowledge and practice on DFS (Self-assessment based Capacity Enhancement): 

The capacity enhancement component builds on UNCDF’s significant experience on strengthening DFS capacities and training activities. The focus is especially on activities that contribute directly to accelerating DFS in Bangladesh. The aim is to support building competences required in the context of guiding DFS acceleration efforts in the country. SHIFT SAARC in Bangladesh closely works with national stakeholders to further advance their capacities in DFS.

Analyse regulatory and policy framework and formulated recommendations to inform the DFS policy process and review (Policy and Advocacy):

SHIFT SAARC in Bangladesh is facilitating consultative stakeholder dialogues with the Bangladesh Bank on aspects of policy and regulatory needs necessary to enable greater acceleration of DFS. SHIFT SAARC in Bangladesh has reviewed the current regulatory and policy framework, produced analysis and suggested recommendations to inform the DFS policy and strategy formulation. 

Inform opinion shapers, DFS providers, meso level organizations, and small businesses and women associations about DFS through communication campaigns (Innovation and Communication):

The communication campaign will first target wider communities of policy makers and opinion shapers, thereafter it will gradually involve meso level organizations, small business and women associations. 

Objectives of the assignment:

The intern will work for the Data analytics and Research facility and support in deep-diving into the thematic research on digital financial inclusion with reference to specific sustainable development goals (SDGs), such as women and youth financial inclusion and empowerment, enterprise development, migration and remittances, poverty reduction, and energy finance; 

Core tasks would include undertaking quantitative and qualitative data analytics and research using demand side national financial inclusion surveys (i.e. FinScope, Intermediate, Findex, Enterprise Development Surveys, financial diaries data, household based gender finance studies, and other survey data generated by UNCDF), and/or supply side data (e.g. on financial service providers, anonymized transaction flow data).   

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities

Data analytics and research:

• Analyze, synthesize and communicate data and information on supply, demand and innovation challenge fund in financial markets to strengthen the evidence base;
• Produce, analyze and disseminate data on financial inclusion, with focus on sex-, age-, rural, income- and other demographic and geographic disaggregated data analytics; Analyze trends and market segments at local, sectoral, national and regional levels.  
• Conduct deep-dive thematic research and analysis on (digital) financial inclusion with specific reference to gendered and youth financial inclusion, migration and remittances, energy finance, digital financial services and FinTech; 
• Produce and coordinate easy-to-use data dashboards, maps, graphs, charts, info-graphics, blogs and other presentation material. 
• Synthesize research outcomes and lessons learned into formats tailored to central banks and government, digital finance service providers, banks, MFIs etc. 
• Experiment with Big Data Analytics on SDGs. 
• Support the creation of frameworks on assessing financial inclusion impacts on SDGs, with specific reference to SDG 1 (Poverty), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG (8) Decent work and inclusive growth.  
• Maintain Micro and macro-economic data sets and research such as global gender report, WDI, Mix market, FINDEX, Intermedia, FinScope etc. Maintain and utilize dashboard, conduct country and thematic deep-dive analysis (e.g. Agri, micro-merchants, MSME, other) for SAARC & ASEAN. 
• Produce evidence-based presentations, blogs and infographs, support in the editing and desk reviews, of working papers. 
• Support the application of data and research for informing UNCDF programming, innovation challenge design, and more broadly product development and policy making.  
• Internship can be done as part of a research internship experience contributing to a University Master thesis.  

Competencies

Core Competencies:

• Commitment to UNCDFs vision, mission, and strategic goals;
• Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty;
• Excellent organizational, inter-personal, communication and administrative skills;
• Able to work effectively in a team and in an international environment.

Functional Competencies:

• Demonstrable skills in research, analytical thinking, and communication;
• Excellent writing and editing skills in English;
• Proven ability to manage diverse and complex tasks, with tight deadlines;
• Able to take initiative and work independently, with minimum supervision;
• Strong organizational, communication and interpersonal skills with ability to work under pressure within an international setting;
• Interest in the UN system and general knowledge of development issues is a plus;
• Ability to perform a variety of administrative tasks.

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience:

Education:

Applicants to the internship programme must at the time of application meet one of the following requirements:

• Be enrolled in a graduate school programme (second university degree or equivalent, or higher);
• Be enrolled in the final academic year of a first university degree programme (minimum Bachelor’s level or equivalent) in the field of Finance/Economics/Business Administration/Development studies and similar discipline from reputed Institution desired.
• Have graduated with a university degree (as defined in (a) and (b) above) and, if selected, must start the internship within one-year of graduation.

Experience:

• Working experience is not required however familiarity with UN system and development sector is preferred;
• Demonstrated experience, part or full-time, paid or volunteer, in economics, policy related work, finance, inclusive finance or related fields;
• Demonstrated research and analytical capacity;
• Excellent computer capabilities: Experienced in Tableau, STATA, R-Studio, Power-BI, Python, GIS Mapping software’s, Nvivo, or other similar (big) data analytic tools.  

Language:

• Strong written and verbal abilities in English

Work Arrangements:

• The intern will work full-time in the Bangladesh UNCDF office.  
• Work space will be provided, and the intern may have access to office computer, but the intern is expected to use her/his own computer.

Note for Applicants: Please indicate clearly in your application (additional questions section) and/or your cover letter the following;

• What is your current location?
• Your earliest availability /Preferred start date (October 2019 to March 2020 (6 months), starting date 1 October 2019
• Whether you can undertake this internship on a full time or part time basis, if selected for the role.

Internships Conditions:

• UNCDF Internship programme is governed by the UNDP Internship policy framework & rules;
• Interns are not financially remunerated by UNCDF. Costs and arrangements for travel, visas, accommodation and living expenses are the responsibility of the interns, nominating institution, related institution or government, which may provide the required financial assistance to its students; Interns themselves will have to obtain financing for subsistence and make his/her own arrangements for travel, accommodation, etc.
• Selected Interns must be able to share proof of education enrolment and/or graduation, medical/health and life/accident insurance, valid for the location in which the internship will be carried out and be able to provide insurance documentary proof at the time of their selection;
• The purpose of the Internship Programme is not to lead to further employment with UNCDF but to complement an intern’s studies & learning growth
• There should be no expectation of employment at the end of these internships.

Application Process:

• In your application, please state in one paragraph why you would like to be considered for the internship and your primary motivation to apply for this role.
• Please indicate clearly in your application/cover letter the following;
• What is your current location and preferred/desired location,
• Your earliest availability from these date-options - October 2019 to March 2020 (6 months), starting date 1 October 2019
• Whether you can undertake this internship on a full time or part time basis, if selected for the role.
• Please submit your Resume/CV and an application using the UNCDF Internship Application form: http://www.uncdf.org/download/file/127/2509/internshipdoc;
• Applications should include the application form and latest resume.  Applicants are welcome to submit any additional work samples or portfolios in one single file, preferably PDF;
• Please note that the UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents (CV/Resume, cover letter etc into a single file before uploading).
• Interested candidates can apply at any time indicating the timeframe of their availability in the internship form. However, only those candidates selected for interviews/ further assessment by hiring managers will be contacted. 

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.

If you are experiencing difficulties with online job applications, please contact jobs.help@undp.org