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.

Starting in 2009, UNCDF began to support for digital finance because we are concerned that the countries that need it the most are succeeding the least. As an early supporter, UNCDF saw its potential and challenges. UNCDF first supported digital finance through the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme (PFIP) out of which it developed UNCDF MM4P to focus on Africa and Asia. Digital now features prominently in most of UNCDF’s financial inclusion work and UNCDF increasingly focuses on digital solutions for specific uses such as clean energy and population segments, particularly women and youth. 

UNCDF also hosts the secretariat of the Better than Cash Alliance. The Better Than Cash Alliance (BTCA) is a partnership of governments, companies and international organizations that accelerates the transition from cash to digital payments in order to reduce poverty and drive inclusive growth.

UNCDF has extended presence in Malaysia with focus on driving new use-cases around digital finance. UNCDF requires a data analyst who could provide suppport in tracking the progress of different projetcs/investments of UNCDF in Malaysia and also support tracking the learnings from the programme which could be provided to insights team for further curation.

UNCDF is looking for a data analyst based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Duties and Responsibilities

Deliverables:

The main deliverables for this consultancy are listed below. The table indicates the activity prioritization, the respective outputs and corresponding payment schedule. The main deliverables include operationalzing  the data gathering from partners, setting up mechanism to update KPI regularly and gathering info that would allow to curate insights from the projects. The major focus of this work would be the partners under i3 program. In Malaysia, UNCDF also host an innovation lab and for the activities of the lab that pertains to Malaysia, the consultant would closely support the engagement. 

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;
• Ability to work effectively in a team and in an international environment.

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent knowledge of methodologies for results measurement;
• Proven ability to draw insights from data and other form of research;
• Proven ability to extract actionable insights from data and curate insights relevant to industry players and other stakeholders;
• Knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and tools;
• 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

Experience: 

• Minimum 3 year of experience in extracting actionable insights from programme activities and market data, and curating learnings relevant to industry players and other stakeholders is mandatory;
• Experience in innovation and technology for inclusive finance is considered a plus;
• Experience in measuring social and commercial impact of digital products and services is considered a plus;
• Experience in Malaysia and/or China is preferred but not mandatory.
• At-least 2 years of experience conducting research and using data to draw findings;
• Excellent computer capabilities would be a plus: Experienced in Tableau, STATA, R-Studio, Power-BI, Python, GIS Mapping software’s, Nvivo, or other similar (big) data analytic tools, etc.

Language:

• Spoken and written fluency in English is required.
• Additional language skills either in Mandarin or Malay would be a plus.

Timeline, duration of assignment, duty station and expected places of travel:

• Timeline: October 2019 to September 2020
• Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Total Number of Working Days for Assignment: Max of 240 working days within 12 months (renewable for another 12 months based on performance and available funding)

Travel:

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:

• The primary contact for reporting for this TOR shall be Results and Insights Specialist, for Asia and the UNCDF Country Technical Specialist;
• Payment will be made at the end of each payment phase against satisfactorily achieved deliverables. All payments are subject to the clearance and approval of the Country Techncial Specialist
• Final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

Application:

Interested individuals must submit the following as proposals in order to demonstrate their qualifications: (NOTE: the system does not allow multiple uploads of document. 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 in relation to the TOR deliverables; Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy;

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

  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. 

• Curriculum Vitae;
• Completed P11 Personal History Form with names and current contacts of 3 referees (available fromhttp://sas.undp.org/documents/p11_personal_history_form.doc);

Financial proposal for the full assignment outlining: Total professional fee (including professional fees. Other professional expenses (such as insurance, taxes, etc. Please use the form available 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.

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. 

Evaluation: 

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

• Preliminary Evaluation - Step I: Screening;
• Technical Evaluation Weight - 70% x (Step II: 20 Points + Step III: 40 Points + Step IV: 40 Points = 100 Points);
• Financial Evaluation Weight - 30% = Step IV.

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

Lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated x 30%.

Step I: Screening

Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the following minimum criteria (listed under education and experience) and that will have provided samples of writing will progress to the pool for shortlisting.

Step II: Shortlisting by Desk Review – 20 points

UNCDF will conduct a desk review to produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate the candidates. Only candidates that obtained 80% of the points at this stage shall be invited for the next step.

Step III: Written test – 40 points

A written test will be administered to the top 4 shortlisted candidates. The test will be scored with pass/fail, the minimum score to pass being 70%. As part of the test candidates will also be asked to provide writing samples.

Step IV: Interview – 40 points

A competency-based Interview shall be conducted for all the candidates who passed the written test:

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% on the total of Steps II (20 points) + III (30 points) + IV (50 points) will be considered as technically qualified and will be reviewed further for financial evaluation.

Step V: Financial Evaluation

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 proposal & Interview) 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.