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. Its programmes are designed to catalyze larger investment flows from the private sector, development partners and national governments, for significant impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): UNCDF's primary contributions are to SDG 1, with a focus on reaching the last mile and addressing exclusion and inequalities of access, and SDG 17, with a focus on unlocking public and private finance for the poor at the local level. Since 2010 UNCDF has been actively working to increase youth financial inclusion: to date, we have supported 10 financial services providers (FSPs) to reach 822,000 young people, collect US$20 million in savings and provide loans to 210,000 young entrepreneurs.

UNCDF is bringing its expertise in promoting a green and climate resilient local communities and economies and youth access to finance, including through digital, in support of job creation, under the “Jobs, skills and finance (JSF) for women and youth in The Gambia” programme funded by the 11th European Development Fund. This programme will contribute to stabilizing the economic, social and security situation of the country during the democratic transition by facilitating social inclusion and employment of the youth and women, with a specific emphasis on promoting gender equality and addressing climate change.

The approach builds on lessons learned from UNCDF experience in job creation and promoting a green and climate resilient economy and youth access to finance: in particular, within its mandate of financial inclusion and innovation, UNCDF JSF is providing technical assistance to financial providers to develop financial and non-financial innovative services adapted to youth and women in The Gambia. To this end, UNCDF uses a four-steps approach to deliver its results:

1. Kick off and pilot phase
2. Roll out and scale up phase
3. Monitoring and Evaluation phase
4. Scale up

Duties and Responsibilities

UNCDF is looking for a Financial Inclusion and Project Management Consultant to provide technical assistance to the JSF team in The Gambia and support partners and UNCDF JSF investees for phase 1 (kick off and pilot phase) in the field of financial inclusion and innovation. The support required includes set up project activities, follow ups, monitoring and evaluation of pilot phase and make sure UNCDF JSF partners deliver results according to the terms and conditions agreed with UNCDF team. There is a possibility to extend the contract to cover phase 2 and 3 upon delivery of high-quality results and validation of UNCDF. More specifically, the consultant is required to focus on the following UNCDF JSF financial innovation projects for phases 1 and 2:

1. Digital solution for young entrepreneurs: UNCDF is partnering with qualified technical partner committed, ready and able to develop a digital solution with a double objective: (i) to help young entrepreneurs improve their business management by formalizing and tracking their business information and (ii) to enable FSPs to have access to real time information on the financial health of those young entrepreneurs to improve their lending decisions.
2. Psychometrics solution: UNCDF is partnering with qualified technical partners to design, test and develop psychometric solutions for financial services providers in The Gambia. The objective is to assist these partners to better reach and serve unbanked vulnerable segments (youth and women) by assessing their risk level and willingness to repay and, therefore, by expanding access to financial services, particularly loans.
3. Youth and women financial products: following PoWER diagnostic in The Gambia, UNCDF is looking for financial service providers willing to design, develop and roll out specific financial and non-financial services that target the needs of young girls and women in The Gambia.
4. Chatbot messaging: UNCDF is partnering with qualified technical partners to develop an integrated Chatbot system that blends SMS and interactive voice calls for UNCDFs financial education Component. The selected partner will (i) provide participants with critical information about their upcoming payments using voice messaging; (ii) help participants feel confident and comfortable navigating digital payments through voice directives and guidelines; (iii) identify and integrate voice prompts and messages.

Institutional Arrangement

• The consultant will be supervised by the Financial Inclusion Specialist, based in The Gambia
• The frequency of reporting will be weekly meetings.
• Deliverables will be approved upon completion.
• The consultant is expected to closely work with the JSF team in Senegal and Gambia and the support unit in Brussels.
• Payments will be made upon receipt and acceptance by UNCDF of the contractor’s Certificate of Payment form specifying the outputs delivered as per agreed workplan.

Duration of the Work

The estimated duration of the work is a maximum of 200 days spread over 12 months.  

The target for starting the work would be 1 November 2019.

The work is deliverable based and the lead time for approval of outputs is 2 business days.

Competencies

• Ability to work in team
• Work independently with little supervision and ability to work under pressure
• Strong results-based management orientation in managing complex and multi-stakeholder projects
• Customer orientation, leadership, openness and innovation capabilities;
• Ability to work in a multiracial and multicultural environment;
• Demonstrate integrity by following the standard values and ethics of the United Nations;
• Good computer skills and ability to work with MS Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• A Master’s Degree is required in economics, public/business administration, social sciences, microfinance or related discipline.

Experience:

• A minimum of 3 years of progressively responsible experience in technical assistance to financial service providers, microfinance, financial innovation, fintech, consulting.
• Minimum of 2-year experience in management of multi-stakeholders projects at international level
• Minimum of 2-year experience in capacity building (training, workshop) of financial service providers
• Good knowledge/Exposure/Experience in the financial inclusion dynamics, challenges and best practices in Sub-Saharan Africa

Language requirements

• Fluency in English (written and spoken) is mandatory.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Payment will be made on periodical basis in accordance with number of days worked and upon satisfactorily achieved deliverables. All payments are subject to the clearance and approval of the direct supervisor.

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

Please see detailed breakdown below.

Recommended Presentation of Offer

All applications must contain the following information:

• Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies in relation to the TOR;
• Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy;
• Curriculum Vitae;
• Completed 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);
• The financial proposal form is available at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916).

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

• Preliminary Evaluation - Step I: Screening;
• Technical Evaluation – Step II : Weight - 70% x (20 Points Shortlisting + 30 points Technical Test +  50 Points interview = 100 Points);
• Financial Evaluation Weight - 30% = Step III.

Step I: Screening

Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the following minimum criteria (listed under education and experience) will progress to the pool for shortlisting:

Step II: Technical Evaluation

• Desk review of qualifications (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 shall be invited for an interview.
• Written test (30 points): shortlisted candidates will be invited to conduct a written test (1h30 hours) to prove their technical competences
• Interview (50 points) - An interview shall be conducted for the top 3 shortlisted candidates.

Step III: Financial Evaluation:

• Only for those candidates who have reached 70% of the Technical 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 contract 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%.

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