Background

United Nations Capital Development Fund

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 47 least developed countries. With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development.

UNCDF’s financing models work through two channels: financial inclusion that expands the opportunities for individuals, households, and small businesses to participate in the local economy, providing them with the tools they need to climb out of poverty and manage their financial lives; and by showing how localized investments — through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance — can drive public and private funding that underpins local economic expansion and sustainable development.

By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to SDG 1 on eradicating poverty and SDG 17 on the means of implementation. By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a number of different SDGs. 

UNCDF’s Energy Access Initiative: CleanStart Programme

UNCDF aims to empower millions of vulnerable people, such as farmers, youth, women, refugees, migrants, MSMEs, by leveraging the power of digital in various sectors (finance, agriculture, education, health, water & sanitation, energy, transport) to lead productive and healthy lives. To achieve this goal, UNCDF is providing financial support and technical expertise to both the public and the private sector. It provides capital financing -- in the forms of grants, soft loans and credit enhancement products – and the technical expertise to unleash sustainable financing at the local level. 

In the energy sector, UNCDF supports low-income consumers to transition to cleaner and more efficient energy. To this end, UNCDF promotes access to finance across the energy value chain from customer to enterprise by investing in early stage, innovative business ideas from SMEs that have the potential to make a step-change in improving the accessibility, affordability, and reliability of modern energy for people, especially those at the last-mile. Business ideas should have strong commercial-viability potential.

UNCDF has adopted four pillars to improving the energy access market. The (1) investment component as described above is complemented by three other components that center around (2) providing technical advisory services to get concepts and business plans investment-ready, as well as general advice and linkages to non-financial resources such as experts and business development opportunities during the life of the partnership; (3) knowledge and learning through customer insights research and Thinkshops to discuss trending market topics; and (4) advocacy and partnerships with strategic partners to jointly support the improvement of the energy access market ecosystem so that business models can scale.

UNCDF’s vision for energy access is to dramatically expand consumer and enterprise financing, supported by innovative digital services, for vulnerable consumers who want to transition to cleaner and more efficient energy. To make this happen UNCDF partners with financial institutions, service providers and energy enterprises – providing financial solutions and advice – to test scalable business models in varying market conditions. The use of innovative digital services and finance solutions plays an essential role in many markets, particularly in reaching vulnerable people.

Since 2012, UNCDF’s energy access market development work is currently active in 4 countries (Nepal, Uganda, Myanmar and Ethiopia) and has recently expanded to other markets such as DRC. UNCDF is implementing key interventions in these countries to promote digital services, off-grid energy and other utility financing; and selectively deploy these depending on market needs and where UNCDF can add most value:  

• Support financial service providers on energy (and other utility) lending through risk capital (grants, loans, guarantees) and technical assistance;
• Support energy (and other utility) enterprises (including MSMEs) who have viable business models to achieve market breakthroughs and scale, including for vulnerable last-mile consumers, through risk capital (grants, loans, guarantees) and technical assistance;
• Support the development of guarantee mechanism and credit enhancement tools to micro-finance institutions and commercial banks lending to MSMEs;
• Support the development of innovative digital services and digital finance solutions (e.g. business models using PAYG technology) enabling upscaling and reaching more vulnerable people;
• Crowd-in (commercial) financial service providers (national and international) by de-risking transactions with energy (and other utility) enterprises, e.g. via guarantees or syndicated loans;
• Provide technical assistance to energy (and other utility) enterprises to prepare them for external financing (debt, equity) and make them bankable;
• Engage closely with government partners and regional/global initiatives, including those from UNDP, REDD+, GEF and GCF, to influence high-level dialogue and policies that help create an enabling environment for energy markets for low-income markets to flourish.
• Strengthen capacities of private sector groups, such as solar energy  or clean cooking associations, to enable them to act as an effective intermediary between individual energy companies and government and influence policy discussions.

UNCDF’s energy access market development work is supported by the Austrian Development Cooperation, the Government of Andorra, the Government of Liechtenstein, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Swedish International Development Agency, Embassy of Sweden in Uganda, the UK Department for International Development in Uganda, The Ministry of Energy Luxembourg, and the Central African Forestry Initiative and REDD+ in the DRC.

Duties and Responsibilities

Information on the Contract Modality:

UNCDF would like to enter into a non-exclusive Framework Agreement, also known as Long-Term Agreement (LTA), with a roster of consultants that will perform the services described in this TOR on a need-basis.   In UNCDF, an LTA is a framework agreement by and between UNCDF and a company or individual where the latter may, at any time within the duration of the LTA, be required to render the agreed services at the agreed and fixed unit prices.  An LTA can be valid for a minimum period of 12 months, with potential extension for up to two (2) additional years, depending on satisfactory performance of the individual / company.

Where a request for service arises, UNCDF can engage the individual holding an LTA through a “call-off” of the LTA.   Every call-off shall have specific tasks, scope of services and outputs to be delivered within a specific period of time.   For this particular work, the call-off shall be formalized through the issuance of a Purchase Order, attaching thereto the TOR, and any other document relevant to the call-off.  Financial commitments will only be established each time a Purchase Order for the specific services/TOR for Individual Contractor is issued.

The LTA shall have a cumulative ceiling amount that may accrue to the individual contractor during the life of the LTA, but said amount shall remain as an upper limit, and must not and cannot be interpreted nor understood as neither a financial commitment nor guarantee of business volume.  It is important to note that, under an LTA, UNCDF does not guarantee that any specific quantity of services shall be made during the term of this agreement.  The LTA does not form a financial obligation nor commitment from UNCDF at the time the LTA contract is signed.   

Purpose of the Consultancy

The purpose of this consultancy is to contribute to CleanStart’s Outputs 1 and 2: Financing for Clean Energy and Technical Assistance in Sub-Saharan African countries. Clean and cleaner cooking solutions range from improved household and institutional cookstoves, to biogas, to Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) solutions and briquettes. This LTA requires fluency in English, with demonstrable ability to work in francophone countries as a clear advantage.

Selected consultants will specifically focus on one or several of these areas of work: 

• Clean cooking commercialization support from product testing & design to after sales services: The objective is to execute clean cooking product testing (CCTs, WBT, consumer feedback) and to use results to advise companies on ways to improve their products and successfully commercialize. This may include organizing and hosting workshops and knowledge sharing sessions for clean cooking producers to learn from sector insights and best practices.
  • Developed training materials and training sessions on improved cooking techniques
  • Conduct efficiency testing using Kitchen Performance Test (at least one –after commercialization phase) and Controlled Cooking Test methodologies
  • Train producers on how to measure stove improvements during prototyping using the WBT
  • Work with manufacturers and distributers to understand commercialization process and how to their businesses and products fit into process, how to improve products and services
  • Support manufacturers in preparation and submission of requirements for product certification.
• Clean cooking technical assistance: The objective is to provide clean cooking enterprise production, manufacturing and business finance technical assistance to CleanStart portfolio partners. The aim of technical assistance overall is to improve implementation of funded projects, review business operations strategies, and to prepare companies for scale up and for investment readiness as to crowd in external funders via business development services and advisory.  This technical assistance may be delivered as tailored to individual businesses and/or can be delivered to a group of businesses, manufacturers and energy service providers to help them improve their businesses operations and monitoring (tracking) documents, make their products market ready and pull the customers, understand how to access financing, marketing and to provide the after sales services. Specific tooling needs, manufacturing getting to scale needs may be lightly mentioned during the technical assistance.  Additional responsibilities for the LTA include:
  • Reinforce partnerships with local manufacturers; assessing their current management capacity and identifying and rectifying specific knowledge gaps that could impede production scale up, such as stove design and efficiency, quality control and inventory management procedures.
  • Provided technical consultation tailored to each manufacturer’s needs such as improving health and safety,
  • Connect manufacturers to external financing to expand manufacturing capacity and distribution channels.
  • Work with supply chain partners to reduce market price and increase access, consumer uptake, and provide technical assistance to build management capacity.
  • Work with Joint Program to recruit and advise local marketing firm to design and support marketing and education/awareness campaign.
•  Market development and impact monitoring strategies: The objective is to support UNCDF and project partners in implementing clean cooking, with emphasis on LPG market activities. This includes developing activities plans and proposals for clean cooking projects; linking activities with policy developments; providing technical guidance in measuring results of clean cooking, especially LPG, activities; helping to select LPG private sector partners through competitive financing mechanisms; and recommending ways to measure progress on clean cooking, especially LPG, activities.
  • Ensure that GLPG and LPG implementers are operating with in cost and time effective best practices,
  • Provide feedback on LPG Activity workplans, budgets, selected partners, and activities especially initial market study
  • Support LPG companies, assessor distributers and GLPGP develop the appropriate documents and systems
  • Support LPG specialists to meet and connect to relevant local energy (LPG accessory providers) companies
• Brokering investment partnerships: The objective is to work closely with external funders (local and international) to promote UNCDF’s financing instruments (loans, guarantees and grants) in addition to bringing visibility to our pipeline of investible clean cooking enterprises. This is to ensure that enterprises have crowded in external investment to support further expansion and project sustainability after our investment and that funders are able to access local clean energy pipelines.  

o   Prepare investment briefs and other promotional material about UNCDF’s Clean cooking portfolio.

o   Build relationships with banks and funders to keep them informed about the portfolio companies and scope out prospective deals.

o   Facilitating the negotiation of financing agreements (grants, loans, guarantees or other) with selected partners and other funding providers

o   Work closely with LDC Investment Platform to build a pipeline and support pre-assessment of investments.

o   Support capacity building activities for banks and other funders on how to finance the clean cooking sector.

Scope of Services

Duration of Assignment, Duty Station and Expected Places of Travel

The assignment, under this Framework Agreement (On Call basis), is expected to have a maximum duration of 3 years. The initial contract would be for one year with an option for renewal in subsequent years upon project needs, availability of funds and satisfactory performance of the consultants.   The duration of each call-off shall be clearly indicated in the TOR that supports the PO that signals the call-off.

The individual contractor is expected to be Home-based with possible travel to countries where UNCDF FIPA projects operate in Africa, including but not limited to Burkina Faso, Senegal, DRC and Uganda.  The schedule/duration of travel will be negotiated with the consultant according to the requirements of each programme country.

Travel costs associated to the assignment will be advanced by the consultants, and paid by UNCDF on a  reimbursement basis, and following the UNDP/UNCDF rules and regulations which states that consultants shall only be paid the most direct and most economical ticket, as will be quoted by the official UN travel agency.  Any amount in excess of the said quotation, such as class and airline preference of the consultant, shall be borne by the consultant. The daily living allowance will be paid as per UN Rate prevailing on the city/ies of destination, and may be paid before or after the travel, and only upon submission of appropriate supporting documents.   All other expenses outside of these items shall be on the account of the consultant. 

Provision of Monitoring and Progress Controls

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Financial Inclusion Practice Area’s (FIPA) Energy Access Global Team Lead, or other FIPA project management unit that may call-off the LTA and require the services of the individual.  The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop during the course of his/her engagement with UNCDF. 

Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on the actual number of working days agreed with UNCDF as reflected in the call-off (PO) and upon certification of satisfactory completion and acceptance of the output by the FIPA Energy Access Global Team Lead.  All time extensions beyond what is originally indicated by UNCDF in the call-off PO shall have to be mutually agreed in writing by UNCDF and the consultant, as basis for payment.

Supporting documents that will serve as conditions for disbursement are as follows: (i) submission of invoice and Certificate of Payment form; (ii) review, approval and written acceptance of outputs for  each deliverable confirmed in writing by UNCDF; and (iii) authorization of payment disbursement from the direct supervisor in UNCDF.   Where payment is based on days worked and not on milestone outputs, the submission of time sheet and expenses with relevant documentation may be required by UNCDF. 

Competencies

Functional Competencies

• Able to conduct clean cooking product testing and to perform energy calculations;
• Able to carry out focus groups and provide training in a workshop setting;
• Understands and can advise on improved cookstove design and LPG safety standards;  
• Understands incubation and investments needs of clean cooking enterprises;
• Understands blended finance and how to operationalize financing instruments such as results-based financing, impact investing, and/or carbon financing;
• Strong analytical writing skills; experienced in producing concise, executive level reports and presentations, training modules and materials;
• Good interpersonal skills and experience in working effectively in a multi-cultural environment, with sensitivity to diverse opinion;
• Strong communications skills in speaking, writing, as well as presenting materials in variety of media.
• Strong understanding of DRC regions and cultural differences /habits

Corporate Competencies:

• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNCDF;
• Demonstrate integrity by modelling the UN's values and ethical standards;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race and age sensitivity and adaptability

Required Skills and Experience

Education: 

• Masters level qualifications in business, finance, environment, economics, energy, engineering or related fields;

Experiences:

• At least 5 years hands-on experience supporting clean cooking market development in Sub-Saharan African countries;
• At least 5 years’ experience advising or implementing clean cooking (including LPG) programmes including private sector businesses through strategy, management, and training;
• At least 5 years’ experience providing technical assistance in the areas of clean cooking technology product development, design, testing, SME business management or finance;
• At least 5 year of work experience in African countries, with additional advantage for Francophone African countries.

Language:

• Written and spoken fluency in English required for anglophone countries;
• Written and spoken fluency in French required for francophone countries;
• Knowledge of other local languages in the DRC, Uganda and Burkina Faso is an advantage. 

  EVALUATION

  Applications will be rated on both technical and financial submissions.  The following selection method will be used:  Highest rated proposal using the combined scoring method. The weight distribution shall be 70% technical and 30% financial. 

  Step I: Screening/Longlisting Criteria

  Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the following minimum criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting.

• Masters level qualifications in business, finance, economics, energy, engineering or related fields;
• At least 5 years hands-on experience supporting clean cooking market development in Sub-Saharan African countries;
• Fluency in English with good French skills OR fluency in French with good English skills required. Knowledge of other local languages and cooking cultures in the DRC, Uganda and Burkina Faso is an advantage.

• Step II: Shortlisting Criteria

  UNCDF will conduct a desk review to produce a shortlist of candidates by evaluating the following criteria with the corresponding points (100 points)

• At least 5 years hands-on experience supporting clean cooking market development in Sub-Saharan African countries; (30 points)
• At least 5 years’ experience advising or implementing clean cooking (including LPG) programmes including private sector businesses through strategy, management, and training; (30 points)
• At least 5 years’ experience providing technical assistance in the areas of clean cooking technology product development, design, testing, SME business management or finance; (20 points)
• At least 5 year of work experience in African countries, with additional advantage for Francophone countries. (20 points)

• As applicable, the applicants achieving 70% of the points at this stage shall be invited for an interview via Skype.

  Step III: Interview

  A competency-based Interview shall be conducted for the shortlisted candidates.

  Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% on the total of Steps II Desk Review (20 points) +III Interview (80 points) will be considered as technically qualified and will be reviewed further for financial evaluation.

  Step IV: Financial Evaluation

  The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

  Lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated x 30%.  All financial proposals shall be submitted along with the applications, and no modification shall be made on the proposals unless requested by UNCDF.

  The top candidates that achieved the highest cumulative score will be recommended for award of LTA, upon approval of the appropriate Procurement Review Committee.   UNCDF reserves the right to increase or decrease this number depending on the quality of the applications that will be received. 

  Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for Calling Off Experts Under the LTA/Framework Agreement

  1)      NEEDS ASSESSMENT:  For every assignment, UNCDF will conduct a need assessment on the services required. The services requirements may be linked to global and national programmes. 

  2)      ASSESS IF THE PROJECT FALLS WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THE LTA:  UNCDF is not mandated to use the LTA holders and can resort to other procurement sources at any time.  However, if the work required is aligned with the design and purpose of the LTA, UNCDF will generally approach LTA holders. 

  3)     CONTACT LTA HOLDERS AND AWARD THE CALL-OFF PO:  Based on the need assessment and a predefined TOR, UNCDF will review the LTA holders’ qualification and experience, focus area, regional coverage as well as work languages as per below table, and then approach the LTA holders that fit with the assignment.  The TOR will include details on duration, number of days, mission places,  scope of works, and deliverables.  If more than one consultant is available in the required area of specialization, UNCDF will award the contract to the lowest total daily rate among those that are available and meet the work requirement.

   

  No.	FOCUS AREA	REGIONAL COVERAGE	LANGUAGE
  Consultants profile 1 & 2: Clean cooking commercialization and Clean cooking technical assistance	·        Clean Cooking business models (LPG and other) ·        Supply chain management ·        Distribution ·        Quality and standards in cooking solutions (including product design and testing) ·        Institutional development ·        Technical assistance ·        Awareness raising and marketing ·        Challenge fund design ·        Investment pipeline management tools development ·        Specialization in clean cooking and/or pay-as-you-go financing	Africa, DRC, Burkina Faso	English, French
  Consultants profile 3: Market development and impact monitoring	·        Market diagnostics and scoping ·        Data and business performance analytics (LPG and/or other) ·        Evaluation and impact assessment ·        Market systems development (LPG and/or other) with wider application to green economy	Africa, DRC, Burkina Faso	French
  Consultants profile 4: Brokering investment Partnerships	·        Investment appraisals, due diligence ·        Financial modelling for investment transactions ·        Business plan development TA to energy and financial service providers ·        Setting up risk-sharing and brokering instruments/structures with other investors/financial institutions ·        Fundraising proposals GCF/GEF and link to wider green economy	Africa, DRC, Burkina Faso, Uganda	English, French

   

  Application:

  Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Proposers who shall not submit below mentioned documents will not be considered for further evaluation.

• When applying for this consultancy position, please apply with your official name as shown in the government issued identification document (e.g. passport and/or driver license). Contract award is subject to this verification;
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references; link to P11: http://sas.undp.org/documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc;
• Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position.  Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application;
• Confirmation of interest and Financial proposal: https://popp.undp.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/UNDP_POPP_DOCUMENT_LIBRARY/Public/PSU_%20Individual%20Contract_Offerors%20Letter%20to%20UNDP%20Confirming%20Interest%20and%20Availability.docx&action=default
•  Earliest Availability

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when traveling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org   If the consultant is over 65 years old, UNCDF reserves the right to require full medical certification and clearance from the consultant’s physician prior to commencing the travel.

Both individual consultants and individuals 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).  If the company or institution that employs them will charge a management fee, the said amount must be incorporated in the financial proposal that the individual will submit. 

No further changes to reflect additional costs shall be accommodated by UNCDF at the point of awarding the LTA.

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

Please include all documents into one file while submitting your application.

References

UNDP’s Individual Consultant’s General Terms and Conditions are provided here:
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf