UNDP Jobs - 90921- READVERTISED - Development Finance Institutions Ad

READVERTISED - Development Finance Institutions Advisor (Consultant)

Location :

New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

22-May-20 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

6 months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

6 months

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. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

READVERTISED - Applicants who previously applied do not need to re-apply.

There is broad consensus that the world needs to move from ‘billions to trillions’ of dollars of financing to meet the challenge of promoting inclusive, sustainable growth, reducing poverty and inequality, and protecting the planet. The scale and complexity of today’s sustainable development challenges requires a multi-stakeholder approach that draws on the contributions from all parts of society, including the private sector. A wide range of stakeholders see a critical role for Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) in blending public and private finance to scale up financing for development. In adopting the Hamburg Principles in 2017, the G20 welcomed the role of DFIs and MDBs in mobilizing and catalyzing private capital and endorsed a target of increasing mobilization by 25 to 35 percent by 2020. In response, DFIs and MDBs have taken steps to catalyze more private investment.3 More than USD 160 billion in private investment was mobilized by MDBs and DFIs in 2017. Total private investment mobilized by MDBs and DFIs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) totaled USD 59 billion in 2017, of which USD 19 billion was direct mobilization from the private sector. USD 26.7 billion, or 45 percent of the total private investment mobilized in LMICs, was directed to infrastructure. DFIs are increasingly impactful vehicle in their unique and important role of directing private investments to, and promoting growth, in developing countries and sectors that are traditionally hard to attract finance to.

UNDP’s Strategic Plan (2018-2021) recognizes both International Financial Institutions and the private sector as a critical development partner for the implementation of sustainable development goals (SDG)-related policies and programs. It commits UNDP to broaden and deepen its responsible engagement with the private sector, working with Governments to mobilize private sector capital for domestic investments in the SDGs and in accordance with national development priorities. UNDP’s private sector strategy underscores the importance of makings markets work for the SDGs. With its role evolving from channeling grant funding to facilitating access to a broad range of financing for countries to achieve their development objectives, UNDP is diversifying its partnership and improving its financing instruments. Hence, it will be key for UNDP to engage with DFIs going forward to identify synergies and new ways of collaborating on financing the SDGs.

In 2018, BERA developed a paper presenting a general overview of DFIs and their contribution to support sustainable development. Informed by findings from an initial landscape mapping focusing on an analytical overview of DFI investments areas, priorities (sectoral and geographic), pipeline and growth potential, the paper outlined the opportunities and implications to collaborate with DFIs.

However, in order for UNDP to develop a more concrete and coherent approach to partnering with DFIs, with clear areas to partner on and modalities of collaboration— and underpinned by UNDP’s new SDG finance offers and private sector strategy— the services of an expert consultant with a deep understanding of DFIs and their business models are needed in order to propose, negotiate, and execute a roadmap of collaboration with priority DFIs, including concrete entry points and clear advice on modalities for collaboration.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties/Responsibilities and Deliverables

Under the overall direction/guidance of the Directors of the Partnership Group (PG) and Finance Sector Hub (FSH) and direct supervision of the Team Leader, Financial Institutions Team, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

Analyse priority DFI mandates, value proposition, business models and preferred partners for collaboration to extract further implications for UNDP;
Analyse UNDP’s existing and potential opportunities for DFI collaboration to identify best practices and benchmark its value proposition vis a vis other similar organizations within and outside the UN system;
Support UNDP’s engagement with the International Development Finance Club and World Federation of DFIs;
Develop UNDP’s distinct service offers (within the FSH services) and articulate its comparative advantage for intended collaboration, in consultation with DFIs as needed, to better understand where their gaps and challenges lie in promoting private sector investment, and what added value UNDP could provide;
Assess UNDP’s financial tools and instruments that could be applied to collaborate with DFIs and to recover costs for services provided and propose any further requirements to facilitate collaboration;
Review the due diligence policies of key DFIs and extent of alignment with UNDP’s due diligence policy. This would also include exploring the extent of alignment of social and environmental standards between UNDP and key DFIs;
Based on information above, develop and/or update DFI profiles to help guide partnership development process;
Contribute to DFI-specific products, engagement plans, guidance and online resources/platforms.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables (in consultation with DFIs as needed):

Initial analysis outlining the mandates, value proposition, business models and preferred partners for collaboration of key DFIs (to be selected with the consultant). The paper (10-20 pages) will also analyze DFIs’ gaps and challenges in promoting private sector investment (which will allow to identify the added value UNDP could provide, per below), as well as a summary of the due diligence policies of each DFI and the extent of alignment with UNDP’s due diligence policy and social and environmental standards (Deadline: 30 June (first draft); final draft: 1 September);
Further analysis of UNDP’s existing and potential opportunities for collaboration with each of the selected DFIs, identifying best practices. The 2nd paper (10-20 pages) will include UNDP’s distinct service offers (within the FSH services) and comparative advantage for intended collaboration, as well as analysis on the financial tools and instruments that could be applied to collaborate with each DFI and to recover costs for services provided. (Deadline: 31 July (first draft); final draft: 30 September);
Develop the service offer to DFIs based on the FSH service offers, and at least two engagement plans drafted in consultation with relevant DFIs. Draft DFI-specific products, guidance and online resources/platforms, and direct support on DFI issues provided if/when requested (Deadline: 31 October).

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Commitment to UNDP mission, vision and values;
Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment

Functional competencies:

Strong interpersonal skills, communication and diplomatic skills, ability to work in a team
Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback
Ability to work under pressure and stressful situations
Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities
Excellent drafting and presentation skills

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s Degree in economics, economics, finance, international relations, or a development related field.

Experience

A minimum of 8 years of relevant professional experience is the Development Finance sector with demonstrated experience advising DFIs or in the private sector or sustainable finance in a development agency.
Demonstrated understanding of DFIs and broader Finance for Development (FfD) priorities.
Experience in partnership strategy development, innovative finance and financial product development would be regarded a merit.
Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.

Evaluation of Applicants

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and expertise and financial proposal (70%-30%).

The award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and b) having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical (CV desk reviews and interviews) and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only candidates who will get a minimum of 32 points in desk review (criteria A,B,C) will be invited for interviews. Only the top 3 to 5 candidates who get a minimum of 70% of points in technical evaluation (= 49 points) (including desk review and interview- criteria A to G) will be invited for the last step: financial evaluation.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation – max. 70 points:

Criteria A (Desk review - Education) – max points: 10
Criteria B (Desk review -Experience with DFIs, FfD and multilateral partners, including the UN – max points: 20
Criteria C (Methodology) – max. points: 15 points
Criteria D (Interview – Proven experience and clear best practices leveraging development finance with relevant public, multi-lateral and private institutions) – max points: 10
Criteria E (Interview - Experience in strategy development and partnerships at the international level) – max points: 10
Criteria G (Interview - language skills) – max 5

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation – max. 30 points.

Application procedures:

The application submission is a two-step process. Failing to comply with the submission process may result in disqualifying the applications.

Step 1: Interested candidates must include the following documents when submitting the applications (Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF attachment as the system only allows upload of one document):

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.
A brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the work (max. 500 words);
CV including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees;

Step 2: Submission of Financial Proposal - Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and requested to provide a financial offer.

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling 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

General Terms and conditions as well as other related documents can be found under: https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=46870.

Qualified women and members of minorities are encouraged to apply.

Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.