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.

Recently, UNCDF has formulated its strategy ‘Leaving no one behind in the digital era’ based on over a decade of experience in digital finance in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. UNCDF recognizes that reaching the full potential of digital financial inclusion in support of the Sustainable Development Goals aligns with the vision of promoting digital economies that leave no one behind. The vision of UNCDF is to empower millions of people by 2024 to use services daily that leverage innovation and technology and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. Please refer to the link for further information: https://www.uncdf.org/article/4931/global-strategy-leaving-no-onebehind-in-the-digital-era. 

UNCDF in Uganda

UNCDF has been present in Uganda since 1982, supporting the Government to create a functional planning and financial system for sustainable and inclusive local development. Today, together with the larger UN Country Team, UNCDF in Uganda has supported the Government to mainstream digitization into and to effectively implement the Third National Development Plan and realize its vision of a Ugandan society transformed from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country within 30 years, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

UNCDF uses its financial tools and technical expertise in public financial management, SME development, and financial services development to incentivize actors across different economic value chains to think differently, break from their silos, and incubate new ways of serving the “last-mile”. Together we look for, and invest in, high-impact opportunities that can boost productivity, economies of scale, and above all, development impact, especially for women and youth.

UNCDF in 2019 launched an initiative with the support of the Sweden Development Agency (SIDA) i.e. the “Leaving No One Behind in the Digital Era” Uganda programme. The Programme aims at empowering rural community members in Uganda to lead productive and healthy lives, by expanding access and usage of digital services. Please refer to https://www.uncdf.org/article/4931/global-strategy-leaving-no-one-behind-in-the-digital-era   

The main expected outcomes of this new initiative are:

• Rural community members in Uganda (women, migrants, smallholder farmers, agri-businesses & refugees) have the knowledge, skills and behaviors needed to access and use digital services. They have better access to training and education through digital channels.
• New business models and technologies for delivering services are scaled for rural communities in the finance, agriculture, energy, education and health sectors.
• Rural community members have improved access to and increasingly use digital payment accounts.
• The Government of Uganda implements policies that enable access and usage of digital services.

UNCDF applies a market development approach. This approach aims to understand and intervene in selected market systems to address underlying market dysfunctions that lead to improved efficiencies, effectiveness and sustainability. The approach leverages and supports current players in the market and strengthens the systems and relationships among the various market and sector actors, while recognizing the dynamic and complex nature of markets.

 Digital Uganda Vision and the Third National Development Plan

The Digital Uganda Vision is an overarching 20-year ICT development framework that is aligned to the Uganda Vision 2040. Its aim is to guide and harmonize Uganda’s Digital Transformation investments, policies, strategies and other governance frameworks to facilitate the realization of the national development aspirations. The implementation of the DUV is within the Comprehensive National Development Planning Framework (CNDPF) as adopted by Government in 2007. The key objectives of the NDP III and interventions were therefore derived from the DUV.

The Inclusive Digital Economy Scorecard (IDES)

The IDES is a policy tool, it supports governments in setting priorities that drive digital transformation while reducing the digital divide. The IDES is a central tool of UNCDF’s “Leaving no One behind in the Digital Era” strategy. 

The objective is to provide a tool for easily measuring and tracking the level of development of an inclusive digital economy at the country level. 

The tool identifies the key market constraints hindering the development of an inclusive digital economy and helps set the right priorities with public and private stakeholders in each country to foster a digital economy that leaves no one behind.

The IDES has three main components:

• The Digital Economy Score shows the status of the overall digital economy and its components (enabling policy environment, mobile infrastructure and digital payments, innovation ecosystem and customers skills).
• The Digital Inclusiveness Score measures the level of inclusion in the digital economy for key customer segments, such as women, youth, refugees, migrants, micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and rural inhabitants.
• The Digital Divide Score is the difference between the Digital Economy Score and the Digital Inclusiveness Score. It shows the extent the digital economy is exclusive of key customer segments.

Duties and Responsibilities

UNCDF seeks the support of an individual consultant to help implement the IDES within the Government of Uganda in line with the National Development Plan and the Digital Uganda Vision.

Area of intervention 1: Supporting the Government of Uganda in assessing the inclusiveness of its digital economy and implementing the IDES.

• Undertake baseline assessment of Uganda’s digital economy upon launch of the NDP3 (one-time assessment).
• Undertake periodic follow-up assessments of the digital economy using the IDES (2 per year)
• Conduct stakeholder meetings to gather input and disseminate findings to guide policymaking (1 per quarter)

Area of intervention 2: Support the Ministry of ICT to implement the Digital Uganda Vision in line with the NDP3.

• Convene and facilitate working sessions with the ICT Sector Working Group (2 per quarter)
• Develop a roadmap sequencing the activities prescribed in the digitization of the NDP3 in order achieve the goals of the NDP3  

Area of intervention 3: Align Digital Uganda Vision with UNCDF Uganda Country Strategy

Review Digital Uganda Vision alongside UNDF Country Strategy and make recommendations as how UNCDF country strategy might be updated to better align with DUV (once per year)

• Organize working sessions with UNCDF and Ministry of ICT officials to translate alignment into an action plan and to review the action plan periodically (1 per quarter)

Area of intervention 4: Facilitate the exchange of insights, experiences and technical expertise through hosted workshops, peer-to-peer exchanges, conferences and meetings within the country.

• Write at least 3 publications (Blogs or white papers or case studies) per year including key insights coming out of the implementation of the IDES, the NDP3 and the Digital Uganda Vision.

The table below outlines the list of key deliverables and estimated number of days. 

All outputs shall be subject to review and written acceptance by the Digital Country Lead who shall also authorize the disbursement of payment to the individual contractor.

Institutional Arrangement

The Consultant will be based in Kampala, Uganda, and will work under the supervision of the Digital Country Lead in Uganda.

• The Consultant will be supervised by the Digital Country Lead
• Reporting will be done through weekly meetings with the Digital Country Lead
• All deliverables will be approved by the Digital Country Lead
• UNCDF will provide an office

• 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 and deliverable timeline

Duration of the Work

• Maximum number of working days required for the assignment is 204 days spread over one year.

Location of the Work

The Consultant will be based in Kampala, Uganda.  

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 consultants residing in the duty station will not be compensated for living expenses.

Progress Controls & Payments

Payment will be made against satisfactorily completion of each milestone. All payments shall be disbursed only upon written confirmation of acceptance of the deliverables which and authorization for payment by the Digital Country Lead in Uganda.

Disbursement of the final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

The payment schedule will be as follows:

Competencies

• Strong communicator;
• Ability to think and act strategically;
• Cultural sensitivity, creativity, and resourcefulness;
• Results-driven, problem-solver with structuring and analytic capabilities;
• Ability to establish strong working relationships with various stakeholder institutions in the public and private sector.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in economics, international development, or related field is mandatory.

Skills & Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience in policy-related work with government is mandatory.
• At least 5 years’ experience working in East Africa is mandatory.
• At-least 5 years of experience in the review and implementation of policy related to ICT is mandatory.
• Experience in managing stakeholder engagement processes, working sessions and results-oriented meetings is preferable.
• Experience in writing case studies, research papers or other learning materials is preferable.
• Prior experience working for International development organizations like the UN is a plus.

Language requirements:

• Excellent written and oral English is mandatory.

Evaluation: 

Step I: Screening

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

• Master’s degree in economics, international development, or related field
• At least 10 years of experience in policy-related work with government
• At least 5 years’ experience working in East Africa
• At-least 5 years of experience in the review and implementation of policy related to ICT

Step II: Shortlisting by desk review (20% out of technical evaluation)

UNCDF will produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate candidates as per education and experience requirements in this Terms of Reference.

Shortlisting scoring (100 points):

• Master’s degree in economics, international development, or related field: 20 points
• At least 10 years of experience in policy-related work with government: 25 points
• At least 5 years’ experience working in East Africa: 20 points  
• At-least 5 years of experience in the review and implementation of policy related to ICT: 20 points
• Experience in managing stakeholder engagement processes, working sessions and results-oriented meetings: 15 points

As applicable, only applicants scoring minimum 80 points or more shall be invited for an interview.

Step III: Interview (80% out of technical evaluation)

An interview shall be conducted with the candidates having passed the desk review with a minimum scoring 80 points. Candidates will be tested on the following:  

• Relevant experience
• Sector Knowledge
• Communication Skills.

Step IV: Financial Evaluation

Only candidates obtaining minimum 70% on the total Step II (Desk Review) + Step III (Interview) shall be considered as technically qualified and be reviewed further for 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 contract shall be awarded to the best 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%.

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.

 Application process

Interested individuals must submit the following as proposals in order to demonstrate their qualifications: (NOTE: THE SYSTEM DOES NOT ALLOW MULTIPLE UPLOADS OF DOCUMENTS THEREFORE APPLICANTS MUST MAKE SURE TO UPLOAD ALL REQUIRED DOCUMENTS IN ONE FILE). Proposers who shall not submit below mentioned documents may not be considered for further evaluation.

All applications must contain the following information:

• A cover letter responding to competency criteria indicating why the candidate considers himself/herself suitable for the required consultancy as well as stating earliest availability.  Please paste this letter into the “Resume and Motivation” section of the electronic application.
• CV or P11, indicating all past experiences from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email, telephone, skype) of the Candidate with at least three (3) professional references. Link to P11: http://sas.undp.org/documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc  
• Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy.
• Confirmation of interest and Financial proposal for the assignment outlining: All-inclusive fee including professional fees and other professional expenses, such as insurance, taxes, etc. (Available at: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916 ).

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. 

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

In general, UNCDF shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources
In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

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.