Background

UNCDF makes public and private finance work for the poor in 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 several different SDGs.

Since 2008, UNCDF has been supporting digital finance with significant success, with digital finance currently the largest part of its inclusive finance portfolio. This includes digital innovations linked to on an off-grid energy, agriculture, employment, health and transport.

UNCDF is also host to the Secretariat of the Better than Cash Alliance, 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.

With 60 professionals with strong digital finance experience across the globe and with several hundred projects in digital on-going, UNCDF is one of the leading development agencies in digital finance with a mission and expertise to reach very low-income customers in some of the world’s most difficult markets. UNCDF’s digital team and resources are currently spread across several programmes and UNCDF is in the process of consolidating its financial and technical resources to create a comprehensive team of experts in various domains to drive the new strategy “Leaving no one behind in the digital era”.

Based on this experience UNCDF started in 2017 to expand the scope of its programmatic agenda to go beyond digital finance. Through the “Leaving none behind in the digital era” strategy, UNCDF is supporting, through its digital finance interventions, the emergence of inclusive digital economies. The strategy recognizes that reaching the full potential of digital financial inclusion in support of the SDGs aligns with the vision of promoting digital economies for the following reasons:

• The value of DFS is not obvious, especially to poor and vulnerable populations, as it is not closely linked to their ability to respond to their specific constraints and needs around agriculture, education, health, energy and other key aspects of their daily lives.
• New innovative services should be developed to address these unmet needs. Innovation will not come from traditional providers but mainly from a range of new players (entrepreneurs, start-ups in various sectors, and platforms like Facebook, Grab, WeChat, etc.).

The ‘Leaving no one behind in the digital era’ strategy, to move from DF to digital economies builds upon and constitutes a logical integration of UNCDF interventions in financial inclusion and digital, developed over many years. The legacy of UNCDF intervention programmes was built through a range of country/regional programmes and global thematic initiatives, which has established a very strong reputation for UNCDF vis-à-vis donors and peers.

Please refer to www.uncdf.org

International Remittances

The UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015. The 2030 Agenda recognizes migration as a core-development consideration, marking the first time that migration is explicitly integrated into the global development agenda. It also recognizes a major relevance of international migration as a multidimensional reality of and for the development of countries of origin, as well as transit and destination, which requires coherent and comprehensive responses.

Migration is also considered key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The adoption of the SDGs and explicit references to migration in 76 of its 17 goals, mainstreamed migration into global development policy. Migration can reduce poverty (SDG 1), improve health and education outcomes (SDGs 3 and 4), gender equality outcomes (SDG 5), foster growth and innovation (SDGs 8 and 9) and reduce inequality (SDG 10).

Remittances, on the other hand, can also contribute to reaching the SDGs in a variety of ways:

• Household level: by recognizing the positive socioeconomic impact of remittances on families and communities
• Community level: Benefits associated at sub-national or municipal levels including reduced rural poverty, lower income inequality, increased micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) activity, and strengthen resilience to adverse effects of climate change or disaster risks
• Government level: Benefits for public sector institutions including greater transparency, better communication with citizens, and increased private sector development and entrepreneurship as a result of access to capital and domestic credit
• Macro level: At macro-economic level, remittances can foster much needed foreign currency exchange, stabilize BOP, reduce dependency on government aid, and re-allocate capital resources into more productive investments and other financial services – moving money from international to domestic, consumption to investment, and from urban to rural.

Guided by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and informed by the Declaration of the High-level dialogue on International Migration and Development adopted in October 2013, the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration in 2018 that expresses a collective commitment to improving cooperation on international migration, leading to the focused objectives on remittances:

• Empowering migrants to catalyze their development contribution, and to harness the benefits of migration as a source of sustainable development
• Promoting faster, safer, and cheaper transfer of remittances by enabling competition, regulation, and innovation in the remittance market
• Initiatives to implement these objectives will also lead to developing financial safety net and wealth stock for migrants and their families in the home countries and have the potential to facilitate dignified and sustainable return of the migrants.

UNCDF aims to improve the functioning of the remittance market in order to improve the financial health of migrant families while strengthen economic development efforts of the origin and host countries. In doing so, UNCDF engages with public and private sector stakeholders to strengthen the capacity of the regulators to monitor and analyze the remittance transaction data towards evidence-based policy making, enable a conducive policy and regulatory environment, and deliver financial and technical assistance to a wide range of financial institutions (e.g. banks, cooperatives, microfinance institutions, money transfer operators, and mobile networks operators) to improve the digital remittance ecosystem and design migrant-centric financial products and services (e.g. savings, credit, insurance, payment services, remittances, pension, and investment).

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work:

UNCDF is keen to explore how the availability of seamless cross-border remittances can be improved and simultaneously leveraged as avenues for savings, investment, and credit for migrants and their families.

With this goal, UNCDF is looking for a Regional Digital Finance and Remittance Expert who will be responsible for providing advisory services to UNCDF partners at the regional level in West and Central Africa to achieve the project results by providing regular technical assistance and facilitating partnerships within the eco-system.

The Regional Digital Finance and Remittance Expert is expected to be engaged through a non-exclusive Long-Term Agreement (LTA) or Framework Agreement formalized through an Individual Contract (IC). A Framework Agreement is known in UNCDF as an agreement that establishes the terms, conditions and prices that will govern future contract or contracts (known as “call offs”) arising from the said Agreement during a period of 3 years.

Every call-off shall have specific tasks, scope of services and outputs to be delivered within a specific period.   For this 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 committed.

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 purchased 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.

Description of Responsibilities:

The Digital Finance and Remittance Expert, West and Central Africa will work under the direct supervision of the Lead Specialist, Migration and Remittances, who will set the monthly deliverables at the beginning of every month and will hold a weekly communication either in person, or via e-mail and/or skype for coordination and guidance purposes, ensuring consultants’ output quality and targets.

Area1: Assessing the regional and national digital finance and remittances ecosystems: To better understand key areas of digital cross-border payments at country or local levelregional level, using demand side and supply side data.

Activities:

• Review relevant remittance policies and regulations to recommend a risk-based policy and regulatory environment to facilitate the formalization, digitization and regional harmonization of remittances.
• Conducting supply side analysis (providers and financial services providers, distribution networks, etc.) of the remittance sector at the regional level. Analysing supply side data sets and issuing reports
• Conducting demand side analysis (customer, product and channel usage analysis) of the remittance sector. Analysing demand side data sets and issuing reports
• Identifying opportunities and constraints to digitizing remittances at the regional and national level.
• Mapping stakeholders and elaborating intervention strategies work plans and recommendations.

Indicative Deliverables:

• Report on recommendations for regional harmonization of remittances
• Supply side research reports
• Demand side research reports
• Gap analysis of regional and national opportunities for remittance projects/interventions,
• Stakeholder mapping and intervention strategies.

Area 2: Provide technical assistance to private and public sector stakeholders: Assisting UNCDF partners in developing or improving market interventions/projects to improve the financial health inclusion of migrants and their families. Providing advisory services to partners regarding proposed digital remittances solutions including: Licenses requirements, business plans, financial models, marketing strategies, technology assessments, implementation plans, go-to-market strategies, pilot-plans and roll out plans.

Activities:

• Evaluating project readiness of selected UNCDF grantees
• Designing interventions (product strategies, business plans, go-to-market strategies) for digital remittances
• Developing customer acquisition and marketing plans for chosen interventions
• Drafting scale-up plan for a full demonstrable regional pilot
• Evaluate interventions.

Indicative Deliverables:

• Business cases/project descriptions and project appraisals documents
• Product strategies, business plans, go-to-market strategies
• Customer engagement plans and marketing materials
• Scale up plans for regional pilots
• Periodic project evaluations

Area 3. Contribute to regional knowledge sharing and learning agenda: Delivering capacity building support to the regional public and private sector partners

Activities:

• Asses the resource capability assessment on both human resource and payment infrastructure capacity at the country and Regional Economic Communities (REC) levels
• Develop engagement strategies with the Regional Economic Communities including specific curricula and trainings.
• Facilitate regional knowledge sharing by convening at least one peer exchange workshop annually for policy makers and regulators across IGAD, ECCAS, and ECOWAS regional blocs

Indicative Deliverables:

• Resource capability assessment report on both human resource and digital payment infrastructure capacity at the country and REC levels
• Engagement strategies with the Regional Economic Communities including specific curricula and trainings developped
• Peer exchanges (workshops, trainings, seminars and peer-to-peer learning, webinars, online learning platforms).

A table below outlines the list of key deliverables and estimated number of days:  

Competencies

• Strong interpersonal and communication and presentation skills;
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing skills;
• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
• Ability to think and act strategically;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• A Master’s degree or equivalent in technology, economics, finance, public/business administration, social sciences, or related discipline or the equivalent experience is mandatory.

Work experience:

• A minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in payments, banking, financial service sector, international remittances or related experience in private sector or an international organization is mandatory;
• A minimum of two years of experience designing, conceiving, and prototyping digital finance solutions or remittance related use-case drivers is mandatory;
• Prior experience in French speaking West Africa or Central Africa is mandatory.
• Experience working with the mass market, including rural or low-income communities, related to financial services is preferred;
• Experience managing or conducting research, particularly related to product development or client demand; Experience of human centered design methods is preferred;
• Experience engaging diverse set of public and private sector stakeholders, government departments, industry associations is preferred;

Language:

• Written and spoken fluency in English and French is required.

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

• Timeline: January 2021 – December 2023
• Total number of working days: 517 working days spread over a period of 36 months.
• Duty station: home-based.

Travel:

• Travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses shall be agreed upon as per UNCDF policy, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel.

Please note that consultants residing in the duty station of travel will not be compensated for living expenses.

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.

Application process:

Interested individuals must submit the documents mentioned below as proposals in order to demonstrate their qualifications (Note: the system does not allow multiple uploads of documents. Applicants must make sure to upload all documents in one PDF file).

All applications must contain the following information (incomplete applications may not be considered):

• Personal CV indicating all past experience from similar projects, full name as well as the contact details (email, telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) professional references;
• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability with Breakdown of Costs that indicates the all-inclusive Daily Fee price on page 1 of letter of confirmation of interest and availability. All-inclusive daily fee = all costs in the breakdown of costs (Section I, II and III) divided by 517 working days.
• Section II in the breakdown of costs: 1 return ticket from country of origin to duty station, living allowance in Kathmandu etc. to be quoted, if applicable. Please note that consultants residing in the duty station will not be compensated for living allowances.

• Section III in the breakdown of costs is not to be filled in as travel to the field and other relevant locations may be required but will be compensated on reimbursable 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 and the daily living allowance will be paid in amounts not exceeding the UN established rate.
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology, if applicable, on how they will approach the assignment.
• If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNCDF under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNCDF.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:

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 V.

Step I: Screening

Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the mandatory criteria (listed under education and experience) 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. The candidates who achieved 75% or more at the desk review will be invited to the next stage of evaluation.

Shortlisting scoring:

20%- Education/Qualification (20 points):

-A Master’s degree in technology, economics, finance, public/business administration, social sciences, or related discipline or the equivalent experience.

50%- Mandatory Experience (50 points):

• A minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in payments, banking, financial service sector, international remittances or related experience in private sector or an international organization is mandatory (20 points);
• A minimum of two years of experience designing, conceiving, and prototyping digital finance solutions or remittance related use-case drivers is mandatory (15 points);
• Prior experience in French speaking West Africa or Central Africa is mandatory (15 points).

30% - Preferred Experience (30 points).

• Experience working with the mass market, including rural or low-income communities, related to financial services is preferred (10 points);
• Experience managing or conducting research, particularly related to product development or client demand; Experience of human centered design methods is preferred (10 points);
• Experience engaging diverse set of public and private sector stakeholders, government departments, industry associations is preferred (10 points).

Step III: Written test – 40 points

The candidates who achieved 75% or more at the desk review are invited to the written test. The test will be scored with pass/fail, the minimum score to pass being 70%.

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 (40 points) + IV (40 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.

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.

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