UNDP Jobs - 98037- National Consultant to implement the Innovative Ch

National Consultant to implement the Innovative Challenge of the Acceleration of E-commerce and SMEs Formalization (Open for National with residence in Cambodia)

Location :

Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

27-Apr-2021

Application Deadline :

22-Apr-21 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

60 working days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

60 working days (from 27 April to 30 Sep 2021)

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

The Royal Government of Cambodia has undertaken a series of broad-based reforms aimed at strengthening and diversifying the productive sector base and achieving economic/trade-related competitiveness growth. These strategic objectives are enshrined in the national development agenda, articulated by the Rectangular strategy IV, the National Strategy Development Plan (2019-2023), the Cambodia Trade Integration Strategy Update (2019-2023), and the Cambodia e-commerce strategy which has been launched in November 2020. A common thread running through these policy instruments is the recognition of E-commerce as a driver of private sector growth, both from a domestic-market and international trade perspective.

The potential for e-commerce development is significant in Cambodia, promising to diversify the economy, provide new jobs, and increase financial inclusion, as well as contributing to improved lives and livelihoods. Cambodia has considerable advantages that could be leveraged to create ICT jobs and benefit the national economy. Yet E-commerce is relatively undeveloped compared to Cambodia’s neighbors and has not yet contributed to export diversification despite its potential in particular for agricultural commodities, handicrafts, and garments.

Some important considerations have been noticeably constrained the future growth in this sector, though. SMEs, in general, face a lot of challenges ranging from the lack of proper status, high transaction costs, to uncertainty related to incentives and regulations, and particularly e-commerce firms, IT start-ups and other segments in newly emerging areas. Remarkably, access to finance is reportedly the most burdensome and challenging for SMEs to find in the formal lending sector.

In this context, UNDP in collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce through a cost-sharing mechanism under the Go4eCAM Project, a project jointly financed by the Enhanced Integrated Framework and the Royal Government of Cambodia, is aiming to provide financial support to SMEs to help their promising business ideas move from ideas to concepts, or from concepts to businesses, through the small grant program. The focus of the small grant modality will be on helping those SMEs with no and little access to formal lending and to demonstrate the benefits the SMEs could gain by going digital and by doing so, they could reach out to wider markets and clientele.

To take this initiative forward, UNDP is currently seeking individual consultant to support the program design and implementation for a period of 6 months, 27 April to 30 September 2021.

Duties and Responsibilities

The successfully selected consultant will be taking role in developing and implementing this innovative challenge program adopting to UNDP Innovation Challenge modality, following a sequence of but not limited to the main activities as below,

1. Support the design of the small grant program using innovation challenge modality

Support the establishment of the programme committee (eligible/appraisal committees), in consultation with UNDP and MoC, to provide overall oversight and strategic guidance throughout the process involving high-level stakeholders from UNDP, MoC, private sector, development partners, other relevant government ministries, and business associations.
Develop the ToR of the innovative challenge, in consultation with UNDP and MoC
Develop detailed workplan of the SGP (from start to the completion, including capacity building plan and stakeholder’s engagement plan)
Work with UNDP communication team in close consultation with MoC to develop media campaign for the launch of the innovative challenge using appropriate communication channels including public discussions session, which optimally reaches the targeted audience.

2. Support the execution of innovative challenge following the agreed workplan including, for instance,

Coordinate and organize the SGP committee meetings regularly to inform the committee about progress, any issue/challenges and seek for technical guidance and support.
Support on partnership building with different experts, key players in e-commerce ecosystem to provide support SGP Awardees.
Organize and coordinate the relevant activities of the program (including application recruitment and selection, appraisal and grant award, committees pitching and public presentation),
Prepare a selection report documenting all the evaluation steps and scoring results to inform the SGP committee to award the winners.
Organize series of follow-up sessions with the Awardees and coordinate with other experts as necessary to provide coaching supports to SMEs Awardees.
Provide regular update status of all activity progresses and challenges to UNDP
Monitor the progress of innovation challenges fund implementation by SMEs based on the signed agreement and ToR with regularly update to UNDP and MoC teams.

3. Produce a written final report upon finalization of the first cohort of Innovative Challenge of the Acceleration of Ecommerce and SMEs formalization (max 10 pages), describing the methodology, key achievement, list of stakeholders involved in program, measurement against set KPIs, and the recommendation/suggestions/lessons learned that lead to improvement for the second cohort.

Interested offeror must read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=76916 for more detail information about term of reference, instructions to offeror, and to download the documents to be submitted in the offer through online.

Competencies

Analytical skills, knowledge of e-commerce environment or ecosystem
In-depth understanding of Cambodia’s digital / e-commerce environment, business rule and regulation in Cambodia
Proven extensive network with government partners, private sector, business association, and other relevant parties/development donors
Strong analytical mind and understanding of business-related requirements and constraints, with a focus on addressing them through training and capacity development measures

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in business administration, management, ecommerce, economic, or other related fields

Experiences:

Minimum 4 years of combined working experience with the private sector, and non-profit organizations including the other consultancy work related to training program, innovation challenge program, digitalization, and ecommerce
Proven experience in managing project activities and coordinating similar programs for new start-up or SMEs, events organization, communications management, and partnerships building with entrepreneurs and stakeholders.
Experience in supervising similar assignments, particularly e-commerce SMEs
Proven experience in providing training and startup programme related to e-commerce SMEs
Prior experience consulting for UNDP Cambodia is an asset.
Experience working in the e-commerce sector, digital trade or government coordination are preferable.

Language Requirements:

English and Khmer

UNDP reserves right to reject any applications that is incomplete.

Please be informed that we don’t accept application submitted via email.

Interested individual offeror must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

1. Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work

2. Financial proposal

3. Personal CV including experience in similar projects, list of publication written by Candidate and at least 3 references.

Interested Offerors are required to submit application via UNDP jobsite system as the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP jobsite system. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your on-line applications submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an e-mail acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application, if necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email chanpisey.ky@undp.org and cc procurement.kh@undp.org . While the Procurement Unit would endeavor to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 5 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted?in Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice?page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain update related to this Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice