UNCDF Jobs - 74361- Technical Consultant

Technical Consultant

Advertised on behalf of

UNCDF

Location :

Dakar, SENEGAL

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

13-Sep-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English French

Expected Duration of Assignment :

up to 230 days

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 United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 47 least developed countries. It creates new opportunities for poor people and their communities by increasing access to financial services 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 financial service providers reach more poor households and small businesses, and local governments finance the capital investments that will improve poor peoples’ lives. Financial inclusion means universal access, at a reasonable cost, to a wide range of financial services, provided by a variety of sound and sustainable institutions. The range of financial services includes savings, short and long-term credit, leasing and factoring, mortgages, insurance, pensions, payments, local money transfers and international remittances.

Since 2010 UNCDF has been actively working to increase youth financial inclusion. To date, we have supported 10 financial services providers (FSPs) to collect US$20 million in savings from 750,000 and provide loans to 125,000 young entrepreneurs.

Information on YS can be found at www.uncdf.org/youthstart.

Duties and Responsibilities

UNCDF seeks a consultant to support the expansion of the youth financial services portfolio. Under the supervision and guidance of the YouthStart Programme Manager (YPM), the specific interventions of the consultant are as follows:

Technical assistance to youth micro-franchising agent network in Senegal (40% of the time).

UNCDF is supporting the creation of a network of young women and men running their own micro-franchise business to deliver digital financial services in rural areas in Senegal. The consultant will be expected to develop a technical assistance plan and for the Franchisor of the network. In particular, the consultant will be responsible to ensure the franchisor meets its obligations under the agreement signed with UNCDF. During the lifetime of the agreement between UNCDF and the franchisor, the consultant is expected to:

Develop technical assistance plans with the franchisor for the franchisor;
Provide direct assistance to fulfill those plans;
Assist in drafting job descriptions for the micro-franchisees;
Assist in recruiting the franchisees;
Assist in developing and conducting trainings to the franchisees;
Assist in developing strong monitoring systems of the franchisor;
Assist in identifying new products that could be distributed by the franchisees;
Set-up project governance mechanisms and tools to manage the project;
Be in regular contact (bi-weekly) with partners to discuss progress toward implementation;
Identify problems or bottlenecks and propose solutions;
Provide ad – hoc advise on issues relevant to the projects to the partner and to UNCDF;
Advise UNCDF on any significant issues that may impede progress toward implementation.

Deliverables:

Training plan for the franchisor, including the proposed number and length of on-site visits;
Training materials for the franchisees;
Workshops;
Quarterly conference call and reports on the advice and assistance provided to UNCDF;
1-2-page trip report for visits of the consultants to provide on-site assistance;
Project management reports.

Technical assistance to FSPs developing youth services in rural Senegal (40% of the time).

UNCDF is supporting the expansion of financial services to youth in rural areas in Senegal. Through its own processes, UNCDF will solicit and appraise proposals from institution for financial support in accordance with its own policies and procedures before being presented to the appropriate Investment Committee for approval. UNCDF will conclude technical assistance agreements, performance-based grant or loans agreements with selected partners. Disbursement of funds will be linked to the achievement of mutually-agreeable qualitative and quantitative targets.

Once institutions are shortlisted, the consultant will be asked to assist partners to develop a technical assistance plan for partners to meet their obligations under the agreement and fulfill their own objectives. These plans are likely to consist of advice and assistance provided directly by the consultants as well as that which requires outside expertise or medium to long-term on-site support. During the lifetime of the agreement between UNCDF and the partner, the consultants are expected to:

Develop technical assistance plans with partners for partners;
Provide direct assistance to fulfill those plans;
Assist in identifying technical resources for the partners;
Be in regular contact (bi-weekly) with partners to discuss progress toward implementation;
Identify problems or bottlenecks and propose solutions;
Organize lateral learning workshops for partners;
Provide ad – hoc advise on issues relevant to the projects to the partner and to UNCDF;
With partner, advise UNCDF on any significant issues that may impede progress toward implementation.

Deliverables:

Technical assistance plans for partners, including the proposed number and length of on-site visits;
Quarterly conference call and reports on the advice and assistance provided to UNCDF;
1-2-page trip report for visits of the consultants to provide on-site assistance;
Project management reports;
Workshops.

Knowledge generation & sharing (20% of time).

Knowledge generation is a cyclical activity which is required throughout the projects. The consultant will propose and/or respond to specific requests from UNCDF regarding knowledge generation on the two projects mentioned above. Purpose, audience, methods, and desired output will be mutually agreed. The lessons learned may include those related to the actual project results, the method of providing assistance or funding to the project, or practical materials or guides to assist partner (and other institutions) in better implementing aspects of data analytics. This can be done with a mixture of methods or media and need not be exclusive to UNCDF. The consultant will be encouraged to use innovative multimedia tools such as infographics and documentaries. The knowledge generation activities should:

Have practical value to UNCDF partners;
Be public, available and useful to the industry at large;
Establish UNCDF as both a thought leader and an experienced funder in the area of access to finance for youth;
Be complimentary, rather than duplicative, of others knowledge (e.g. CGAP, GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked, etc.);
Include the UNCDF brand and acknowledge UNCDF’s donors (note the consultant authorship of the products will be recognized);
Include best practices and examples from around the world if relevant, with practical, statistics and costs if possible;
Products should be well designed and easy for the audience to understand;
The consultant should be able to understand their audience and present with strong presentation skills that are engaging and not just “lecturing” the audience when it is determined a presentation is the best knowledge product;

Deliverables:

Lessons learned in way that can be applied;
Case studies, technical notes or briefs;
Blogs, videos, social media, etc;
Knowledge exchange and peer-to-peer learning.

Monitoring

The primary contact for reporting for this TOR shall be the Global Youth Finance Specialist;
Payment will be made on periodical basis in accordance with number of days worked and upon satisfactorily achieved deliverables. All payments are subject to the clearance and approval of the direct supervisor;
Final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

Competencies

Ability to work independently, manage time, scheduling and logistical issues;
Anticipates constraints in the delivery of services and identifies solutions or alternatives;
Ability to interact and adapt communication with various management levels at our partners;
Proactively identifies, develops and discusses solutions for internal and external clients, and persuades management to undertake new projects or services;
Excellent organizational, and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

Master’s degree in economics, finance, public/business administration, law, social sciences, international relations or related fields

Experience

Minimum three (3) years of relevant experience and demonstrated increasing responsibilities in a field related to microfinance, inclusive finance;
One (1) year working in youth financial inclusion/or youth development and micro-franchising networks;
Experience in project management;
Experience in French-speaking African Countries is a plus.

Language

Fluency in English and French is required.

Application

Interested individuals must submit the following as proposals in order to demonstrate their qualifications: (NOTE: the system does not allow multiple uploads of document. Applicants must make sure to upload all documents in one PDF file). All applications must contain the following information:

Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies in relation to the TOR;
Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy;
Upddated Curriculum Vitae;
Completed and signed P11 Personal History Form with names and current contacts of 3 referees (available from http://sas.undp.org/documents/p11_personal_history_form.doc);

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials. Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF file as the system only allows to upload maximum one attachment.

Evaluation

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:
Preliminary Evaluation - Step I: Pre-Screening;
Technical Evaluation Weight - 70% x (Step II: 20 Points + Step III: 80 Points = 100 Points);
Financial Evaluation Weight - 30% = Step IV.

Step I: Pre-screening/ Long-listing
Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the minimum criteria listed in the previous section will progress to pool for shortlisting

Step II: Shortlisting by Review of a Profile
UNCDF will conduct a desk review to produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate them.
As applicable, only the first top 3 ranked applicants achieving 70% of the points at this stage shall be invited for an interview.

Step III: Interview:
A competency-based Interview shall be conducted for the top 3 shortlisted candidates.
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% on the total of Steps II (20 points) +III (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%.

Contract Award Criteria

The contract shall be awarded to the applicant whose offer have been evaluated and determined as: Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and having received the highest combined weight (technical proposal & Interview) 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.

UNCDF cannot guarantee residence permits or visa´s for consultants. Please explain whether you have a residence status in the duty station of the assignment or whether you are capable of obtaining it before the assignment.

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