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 a number of different SDGs.

Expanding Financial Access (EFA) Project

To support the government of Myanmar in the implementation process of the Financial Inclusion Roadmap, UNCDF in Myanmar developed the Expanding Financial Access (EFA) project that focuses on priority areas of the Financial Inclusion Roadmap. Started in 2015, EFA is the core project in Myanmar and works hand in hand at the country level with other regional and global UNCDF.

The EFA project intends, to increase the percentage of the adult population which are financially included from 30% in 2015 to 40 by 2020, and those which use more than one financial product from 6% to 15%. Moreover, EFA aims to have 830,000 low income direct beneficiaries and 3 million indirect ones by providing a full range of affordable, quality, effective and responsible financial services to
 
MSME, small-scale farmers, women-led enterprises, youth, poor and low-income clients by encouraging stakeholders to work together in an integrated manner.

A core component of EFA is the Market Development Facility which seeks to address systemic market failures in a number of thematic areas through targeted funding solutions. It functions as a catalytic wholesale financial agent able to take-on risk and leverage outside sources of capital to boost funding to undercapitalized MFIs operating in Myanmar. Digital Financial Services (DFS) and Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) are also critical cross-cutting themes and form the basis for a number of UNCDF Myanmar interventions. EFA also works in partnership with the innovative regional Shaping  Inclusive Finance Transformations (SHIFT) funding facility which aims to accelerate financial inclusion across the ASEAN region. Through the CleanStart project, UNCDF provides funding to institutions working in renewables and clean energy.
As part of the EFA Project, UNCDF in Myanmar is focusing on vulnerable women and girls through the Women’s Economic and Financial Inclusion (WEFI) Initiative.

In Myanmar, women and girls face barriers in the enabling environment, in the supply of and in their demand for financial products and services, as well as in their socio-cultural contexts. As a result, women remain disproportionately excluded from the formal financial system in the country and further exacerbated for those living in conflict-affected areas. The gender gap in formal financial access is 12% (Findex, 2014) with women being more likely than men to use informal financial products and services. Together, these diverse spheres of constraint limit women and girls’ access, usage and agency over financial products and services in ways that constrain their opportunities for economic participation and empowerment. Yet while, women’s economic participation has the potential to contribute to Myanmar’s sustainable economic growth, currently women’s labour force participation rate is only 50.5%, falling well short of the male participation rate of 85.2% - despite women and adolescent girls constituting more than half of the country’s working age population (aged 15-64) (52.3%).

UNCDF believes that Financial inclusion is a key enabler of women’s economic empowerment. Acknowledging the pivotal role that financial inclusion plays in reaching the economic empowerment of women and girls, UNCDF is developing and implementing multi-sectorial activities to facilitate women and girls’ economic empowerment through improving their access, use and control over financial services, in cooperation with the Myanmar Government, UN Agencies, Financial Services Providers and international donors.
As a component of EFA project, WEFIP is a three years initiative funded by DFID of the Government of the UK. The initiative and its strategic approach is informed by UNCDF’s strong foundation of successful programming in Myanmar through the national project (EFA), regional and global programming.
WEFIP aims at increasing 200,000 women and girls’ awareness of, access to, and use of agency over appropriate financial products and services responsibly provided by diverse and sustainable service providers in a well-regulated environment with a focus on conflict-affected areas of Myanmar. UNCDF will operationalize the strategy drawing on several intervention strategies in line with five functions namely convening, research, capacity building, advocacy, and innovation funding.

This component is primarily focusing on interventions functions on the Supply-side: to promote gender-sensitive financial products and services and supporting non-financial services; and the Demand-side: to enhance women and girls’ financial capabilities, voice and demand for finance. Yet in recognition of the important role of the broader context, supporting interventions will be implemented in the sphere of the Enabling Environment: to advance Gender (and age) sensitive enabling legal, policy and regulatory environment for financial inclusion.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of Assignment
 
UNCDF seeks the services of a consultant with direct experience in the disability sector to support on a part time basis to conduct primary qualitative research using focus groups and drawing on human centered design approach and using the UNCDF country assessment toolkit methodology. The intention is to understand the level of financial access and usage, and constraints and enablers among persons with disability, with particular focus on women and girls. The consultant will use the results of the research to develop a case study and research findings that can be shared with financial service providers and community-based organizations to support market development of financial and non-financial products and services, as well as demand side social norms change activities tailored to this market segment.

Deliverables and Final Products Schedule

Institutional Arrangement

The Disability Sector Consultant will closely work with Gender Economic Empowerment Expert Consultant under the overall guidance of UNCDF Country Coordinator. The UNCDF Country Coordinator will approve the consultant’s payment based on the deliverables listed in these TORs.
 
The Gender Economic Empowerment Expert Consultant will review the outputs, give comments and UNCDF Myanmar Country Coordinator will certify the approval of the consultant’s work in 2 weeks’ time from the delivery of work.

Travel costs associated to the assignment will be borne by UNCDF.

Duty Station

This consultancy is home-based in Yangon, Myanmar and physical presence at UNCDF Yangon Office may be required intermittently. The consultant is expected to travel to project sites during the contract period.

Competencies

• Demonstrated ability to work effectively as an integral part of multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural and multi-agency teams;
• High level of energy and initiative, and ability to deal with rapidly shifting priorities and work demands;
• Demonstrable competence in report writing to a high standard;
• Ability to negotiate with different persons having different agenda;
• Ability to network with partners on various levels;
• Knowledgeable of the UN system functioning and programming is an asset;
• Strong leadership and planning skills;
• Ability to conduct research and analysis and strong synthesis skills;
• Cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Minimum Bachelor degree or equivalent diploma in Business Administration/Management, Economics, Finance/Banking, Social Studies, Development Studies, or any other relevant discipline.

Experience

• Minimum 2 years of relevant experience in Disability Sector.
• Minimum 2 years of experience working with vulnerable women, and experience carrying out women’s economic empowerment activity is a must.
• Prior experience in Entrepreneurship or Business Development in Private Sector is preferred.
• Prior work experience in Financial Sector related work is a strong asset.
• Prior work experience with conflict affected People in Myanmar is an asset.

Language

• Fluency in oral and written English is a requirement.

Step I: Screening:
Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the following minimum criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting:

• Minimum Bachelor degree or equivalent diploma in Business, Administration/Management, Economics, Finance/Banking, Social Studies, Development Studies, or any other relevant discipline.
• Minimum 2 years of relevant assignment/work experience in Disability Sector.
• Minimum 2 years of  experience working with vulnerable women, and experience carrying out women’s economic empowerment activity is a must.

Step II: Shortlisting by Desk Review:
UNCDF will conduct a desk review to produce a shortlist of candidates by evaluating the following criteria with the corresponding points (100 points)

• Prior experience in Entrepreneurship or Business Development in Private Sector is preferred (40 Points)
• Prior work experience in Financial Sector related work is a strong asset. (30 Points)
• Prior work experience with conflict affected People in Myanmar is an asset (30 Points)

As applicable, only the first top 3 ranked applicants achieving 70% of the points at this stage.

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 Desk Review (20 points) + III Interview (80 points) will be considered as technically qualified and will be reviewed further for financial evaluation.

Step IV: Financial Proposal Evaluation:
The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:
Lowest Financial proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated X 30%. Lowest Financial Proposal refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation

Step V: Selection
The contract shall be awarded to the best applicant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: responsive/compliant/acceptable and having received the highest combined weight technical proposal 70% + financial 30%= 100%.

Application
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Proposers who shall not submit below mentioned documents will not be considered for further evaluation.

• 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;
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references; (link to P11: http://sas.undp.org/documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc)
• 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 and complete the assignment;
• 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;
• Confirmation of interest and Financial proposal: https://popp.undp.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/UNDP_POPP_DOCU MENT_LIBRARY/Public/PSU_%20Individual%20Contract_Offerors%20Letter%20to%20U NDP%20Confirming%20Interest%20and%20Availability.docx&action=default
• Earliest availability.

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

Both individual consultants and individuals 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 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.

Please include all documents into one file while submitting your application.

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