Background

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s least developed countries (LDCs). It creates new opportunities for poor people and their communities by increasing access to inclusive finance 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 can provide seed capital both grants and loans as well as technical support that will improve poor peoples’ lives.

UNCDF works to enlarge peoples’ choices: it believes that poor people and communities should take decisions about their own development. UNCDF works in challenging environments – remote rural areas, countries emerging from conflict – and paves the way for others to follow. Its programmes are designed to catalyze larger investment flows from the private sector, development partners and national governments, for significant impact on the Millennium Development Goals, especially Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, and Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability.

Established by the General Assembly in 1966 and with headquarters in New York, UNCDF is an autonomous UN organization affiliated with UNDP.

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 47 least developed countries (LDCs). 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. This last mile is where available resources for development are scarcest; where market failures are most pronounced; and where benefits from national growth tend to leave people excluded.

UNCDF’s financing models work through two channels: savings-led 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. UNCDF financing models are applied in thematic areas where addressing barriers to finance at the local level can have a transformational effect for poor and excluded people and communities.

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 with a focus on reaching the last mile and addressing exclusion and inequalities of access. At the same time, UNCDF deploys its capital finance mandate in line with SDG 17 on the means of implementation, to unlock public and private finance for the poor at the local level. By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile, UNCDF contributes to a number of different SDGs and currently to 28 of 169 targets.

UNCDF hosts the Secretariat of the Better Than Cash Alliance.

The Better Than Cash Alliance is a partnership of 75 governments, companies and international organizations that accelerates the transition from cash to digital payments in order to reduce poverty, drive inclusive growth and accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Billions of dollars in cash payments and transfers are made daily in emerging and developing economies, including payment of salaries, social welfare and relief, payments to suppliers, remittances, etc. The problems with these cash payments include a lack of transparency, accountability and security, as well as inefficiency. Furthermore, the individuals who receive the cash payments are often part of the 1.7 billion excluded from the formal financial sector. This means they are excluded from access to a range of appropriate and affordable financial services to help them save safely, take advantage of economic opportunities and reduce their vulnerability to risk.

Shifting these payments from cash to digital has the potential to improve the lives of low income people, particularly women -who are twice as likely to be excluded from the financial system, while giving governments, the development community and the private sector a more transparent, time and cost efficient, and often safer means of disbursing payments. Digitizing payments can also contribute to women’s economic participation by providing them with more control over family finances, increasing personal security, and improving economic opportunities.

The Alliance Secretariat works with its 75 members to navigate their digitization journeys, by:   

• Providing advisory services based on member priorities 
• Sharing action-oriented research and fostering peer learning 
• Conducting advocacy at national, regional and global level 

The Better Than Cash Alliance Secretariat Core Values:

• Achieving together
• Striving for excellence
• Service oriented
• Results oriented

From a private sector perspective, payments completed in the value chain of businesses represent some of the most significant payment flows of national economies. As highlighted in the Alliance’s recent report on “The Future of Supply Chains: Why Companies are Digitizing Payments,” companies in different business sectors have benefited from digital payments in their supply chains and play an important role in building an inclusive digital payments ecosystem. As part of catalyzing the global movement from cash to digital with the private sector, the Better Than Cash Alliance is committed to supporting digitization of companies’ payment flows in different business sectors across the corporate payment grid: Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-People (B2P), and People-to-Business (P2B).

BTCA is looking to hire an Individual Consultant for Private Sector Digital payment Project Management & Research to contribute to the responsible digitization of payments in companies’ supply chains. For more information on BTCA, please visit the website: http://www.betterthancash.org/

Duties and Responsibilities

Develop and agree on work plan for the 12 months including detailing how to ensure liaison and successful project management with company members, partners, Alliance’s management, and procurement teams to ensure delivery of project milestones;Under the supervision and direction of the Private Sector Digital Innovation Lead, the consultant will support the implementation of BTCA’s Corporate payment digitization Strategy and in-country initiatives.

The Alliance works in priority member markets around three corporate payment streams: (1) Digital Wage Payment (Business-to-Person Payment, B2P), in particular in the garment sector with company members such as H&M, Gap Inc, Inditex, Marks & Spencer and the International Labor Organization (2) Digitizing small retailer-to-supplier payment flows (Business-to-Business Payment, B2B Distribution), in particular in the Fast Moving Consumer Good (FMCG) distribution sector with company members such as Unilever, Grupo Bimbo and The Coca Cola Company; (3) Digitizing payments to small suppliers, for example smallholder farmers (Business-to-People Payment, B2P Supply) with members such as the World Cocoa Foundation.

Key responsibilities are as follows:

1. Corporate advisory and in-country project management support, in selected priority countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America (50% time allocation)

• Under the supervision of the Private Sector Digital Innovation Lead, drive implementation and track progress of in-country digitization initiatives
• Ensure liaison and successful project management with company members, partners, Alliance’s management, and procurement teams to ensure delivery of project milestones;
• Provide administrative support to project implementation and country missions including scheduling meetings, conference calls, mission preparation; accompany the Private Sector Digital Innovation Lead and/or other members of the team for in-country missions as needed;
• Draft and develop project concept notes and seek input from relevant team members, partners and industry business experts, as needed;
• Draft notes, presentations and terms of references for missions, meetings and/or conferences and workshops on the digitization of payments in support of the Private Sector Digital Innovation Lead and Regional Leads when needed
• Monitor key indicators and performance of Private Sector Digital initiatives and strategy, in support of the Private Sector Digital Innovation Lead, M&E and regional teams to feed into donor and internal reports;

    2.  Research, learning and dissemination (20% time allocation)

• Conduct in-depth research on topics related to digital payments, digital financial services, financial inclusion and inclusive business models in specific markets to inform the regional strategy and the drafting of concept notes for in-country initiatives
• Conduct background research on companies, international organizations, industry and business sectors and Digital Financial Services regulatory and policy environment in the Alliance country members, including on initiatives related to the digitization of payments, business sustainability, inclusive business models and last mile distributions.
• Conduct thorough background research on digital financial services ecosystem and major business sector in a country (Private and public stakeholders, donors) work on the digitization of payments and digital financial inclusion in focus countries and focus corporate sectors to ensure Alliance USP in all activities;
• Review and contribute to Alliance’s research documents and publications, as developed with companies, Government and other partners as part of learning agenda of the Alliance on digitization of payments in companies’ supply chains
• Pro-actively work with the Digital Payments Resource and Innovation Hub, with the Private Sector Lead and the Communication team to ensure lessons from digitization initiatives are regularly distilled from all in-country initiatives as well as related initiatives by partners.

      3.  Global Advocacy, liaison with members and industry organizations (15% time allocation)

• Working closely with the Private Sector Digital Innovation Lead, regional and country teams, monitor and identify advocacy opportunities for the Alliance, including company member targets to join the Alliance, conferences, UN, regional and corporate events linked to inclusive business model, business contributions to SDGs, digitization last mile distribution, 
• Work with company members, industry organizations and different partners of the Alliance to develop commitments, key messages and sharing of learnings opportunities to scale responsible digitization of payments in companies’ supply chains
• Conduct background research and risk Assessment of companies and business organizations on ESG criteria in compliance with UNDP private sector partnership criteria and policies

      4.   Communications and events: (15% time allocation)

• Collaborate closely with the Private Sector Digital Innovation Lead, regional and country and teams, as well as media and communications teams, for the organization of events, webinars, conferences and specialized workshops;
• Share news and stories from Alliance member countries for social media and other communications channels, as needed;
• Other activities, as requested

Expected Activities

Any delay in the completion of the outputs, if not attributed to the performance of the consultant, shall be addressed through a no-cost time extension.

Institutional Arrangement

The consultant shall be under the supervision and direction of the Better Than Cash Alliance’s Private Sector Digital Innovation Lead.

Duration of the Work

This is an assignment that will have an initial duration of twelve months/ 220 working days.  However, the performance control/ monitoring mechanism will be applied from the start date.

Duty Station

1. The duty station/location for the contract duration is  home-based
2. If there is any approved travel, UNCDF will pay separately travel expenses (economy airfare, terminal expenses and per diems which include hotel and food expenses) according to standard UN rates based on evidence of approved and actual travel.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Payments will be made on a monthly basis based on the reception and validation of deliverables stated in Section “Expected Activities” above, and disbursement of payments should be approved by Private Sector Digital Innovation Lead.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates ethics and integrity;
• Demonstrates political acumen and calculated risk taking;
• Impeccable diplomatic skills and knowledge of protocol; essential
• Demonstrated excellent writing, editing and communications skills to an international standard including correspondence, reports, talking points and briefing material; essential
• Builds own competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Creates and promotes open communication;
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;
• Conducts fair and transparent decision making;
• Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability;
• Shows strong corporate commitment.
• Excellent attention to detail, a proactive approach to achieving key results, a high level of thoroughness in a complex multitasking environment and a strict adherence to deadlines;
• Strong inter-personal skills and a demonstrated capacity to forge effective relations with colleagues and counterparts from different backgrounds essential;

Functional Competencies:

Professional

• Project management lifecycle
• Ensures the full implementation of a project to obtain results;
• Conceptualizes more effective approaches to programme development and implementation and to mobilizing and using resources;
• Anticipates constraints in the delivery of services and identifies solutions or alternatives;
• Creates networks and promotes initiatives with partner organizations;
• Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking;

Technical

• Working knowledge of current developments in payment technologies, including innovative payment methods (e.g., digital government, mobile financial services, pre-paid/reloadable/other cards, etc.);
• Solid skills in market assessments, business case/strategy development and data analysis/management (spreadsheets, data visualization tools like Tableau, etc.)
• Understanding of key issues and international good practice relating to financial inclusion and digital payments
• Impeccable diplomatic skills, particularly in working with private sector executives
• Excellent presentation and representation skills in multicultural contexts
• Ability to translate complex technical ideas to a non-technical audience in both verbally and in writing

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master’s level) in Finance, International Business, international affairs, development, political science, or other relevant field.

Experience:

•  Minimum of 4 years of relevant professional experience in the private sector, including at the international level.
• Experience in banking, financial services, mobile money, inclusive business and/ or last mile distribution in emerging markets highly desirable;
• Knowledge of digital payments and digital financial inclusion essential,
• Demonstrated excellent writing, editing and communications skills to an international standard including correspondence, reports, talking points and briefing material essential;
• Demonstrated experience in project management and/or multi-stakeholder engagement for project implementation desirable;
• Experience conducting research on digital payments, digital financial services, financial inclusion and knowledge of the main research sources and development partners working on digital payments, financial inclusion, inclusive business and sustainability desirable;
• Experience in event management and supporting the organization of high-level meetings desirable;
• Computer literacy, including familiarity with Excel spread sheets and power point presentations essential.
• Experience working with garment sector, FMCG or agribusiness companies an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in English, both oral and written, is required;
• Working proficiency in French, Spanish or other UN languages is highly desirable.

Application:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.

a)       Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability;

b)      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;

c)       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.

d)      Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive Daily Fee price. 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

Consultants will be evaluated based on UNDP’s cumulative analysis method. When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract shall be made to the consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable vis-à-vis the requirements of the TOR and the project operating environment; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical (70%) and financial (30%) criteria.

Step I: Screening/Longlisting

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

• Advanced university degree (Master’s level) in Finance, International Business, international affairs, development, political science, or other relevant field.
• Minimum 4 years of relevant professional experience in the private sector, including at the international level.

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)

• Knowledge of digital payments and digital financial inclusion essential – 20 Points
• Experience in banking, financial services, mobile money, inclusive business and/ or last mile distribution in emerging markets; –20 Points
• Demonstrated excellent writing, editing and communications skills to an international standard including correspondence, reports, talking points and briefing material essential; – 20 Points
• Computer literacy, including familiarity with Excel spread sheets and power point presentations essential. – 15 Points
• Demonstrated experience in project management and/or multi-stakeholder engagement for project implementation desirable; – 10 Points
• Experience conducting research on digital payments, digital financial services, financial inclusion and knowledge of the main research sources and development partners working on digital payments, financial inclusion, inclusive business and sustainability desirable; – 10 Points
• Experience in event management and supporting the organization of high-level meetings desirable; – 5 Points

Only the top candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points in the review of profile will be considered for Technical Interviews.  Technical interviews will explore the same key work areas, in greater depth, with the same weighting.

Technical proposal = Review of a profile through desk review (30%) + Technical Interview (40%).

Step III: Financial Evaluation

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

Lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated x 30%. All financial proposals shall be submitted along with the applications, and no modification shall be made on the proposals unless requested by UNCDF.

The top candidate that achieved the highest cumulative score will be recommended for award of the contract.

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