About UNCDF

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (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.

Access to Finance in Tanzania 

In line with the UNCDF global strategy of Leaving No-One Behind in the Digital Era and countries’ UN Development Assistance Plan, UNCDF is supporting inclusive economies to help smallholder farmers and other vulnerable populations thrive. This includes contributing to refugee response initiatives and considering the consequences of the COVID-19 health pandemic in terms of food security, food systems, livelihoods, financial inclusion and last but not least, social cohesion.  This programme uses a market development approach that is rooted on five decades of fostering financial inclusion and local development, digital economies and partnerships for the SDGs, digital and financial literacy, as well as reaching the most underserved populations by promoting community-based frugal innovation as well as strengthening savings and production groups.

To ensure effective implementation of above activities, UNCDF is seeking an individual contractor who will support the implementation of these activities and who will help in the conceptualization, management, coordination, and implementation of financial/literacy interventions in Tanzania. The Digital & Financial Education Consultant is a national individual consultancy. The National Consultant is expected to work under the supervision and guidance of the Country Lead for Tanzania or her assignee, and in close collaboration with in-country partners.

The broad objectives of this assignment are to:

• Provide technical assistance to UNCDF partners in the delivery of UNCDF financial and digital education
• Oversee the monitoring and evaluation of outputs and outcomes of partners’ financial and digital education activities
• Use human-centered design approach to assess current inventory of fin-ed tools and improve and/or adapt them to beneficiary needs.
• Assist the country office in the design and roll-out of new and/or adapted materials (digital tools and platforms included) to build financial and digital literacy amongst project beneficiaries
• Create promotional materials (blog posts, conference presentations) as necessary

More specific objectives follow:

• Provide technical guidance and technical assistance and feedback to contractors that will develop and test digital and financial literacy programmes using innovative, technology-based delivery channels for refugees, host communities and smallholder farmers;
• Provide technical guidance and technical assistance to local partner organizations and institutions, such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs, who will provide digital and financial literacy directly to beneficiaries) to deploy and track access & usage of digital- and financial-literacy products and services;
• Use human-centered design approach to assess appropriateness of fin-ed tools and provide recommendations to improve and/or adapt them to beneficiary needs;
• Create training materials and conduct trainings/workshops where necessary for partners and for the wider stakeholder community supported by UNCDF in Tanzania;
• Support Tanzania programme leadership and staff where necessary to include financial and digital literacy into country-wide programmes;
• Support UNCDF Tanzania in planning and delivering workshops using participatory methodologies on an as-needed basis, workshop content and objectives to be determined;
• Draft documents, communications and knowledge-sharing materials to establish UNCDF as a thought-leader in digital and financial capability and behaviour change.

Some of the activities outlined above require alignment with partners working with savings groups, formal financial services (including digital financial services), and potentially other types of digital or technological tools.

Scope of the Work

At the end of the contract period, the consultant will be expected to attain the following results:

1. Adoption and adaptation of UNCDF-funded financial and digital literacy outputs and capabilities by programme stakeholders in Tanzania;
2. Design and development of comic magazines and podcast/radio campaigns for edutainment and below-the-line marketing of UNCDF-funded projects;
3. A field-tested survey with priority financial literacy indicators that can be applied as a pre-, mid- and post-test in any UNCDF programme, and;
4. Results measurement and knowledge-sharing products to be determined with UNCDF Tanzania, Rwanda, IDE Global and NY headquarters that will contribute to UNCDF visibility in the wider stakeholder community.

Maximum number of working days: Up to 100 working days during March 2021-April 2022. 

Expected Duration of Assignment: fourteen (14) months.

The tables below outline the activities, deliverables, and indicative timeline and payment structure:

Note the sequence and timelines for the delivery of the below outputs may vary within the duration of the contract and can be subject to externalities. 

Activities and Deliverables

Duty station: The consultant will be home-based with intermittent office presence in Tanzania UNCDF office, frequent travel to project sites in Tanzania and possible travels to other sites regionally, where UNCDF operates. The schedule of travel will be negotiated with the consultant(s) according to the requirements of each programme.

Travel: Travel to project locations as agreed with the Country Lead or her assignee.

Provision of quality, monitoring and progress controls

The following supporting documents will serve as conditions for disbursement: (i) monthly submission of an invoice and Certificate of Payment (COP) duly approved by the Country Lead; (ii) review, approval and written acceptance of each deliverable project by the Country Lead and/or her designate; and (iii) an authorization of payment disbursement from a direct supervisor.

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Country Lead for Tanzania and Rwanda and in close collaboration with other relevant colleagues, experts and/or institutions designated by the country Teams. The Country Lead or her assignee will provide overall supervision of the consultancy and approve key deliverables.

The consultant is responsible for providing his/her own laptop.

Payment to an Individual Contractor will be made upon review and approval of each deliverable by the Country Lead and/or her designate.

If the consultant fails to meet performance requirements detailed above, (s)he will receive in first instance, a communication requesting an improvement in performance. Continued failure to meet performance requirements may result in termination and non-utilization of the contract.

Standard Travel Costs and Daily Supplemental Allowance (DSA)

UNCDF does not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the Consultant wish to travel on a higher class he/she is required to do so using his/her own resources.

Travel:

• If the travel is to perform work or deliver outputs that are OUTSIDE the work/deliverables agreed in the contract, the unit supervising the consultant will fully justify in a note to file why the consultant is being asked to undertake such travel.  The said justification should be provided along with the supporting documents uploaded in the T&E module and in line with UNDP/UNCDF Travel Policy rules. The contractor will conduct briefings to the UNCDF team prior to and following field visits to projects via meetings and back to office reports (BTORs) and all supporting documentation for F10 within two weeks.
• In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon in writing between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates ethics and integrity;
• Team player;
• Demonstrates political acumen and calculated risk taking;
• Builds own and staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Builds and promotes effective teams and partnerships;
• 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.

Functional Competencies:

• Proven ability to manage and effectively lead participatory and human-centered design and development of digital- and financial-education tools;
• Distill and articulate ideas clearly and coherently and ability to translate technical terms for non-technical audiences. i.e. beneficiaries and implementing partners;
• Quick learner with the ability to act quickly to develop new skill-development initiatives;
• Conceptualizes more effective approaches to research and knowledge, development and implementation;
• Anticipates constraints in the delivery of services and identifies solutions or alternatives;
• Makes effective use of UNCDF resources and comparative advantage to strengthen knowledge partnerships;
• Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking;
• Creates networks and promotes knowledge exchange initiatives between member organizations;
• Promotes collaborative test-and-learn approaches as critical to the success of moving towards digital and financial inclusion;
• Proactively identifies, develops and discusses solutions for partners, beneficiaries and UNCDF, and persuades management to undertake new projects or services.

Technical:

• Understanding of key issues and international good practice relating to skill development in the areas of digital and financial literacy, digital financial inclusion and savings groups in rural areas;
• 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.
• Excellent analytical and writing skills demonstrating fluency in English and Kiswahili;
• Previous publications in the field of financial capability (curricula, communication) is an asset.

The consultant must provide evidence of the technical capacity to undertake this assignment. This includes capacity to deliver the results in the timeframe provided as well as indication of prior experience (relevant financial inclusion/capabilities and experience, training, programme development).

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Finance, Banking, Development, Education, International Development or related fields is mandatory;

Experience:

• At least five (5) years of relevant and demonstrated experience in financial/digital literacy content design and implementation is mandatory;
• At least five (5) years of relevant experience in international development is mandatory;
• Demonstrated experience working in the field with rural and/or low-income communities, related to financial/digital education is mandatory;
• Demonstrated experience managing or conducting participatory research, particularly related to assessing needs for financial capability or monitoring financial education programmes and tools in rural or low-income communities is preferable;
• Extensive experience training staff of NGOs and financial services providers is preferable;
• Familiarity with the development, modification and roll out of financial services for low-income communities is preferred is preferable;
• Familiarity working in refugee settlement camps is a plus;

Language:

• Written and oral communication skills in English and Kiswahili is required.

Application:

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).

The following documents are requested:

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability;
• Personal CV 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;
• 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. It should indicate also accessible previous publications in the field of financial capability (curricula, communication), if possible;
• 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

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

• Preliminary Evaluation - Step I: Screening
• Technical Evaluation Weight - 70% x (Step II: 40 Points + Step III: 60 Points = 100 Points);
• Financial Evaluation Weight - 30% = Step IV.

Step I: Screening

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

• Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Finance, Banking, Development, Education, International Development or related fields;
• At least five (5) years of relevant and demonstrated experience in financial/digital literacy content design and implementation;
•  Fluency in English and Kiswahili;

Step II: Shortlisting by Desk Review – 60% out of technical assessment

UNCDF will conduct a desk review to produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate the candidates. Only candidates that obtained 80% of the points at this stage shall be invited for the next step.

Shortlisting scoring:

50%- Mandatory Experience

• At least five (5) years of relevant experience in international development: 15 points
• Demonstrated experience working in the field with rural and/or low-income communities, related to financial/digital education: 35 points

30%- Preferred Experience

• Demonstrated experience managing or conducting participatory research, particularly related to assessing needs for financial capability or monitoring financial education programmes and tools in rural or low-income communities: 10 points
• Familiarity with the development, modification and roll out of financial services for low-income communities is preferred. Familiarity working in refugee settlement camps is a plus: 10 points
• Extensive experience training staff of NGOs and financial services providers: 10 points

20%- Language skills and research skills

• Excellent analytical and writing skills demonstrating fluency in English and Kiswahili. Demonstrated written and oral communication skills in English is required (applicants can share open source links of their works or sample of their works in the application docs): 10 points
• Previous publications in the field of financial capability (curricula, communication) is an asset: 10 points

Step IV: Interview – 40% out of technical assessment

A competency-based interview shall be conducted for all the candidates who obtained 80% of the points at the desk review.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% on the total of Steps II (40 points) + III (60 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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