Historique

United Nations Capital Development Fund

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 46 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.

UNCDF’s Inclusive Digital Economies:

Since 2008, UNCDF has been supporting digital finance with significant success, with digital finance currently the largest part of its inclusive finance portfolio. This includes digital innovations linked to on an off-grid energy, agriculture, employment, health, and transport. With 60 professionals with strong digital finance experience across the globe and with several hundred projects in digital on-going, UNCDF is one of the leading development agencies in digital finance with a mission and expertise to reach very low-income customers in some of the world’s most difficult markets. UNCDF’s digital team and resources are currently spread across several programmes and UNCDF is in the process of consolidating its financial and technical resources to create a comprehensive team of experts in various domains to drive the new strategy “Leaving no one behind in the digital era”.

Based on this experience UNCDF started in 2017 to expand the scope of its programmatic agenda to go beyond digital finance. Through the “Leaving no one behind in the digital era” strategy, UNCDF is supporting, the emergence of inclusive digital economies. The strategy recognizes that reaching the full potential of digital financial inclusion in support of the SDGs aligns with the vision of promoting digital economies for the following reasons:

• The value of DFS is not obvious, especially to poor and vulnerable populations, as it is not closely linked to their ability to respond to their specific constraints and needs around agriculture, education, health, energy, and other key aspects of their daily lives.
• New innovative services should be developed to address these unmet needs. Innovation will not come from traditional providers but mainly from a range of new players (entrepreneurs, start-ups in various sectors, and digital platforms).

The ‘Leaving no one behind in the digital era’ strategy, to move from digital finance to digital economies builds upon and constitutes a logical integration of UNCDF interventions in financial inclusion and digital, developed over many years. The legacy of UNCDF intervention programmes was built through a range of country/regional programmes and global thematic initiatives, which has established a very strong reputation for UNCDF vis-à-vis donors and peers.

Please refer to www.uncdf.org 

UNCDF LDC Investment Platform (LDCIP):

The LDC Investment Platform– through grants, reimbursable grants, loans, and guarantees – provides seed funding to investments in LDCS that are deemed too small or too risky by traditional investors. This works to de-risk and “prime the pump” for domestic and foreign investors to participate in local initiatives.

This platform allows the greatest flexibility for UNCDF to apply the optimal funding instrument for each business need, and to crowd in domestic and international investment.

The primary development objective is to increase the number and sustainability of new and existing financially viable, innovative development initiatives, through UNCDF programmes and projects.

It encourages public and private investors to supply investment financing for the consolidation and scale-up of economic initiatives with a proven development impact.

UNCDF in Afghanistan

UNCDF is collaborating with UNDP Afghanistan to support the deployment of financial instruments and approaches in the Afghan banking and financial system to avoid its collapse. One of the activities aims to support the digitization of aid disbursements.

The initiative requires preparatory work focused on assessing the readiness of the capabilities of the Mobile Network Operators as well as the readiness of the key players in digitizing payments and the focus of the consultant will be the finalization of relevant technical assessments for this purpose.

In addition, there is the need of exploring potential issues around sanctions and regulations on humanitarian aid flowing into Afghanistan

Devoirs et responsabilités

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The lawyer will be responsible to understand and clarify all the various regulations and exceptions for humanitarian assistance to flow into Afghanistan when a solution is devised, for both short term and long term.

3) SCOPE OF WORK

Providing legal consultation on humanitarian assistance, particularly on the below:

• Managing end to end sanctions clearance for funds going into Afghanistan will require an understanding of f Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and other international bodies. 
• Understand all of the various regulations and exceptions for humanitarian assistance to flow into Afghanistan when a solution is devised, for both short term and long term solutions.
• Address potential legal issues around introduction of digital assets as a mean for facilitating the flow of humanitarian aid in country

4) Expected Outputs and Deliverables.

5) Payment Milestones

This is deliverable-based contract, and the number of hours is estimated duration. Payments shall be made only upon satisfactory completion and UNCDF’s written acceptance of each deliverable duly approved by Regional Manager for IDE Asia:

6) DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT

Contract Duration: 4 months  

Contract period:  mentioned above 

7) DUTY STATION AND TRAVEL

Duty station: Home-based

Places of Travel: No travel

8) PROVISION OF MONITORING AND PROGRESS CONTROLS

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the UNCDF Regional Managers in Asia and in close collaboration with the Digital Payment Senior Expert.

The consultant will have daily communication during the contract period with UNCDF via email and Skype, for coordination and guidance purposes, ensuring consultants’ output quality and targets.

The Consultant is responsible for providing his/her own laptop during his/her engagement with UNCDF.

The following supporting documents will serve as conditions for payments to an Individual Contractor(s):

(i)Submission of Certificate of Payment (COP)

(ii)Submission of invoice

(iii)Submission of all deliverables / Workplan / progress reports with the relevant supporting documentation

(iv)Review, approval, and written acceptance of each deliverable by the UNCDF Regional Manager for Digital Hub for Asia and any other Project/Programme Manager designated by UNCDF Regional Manager

Compétences

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards and acts in accordance with the Standards of Conduct for international civil servants;
• Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNCDF;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.
• Good interpersonal skills and experience in working effectively in a multi-cultural environment, with sensitivity to diverse opinion.

Functional Competencies:

• Strong analytical and writing skills and track record in producing relevant legal opinions and other material. 

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education

• Master’s Degree in Law.
• A first-level university degree (bachelor) in Law with additional two (2) years of relevant work experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the Master’s degree

Experience

• The consultant shall have a minimum of 7 years of experience with providing legal advice in facilitating humanitarian assistance, particularly in conflict zones.
• Experience with US Treasury OFAC requirements applied to humanitarian aid.
• She/he must have at least 5 years of legal background with experience in digital payments and digital assets; or at least 3 years of legal background particularly around digital payments and digital assets
• Understanding of de-risking associated with international banks in sanctioned countries.
• Experience with current Afghanistan sanctions is a plus

Language

• Fluency in English is required (written and oral). 

Application process:

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.)

All applications should contain the following information:

• Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies and motivation rationalizing how the applicant meets the qualifications and can deliver the requirements of the Terms of Reference (TOR);
• Complete 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)

·         Financial proposal: it will be requested from shortlisting candidates through email   with the subject line: Digital Assets Lawyer for Inclusive Digital Economies  

Evaluation:

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

Step II: Desk review (70 points).

A desk review will be conducted to produce a shortlist of applicants according to the criteria below. Only applicants who obtain 70% of the points shall be considered for financial evaluation.

Desk review scoring:

Step III: Financial Evaluation (30 points).

Only applicants who obtain a minimum of 70% at the desk review will be considered as technically qualified and will be reviewed further for financial evaluation.

The following formula will be used to evaluate the financial proposal: lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated x 30%.

Award Criteria

The contract shall be awarded to the applicant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/ compliant/ acceptable.
• Having received the highest combined weight (technical scores) 70% + financial 30%= 100%.

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.