Historique

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s least developed countries. It creates new opportunities for poor people and their communities by increasing access to microfinance 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 microfinance institutions reach more poor households and small businesses, and local governments finance the capital investments – water systems, feeder roads, schools, irrigation schemes – that will improve poor peoples’ lives. Its programmes are designed to catalyze larger investment flows from the private sector, development partners and national governments, for significant impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): UNCDF's primary contributions are to SDG 1, with a focus on reaching the last mile and addressing exclusion and inequalities of access, and SDG 17, with a focus on unlocking public and private finance for the poor at the local level.

Since its global scale up in 2014, UNCDF approach to integrate climate change adaption into local governments’ planning and budgeting systems has engaged 99 local governments in 13 countries representing over 6 million people. Between 2014 and 2017, it delivered close to USD 14.5 million, with grants and technical assistance to countries totaling USD 9.8 million. During the same period, 507 climate change adaptation interventions were finalized across 11 countries using grants, with another 68 under implementation or being planned. Since 2010 UNCDF has also been actively working to increase youth financial inclusion: to date, UNCDF has supported 10 financial services providers (FSPs) to reach 822,000 young people, provide financial education, collect US$20 million in savings and provide loans to 210,000 young entrepreneurs.  

UNCDF is now bringing its expertise in promoting a green and climate resilient local communities and economies and youth access to finance in support of job creation. The future “Jobs, skills and finance (JSF) for women and youth in The Gambia” programme funded by the 11th EDF will contribute to stabilizing the economic, social and security situation of the country during the democratic transition by facilitating social inclusion and employment of the youth and most vulnerable groups of the population, with a specific emphasis on addressing climate change. Through a combination of grants, technical assistance and convening power, the programme aims to achieve its objective through two main components: (1) Job creation for the youth and most vulnerable groups and equal access to employable skills development and (2) Improved access to finance. The programme will facilitate social and financial inclusion of youth and women in sustainable local economies. It will do so by supporting local authorities and communities to develop climate resilient investments that in turn can create job opportunities for vulnerable groups through “cash for work” (C4W) and procurement to local micro, small and medium enterprises. C4W recipients will be supported in parallel with access to financial (Component 2) and non-financial services (Component 1, set of activities 2) following a market systems based approach, with a view to broaden their medium to long term economic perspectives.

The approach builds on lessons learned from UNCDF experience in job creation and promoting a green and climate resilient economy and youth access to finance: specifically, it will use the approach and lessons from the Local Climate Adaptive Living” (LoCAL) facility of UNCDF. For the access to finance component, UNCDF will leverage the lessons learned and best practices from 3 of its flagship programmes: YouthStart, PoWER and Mobile Money for the Poor.

Devoirs et responsabilités

The consultant will be responsible for providing temporary operations, financial, administrative, travel, and other operational support to the JSF Team in The Gambia.   

Working under the direct supervision of the JSF Programme Manager, under overall guidance of Project Analyst based in the regional office and in close collaboration with the operations and programme staff in UNCDF, the consultant will provide administrative and financial services ensuring high quality, accuracy and consistency of work for the JSF Programme. The consultant will act as liaison for the JSF Programme in area of Procurement, HR and finance units and liaise with UNDP country office, UNCDF HQ programme support, HR and finance units.  The consultant will ensure effective delivery of the JSF Programme in The Gambia by supporting the programme implementation in accordance with UNCDF/UNDP rules and regulations. 

Provides effective support to the programme team managing, procurement, budget and finance issues

Procurement and Contracting

  • Provision of inputs to preparation of procurement plans for the office and inserting them in UNCDF Intranet;
  • Procurement of travel services, workshop arrangements, goods and services for JSF Programme;
  • Develop micro canvas purchase forms and request for quotes (RFQs) for local vendors and local consultants, obtaining quotes, evaluating and propose vendors for selection. Verify quality and receipt of goods.
  • Reply and manage day-to-day correspondences with UNDP, internal UNCDF units and external partners especially vendors and clients;
  • Implementation of the internal control system which ensures that payments to vendors are prepared and paid in a timely manner. 
  • Monitor procurement with UNDP BRU to ensure timely advertising and collection of quotes.
  • Verify vendors’ eligibility and ensure they are in the UNCDF ATLAS system.
  • Timely take corrective actions on any issue related to payments.
  • Maintain database of POs and contract for monitoring of the ongoing contracts status;

Finance and administrative support for JSF Programme

  • Effective financial and administrative management of the JSF by preparing and following payments in Atlas (ERP) and handling payment requests. Proper control of the supporting documents for payments and financial reports.
  • Analyze and present information on the status of financial resources as required.
  • Effective support to all stages of the management of Pre-Payments made to counterparts, including Atlas management.
  • Preparation of all types of vouchers for development and management projects and on-behalf of client agencies; PO vouchers; and follow-up for payment execution.
  • Proper control of the supporting documents for payments and financial reports
  • Management of any cash receipts and petty cash.
  • Ensure existence of an adequate and retrievable filing system for all UNCDF JSF Programme documents including soft and hard copies.

Provides effective administrative, office management and logistical support

  • Support JSF in premise agreement
  • Provides logistical support to organization of conferences, workshops and retreats
  • Arrange travel authorization, reservations
  • Support with protocol matters, registration of staff, coordination with local authority on space and other administrative matters.
  • Responsible for issue related to issuance of visas, stay permit, issuance of UNLP, ground pass, Identification Card for staffs
  • Supports control of Project Assets and inventory including keeping records and maintenance of Office Assets and supplies and participation in periodic office physical inventory and asset verification exercises as needed
  • Proper inventory control; supervision of proper issuance of inventory items and supplies;
  • Receipt of shipments, customs clearance arrangements, preparation of documents for shipments (received/sent);
  • Facilitation of logistical arrangement for delivery and arrival of goods;
  • Facilitation of VAT clearance process;
  • Proper record and tracking of common services expenditure
  • Establish and monitor LTAs
  • Perform other work-related tasks assigned by the supervisors

Duration of Assignment, Duty Station adn Expected Places of Travel

Duration:  ten (10) months depending on project circumstances and funding

Duty Station and expected places of travel: The position will be based in Banjul, The Gambia

Final Products and Indicative Schedule

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

Indicative schedule and % of payment

  • All outstanding payments for the JSF programme processed for the month
  • All procurement case for the project is cleared and contracted for the month
  • Upon recruitment of a new project assistance, on the job training delivered on operations and finance to new recruit with a full handover note.

10% paid at the end of each month

 

Provision of Monitoring and Progress Controls

A schedule of days worked, outputs produced, and costs incurred will be monitored by the JSF Programme Manager.

There will be a briefing and debriefing and regular discussions between the Consultant and the JSF Programme manager

Payments will be made against key deliverables. Payments will be authorized by the JSF Programme Manager after discussion and clearance at the regional/country level.

The Programme will cover the cost of the travel to and from Banjul and the consultant’s home base, following UNCDF travel policies.   Any cost of visa arising from the need to travel to the duty station shall be reimbursed by UNCDF based on actual cost evidenced by a receipt.

 

Compétences

  • Ability to make new and useful ideas work
  • Ability to persuade others to follow
  • Ability to improve performance and satisfaction
  • Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform
  • Ability to get things done
  • Ability to respond positively to new approaches
  • Ability to research best practices and share new ways of doing things
  • Ability to understand main processes and methods of work regarding to the position
  • Ability to respond to client needs promptly

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education:

Secondary Education, preferably with specialized certification in Accounting and Finance. University Degree in Business or Public Administration, Economics, Political or Social Sciences would be desirable, but it is not a requirement.

Experience:

  • Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible administrative, financial and organizational management experience is required at the national or international level.
  • Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web based management systems.
  • Proven experience using the PeopleSoft / Atlas Enterprise Resource System in financial management is a distinct advantage.
  • Work experience with UN organizations; experience in logistical support functions is desirable

Languages:

Fluency in oral and written English.

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 must contain the following information:

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

Selection Process

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

Step II: Technical Evaluation:

Shortlisting: UNCDF will produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate candidates as per experience requirements in the Terms of Reference.

Step III: Financial Evaluation: Only candidates with scores above 70% of the technical evaluation will be considered.

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

Award Criteria

The contact 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 scores) 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

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.