Antecedentes

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

The UN Capital Development Fund makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 46 least developed countries (LDCs). 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 pursues innovative financing solutions through: (1) financial inclusion, which expands the opportunities for individuals, households, and small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in the local economy, while also providing differentiated products for women and men so they can climb out of poverty and manage their financial lives; (2) local development finance, which shows how fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance can drive public and private funding that underpins local economic expansion, women’s economic empowerment, climate adaptation, and sustainable development; and (3) a least developed countries investment platform that deploys a tailored set of financial instruments to a growing pipeline of impactful projects in the “missing middle”.

Since 2008, UNCDF has been supporting digital finance with significant success which has led UNCDF to make digital finance the largest part of its inclusive finance portfolio. UNCDF is also to host the Secretariat of the Better than Cash Alliance (BTCA), a partnership of governments, companies, and international organizations that accelerates the transition from cash to digital payments in order to reduce poverty and drive inclusive growth. UNCDF also serves as the secretariat for the UN Secretary- General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the SDGs, which will consider the next wave of digitalization of finance and how the systemic changes to the financial ecosystem due to digital technologies will impact financing for the SDGs. For several years UNCDF’s work in digital finance has led it to support new digital solutions linked to finance, to further drive financial inclusion and to achieve the SDGs. This includes projects linked to on an off-grid energy, agriculture, employment, health and transport.

Based on over a decade of experience applying a market development approach in digital finance in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, 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 shifts from focusing only on digital finance to the development 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.

The UNCDF digital agenda for migration and remittances falls within the organization’s broader global strategy, set forth in 2019, of “Leaving No One Behind in the Digital Era.” This vision is to empower millions of people by 2024 to use services daily that leverage innovation and technology and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. Through a market development approach, UNCDF continuously seeks to address underlying market dysfunctions. The Programme contributes to, and benefits from, this overarching corporate mandate. The Programme is administered by UNCDF with funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, or SDC, and Sida, the Swedish International Development Agency.

The UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015. The 2030 Agenda recognizes migration as a core-development consideration, marking the first time that migration is explicitly integrated into the global development agenda. It also recognizes a major relevance of international migration as a multidimensional reality of and for the development of countries of origin, as well as transit and destination, which requires coherent and comprehensive responses.

Migrants, an estimated 281 million people, the estimated four percent of the global population who live and work outside their home countries, are among those most at risk of being left behind. They may fall outside of, or lack practical access to, the legal and social safety-net protections in both their host countries and home countries, and those without formal identification documentation face heightened financial vulnerability. Their economic activity is vitally important, however, and the remittances they send home could be a major driver of sustainable development.

Remittances — the money sent back home to loved ones by migrant breadwinners living abroad — are a significant share of the total income flowing into many developing countries and a vital income stream for many households. Remittances also contribute to reaching the SDGs in a variety of ways: 1) Household level: by recognizing the positive socioeconomic impact of remittances on families and communities; 2) Community level: Benefits associated at sub-national or municipal levels including reduced rural poverty, lower income inequality, increased micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) activity, and strengthen resilience to adverse effects of climate change or disaster risks; 3) Government level: Benefits for public sector institutions including greater transparency, better communication with citizens, and increased private sector development and entrepreneurship as a result of access to capital and domestic credit; 4) Macro level: At macro-economic level, remittances can foster much needed foreign currency exchange, stabilize Balance of Payments (BOP), reduce dependency on government aid, and re- allocate capital resources into more productive investments and other financial services – moving money from international to domestic, consumption to investment, and from urban to rural.

As new technologies have emerged in recent decades, a disconnect has grown between the remittance services on the market, the policies that govern them, and the needs and behaviors of migrant populations, which has resulted in limited adoption of digital remittance channels. The opportunity to transition migrants from cash to digital methods for sending money home that are safer, more affordable and more easily tracked, remains largely unrealized, with the COVID-19 pandemic providing potential avenues for improvement.

UNCDF’s Migration and Remittances for Development Programme, or the Programme, aims at contributing to sustainable development by making remittances more accessible and affordable, while helping build resilience for migrants and their families. For both sending and receiving countries, the Programme seeks to increase the share of migrant remittances flowing through formal channels, thereby giving policymakers at both ends greater visibility into the true picture of inbound and outbound financial flows. For remittances service providers, the Programme seeks to build the capacity to understand the financial needs and preferences of migrants and their families, and to design and deliver responsive products accordingly. For migrants themselves, the Programme aims not only to lower the costs and increase the safety and convenience of sending money, but also to link remittances to a broader suite of financial services—including insurance, savings, pensions, investments, and credit—that can help them reach their goals. The Programme recognizes digitization as the key to achieving these objectives.

UNCDF is building a roster of international and national technical writers and editors with excellent English, French, Spanish or Arabic command.

The objective behind the creation of this roster of consultants is to support the Migration and Remittance portfolio that is regularly looking for several excellent team players that provide high quality technical editing and writing services, in either English, French, Spanish or Arabic.

The materials which require technical editing and writing are a critical part of the work undertaken by the Migration and Remittances Portfolio and key audiences include senior officials in governments, companies and international organizations.

Successful candidates to this position will be engaged on a Framework Agreement for Individual Consultants.  Under a Framework Agreement, UNCDF does not guarantee that any specific quantity of services shall be purchased during the term of this agreement. The Framework Agreement does not form a financial obligation or commitment from UNDP at the time of the signing and that such an agreement is non-exclusive.  

Where a request for service arises, UNCDF shall request the consultant to submit a technical and financial proposal in response to a call-off TOR for the specific work.  The process shall be conducted as per SOP. Every call-off TOR shall have specific tasks, scope of services and with clearly defined outputs which shall serve as basis of milestone payments.  To formalize the call-off and confirm the financial obligation for the work, UNCDF shall issue a Purchase Order in the amount agreed with the consultant, annexing thereto the TOR for the call-off assignment.  These assignments may be short-term or long-term contracts which will be discussed with the candidate. He/she will be free to accept or decline to submit an offer for each assignment.  

Contract prices will be fixed and “all-inclusive” based on the contractor’s financial proposal, and shall be based on lump sum amounts according to the schedule of payments defined in the call-off TOR.

Candidates who prefer to be engaged with UNCDF through their company/employers should apply as individuals and shall indicate such preference in their application, including any administrative/management charges that their company may charge UNCDF.   Any support services (peer review, editing, formatting) that will be utilized and drawn from their employer to ensure the quality of the results/deliverables shall be included in the financial proposal that the consultant will submit during the call-off of the services. 

UNCDF will select multiple consultants (up to 5 per language).

Deberes y responsabilidades

Technical editing and re-writing:

• Establish the purpose and intended readership for the material to be edited and to ensure that the writing style is appropriate for the audience.
• Turn technical content into language that can easily be understood by the target audience, including but not limited to government officials, corporates, and international organizations.
• Re-write, re-organize and monitor overall structure for logical flow and balance.
• Revise the material to take account of comments of reviewers and additional material supplied by the author.
• Review content for language accuracy, tone, and style ensuring that the text is concise and clear.
• Conduct research to ensure the use of proper technical terminology.
• Question possible factual errors, correct analytical reports, eliminate jargons.
• Advise on the selection and effective use of tables, illustrations, text boxes, footnotes and annexes. Ensure that the presentation of similar data is consistent, check that any tables, figures and annexes are correctly cited in the text. Check that the main text correctly reflects the information given in tables and figures.

Writing and editing of communications materials:

• Draft and edit a wide range of communications materials, including media comment pieces, blogs, presentations, newsletters and innovative learning products.
• Craft strong headlines, titles and subtitles, when appropriate.
• Conceptualize and draft innovative visual assets such as infographics and animations.

The following lists a range of possible deliverables that the consultants may be expected to edit and/or write at any given engagement:

• Technical reports, including flagship publications, case studies and diagnostic studies;
• Learning materials, which could range from two-pagers to power points presentations;
• Media products, such as media releases or comment pieces.

Duration of contract: 1 to 3 years

Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) will be provided to the successful applicant at the time of the contract negotiation.

Selection will be based on the secondary competition procedure which will consider the combined scoring of technical and financial evaluation. 

Duty Station and expected places of travel: Home-based, no travels foreseen.  

The schedule of any travel, should it be needed, will be agreed on with the consultant according to the requirements of each assignment. Travel costs associated to the assignment will be paid following the UN rules and regulations which is economy ticket, UN Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) for specific countries. DSA rates are set on a monthly basis by the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), accessible from https://icsc.un.org/Home/DataDSA 

Under the supervision of the Lead Specialist, Migration and Remittance portfolio, the consultant will work very collaboratively with the Communications Head of the portfolio and the Regional and Country Leads, as well as other team members to deliver on the outputs agreed in the call-off in a timely and satisfactory manner.

Payment will be made against satisfactorily completion of each deliverable. All payments shall be disbursed only upon written confirmation of acceptance of the outputs and authorization for payment by the Programme Management Specialist. Disbursement of the final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

Competencias

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

• Excellent ability to understand, write and edit research and communications products about how digital payments and digital financial inclusion contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals is an advantage.
• Demonstrates strategic thinking, creativity and innovation; positive, proactive, “can do” approach.
• Ability to listen and collaborate with a wide range of colleagues, members and partners.
  • Ability to juggle competing priorities, whilst maintaining attention to detail and meeting deadlines.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

The consultant will have the following qualifications and experience:

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, communications, economics, finance, international relations or related fields is mandatory.

Professional Experience and Skills:

• At least five (5) years of professional experience in editing and writing outstanding technical research reports, policy documents and communications materials, targeting audiences including senior officials in either government, corporate or international organizations on digital payments, digital financial services, financial inclusion or related fields is mandatory.
• Demonstrated prior experience in writing for payments and remittances, digital financial services, mobile money, financial services is mandatory.
• Experience working with high level government officials and international organizations is desired.
• Experience working with the United Nations and/or other multi-lateral organization is an advantage.

Language

• Outstanding editing and writing skills in one of the following languages: English, French, Spanish or Arabic. 
• For each candidate: excellent oral and writing skills in English is mandatory.

Interested consultants are requested to submit the offer comprising of:  

1.  Personal profile including:  

• CV and P11 including past experience in similar projects with name, title and email addresses of three professional referees are included.  Such profile must highlight the languages in which the applicant can fluently write and speak, for better categorization in the roster.
• One-page cover letter describing why the candidate is the most suitable for the assignment.

1. Financial proposal

• Duly filled in and signed financial proposal that indicates the all-inclusive daily fee on page 1, point E and that is supported by a breakdown of costs table where only the personnel cost items (part I) are to be filled in as all assignments will be home-based (therefore Part II, Travel Expenses to Join duty station and Part III, Duty travel are no applicable and as such, are not to be filled in).

Template for the financial proposal can be downloaded from here: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916.

The UNDP job portal allows one single document to be uploaded. Therefore, please include all documents into one .pdf file while submitting your application.

Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the following minimum criteria will progress to the pool for short-listing:

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, communications, economics, finance, international relations or related fields.
• At least five years of professional experience in editing and writing outstanding technical research reports, policy documents and communications materials, targeting audiences including senior officials in either government, corporate or international organizations on digital payments, digital financial services, financial inclusion or related fields
• Demonstrated prior experience in writing for payments and remittances, digital financial services, mobile money, financial services
• Outstanding editing and writing skills in either English, French, Spanish or Arabic

Step II: Short-listing by desk review (20 %)

Candidates will be short-listed based on the criteria mentioned under the “Professional Experience and Skills” section.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, communications, economics, finance, international relations or related fields (20 points)

Experience:

• At least 5 years of professional experience in editing and writing outstanding technical research reports, policy documents and communications materials, targeting audiences including senior officials in either government, corporate or international organizations on digital payments, digital financial services, financial inclusion or related fields (20 points)
• Demonstrated prior experience in writing for payments and remittances, digital financial services, mobile money, financial services (20 points)
• Experience working with high level government officials and international organizations (5 points)
• Experience working with the United Nations and/or other multi-lateral organization is an advantage (5 points)

Step III: Written test (40%)

Written test will be administered to those candidates who achieved 80 out of 100 points at the desk review. The test will be scored with pass/fail, the minimum score to pass being 70%.

Step IV: Interview (40%)

A competency-based interview shall be conducted for all candidates who passed the written test.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% on the total of Steps II (20 points) + III (40 points) + IV (40 points) will be considered as technically qualified and will be reviewed further for financial evaluation.

Step V: 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 70 points in the technical evaluation.

Step IV: Selection

The contract shall be awarded to the best applicants whose offers have been evaluated and determined as: responsive/compliant/acceptable and having received the highest combined weight technical proposal 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.