Antecedentes

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.

Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P): MM4P addresses the opportunities and challenges of implementing DFS in LDCs in Africa and Asia with the objective to build an inclusive digital financial ecosystem that offers a wide range of DFS provided responsibly, and at reasonable cost, by sustainable institutions in a well-regulated environment. Specifically, MM4P provides a mix of policy, technical financial support to a range of government and private sector actors in each country, as well as investing in research and other public goods that benefit all market actors. By supporting the development of DFS in these countries, MM4P works to increase the financial security of low income and rural households through access to appropriate, affordable and secure means to receive, manage and save money. MM4P is currently active in eight countries (Benin, Laos, Nepal, Malawi, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia). In each of these countries MM4P implements projects that aim to push the needle on financial inclusion through digital financial services. For more information on the UNCDF MM4P program, see http://mm4p.uncdf.org/

Digital@UNCDF: UNCDF is now formally expanding its work to focus on digital finance and innovations to both help digital finance reach its potential for the poor, but also to better use digital finance and other services to achieve the SDGs.  This will we anchored in a new initiative (referred to at present as digital@UNCDF) that will grow into a multi-country effort.  In each country, UNCDF will continue its work to increasing usage of digital finance but will do so with a focus on assisting countries, companies, communities and customers to achieve the SDG outcomes.  This will require bringing together companies to design, develop, test and refine digital solutions with support from experts and ready to use tools. Those digital companies will be connected to enabling stakeholders, such as regulators, universities, think-tanks, providers, companies, other labs, and industry associations. Together UNCDF intends to harness technology can eliminate customers’ pain points in today’s user experience, as well as work on use cases that will help vulnerable people (farmers, women, refugees, migrants, youth) move from distrust, disenfranchisement, and exclusion to become confident and empowered.

The proposed approach focuses on supporting innovative solutions by:

• Working with traditional stakeholders (companies, providers, government) by building innovation mindset, team and processes internally;
• Supporting small and start-ups companies by providing access to finance, human centred design support, business to business linkages that will allow to scale;
• Linking both sets of stakeholders together to build partnerships that allow innovations to scale.

Initial work on this approach has been done in Uganda and Nepal.  The first dedicated digital@UNCDF country platform will be Malaysia, the development of which started early in 2018. This is a new project which inherits an existing project investment pipeline and guidelines of the Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P) project amongst others.

As part of this engagement, UNCDF would like to hire a Project Management Consultant to take stock of existing resources and support the transition to a new approach to supporting innovative solutions.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Under the supervision of the UNCDF´s Programme Analyst the Project Management Consultant will support the following activities and deliverables tied to the project.

• Analysing and updating UNCDF´s Digital Finance projects portfolio (2018-2019).
• Reviewing the project design, quality assurance and project monitoring guidelines for UNCDF´s investments in Digital Finance.
• Support the 2019 planning exercise of the digital@uncdf project.

To reach the above objectives the consultant would undertake the following activities and the deliverables. The below activities have been outlined based on the some of the broader outcomes that have been outlined above and are representative and can be more than that.

Analysing and updating UNCDF´s Digital Finance projects portfolio (2018-2019):

Activities:

• Mapping ongoing projects under the current Digital Finance projects portfolio (50 projects), assessing the status of existing and planned projects.
• Updating relevant project information with programme officers in the field including updated pipeline and contract tracker.
• Reporting project risks and deviations. Updating tracking tools and informing UNCDF operations when relevant action is needed.
• Elaborating status reports and providing recommendations for improvement to management.

Deliverables:

• Project portfolio status report (Monthly).
• Health check reports on project risks and deviations (Monthly).
• End of the year project portfolio status report including recommendations (Month 3).
• Final portfolio status report (Month 3).

Reviewing the project design, quality assurance and project monitoring guidelines for UNCDF´s investments in Digital Finance:

Activities:

• Supporting the country teams in the design and appraisal of new projects in the pipeline. (At least 6 projects).
• Review of existing project design and quality assurance guidelines. Analysing their adequacy to the context of the innovative solutions approach.
• Update guidelines based on recommendations from the team and best market practices.
• Design of updated guidelines and training materials.

Deliverables:

• At least six project design documents and appraisals reviewed (Month 1 to 6).
• Report on existing project design and quality assurance guidelines (Month 1).
• Draft updated guidelines and training materials (Month 4).
• New training provided to project team,20 people (Month 6). 

Supporting the 2019 planning exercise of the digital@uncdf project:

Activities:

• Compiling country and global information from the project teams to draft semi-annual reports for investment committees.
• Consolidating country and global work plans for 2019.
• Support the project team in preparation of Investment Committees.

Deliverables:

• Country and global work plans for 2019 (Month 3).
• Investment committee report (Month 4).

Competencias

• 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;
• Proactively identifies, develops and discusses solutions for internal and external clients, and persuades management to undertake new projects or services;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities, and resolve problems;
• Focus on impact and results for clients and stakeholders;
• Builds trust in interactions with others, facilitates partnerships;
• Approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude and responds positively to feedback;
• Committed to team work, working with other stakeholders.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

A Master’s degree in Project Management, technology, economics, public/business administration, social sciences, or related discipline or the equivalent experience.

Experience: 

• A minimum of four (4) years’ experience Project or programme implementation experience, preferable managing specific project implementation;
• Managing implementation of relevant organizational policies and procedures;
• Experience in creating detailed work plans or implementation plans;
• Experience managing work flow of large projects;
• Experience in designing and overseeing direct technical or financial (grant) assistance;
• Experience in donor projects, developing proposals, corresponding budgets, and monitoring and evaluation plans; 
• Working knowledge of concepts in to financial inclusion and preferably knowledge and exposure to branchless banking, mobile phone banking, or other efforts using technology to reach rural and poor populations is desirable but not mandatory.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English, Proficiency in French preferred but not required.

Timeline, total number of working days, duty station:

• Timeline: 15 October 2018 – 15 April 2019
• Total Number of Working Days for Assignment: up to 120 working days.
• Duty station: Brussels, Belgium

Consulting fees, standard travel costs and living expenses:

This is a local position UNCDF will only accept standard fees based on the local market rates (Belgium)and the experience of the consultant. UNCDF will not provide relocation expenses.

Please note that UNCDF cannot guarantee residence permits or visas for consultants. Consultants are responsible for securing their work documentation. In the case of national consultants, applicants that are not nationals of the duty station requested will have to prove their residence status.  

For unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. UNCDF would cover the cost of stay for the selected person.

Progress Controls & Payments:

Payment will be made against satisfactorily completion of each deliverable. All payments shall be disbursed only upon written confirmation of acceptance of the outputs which and authorization for payment by the Programme Analyst,

Disbursement of the final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

Payment schedule:

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:

• 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);
• Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy;
• 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)
• Signed financial proposal for the assignment outlining: all-inclusive fee (including professional fees and other professional expenses, such as insurance, taxes, etc.), travel costs (e.g. daily subsistence allowance (DSA), and the cost of one return ticket to Beijing, China from place of origin . Template for this is available at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916). Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials. 

Evaluation: 

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

Step II: Technical test. Applicants from the shortlist will be requested to take a written test.  

Step III: Technical Evaluation:

Shortlisting (20 points): UNCDF will produce a shortlist of candidates having passed the test and technically evaluate candidates as per experience requirements in the Terms of Reference. As applicable, only the first top 3 ranked applicants shall be considered for an interview.

Shortlisting scoring:

20- Education/Qualification;

20- Functional competencies for assignment;

30- Experience.

Interview: 

An interview shall be conducted for the top 3 shortlisted candidates.

Step IV: Financial Evaluation: Only candidates with scores above 70% of the technical evaluation (70 Points or above) 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.