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. 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. 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 host to 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. 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 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 for the following reasons: - The value of Digital Financial Services (DFS) becomes more obvious, especially to poor and vulnerable populations, when it is closely linked to their ability to respond to the specific constraints and needs they face to participate in agriculture, access education, health, energy and other basic services key to overcome poverty.
- New innovative services should be developed to address these unmet needs. Innovation will come from traditional providers but mainly from a range of new players (entrepreneurs, start-ups in various sectors, and platforms like Facebook, Grab, WeChat, etc.).
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. Migration is also considered key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The adoption of the SDGs and explicit references to migration in 76 of its 17 goals, mainstreamed migration into global development policy. Migration can reduce poverty (SDG 1), improve health and education outcomes (SDGs 3 and 4), gender equality outcomes (SDG 5), foster growth and innovation (SDGs 8 and 9) and reduce inequality (SDG 10). Remittances, on the other hand, can 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 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. Guided by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and informed by the Declaration of the High-level dialogue on International Migration and Development adopted in October 2013, the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration in 2018 that expresses a collective commitment to improving cooperation on international migration, leading to the focused objectives on remittances: - Empowering migrants to catalyze their development contribution, and to harness the benefits of migration as a source of sustainable development
- Promoting faster, safer, and cheaper transfer of remittances by enabling competition, regulation, and innovation in the remittance market
- Initiatives to implement these objectives will also lead to developing financial safety net and wealth stock for migrants and their families in the home countries and have the potential to facilitate dignified and sustainable return of the migrants.
UNCDF is looking for a Gender Consultant to lead the integration of gender lens into the migrant-centric product development and advocate for evidence-based gender inclusion in remittance policies and regulations. The Gender Consultant is expected to be engaged through a non-exclusive Long-Term Agreement (LTA) or Framework Agreement formalized through an Individual Contract (IC). A Framework Agreement or is known in UNCDF as an agreement that establishes the terms, conditions and prices that will govern future contract or contracts (known as “call offs”) arising from the said Agreement during a period of 3 years. Every call-off shall have specific tasks, scope of services and outputs to be delivered within a specific period. For this work, the call-off shall be formalized through the issuance of a Purchase Order, attaching thereto the TOR, and any other document relevant to the call-off. Financial commitments will only be established each time a Purchase Order for the specific services/TOR for Individual Contractor is committed. The LTA shall have a cumulative ceiling amount that may accrue to the individual contractor during the life of the LTA, but said amount shall remain as an upper limit, and must not and cannot be interpreted nor understood as neither a financial commitment nor guarantee of business volume. It is important to note that, under an LTA, UNCDF does not guarantee that any specific quantity of services shall be purchased during the term of this agreement. The LTA does not form a financial obligation nor commitment from UNCDF at the time the LTA contract is signed.
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