Background

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 currently in discussions 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.

Duties and Responsibilities

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

In the ongoing efforts, there is a need for a Digital Payments Specialist to:  

• Act as Digital Payment technical resource and advisor for UNCDF’s Team in Afghanistan

3) SCOPE OF WORK

Working under the direct supervision of the UNCDF Regional Manager for Asia, the consultant will be producing the following deliverables, with the support of local consultants:

4) DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT, DUTY STATION AND EXPECTED PLACES OF TRAVEL

Contract Duration: 4 months

Contract period: 1 February - 31 May 2022

Duty station and expected places of travel: Home based, with possible travel to Afghanistan

5) PROVISION OF MONITORING AND PROGRESS CONTROLS

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the UNCDF Regional Manager for the Digital Hub for Asia in Bangkok and in close collaboration with other relevant colleagues, international consultant/experts and/or institutions designated by the UNCDF Regional Manager.

The consultant will have frequent communication during the contract with the Regional Office in Bangkok 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 the course of 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 all deliverables / workplan / progress report with the relevant supporting documentation; and (iii) 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.

6) Duty Station

Duty Station: Home Based with possible travel to Afghanistan

Competencies

• Working knowledge of current developments in payment technologies, especially including innovative payment methods in humanitarian contexts e.g., mobile financial services, pre-paid/reloadable/other cards, etc. and blockchain based stable coins such as USDC.

• Prior experience implementing or supporting blockchain based technology solutions will be a plus.

• Strong background in financial market assessments, business case/strategy development and data analysis/management (e.g., Data visualization tools, such as Tableau, etc.)

• Understanding of key issues and international good practice relating to financial inclusion and digital payments, with familiarity of Afghanistan, a critical requirement.

• Ability to establish strong working relationships with various stakeholders’ institutions and administrators;

• Ability to work in a multicultural environment and being aware of political sensitivities.

• Ability to think and act strategically.

• Computer literacy, including proficient use of research and applied software such as Excel.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• A Master’s degree in IT, business, economics, finance or related discipline or equivalent relevant experience equivalent.

Professional Experience:

• A minimum of eight (8) years of dedicated professional experience in digital payments, financial services, fintech, financial inclusion or a related field is mandatory

• Experience implementing innovative payment methods (e.g., digital financial services, prepaid cards, fintech solutions, e-commerce, contactless, card alternatives, e-money, digital currencies, QR codes) and digital payment infrastructure projects is mandatory

• Experience working with senior leaders at UN agencies and/or international humanitarian organizations in humanitarian assistance is preferred

• Previous experience in South Asia, particularly with Afghanistan, is preferred

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English (Speaking, Reading, Writing) is mandatory.

8) APPLICATION PROCESS AND EVALUATION

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 and should be submitted by January 10th , 2022:

• 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);

• Sample of document written by the candidate for similar assignments on digital transformation, digital finance or related field. The document must be in English;

• 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 and Travel cost Template for this is available at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916).Daily Fee – The contractor shall propose Cost by Deliverables* as per the Schedule of Payment indicated in the ToR as per Annex-2  and the cost shall be , inclusive of his professional fee, local communication cost and insurance (inclusive of medical health insurance).Payment schedule - Payments shall be done upon verification of completion of specific deliverables, upon approval by the trust fund manage

• Annex 2 - IC General Terms and Conditions (for information)

• 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 mandatory criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting.

  Step II: Desk review (70 points).

  UNCDF will produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate candidates from 1 to 100% as per experience requirements in the Terms of Reference. As applicable, only applicants scoring 70% shall be considered for financial evaluation.

  Desk review scoring:

Step II: Financial Evaluation (30 points).

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 best 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.

9) Payment Milestones

The payments for undertaking the assignment shall be paid to the contractor, upon satisfactory of the following outputs/deliverables, as certified by the UNCDF Regional Manager: