Background

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 48 Least Developed Countries. UNCDF uses its capital mandate to support LDCs pursue inclusive growth. UNCDF promotes financial inclusion, also through digital financial services (DFS), as a key enabler of poverty reduction and inclusive growth; and it demonstrates how localizing finance outside the capital cities can accelerate growth in local economies, promote sustainable and climate-resilient infrastructure development, and empower local communities. Using capital grants, loans and credit enhancements, UNCDF tests financial models in inclusive finance and local development finance; ‘de-risks’ the local investment space; and provides proofs of concept, paving the way for larger and more risk-averse investors.

With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” financing models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local development. UNCDF targets low-income and underserved populations and areas in the LDCs where resources for development are the scarcest; where market failures are most pronounced; and where increased national economic prosperity does not reach a large part of the population. UNCDF focusses on local development finance and inclusive finance, using its capital mandate paired with strong technical and policy support to help communities and individuals save, borrow and invest.

UNCDF’s objective is to develop inclusive financial systems in which a range of financial products is available to all segments of society, at a reasonable cost, and on a sustainable basis. UNCDF supports a wide range of providers (e.g. microfinance institutions, banks, cooperatives, money transfer companies) and a variety of financial products and services (e.g. savings, credit, insurance, payments, and remittances).

UNCDF digital strategy

The UNCDF strategy ‘Leaving no one behind in the digital era’ is based on over a decade of experience in digital finance in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. UNCDF recognizes that reaching the full potential of digital financial inclusion in support of the Sustainable Development Goals aligns with the vision of promoting digital economies that leave no one behind. The vision of UNCDF is to empower millions of people by 2024 to use services daily that leverage innovation and technology and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. UNCDF will apply a market development approach and continuously seek to address underlying market dysfunctions.

Inclusion is at the heart of the UNCDF’s strategy to promote digital economies that leave no one behind. This can only be achieved if digital economies are widely developed at national level and if there is a key focus to make these digital economies inclusive without any new form of exclusion. 

UNCDF gives particular importance to youth, women, migrants, refugees and MSMEs in general which are marginalized from adopting digital innovation and technology due to social norms, status in society, limited revenue and capacity.  UNCDF places these customer segments at the center of the development of innovative services in various sectors, to increase their empowerment.

Our approach focuses on accelerating the development of digital economies at country level with government, private sector and academia while paying attention in developing the right services to reduce the digital divide and empower key customer segments.  To achieve this objective, UNCDF will focus on understanding the intersection of six categories of digital services (finance, agriculture, energy, education, health and transport) across five categories of users (women, youth, refugees, migrants, MSMEs).

Underpinning all services will be an understanding that digital financial services are foundational, in that they enable new local entrants to innovate in markets, provide sustainability to new services, and create marketplaces for a wide range of products and services, both digital and non-digital.  We have seen, for instance, the centrality of mobile money in enabling new energy markets via products such as MKopa Solar, and how transport companies such as Bolt and Go-Jek are forging new ride and delivery infrastructures built on mobile money.

To implement the strategy UNCDF will continue to apply a market development approach at country level. The objective of such an approach is to continuously seek to understand and intervene in select market systems to address underlying market dysfunctions that lead to improved efficiencies, effectiveness and sustainability.  The approach will seek to (1) leverage the roles and behaviours of current players in the marketplace, support them to continue doing what they do better or to change their behaviour, and (2) strengthen the systems and relationships among the various market and sector actors (3) work with current players to de-risk new business models to make digital solutions more inclusive for key segments and reduce the digital divide.

Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P)

In July 2014, UNCDF MM4P secured a partnership with the MasterCard Foundation (MCF) for the roll out of MM4P activities for a period of five years (2014 to 2019) in three countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Benin, Senegal and Zambia. Throughout the 5 years of its activities, the programme carried out an average of 10 projects per country. The programme objective was to support shifts in the different DFS market stages, categorized into inception, start-up, expansion and consolidation phases.

For that purpose MM4P provided a mix of policy, technical and financial support to a range of government and private sector actors in each country, as well as invested in research and other public goods that benefited all market actors. As the independent mid-term evaluation recently conducted by Genesis confirmed, the programme contributed to the development, availability and usage of DFS services in each of the market.

Duties and Responsibilities

The objectives of the assignment are as follows:

• Work with the writing committee to define the structure and workplan to deliver the closing report that includes a global report and 3 abstracts about each country as well as a global deck and three country decks that will be used to present the reports at events.
• Develop the content for the global report and abstracts per country based on the achievements and impact the programme had on the DFS sector and clients, i.e. focus on the sector outcome and overarching goal of the programme’s theory of change
• Derived from the structure and content of the global report and country reports, define the structure/outline for the global and country decks
• Select sections to be co-written with the team and provide guidance on the writing of these sections
• Prepare the plan for the data collection in the countries, i.e. draft the interview guides for each stakeholder (including MM4P team members) and client interviews; ensure the interview guides capture not only the direct impact of the programme’s activities but also the broader impact of the access and usage of DFS (i.e. what changes did the stakeholders and clients witness/experience over the lifespan of the programme? How can these changes be attributed to DFS? And finally how are these changes attributed to the DFS connected to the programme’s activities/achievements in the country?).
• Carry out the interviews of the stakeholders and clients in the anglophone country (Zambia) and integrate the content into the report.

The objectives of the assignment are as follows:

• Work with the writing committee to define the structure and workplan to deliver the closing report that includes a global report and 3 abstracts about each country as well as a global deck and three country decks that will be used to present the reports at events.
• Develop the content for the global report and abstracts per country based on the achievements and impact the programme had on the DFS sector and clients, i.e. focus on the sector outcome and overarching goal of the programme’s theory of change
• Derived from the structure and content of the global report and country reports, define the structure/outline for the global and country decks
• Select sections to be co-written with the team and provide guidance on the writing of these sections
• Prepare the plan for the data collection in the countries, i.e. draft the interview guides for each stakeholder (including MM4P team members) and client interviews; ensure the interview guides capture not only the direct impact of the programme’s activities but also the broader impact of the access and usage of DFS (i.e. what changes did the stakeholders and clients witness/experience over the lifespan of the programme? How can these changes be attributed to DFS? And finally how are these changes attributed to the DFS connected to the programme’s activities/achievements in the country?).
• Carry out the interviews of the stakeholders and clients in the anglophone country (Zambia) and integrate the content into the report.
• Write and co-write section(s) with the francophone technical writer, i.e. integrate the data collected from Benin and Senegal by the francophone technical writer and sections written by the committee members
• Collect all input and ensure the global report and country abstracts are written in a consistent and coherent style across all countries.
• Select publications and videos to be referenced in the report with the support of the committee. 
• Develop high quality final documents complete with references, links, graphics and tables before final professional editing and design (professional editing and graphic design steps will be managed by the UNCDF MM4P team). 

Deliverables:

Overall outline  and plan for writing the closing report and the three country abstract

Provide an overall structure for the global report, the three short country reports and respective decks (Expected Level of Effort:  6 days )

• Review the material available about the programme: initial proposal to MasterCard Foundation, semi-annual reports (section about the 3 countries), theory of change.
• Brainstorm with the committee on the ideal structure for the closing report (remote meeting)
• Identify the content and data related to projects/activities required for the report with the support of the committee, i.e. define the projects to be highlighted and review the materials about these projects (project documents and reports as well as KM deliverables) and the global data to introduce the overall portfolio of activities.
• Outline the general market data to be integrated in the report that illustrate the evolution and impact the programme had (shifting each country from a market stage to another)
• Identify with the committee the key dates and activities that best define the impact of the programme in each market (to be presented in a timeline/infographic)
• Draft interview guides for all stakeholders to ensure all interviews and data is collected across all countries adequately.
• Draft the detailed outline presenting per section/page: the content and projects to be highlighted, data to be collected and team members contributing to each section, including required visual elements (picture, table, infographic).
• Present to the committee the overall outline and plan for writing the closing report and the three country abstract

First draft of report

Collect data (Expected Level of Effort: 9 days)

• Assess and describe the impact of the programme in Zambia with a focus on the sector outcomes and the client level;
• In country interviews of stakeholders, MM4P team and DFS users from Zambia.
• Provide first draft of sections based on the interviews and data collected in country

Final draft of report

Draft final report and decks (Expected Level of Effort: 15 days)

• Draft report and present to the committee in a face to face meeting
• Finalise report based on the feedback provided during the committee meeting to take place in Brussels with a restricted number of committee members and the francophone technical writer
• Deliver final global report with links references, links, graphics and tables
• Deliver the three country abstracts
• Deliver the deck structure and content to present the global report and the three country decks.

Timeline and Duration

The mission will take place from August to November 2019

The high-level timeline to be confirmed with the technical writer will look as follow

Competencies

Innovation:

• Adapts idea to context;
• Creates independently;
• Collaborates and integrates ideas consistently;
• Conceptualizes more effective approaches to programme development and implementation and to mobilizing and using resources.

Communication:

• Listens to develop awareness for client needs;
• Advocates, in written form able to convince others of key ideas;
• Proactively identifies, develops and discusses solutions for internal and external clients, and persuades management to undertake new projects or services;
• Builds trust in interactions with others, facilitates partnerships;

Delivery:
 

• Anticipates constraints in the delivery of services and identifies solutions or alternatives;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities, and resolve problems;
• Focus on impact and results for clients and stakeholders;
• Approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude and responds positively to feedback;
• Committed to team work, working with other stakeholders.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• A Masters’ degree in finance, economics, international development, public/business administration, social sciences, or related discipline or the equivalent experience.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of experience in writing logical, coherent, and consistent documents/publications about financial inclusion or financial sector development programmes for developing countries. 
• Ability to work efficiently and effectively with project members in various locations and from multiple organisations, including remotely writing and revising publications.
• Ability to integrate different experiences, methodologies, and approaches from a diverse range of stakeholders, organisations, and technical experts from multiple sectors.
• Excellent English speaking/writing skills required. A minimum of five years of experience in projects with financial inclusion as a focus or part is mandatory;
• Working knowledge of concepts in digital financial inclusion and preferably knowledge and exposure to digital finance, including mobile money and other technologies.
• Familiarity with the SDGs. 
• Experience working with UNCDF or a similar type organization is desired. 

Language:

• Excellent written and oral English is mandatory.

Timeline, total number of working days, duty station:

• Timeline: August to November 2019
• Total Number of Working Days for Assignment: 30 working days
• Duty station: Primarily home-based with a field visits to stakeholders for interviews will be required in Zambia and a meeting with the team in Brussels for “writeshop”

Travel:

• Consultants will not quote travel in the financial proposal;
• Travel will be required during this assignment and payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses will be compensated according to UN polices.
• 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. 

Progress Controls & Payments:

Monitoring of progress shall be measured both according to the activities of the consultant and final deliverables. Activities will start end of August and end early November as the report and the decks have been finalized (edited and designed).

Payment will be made on periodical basis in accordance with number of days worked and upon satisfactorily achieved deliverables. All payments are subject to the clearance and approval of the direct supervisor.

Final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

The primary contacts for reporting for this TOR shall be:

• Karima Wardak, UNCDF Knowledge Management Associate, karima.wardak@uncdf.org
• Nandini Harihareswara, UNCDF Regional Technical Specialist, nandini.harihareswara@uncdf.org

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 in relation to the Terms of Reference (TOR);
• Examples of past publications written or co-written by the applicant;
• Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy;
• Curriculum Vitae;
• Confirmation of interest and Financial proposal: Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP. The Financial Proposal shall indicate the all-inclusive daily fee, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided.

https://popp.undp.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/UNDP_POPP_DOCUMENT_LIBRARY/Public/PSU_%20Individual%20Contract_Offerors%20Letter%20to%20UNDP%20Confirming%20Interest%20and%20Availability.docx&action=default

Award Criteria

The contract shall be awarded to the best applicant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and Having received the highest combined weight (technical scores) 70% + financial 30%= 100%.

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.