Background

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (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. Established by the General Assembly in 1966 and with headquarters in New York, UNCDF is an autonomous UN organization affiliated with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Hosted by  UNCDF, the Better Than Cash Alliance’s mission is to catalyze a global movement from cash to digital payments to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Specific benefits include efficiency, transparency, women’s economic participation and financial inclusion, helping build economies that are digital and inclusive.

The Alliance has 75 members, including national governments from Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, companies and international organizations which have committed to digitizing payments.

The Secretariat works with the Alliance members on their journey to digitize payments by:

• Providing advisory services based on member priorities.
• Sharing action-oriented research and fostering peer learning.
• Conducting advocacy at national, regional and global level.

Billions of dollars in cash payments and transfers are made daily in emerging and developing economies, including payment of salaries, social welfare and relief, payments to suppliers, remittances. The problems with these cash payments include a lack of transparency, accountability and security, as well as inefficiency. Individuals who receive cash payments are often part of the 1.7 billion excluded from the formal financial sector, the majority of whom are women. This means they are excluded from access to a range of appropriate and affordable financial services to help them save safely take advantage of economic opportunities and reduce their vulnerability to risk.

Shifting these payments from cash to digital has the potential to improve the lives of low-income people, particularly women, while giving governments, the development community and the private sector a more transparent, time and cost efficient, and often-safer means of disbursing payments.

The Better Than Cash Alliance Team’s Core Values are the following:

• Achieving together
• Striving for excellence
• Service oriented
• Results oriented

The Better Than Cash Alliance is looking to hire two (2) Digital Payments Technical Experts – Asia Pacific.  For more information about the Better Than Cash Alliance, please visit our website: www.betterthancash.org.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision and direction of the Asia Pacific Regional Lead, in collaboration with the Private Sector Lead and the South-East Asia Lead, this assignment will ensure the technical and coordination support to the implementation of the overall strategy for the Better Than Cash Alliance in the Asia Pacific region. Key responsibilities are as follows:

Provide high quality technical assistance and coordination support for overall execution of Alliance advisory services to members in Asia Pacific Region as part of the yearly country strategies and in accordance with member priorities

1. Provide technical support for the delivery of the Alliance services to members including:

• Project management support for Regional, Country and Private Sector leads to help Alliance government and corporate members increase the uptake of digital payments in key countries and business value chains based on government and corporate priorites.
• Research support to capture digital payments learnings/experiences of Alliance members to share across membrs and countries, in the region and globally
• Organize peer learning exchanges and facilitate bilateral relationships to increase digital payments capabilities of Asia Pacific members as follows:
• State level government – Building on the successes and lessons learnt from the inter-state government exchanges, organize peer exchanges within countries to help states/provinces address their digital payments ecosystem development 
• National level - Support the organization of international peer exchanges of various Better Than Cash Alliance government members to learn from each other.
• Private sector members – organize relevant capability building workshops with members as part of the global or country learning strategy.

2.  Support the periodical tracking/reporting of Alliance activities with members, to ensure documenting of information and on-time implementation of agreed workplans

3.  Provide project management support alongside 3rd party consultants / consultancy firms contracted by BTCA to deliver services to members as part of country strategy

Support for in-country government and corporate advisory in the Asia Pacific Region:

1. Mission support to BTCA Managing Director, Deputy Managing Director, Asia Pacific Regional Lead, South East Asia Regional Lead, Corporate Lead, and other members of the BTCA Secretariat
2. Support with background notes for missions, meetings and/or presentations for conferences and workshops on the digitization of payments in support of the Asia Pacific Lead, Private Sector Lead and South East Aia Lead.
3. Draft project concept notes and seek input from relevant team members and experts, as needed;
4. Track progress of in-country initiatives and ensure liaison with management and procurement teams to ensure delivery of project milestones;
5. Monitor key indicators in support of the Asia Pacific and M&E teams to track activities to feed into donor and internal reports;

Provide an up-to-date analysis of digital payments ecosystem development across the Asia Pacific Region through desktop research and stakeholder discussions, and providing these inputs into Alliance work on the overall country strategy and portfolio for the Region.

1. Prepare detailed analysis, including background research on Alliance members, funders and other various organizations’ work on the digitization of payments and digital financial inclusion
2. Conduct in-depth research on topics related to digital payments, digital financial services and financial inclusion in specific markets to inform the regional strategy and the drafting of concept notes for in-country initiatives
3. Conduct thorough background research on the whole sector in a country (other stakeholders, donors) work on the digitization of payments and digital financial inclusion in focus countries and focus corporate sectors to ensure Alliance USP in all activities;
4. Help identify partnerships with key national/regional platforms and initiatives for BTCA to work with to scale up the digital payments agenda
5. Work closely with the Asia Pacific Regional Lead to prepare quarterly portfolio reporting; mid-year and annual progress report and others as directed by the Managing Director.

Advocacy: 

1. Working closely with the Asia Pacific team, monitor and identify advocacy opportunities for the Alliance, including potential targets, conferences, UN, regional and corporate events in the Asia Pacific Region 

Communications and events: 

1. Collaborate closely with the Asia Pacific team and the advocacy, media and communications teams for the organization of events, conferences and specialized workshops;
2. Share news and stories from Alliance member countries for social media and other communications channels, as needed;
3. Other activities, as requested

Institutional Arrangement

The consultants will work under the supervision of the Better Than Cash Alliance’s ASIA PAC Regional Lead, working closely with other key colleagues across the globe, with supervision support from the Private Sector Lead on corporate initiatives.

Duration of the Work

The assignment will have an initial duration of twelve (12) months. Any extension of another one (1) year is possible depending on performance, continued need for the services and availability of funds. The performance control/monitoring mechanism will be applied from the start date.

Any delay in the completion of the outputs, if not attributed to the performance of the consultant, shall be addressed through a no-cost time

Duty Station

1. The Consultants may be stationed to any of the following locations: (a) India: New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore; (b) Bangladesh: Dhaka (c) Pakistan: Islamabad (d) Indonesia: Jakarta.  The choice of location, and which of the consultants will move, will depend on business needs and forthcoming opportunities. 
2. If there is any approved travel, UNCDF will pay separately travel expenses (economy airfare, terminal expenses and per diems to cover hotel and food expenses) according to standard UN rates based on evidence of approved and actual travel.

IMPORTANT:  Applicants must be willing to be relocated to any of the possible duty stations listed above.  A submission of application to this vacancy will therefore be taken as an act of confirmation of willingness to travel and/or be located to the above duty stations.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates ethics and integrity;
• Demonstrates political acumen and calculated risk taking;
• Impeccable diplomatic skills and knowledge of protocol; essential
• Demonstrated excellent writing, editing and communications skills to an international standard including correspondence, reports, talking points and briefing material; essential
• Builds own competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Creates and promotes open communication;
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;
• Conducts fair and transparent decision making;
• Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability;
• Shows strong corporate commitment.

Functional Competencies:

Professional

• Project management lifecycle
• Ensures the full implementation of a project to obtain results;
• 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;
• Makes effective use of UNCDF’s and other BTCA member resources and comparative advantage to strengthen partnerships;
• Creates networks and promotes initiatives with partner organizations;
• Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking;

Technical:

• Working knowledge of current developments in payment technologies, including innovative payment methods (e.g., digital government, mobile financial services, pre-paid/reloadable/other cards, etc.);
• Impeccable diplomatic skills, particularly in working with governments of emerging economies in the Asia Pacific
• Solid skills in market assessments, business case/strategy development and data analysis/management (spreadsheets, data visualization tools like Tableau, etc.)
• Understanding of key issues and international good practice relating to financial inclusion and digital payments
• Excellent presentation and representation skills in multicultural contexts
• Ability to translate complex technical ideas to a non-technical audience in both verbally and in writing

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications 

• Advanced university degree (Master’s level) in public/business administration, finance, engineering, economics, international affairs, development, political science, or other relevant fields.

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of professional experience in digital payments, financial services, financial inclusion, ICT4D, economic development or digital government is required
• Minimum 7 years of experience in effectively supporting the provision of services to a very diverse group of clients or members and maintaining positive relationships with peers is essential
• Minimum 7 years of experience in dealing with high level governments officials and senior level management in companies, particularly in emerging economies; essential
• Expert knowledge of current developments in digital financial services including innovative payment methods (e.g., mobile financial services, pre-paid cards, etc.) essential;
• Expert knowledge of policy, legal and regulatory issues related to inclusive payment technologies and digital government; desirable
• Minimum 7 years of experience in organization of high-level meetings with senior government officials and senior business leaders; desirable.

Languages:

• Fluency in English, both oral and written, is required and fluency in regional languages, both oral and written, is desired;
• Working proficiency in other languages is highly desirable.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Payments will be made based on the percentage of contract price corresponding to the deliverables stated in Section D above, and upon confirmation of UNCDF that the individual has delivered on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner. 

Progress Controls & Payments:

• The quarterly deliverables will be agreed by the supervisor- the Asia PAC Regional Lead - at the beginning of every quarter.
• Payment will be made against each satisfactorily achieved deliverables, upon the clearance and approval of the ASIA Pacific Regional Lead. Final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

The payment schedule will be as follows:    

Recommended Presentation of Offer

The following documents are requested:

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability;
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology, if applicable, on how they will approach and complete the assignment.
• Financial proposal that indicates the all-inclusive daily fee. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNCDF under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNCDF. 

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

Consultants will be evaluated based on UNDP’s cumulative analysis method. When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract shall be made to the consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable vis-à-vis the requirements of the TOR and the project operating environment; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical (70%) and financial (30%) criteria.

The Better Than Cash Alliance will conduct a review of a profile (technical evaluation) that matches applicants experience and expertise to the key tasks outlined in the consultancy. These are detailed under each of the following Key work areas noted above:

• Programme Development and Management (20 points);
• Programme Support (50 points);
• Stakeholder and Partner Consultation (30 points).

Only the top candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points in the review of profile will be considered for Technical Interviews.  Technical interviews will explore the same key work areas, in greater depth, with the same weighting.

Technical proposal = Review of a profile through desk review (40%) + Technical Interview (60%).