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Overview

About UNCDF

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)

Money for the Poor (MM4P) in March 2012 is a global thematic initiative to address the opportunities and challenges of implementing branchless banking and mobile money in challenging markets in Africa and Asia.  MM4P’s long-term mission is to help low income and rural households in LDCs increase their financial security through appropriate, affordable and secure means to receive, manage and save money through these “digital financial services” (DFS).  To do so, its intermediate goal is to help build inclusive digital financial sectors such that a wide range of digital financial services are provided responsibly, and at reasonable cost, by sustainable institutions in a well-regulated environment.  UNCDF’s starts by defining the different stages of a market’s development and the range of interventions needed at different levels (i.e. macro, meso, micro, client) to move it across the stages.  This combines a making markets work for the poor approach with UNCDF’s traditional operational model of directly supporting the most crucial level – retail service providers.  MM4P is currently implementing this in Benin, Laos, Nepal, Liberia, Malawi, Senegal, Uganda and Zambia.

A main challenge in all of MM4P’s focus countries is the lack of customer centricity in product design and delivery.  MM4P’s focus on customer centricity focuses on ensuring that DF meets minimum criteria in critical areas, namely:   Availability, Accessibility, Reliability, Affordability, Appropriateness and Appeal (easy to understand, appealing to use).   In most markets, DFS fall short in many of these areas. 

The overall objective is to help DF providers in each of the markets to better understand its customers’ and agents’ experience with DFS, from awareness to regular use and to assist a group of interested DF providers to implement improves or changes in their products or delivery mechanism to improve the customer and/or agent’s experience. 

This TOR is to support MM4P’s work in this area in Benin, Uganda, Senegal and Zambia. 

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) hereby invites you to submit a Proposal to this Request for Proposal (RFP):

This RFP involves several countries and has been divided in 2 Batches:

• Ref 001 Batch 1 –Zambia, Uganda

• Ref 002 Batch 2 – Senegal, Benin

Firms may bid for one or all batches. Please refer to the instructions in Section 9 below and the technical and financial proposal forms.

Proposers are required to complete, sign and submit the following documents (part of the RFP or in the separated annexes posted separated for ease of use):

• Proposal Submission CoverLetter Form(see RFP Section 4);

• Documents Establishing the Eligibility and Qualifications of the Proposer (see RFP Section 5);

• Technical Proposal (see prescribed form in RFP Section 6);

• Financial Proposal (see prescribed form in RFP Section 7);

• Any attachments and/or appendices to the Proposal.

If sending your proposal by e-mail: Please use the Mandatory subject of email: RFP Customer Experience Research and Design and address to mm4p@uncdf.org.

The proposal shall contain:

• 1 Email containing technical proposal (the e-mail cannot exceed 10 MB). Attachments must be password protected.

• 1 Email containing the financial proposals (the e-mail cannot exceed 10 MB). Attachments must be password protected.

• Unlimited Emails containing annexes (please note that each individual email cannot exceed 10 MB)

• One e-mail with the password to be provided on 21 September 2015. Please note the subject of your bid.

If sending your proposal by courier/mail: Please use the address below

MM4P Operations

UNCDF,

Address: Square de Meeus 35, 6th floor.

1000 Brussels

Belgium.

The proposal shall contain:

• 1 copy of the technical proposal on a sealed envelope.

• 1 copy of the financial proposal on a sealed envelope.

Please refer to the procurement calendar below: