Procurement Notices

Proposal should be submitted to the Procurement Unit, UNDP Myanmar, No. 6 Natmauk Road, Tamwe, Yangon or by email to bids.mm@undp.org; no later than 31 October 2018.

Any request for clarification must be sent in writing, or by standard electronic communication to the address or e-mail indicated above. Procurement Unit will respond in writing or by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all consultants.

1. Background

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 finance 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.

UNCDF in Myanmar manages several initiatives such as MFI support including lending and guarantees, working with Government on regulations and the Financial Inclusion Roadmap, clean energy financing, Big Data, Gender, Financial literacy, and DFS.

Expanding Financial Access (EFA) Programme: To support the government of Myanmar in the implementation process of the Financial Inclusion Roadmap, UNCDF developed the programme “Expanding Financial Access (EFA) that focuses on priority areas of the Financial Inclusion Roadmap. Started in 2015, EFA is the core programme in Myanmar and works hand in hand at the country level with other regional and global UNCDF.

The EFA programme intends, by 2021, to increase the percentage of the adult population which are financially included from 30% in 2015 to 40%, and those which use more than one financial product from 6% to 15%. Moreover, EFA aims to have 830,000 low income direct beneficiaries and 3 million indirect ones by providing a full range of affordable, quality, effective and responsible financial services to MSME, small-scale farmers, women-led enterprises, youth, poor and low-income clients by encouraging stakeholders to work together in an integrated manner.

A core component of EFA is the Market Development Facility which seeks to address systemic market failures in a number of thematic areas through targeted funding solutions. It functions as a catalytic wholesale financial agent able to take-on risk and leverage outside sources of capital to boost funding to undercapitalized MFIs operating in Myanmar. Digital Financial Services and Women's Economic Empowerment are also critical cross-cutting themes and form the basis for a number of UNCDF Myanmar, and the CleanStart programme provides funding to institutions working in renewables and clean energy. EFA also works in partnership with the innovative regional Shaping Inclusive Finance Transformations (SHIFT) funding facility which aims to accelerate financial inclusion across the ASEAN region

Women’s Economic and Financial Inclusion Project (WEFIP)

Another component recently added to the EFA Programme is the Women’s Economic and Financial Inclusion Project (WEFIP), a three years project  funded by DFID of UK’s government. The project and its strategic approach is informed by UNCDF’s strong foundation of successful programming in Myanmar through the national programme, regional and global programming

In Myanmar, women and girls face barriers in the enabling environment, in the supply of and in their demand for financial products and services, as well as in their socio-cultural contexts. As a result, women remain disproportionately excluded from the formal financial system in the country and further exacerbated for those living in conflict-affected areas. The gender gap in formal financial access is 12% (Findex, 2014) with women being more likely than men to use informal financial products and services.  Together, these diverse spheres of constraint limit women and girls’ access, usage and agency over financial products and services in ways that constrain their opportunities for economic participation and empowerment. Yet while, women’s economic participation has the potential to contribute to Myanmar’s sustainable economic growth, currently women’s labour force participation rate is only 50.5%, falling well short of the male participation rate of 85.2% - despite women and adolescent girls constituting more than half of the country’s working age population (aged 15-64) (52.3%).

UNCDF believes that Financial inclusion is a key enabler of women’s economic empowerment. Acknowledging the pivotal role that financial inclusion plays in reaching the economic empowerment of women and girls, UNCDF is developing and implementing multi-sectorial activities to facilitate women and girls’ economic empowerment through improving their access, use and control over financial services, in cooperation with the Myanmar Government, UN Agencies, Financial Services Providers and international donors.

WEFIP aims at increasing 200,000 women and girls’ awareness of, access to, and use of agency over appropriate financial products and services responsibly provided by diverse and sustainable service providers in a well-regulated environment with a focus on conflict-affected areas of Myanmar. UNCDF will operationalize the strategy drawing on several intervention strategies in line with five functions namely convening, research, capacity building, advocacy, and innovation funding.

The project will primarily focus on interventions functions on the Supply-side: to promote gender-sensitive financial products and services and supporting non-financial services; and the Demand-side: to enhance women and girls’ financial capabilities, voice and demand for finance. Yet in recognition of the important role of the broader context, supporting interventions will be implemented in the sphere of the Enabling Environment: to advance Gender (and age) sensitive enabling legal, policy and regulatory environment for financial inclusion.

Furthermore, the project will work with private sector, women’s business associations and CSO partners to specifically address the financial competency building coupled with financial services and vocation skills development towards private sector employment or entrepreneurship.

1. Duties and Responsibilities

The objective of this consultancy is to strengthen UNCDF with Gender Technical inputs for its effective and timely implementation of Women’s Economic and Financial Inclusion Project in Myanmar. The services and payment schedule are as below.

Expertise and Qualifications

Education

• Master’s degree in gender studies, Social Science, Public Administration, Business Management, Development Studies, Economics or relevant areas.
• Prince2 practitioner or another project management certificate is a strong asset.

Experience

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in Gender Mainstreaming, Women’s Economic Empowerment or other Gender focus programmes.
• At least 2 years’ experience with proven track records in research and survey, assessment analysis and evaluation.
• At least 2 years’ experience in Myanmar or the region or the least developed countries.
• Prior work experience in Financial Services is preferred.
• Prior work experience in Conflict-Affected areas is desirable.
• Prior work experience in DFID funded project is a strong asset.
• Project/Programme Management experience is a plus

Core Competencies

• Strong analytical writing skills; experienced in producing concise, executive level reports and presentations, training modules and materials;
• Understands blended finance and how to operationalize financing instruments such as results-based financing, concessional loans, guarantees, impact investing;
• Understands how financial service providers and/or small to medium scale enterprises serving vulnerable people;
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively as an integral part of multi-disciplinary and multi-agency teams;
• Ability to deal with rapidly shifting priorities and work demands;
• Ability to network with partners on various levels;
• Strong leadership and planning skills;
• Ability to conduct research and analysis and strong synthesis skills;
• Knowledgeable of the UN system functioning and programming is an asset;
• Cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;

Language

Fluency in oral and written English is a requirement; Native Speaker is preferred

Institutional Arrangement

The Gender Technical Expert will report to and work under the overall guidance of UNCDF Myanmar Country Coordinator in close collaboration with both country and regional teams of UNCDF. Payment will be made at the end of each payment phase against satisfactorily achieved deliverables. All payments are subject to the clearance and approval of UNCDF Myanmar Country Coordinator. Final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant. The costs of the unpredictable travels not mentioned/included in the financial proposal to be reimbursed to the consultant.  

Duration of Assignment 

Duration of Assignment is planned from 15 November 2018 - 30 June 2019 for 110 days of work. Duty station is UNCDF country office in Myanmar with travel to states and regions in Myanmar   

Application

Applications will be rated on both technical and financial submissions.  The best proposal that will be awarded the contract shall be selected through the following method:

Highest rated proposal using the combined scoring method, which assigns the weight distribution between the technical and financial proposals as set out in the RFP. 

All applications must contain the following information:

• Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies in relation to the TOR;
• Samples of previous work demonstrating capacity to conduct research and analysis report;
• Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy;
• Completed 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: total professional fee and other professional expenses (such as insurance, taxes etc.). The financial proposal form is at 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

1. Evaluation Process and Criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

• Preliminary Evaluation - Step I: Screening;
• Technical Evaluation Weight - 70% = Step II: Shortlisting (100 points)  and Step III: Desk Review; Financial Evaluation Weight - 30% = Step IV.
• Scoring evaluation – Step V: Selection

Step I: Screening:

Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the following minimum criteria (listed under education and experience) will progress to the pool for shortlisting.

Step II: Shortlisting by Desk Review:

UNCDF will conduct a desk review to produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate them.

As applicable, only the first top 3 ranked applicants achieving 70% of the points at this stage shall be considered for a desk review.

Step III: Desk Review Technical Evaluation:

The top 3 shortlisted candidates will be considered by the evaluation panel.

The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in Gender Mainstreaming, Women’s Economic Empowerment or other Gender focus programmes (20 points)
• At least 2 years’ experience with proven track records in research and survey, assessment analysis and evaluation (10 points)
• At least 2 years’ experience in Myanmar or the region or the least developed countries (10 points)
• Fluency in oral and written English; Native Speaker is preferred (10 points)
• Prior work experience in Financial Services is preferred (5 points)
• Prior work experience in Conflict-Affected areas is desirable (5 points)
• Prior work experience in DFID funded project is a strong asset (5 points)
• Project/Programme Management experience is a plus (5 points)

Step IV: Financial Proposal Evaluation:

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal: Lowest Financial proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated X 30%. Lowest Financial Proposal refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation.

Step V: Selection

The contract 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 proposal 70% + financial 30%= 100%.

Notes

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). Please note that in such case the company institution will be asked to issue an (Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA): A legal instrument between UNCDF and a Company/institution, according to which, the latter makes available the services of an individual delivering time-bound and quantifiable outputs that are directly linked to payments. An RLA is governed by the provisions of this policy.)

ANNEXES

1. Confirmation of Interest
2. Financial Proposal Form
3. P11 form
4. General Condition of Contract

References

UNDP’s Individual Consultant’s General Terms and Conditions are provided here:
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf