Reference

Location

Combination of remote working and field mission to East and West Sepik (Papua New Guinea)

Application deadline

11TH October 2022

Type of Contract

Individual consultants or Reimbursable Loan Agreement (International)

Post Level

Individual consultants

Consultancy Title

Technical assistance to support a mobile money operator in PNG

Languages required:

English (Mandatory) and Tok Pisin (Desired)

Duration of Initial Contract:

35 days (spread over four months)

Introduction – UNCDF

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 46 Least Developed Countries (LDC). 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 investors.

UNCDF’s objective is to develop inclusive financial systems in which a range of financial products are 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, pension, payments, and remittances).

Background:

The Support to Rural Entrepreneurship and Trade in Papua New Guinea (STREIT PNG) programme is the largest grant-funded programme of the European Union in the Pacific sub-region. The programme was developed under the 11th European Development Fund (2014-2020) and is being implemented as a United Nations joint programme under the leadership of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).  UNCDF is part of the STREIT project in Papua New Guinea and is responsible for the access to finance component of the project.

The programme focuses on the value chains of cocoa, vanilla, and fisheries in the Sepik region. The programmes overall objective is "To increase sustainable and inclusive economic development of rural areas". The approach of the program is to bring sustainable development to the three target value chains by working on the following two components: 

• Component 1:  Under component 1 programme supports and develops various capacities of direct value chain actors to increase sustainability and profitability of the chains to maximize value-addition across the whole VC and specifically upstream.
• Component 2: The programme's second component focuses on developing and improving the enabling environment and specific enablers around the value chains. These include communications, infrastructure, renewable energy, and capacities to enhance value chain actors' access to finance, knowledge, information, and markets.

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) supports Component 2 of the programme by leading various efforts in financial inclusion focused on:

1) Policy and regulation

2) Value chain focused product and services

3) Improve and expand the distribution channel

4) Build capacities of financial service providers to cater needs of value chain actors.

As part of the project, UNCDF has partnered with multiple banks and mobile money operators in PNG. One of these partners is Digicel (PNG) Financial Services Limited (DFSL). DFSL is a Financial institution licensed by the Bank of Papua New Guinea to provide mobile money services in PNG. It is part of Digicel PNG, the country's largest Mobile Network Operator (MNO). DFSL offers its mobile money services under the brand Cellmoni. DFSL, with support from UNCDF, has been actively promoting Cellmoni services in East and West Sepik. Most notably, DFSL has increased its agent network, invested in customer awareness campaigns, and rolled out promotional activities. The results from these activities have been mixed with a good improvement in expansion of the delivery channel and customer base but without a commensurate increase in usage. As part of the technical assistance, the consultant will be expected to perform a supply and demand-side assessment of the situation and help DFSL identify solutions to improve the usage of their Cellmoni services in the Sepik region.

The consultant will work closely with DFSL and UNCDF team to deliver this technical assistance.

Scope of Work

The scope of this technical assistance project is divided into the following phases:

Phase 1: Demand side assessment

Under phase 1 consultant will be required to conduct a demand-side assessment of existing Cellmoni customers with the following objectives:

• General feedback and expectations of customers from Cellmoni
• Factors driving the usage pattern among active users
• Factors preventing usage among dormant users
• Effectiveness of the past and current incentive schemes to drive sustained usage
• Customer segmentation, sizing and identification of use cases for each segment with targeting strategies

The consultant will be expected to conduct exploratory action research using qualitative tools with a limited sample in the East and West Sepik region.

Phase 2: Supply-side assessment

In this phase, the consultant is expected to conduct a detailed institutional assessment of Cellmoni, covering the product, customer service and delivery channel.  The evaluation should also include a study of the long-term vision of DFSL for Cellmoni and alignment of their customer engagement and promotional activities to their vision.

Phase 3: Data analysis and roadmap for DFSL

In this phase, the consultant will conduct a detailed root cause analysis of the problems preventing greater adoption of Cellmoni services in the Sepik region. The consultant will also be expected to perform a comparative analysis of Cellmoni with other successful mobile money service providers operating in different difficult geographies worldwide. The comparative analysis should be conducted to help DFSL prioritise its areas for improvement.

Towards the end of the phase consultant will be expected to develop a roadmap for DFSL to improve the uptake of Cellmoni services in the region Sepik on a sustainable basis.

Phase 4: Support to DFSL in implementation of the roadmap

In this phase consultant will provide remote assistance to DFSL for a period of 2 months. The assistance will be in form of periodic technical assistance sessions (indicative 8-hour sessions/month) to discuss the progress, problems, and plans for implementation of the roadmap.  

Activities:

• Development of an inception report with TA plan in consultation with DFSL and UNCDF for component 1
• Kickoff session/workshop with relevant stakeholders
• Field research in East and West Sepik using qualitative tools
• Detailed interview with Cellmoni agents and DFSL staff at multiple levels for component 2
• Development of a consolidated report (word or PPT format) for components 1 and 2
• Presentation of findings from components 1 and 2 to DFSL and UNCDF
• Development of a report for component 3 with root cause analysis and roadmap
• Presentation and finalization of the root cause analysis and the roadmap in a workshop mode with DFSL and UNCDF teams.
• Consulting sessions with DFSL as part of activities for phase 4

Deliverables:

• Inception report and field research plan
• Stakeholder workshops (2)
• Consolidated report for findings from components 1 and 2
• Report for component 3
• Presentation of findings
• Meeting of minutes for all consulting sessions conducted with DFSL

1. Assignment outputs and deliverables

Institutional Arrangement

• The consultant will report to the UNCDF PNG – Country Lead, or a designated member of staff during the term of the contract
• The consultant will provide their hardware, computer programs, printing, telephone and internet connectivity for this activity. Feedback to UCNDF by engaging via daily calls or email.
• The consultant will provide for his travel for flights and field trips. UNCDF can facilitate the consultant to hire a vehicle for field trips.

Duty Station

• Work will be conducted primarily in Papua New Guinea (70% of the time) with most of the travel in Sepik provinces.
• Some preparatory tasks and planning can be conducted remotely (max 30% of the time)

Duration of Work:  This is a 35 days assignment spread over 6-8 weeks (Phase 1 to 3) to be implemented in first and second month  followed by limited engagement (Phase 4) for additional two months.

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills
• Strong research skills, including facilitation of focused group discussions and workshops
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities skills
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback
• Ability to plan, organize, implement, and report on work
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines
• Comprehensive knowledge of Financial Education and or Business Development curriculum development
• Outstanding communication, project management and organizational skills
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards
• Positive, constructive attitude to work
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Educational Qualifications (For team lead[2] of individual consultant):

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree qualification in international relations, business, economics, finance, development studies or related disciplines.

Experience

• Minimum ten years of experience working in the digital financial inclusion, agriculture value chains, research, or strategic consulting role, preferably at a senior level
• Minimum five years of experience in leading qualitative research projects in digital financial inclusion, agriculture finance, agriculture value chains or MSME sector.
• Experience engaging a diverse set of public and private sector stakeholders, regulators, government departments, and industry associations would be preferable.
• A proven track record of similar work in other similar task environments, with a specific focus on countries with low levels of financial literacy, such as the Pacific, is considered a prerequisite.
• Experience in PNG would be an advantage

Language requirements

• Fluency in English language and Tok Pisin will be an advantage

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The bidder must send a financial proposal based on a lump sum payment at the completion of the deliverables.

The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fees and any other applicable cost incurred by the successful bidder in completing the assignment. The contract price will be a fixed output-based price regardless of the extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Bids will be evaluated based on cumulative analysis. The award of the contract shall be made to the bidder whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of a set of weighted technical criteria (70%) and financial criteria (30%). The financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced bid received by UNDP for the assignment.

Technical Proposal (70%)

• Minimum 10 years of experience working in the digital financial inclusion, agriculture value chains, research, or strategic consulting role, preferably at a senior level – 25%
• Minimum 3 years of experience in leading qualitative research projects in digital financial inclusion, agriculture finance, agriculture value chains or MSME sector. - 25%
• Experience engaging a diverse set of public and private sector stakeholders, regulators, government departments, and industry associations would be preferable. - 10%
• A proven track record of similar work in other similar task environments, with a specific focus on countries with low levels of financial literacy, such as the Pacific, is considered a prerequisite. - 30%
• Experience in PNG would be an advantage. – 10%

Financial Proposal (30%)

To be computed as a ratio of the Proposal’s offer to the lowest price among the proposals received by UNDP.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Documentation required

Interested bidders must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload a maximum of one document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.
• 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.
• Technical proposal, including a) a brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment; and b) a methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment.
• Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II. Note: International consultants must quote prices in United States Dollars (USD).

Incomplete, joint proposals and proposals sent to the wrong mailing address will not be accepted, and only candidates for whom there is further interest will be contacted.

Individuals interested in this consultancy should apply and will be reviewed based on their individual capacity. The successful individual may sign an Individual Contract with UNDP or request his/her employer to sign a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) on their behalf by indicating this in the Offerors letter to Confirming Interest and Availability using Annex II.

Annexes

• Annex I - Individual IC General Terms and Conditions
• Annex II – Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability for the Individual IC, including Financial Proposal Template

Proposal Submission

• All applications must be clearly marked with the title of the consultancy and submitted by 5.00 pm, 11th October 2022  5 PM (PNG Time) electronically to procurement.png@undp.org.
• For further information concerning this Terms of Reference, please contact UNDP PNG Office by email: procurement.pg@undp.org

Women applicants are encouraged to apply.