Education • Master’s Degree in Economics, Finance, Banking, Development, Business Management, Information and Communication Technology, or equivalent in work experience. Experience • Minimum 5 years of experience in managing financial systems and processes especially for MFIs and SACCOs. • Experience working with financial system vendors, central banks, payment aggregators and/or open Payment Infrastructure Partners on National Instant Payments Systems. • Experience working in (or with) central banks, regulatory bodies, on the management, oversight, or regulation of new technologies and innovation in Tanzania and in other East African countries • Experience supporting deployment of shared cloud-based multi-tenant solutions. Language • Fluent written and Spoken English Language is required. • Knowledge of Kiswahili is desired. Timeline, total number of working days, duty station: • Timeline: January 2023-December 2023 • Total Number of Working Days for Assignment: Minimum of 365 days with a possibility of extension of up to 3 years • Duty station: The consultant shall be home-based, except when called by UNCDF to conduct missions and/or to attend meetings. Travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses shall be agreed upon as per UNCDF policy, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel. Please note that this consultancy is a home-based assignment, therefore, there is no envisaged travel cost to join duty station/living expenses. 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) indicating web links of published case studies and research papers as well. • Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy. • CV or completed and signed P11-Personal History Form with names and current contacts of 3 referees (Available at: http://sas.undp.org/documents/p11_personal_history_form.doc). • Signed financial proposal for the assignment outlining: All-inclusive fee (including professional fees and other professional expenses, such as insurance, taxes, etc.) Available at: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916. All unit prices indicated in the Financial Proposal shall remain the same for the duration of the IC, including amendments thereto. Please send it separately to the email address financial.proposal@uncdf.org with the subject line: IPS Consultant. Evaluation: Applications will be rated on both technical and financial submissions. The following selection method will be used: Highest rated proposal using the combined scoring method. The weight distribution shall be 70% technical and 30% financial. Step I: Screening: Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the minimum criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting. • Masters Degree in Economics, Finance, Banking, Development, Business Management, Information Communication Technology or equivalent in work experience. • Minimum 5 years of experience in managing financial systems and processes especially for MFIs and SACCOs including on open API. • Experience working with financial system vendors, central banks, payment aggregators and/or open Payment Infrastructure Partners on National Instant Payments Systems. • Experience working in (or with) central banks, regulatory bodies, on the management, oversight, or regulation of new technologies and innovation in Tanzania and/or other similar context in Africa. • Experience supporting deployment of cloud-based multi-tenant solutions. Step II: Shortlisting by desk review (30% of technical assessment): UNCDF will produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate candidates by using the following criteria with corresponding points (100 points): • Minimum 5 years of experience in managing financial systems and processes especially for MFIs and SACCOs including managing deployment of cloud-based multi-tenant solutions for MFIs and/or SACCOs. 40 points. • Experience working with financial system vendors, central banks, payment aggregators and/or open Payment Infrastructure Partners on National Instant Payments Systems. 20 points. • Experience working in (or with) central banks, regulatory bodies, on the management, oversight, or regulation of new technologies and innovation in Tanzania and/or other similar context in Africa. 15 points. • Experience in building capacity (including training and technical backstopping) within the financial sector. 10 points. • Excellent written command of the English language: 5 points • Experience publishing case studies and/or reports that adhere to international standards. 10 points. As applicable, the applicants achieving 70% of the points at this stage shall be invited for an interview via Skype. Step III: Interview (70% of technical assessment) Only candidates obtaining a minimum score of 70% at the desk review stage shall be invited to a competency-based interview. Step IV: Financial Evaluation: (30%) Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% on the total of Step II (Desk review 30 % + Interview 70%) shall be considered as technically qualified and will be reviewed further for financial evaluation. The following formula will be used to evaluate the financial proposal: Lowest priced proposal / Price of the proposal being evaluated x 30%. Award Criteria The contact shall be awarded to the 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%. The first ranked top candidate that achieved the highest cumulative score will be recommended for award of Framework Agreement, upon approval of Procurement Review Committee. Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments: The Financial Systems Consultant is to be compensated based on a daily fee payable upon satisfactory completion of each deliverable reflected in the call-off TOR and submission of related reports during every call-off. The daily fee shall remain fixed for the duration of the IC, including any extension that may be executed. Payments shall be made following certification by the UNCDF’s Tanzania Country Lead or other FIPA project management unit that the services related to each deliverable have been satisfactorily performed and the deliverables have been achieved by or before the due dates specified in the call-off. Contract management mechanism: UNCDF will regularly monitor the consultant’s performance against the following criteria: • meeting TOR requirements • timeliness of work completion and report submission • positive feedback of project counterparts Both individual consultants and individual employed by a company or institution are welcome to apply. 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 are strongly encouraged to apply. Framework Agreement: It is important to note that, at the time of the issuance of the IC that serves as the Framework Agreement, both parties understand that no financial obligation or commitment is formed on the part of UNCDF, and that such an agreement is non-exclusive (i.e., it does not prohibit UNCDF from entering into another such framework agreement with another individual or entity). Financial commitments will only be established each time the services are requested within the scope of the IC, through the agreed triggering action or document (e.g., PO with attached output-specific TORs) that signals the commencement of an engagement (“call-offs”). This IC is intended for on-call intermittent engagement for a maximum of 75 working days spread over a period of 12 months, which is the duration of the project implementation. During this period, specific service requests (also known as call-offs) shall be placed by UNCDF, in the form of issuance of Purchase Orders, supplemented by a specific Terms of Reference (TOR), and these documents will indicate the total cost of the services for the duration of the call-off, a brief description of the work, indicating the, and the number of days that will be required to complete the services, among other call-off-specific work. A total contract value, which shall be based on the unit price agreed by UNCDF and the individual, will be agreed by both parties that will sign the IC, and the said contract amount shall serve as the maximum cumulative value of the call-offs that UNCDF will place over the duration of the IC. |