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, 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 works to enlarge peoples’ choices: it believes that poor people and communities should take decisions about their own development. Its programmes help to empower women – over 50% of the clients of UNCDF-supported microfinance institutions are women – and its expertise in microfinance and local development is shaping new responses to food insecurity, climate change and other challenges. All UNCDF support is provided via national systems, in accordance with the Paris principles. UNCDF works in challenging environments – remote rural areas, countries emerging from conflict – and paves the way for others to follow. Its programmes are designed to catalyze larger investment flows from the private sector, development partners and national governments, for significant impact on the Millennium Development Goals, especially Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, and Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability.
Established by the General Assembly in 1966 and with headquarters in New York, UNCDF is an autonomous UN organization affiliated with UNDP. Despite the rapid growth of the microfinance industry in the past ten years, it is estimated that between two and three billion people still lack access to a broad range of financial products and services on a sustainable basis. The situation is particularly dire in the LDCs, where often more than 90 per cent of the population is denied access to financial services from the formal financial system. UNCDF focuses its strategy on Financial inclusion, which is universal access, at a reasonable cost, to a wide range of financial services, provided by a variety of sound and sustainable institutions. The range of financial services includes savings, short and long-term credit, leasing and factoring, mortgages, insurance, pensions, payments, local money transfers and international remittances.
UNCDF launched YouthStart with the support of The MasterCard Foundation in 2010 in response, not only to the approaching youth demographic wave, but also to the lack of opportunities for young people around the world. In an effort to help youth realize its full potential, YouthStart supports strong financial service providers (FSPs) in developing, piloting and rolling out youth-focused financial products, especially savings, and non-financial services (NFS) such as financial literacy or reproductive health education. Through YouthStart, UNCDF aims to demonstrate that (a) when accessing the right combination of financial and non-financial services, youth -young women and girls in particular- are better equipped to make more informed financial decisions, build financial (e.g. savings), social (e.g. social networks) and human assets (e.g. skills and knowledge) for their futures and create sustainable livelihoods; and (b) youth financial services (YFS) contribute to increasing outreach and sustainability of FSPs over time. YouthStart aims to reach 200,000 new youth clients, with at least 50 percent of those being young women and girls, by the end of 2014.
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The key result expected is the successful implementation and attainment of targets of the YouthStart programme, including coordination with/reporting to all stakeholders, FIPA internal team and the funders of the programme.
The Technical Specialist will support the Programme Manager to pursue the following key results of the programme:
- Expand low income youth access to financial and non financial services by supporting financial service providers (FSPs) and their partner Youth Serving Organizations (YSOs) to conduct youth inclusive market research, develop and deliver comprehensive services to youth;
- Build institutional capacity of FSPs, YSOs, policy makers, donors and other stakeholders (including UNCDF’s internal capacity) to provide comprehensive youth services; and,
- Expand access to and mobilize knowledge related to youth financial services, by acting as a convener and facilitator among stakeholders (e.g., governments, national and regional microfinance associations, banking industry experts, regulators).
Key Functions:
Programmatic Quality Assurance & Portfolio Management (40%)
- Provide input to the annual plans and budgets;
- Work together with Regional Technical Advisors/Managers to ensure FSPs’/TSPs’ smooth introduction to key local actors, start-up and constraints removed;
- Conduct the monitoring visits of the FSPs in the portfolio of YouthStart to ensure high quality implementation of programmes;
- Recommend actions to be taken if FSP/TSP targets not achieved including suspension/termination/extension of PBAs and/or loan agreements, as necessary;
- Develop monitoring tools to ensure consistency in monitoring;
- Review quarterly and annual performance reports, analyze performance and work with FIPA network of country and/or regional advisors to ensure timely intervention to keep investments on track;
- Effective and efficient use of ATLAS in line with project cycle with Atlas approval authority at Level 2 and in compliance with UNCDF Internal Control Framework;
- Ensure vendor profiles are entered into ATLAS for selected FSPs/TSPs and payments effected in timely manner.
Knowledge Management (40%):
- Update YouthStart Team Works page and make sure the platform is easy to use and has the key information for FSPs participating in YouthStart;
- Organize and facilitate 2 quarterly webinars with YouthStart grantees (one in English and one in French) to foster lateral learning;
- Manage the team of technical writers, translators, copy editors and graphic designers needed to produced at least 3 knowledge products per year;
- Manage process of convening national and regional stakeholders to share lessons learned;
- Contribute to knowledge-sharing networks on microfinance and inclusive finance initiatives regionally and globally either by direct participation or via Teamworks by flagging important discussions to FIPA’s global practice community;
- Collaborate with key partners and microfinance practitioners for research and development of innovative, cutting-edge strategies and approaches to sharpen delivery of youth financial and non financial services to better achieve programme objectives;
- Participate and contribute to UNDP sub-practice in microfinance and small/medium enterprises for knowledge management and cross-country learning;
- Upload key documentation to the UNCDF Intranet to facilitate UNCDF staff access to programme information;
- Develop and provide annual Learning Plan to FIPA KM Specialist and attend approved trainings; share debriefing and value of training with the wider Practice community through Teamworks;
- Become familiar with UNCDF KM Strategy and other relevant resources (KM Strategy, HR Strategy, Learning Strategy, and UNCDF Document Management Policy);
Capacity Building and Technical Assistance (15%):
- Work with FSPs and technical assistance consultants to identify technical assistance needs of FSPs;
- Provide technical assistance to FSPs/TSPs as needed;
- Manage and organize the YouthStart annual training;
- Provide input to the annual training trainers guides convert them into final knowledge products;
- Compile technical assistance tools produced by consultants supporting the programme and design a tool kit for FSPs interested in providing financial services for young people.
Corporate Support and Resource Mobilization (5%):
- Develop strategies to mobilize additional resources based on programme resource requirements and new opportunities;
- Support the efforts of the FIPA Director and Deputy Director, UNCDF Partnerships and Communications Unit, and Heads of Regional Offices to mobilize additional resources for the programme. Liaise with Regional Advisors/Managers to ensure that funding gaps are identified;
- Provide input to support annual and cumulative UNCDF results analyses and substantive inputs into Unit work plan and UNCDF and FIPA Business Plans;
- Support to the development of UNCDF programme and business strategies and to annual reviews;
- Provide advice to UNCDF senior management on technical issues and business development opportunities; including inputs into corporate presentations and reports; share perspectives through Teamworks to increase outreach and foster innovation.
Impact of Results:
- Low-income youth receive financial services, particularly savings, that are responsive to their needs and protective of their rights;
- In tandem with the financial service provided, low-income youth receive non-financial service, particularly financial education and reproductive health;
- Substantive partnerships strengthened with leading Financial Service Providers and Technical Service Providers to expand youth services (financial and non-financial) globally;
- UNCDF FIPA Regional and Country Technical Advisors/Managers supported to facilitate programme implementation and more youth inclusive financial sectors;
- Planned programme outputs and outcomes are fully achieved in a timely manner, consistent with the expectations of private sector actors, and optimal output quality assured, through sound and efficient internal business, quality assurance, monitoring and evaluation and reporting processes;
- Profile of UNCDF and its development partners as leaders in youth financial inclusion strengthened.
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Functional Competencies:
Advocacy/Advancing a Policy-Oriented Agenda:
Analysis and creation of messages and strategies
- Contributes to the elaboration of advocacy strategies by identifying and prioritizing audiences and communication means;
- Performs analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses.
Building Strategic Partnerships:
Identifying and building partnerships
- Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build strategic alliances relevant to UNDP’s mandate and strategic agenda;
- Sensitizes UN Partners, donors and other international organizations to the UNCDF’s strategic agenda, identifying areas for joint efforts;
- Develops positive ties with civil society to build/strengthen UNCDF’s mandate;
- Identifies needs and interventions for capacity building of counterparts, clients and potential partners;
- Displays initiative, sets challenging outputs for him/herself and willingly accepts new work assignments.
Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing:
Developing tools and mechanisms
- Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches
- Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms;
- Develops and/or participates in the development of tools and mechanisms, including identifying new approaches to promote individual and organizational learning and knowledge sharing using formal and informal methodologies.
Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise:
In-depth knowledge of the subject-matter
- Understands more advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines;
- Serves as internal consultant in the area of expertise and shares knowledge with staff;
- Continues to seeks new and improved methods and systems for accomplishing the work of the unit;
- Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally;
- Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
- Demonstrates comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments.
Creating Visibility for UNCDF/Supporting UNCDF’s Capacity to Advocate:
Developing promotional projects and organizational messages
- Identifies and develops activities to enhance the visibility of UNCDF;
- Develops promotional activities based on monitoring/evaluation information identifying areas requiring higher visibility;
- Reviews documents and materials intended for use within and outside the organization in order to ensure consistency and validity of messages;
- Creates and cultivates networks of partners to promote UNCDF’s image;
- Conducts assessments of activities to improve impact and effectiveness.
Global Leadership and Advocacy for UNCDF’s Goals:
Analysis and creation of messages and strategies
- Performs analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses;
- Uses the opportunity to bring forward and disseminate materials for global advocacy work and adapts it for use at country level.
Conceptual Innovation in the Provision of Technical Expertise:
Developing innovative and creative approaches
- Leverages different experiences and expertise of team members to achieve better and more innovative outcomes;
- Leverages multi disciplinary, institutional knowledge and experience of other countries and regions to promote UNCDF’s development agenda;
- Participates in dialogue about conceptual innovation at the country and regional levels.
Client Orientation:
Contributing to positive outcomes for the client
- Anticipates client needs;
- Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider;
- Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective.
Core Competencies:
- Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents;
- Building support and political acumen;
- Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
- Building and promoting effective teams;
- Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
- Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
- Leveraging conflict in the interests of UNCDF & setting standards;
- Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
- Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing are the responsibility of each staff member;
- Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking.
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