Digital Payments Cocoa Value Chain Consultant
Location : Abidjan, COTE d'IVOIRE
Application Deadline : 12-Apr-21
(Midnight New York, USA)
Type of Contract : Individual Contract
Post Level : International Consultant
Languages Required : English French
Duration of Initial Contract : 12 months
UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
Background
ABOUT UNCDF
The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world's 47 least developed countries. With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers "last mile" finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development.
About the Better Than Cash Alliance
Hosted by UNCDF, the Better Than Cash Alliance's mission is to catalyze a global movement from cash to digital payments to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.Specific benefits include efficiency, transparency, women's economic participation and financial inclusion, helping build economies that are digital and inclusive.
The Alliance has 75 members, including national governments from Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, companies and international organizations which have committed to digitizing payments.
The Secretariat works with the Alliance members on their journey to digitize payments by:
Billions of dollars in cash payments and transfers are made daily in emerging and developing economies, including payment of salaries, social welfare and relief, payments to suppliers, remittances. The problems with these cash payments include a lack of transparency, accountability and security, as well as inefficiency. Individuals who receive cash payments are often part of the 1.7 billion excluded from the formal financial sector, the majority of whom are women. This means they are excluded from access to a range of appropriate and affordable financial services to help them save safely take advantage of economic opportunities and reduce their vulnerability to risk.
Shifting these payments from cash to digital has the potential to improve the lives of low-income people, particularly women, while giving governments, the development community and the private sector a more transparent, time and cost efficient, and often-safer means of disbursing payments.
The Better Than Cash Alliance Team's Core Values are the following:
From a private sector perspective, payments completed in the value chain of businesses represent some of the most significant payment flows of national economies. As highlighted in the Alliance's report on " The Future of Supply Chains: Why Companies are Digitizing Payments,"companies in different business sectors have benefited from the transition to digital payments in their supply chains and have thus played an important role in building an inclusive digital payments ecosystem. As part of catalyzing the global movement from cash to digital with the private sector, the Better Than Cash Alliance is committed to supporting digitization of companies' payment flows in different business sectors across the corporate payment grid: Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-People (B2P), and People-to-Business (P2B).
BTCA is looking to hire a
Digital Payments consultant with expertise in the cocoa value chain based Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. For more information on BTCA, please visit the website: http://www.betterthancash.org/
Cocoa is a valuable crop that is essential to the livelihoods of 40-50 million people in the developed and developing world. Furthermore, 80% to 90% of cocoa comes from small, family-run farms and the vast majority comes from West and Central Africa. Cocoa farmers conduct their economic activities in cash, including their production and sale of cocoa. Recent research ( The Hidden Costs of Cash to Ghana's Cocoa Sector) developed between the Better Than Cash Alliance and the World Cocoa Foundation, estimates for example that cash is the primary payment method used to purchase cocoa, with over 90% of farmer-level transactions (more than GHS 7 billion, or USD 1.26 billion) conducted using cash every year. In most cases, farmers are not using formal savings accounts and micro-credit to manage seasonal cash flow or finance farm input such as the purchase of fertilizer. Lack of access to formal financial services and lack of credit history emanating from cash-based transactions are serious obstacles to improving farmer livelihoods. In addition, farmers encounter unpredictable delays between cocoa delivery and payment. Financial costs for cocoa companies include the cost of cash management and transport (including security and banking fees) and potential fraud and loss of cash as it flows through the cocoa supply chain.
Recognizing how digital payments can be a game-changer for farmers, the World Cocoa Foundation and the Better Than Cash Alliance are working in partnership to support the growth of digital payments in the cocoa value chain to promote inclusive growth, boost productivity and improve the livelihoods of smallholder cocoa farmers, especially women. WCF is a member of the Better Than Cash Alliance.
The work is also rooted in WCF's vision of a thriving and sustainable cocoa sector, where farmers prosper, communities are empowered, and the planet is healthy. Digital payments advance WCF's goal of prosperous farmers through helping farmers become more professional by eliminating the risks of relying on cash and providing greater access to financial services, while helping farmer organizations operate more effectively and efficiently.
Duties and Responsibilities
As part of the greater goal of promoting engagement and implementation efforts of large cocoa buyers and their agribusiness intermediaries, this project is looking to explore the digital payments landscape in Côte d'Ivoire's cocoa sector, the world's largest producer of cocoa in the worlds. This position will be under the supervision and direction of the Better Than Cash Alliance Regional Lead, Better Than Cash Alliance Head of Private Sector Digital Payment Innovation and World Cocoa Foundation project lead in Ivory Coast. The study in Côte d'Ivoire should focus on the following activities:
Develop a Landscape Document
a) Map and evaluate past and current payment digitization initiatives completed by large cocoa buyers, financial service providers (FSPs), Le Conseil du Café-Cacao and other government and
non-government bodies:
b) Provide a comprehensive review of policy and regulatory related issues that have an impact on payment digitization efforts in Côte d'ivoire.
c) Complete a comprehensive mapping of payments providers and other digitally-enabled financial service providers who have the capability and track record of being active in the cocoa space, whether in digitized payments or other digital service delivery. Ensure include all digitally-enabled financial services that can offer value added to cocoa farmers in rural areas, e.g. access to credit for input, saving scheme, insurance, pension systems, access to energy or education, etc.
d) Using publicly available information as well as stakeholder interviews, develop a comparison of the cost of cash vs. digital payments. This includes broad strokes information about average cash losses per year.
Propose
3-4 recommendations and interventions, including pre-competitive collaborative actions if relevant, to scale up digital financial services for cocoa farmers and agribusiness companies in côte d'ivoire
Based on insights from the landscaping, the consultant should recommend at least 3 and a maximum of 4 interventions to drive digital payments in the cocoa value chain in Côte d'Ivoire. These should include details of the intended outcome, the actors in the activity/initiative, any insight into cost in terms of time and funds, and potential participants.
Develop content for a DFS workshop to be held in Côte d'Ivoire for WCF member companies across the Supply Chain
Expected Outputs and Deliverables
Deliverable 1: Comprehensive workplan defined, including secondary research index, list of stakeholders to interview. The workplan will be uploaded in Better Than Cash Alliance project management platform, access will be provided following the consultant recruitment.
Deliverable 2 : Comprehensive landscaping report (Microsoft Word, max 30 pages and PPT summary - template will be provided by the Better Than Cash Alliance team)
Deliverable 3: High level outline of 3-4 potential DFS interventions in Côte d'Ivoire (PPT, max 20 slides)
Deliverable 4 :
Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments
Payments will be made based on the percentage of contract price corresponding to the deliverables stated below, and upon confirmation of UNCDF that the individual has delivered on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.
Target Completion
Deliverables
Payment terms in % of total contract price
Month 1
1. Workplan approved
10%
Month 4
2. Landscaping report developed and approved by Better Than Cash Alliancein consultation with World Cocoa Foundation team
30%
Month 6
3. High level outline of 3-4 potential DFS interventions developed and approved by Better Than Cash Alliance in consultation with the World Cocoa Foundation team.
40%
Month 8
4. Event organization support provided :
20%
TOTAL
100%
Any delay in the completion of the outputs, if not attributed to the performance of the consultant, shall be addressed through a no-cost time extension.
Institutional Arrangement
The consultant will work under the supervision of the Better Than Cash Alliance's Middle East & West Africa Lead, working closely with other key colleagues across the globe, with supervision support from the Head of Private Sector Digital Payment Innovations.
Duration of the Work
This is an assignment that will have an initial duration of
maximum ten (10) months. Any extension of another
ten (10) months is possible depending on performance, continued need for the services and availability of funds. The performance control/monitoring mechanism will be applied from the start date.
Any delay in the completion of the outputs, if not attributed to the performance of the consultant, shall be addressed through a no-cost time extension.
Duty Station
Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire;
Competencies
Core Competencies:
Functional Competencies:
Professional
Technical:
Required Skills and Experience
Education
Experience:
Languages:
French and English, both oral and written, is required;
Recommended Presentation of Offer
The following documents are requested:
Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability;
Important: The system will not allow you to submit your financial proposal separately from the other documents, therefore, all proposers are requested to submit their financial proposals upon the request of UNCDF. Upon the completion of technical evaluation, UNCDF will reach the successful candidates requesting them to submit their financial offers
Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer
Consultants will be evaluated based on UNDP's cumulative analysis method. When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract shall be made to the consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
The evaluation process will be conducted through two stages:
Stage I: Technical Evaluation (70%): it will be conducted in two steps: Technical proposal = Review of a profile through desk review (30%) + Technical Interview (40%).
Step1: Profile Review (30%)
Technical evaluation panel composed by the WFC and UNCDF Better Than Cash Alliance will conduct profile review for the applications using the criteria below, only successful candidate with minimum 70 points will be qualified for the next step, the profile review will be focusing on the following key criteria:
Step 3: Technical Interview (40%): Candidates who obtained 70 points at the desk review will be invited to the technical interview. Technical interviews will explore the same key work areas, in greater depth, with the same weighting.
Stage 2: Financial Evaluation (30%): the following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal: Lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated x 30.
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% on the technical proposal will be considered as technically qualified and will be reviewed further for the financial evaluation.
Notes:
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This vacancy is archived.