Consultant Digital Financial Services Scoping Assignment - Remote

Background:

Mercy Corps strives towards the provision of full financial inclusion for chronically underserved individuals and businesses through market-driven approaches in countries affected by conflict, natural disasters, and economic and political crises. Mercy Corps improves access to, uptake, and continued usage, of a broad variety of financial instruments through a variety of delivery channels. Mercy Corps works with market stakeholders at all levels to ensure financial products and services are accessible; affordable; and age, gender- and context-appropriate, and are delivered in a sustainable, scalable manner.

Mercy Corps takes a wide-range of approaches in complex and fragile contexts to achieve our vision of increased access to and usage of financial services for diverse groups, individuals and businesses. With an estimated 2.5 billion people in the world still lacking access to formal financial services, Mercy Corps sees the role that technology can play as a key contributor to increasing access to reliable, low-cost financial services, including payments, insurance, credit and savings, at scale.

Digital technology that includes mobile phones can offer effective delivery mechanisms for market information, financial literacy training and skill development opportunities. Digital platforms are also accessible entry points for other financial services, allowing people to access money while also establishing a place where they can safely save money, access capital and insurance products, even across borders. Mercy Corps is looking to deepen our work with technology providers, financial institutions, mobile network operators (MNOs), remittance channels, mobile card technologies, and other key market actors to ensure we are reaching some of the more marginalized populations.

Purpose of consultancy:

The aim of this assignment is identify key opportunities around Digital Financial Services (DFS) that will further expand upon, and deepen our global portfolio of work, as well as identify relevant industry trends that will aid Mercy Corps' programs to better serve vulnerable and remote populations. To this end, we are seeking in-depth reviews of DFS opportunities in two Mercy Corps countries.

Mali: Mercy Corps Mali's LEAP program piloted delivery of financial and non-financial services through mobile platforms to vulnerable agro-pastoralists. Partnering with a leading teleco and MFI, the pilot developed products and services all delivered digitally: a commitment savings account, insurance product, digital wallet for savings groups and financial education through voice messaging. Building off this program, we seek to identify how to scale successful components of this pilot and explore digital remittances channels in both urban and rural areas.

Myanmar: With the softening of regulation and a strong push by the country's mobile network operators, Myanmar has jumped from practically no phones to almost exclusively smartphones. Today, more than 75 percent of the population has phones, of which 80 percent are smartphones – a penetration level that is far higher than other economies in the region. With this opportunity in mind, identify constraints around current regulation and how and where DFS could support unique market segment needs, and the role of DFS in regards to energy finance and remittances with the burgeoning internally displaced and cross border populations.

Underpinning these areas, we seek to enhance our understanding of, and opportunities for deepened impact amongst certain segments, including:

• SMEs
• Rural populations (with a particular focus on agro-pastoralists)
• Youth
• Women

Consultant Deliverables:

The Consultant will develop the following deliverables:

• Initial global trend report– Initial research report highlighting key initial findings and global trends in pre-identified DFS areas

• Validation presentation in country - Presentation to the country team, remote HQ team and other key stakeholders on initial findings and possible recommendations

• Final report – outlining at a high level global trends and opportunities for Mercy Corps programming as it relates to DFS, possible donors to track and recommendations for future DFS opportunities. This report will also make recommendations on Myanmar and Mali and further elucidate models that these countries can scale and could be replicated or adapted into future countries of priority for Mercy Corps.

Timeframe / Schedule:

A final timeline will be developed in consultation with Mercy Corps at the beginning of the consultancy to establish deadlines for submission of the deliverables, however below outlines an anticipated timeline:

• Consultancy starts - Late March
• Submit work plan - 1 week after signing contract
• Initial landscape report - Late April
• Draft final report - Late May
• Presentation and discussion of results and recommendations - June 10, 2018
• Submission of final report - June 20, 2018

Consultant Background:

The consultant will require a foundational understanding of global market trends around DFS with some regionalized experience and demonstrated ability to analyze unique market opportunities for differing population needs. Additional skill and education requirements for consideration are:

• Master's degree or equivalent combination of education and experience
• 5-10 years of experience working with projects related to digital financial services and experience with ensuring a range of DFS interventions are meeting unique market segment needs (ie: youth, rural etc)
• Strong existing contacts that can be leveraged to start assignment quickly
• Proven ability to work with new teams and individuals
• Strong organizational skills
• Significant West Africa or South East Asia regional knowledge and/or in-country experience preferred
• Excellent writing and analytical skills
• English language and French language

To apply:

The consultancy is open until 11:59pm, 19 March, 2018.

If shortlisted, please be prepared to submit additional information that will include:

• Writing sample on similar technical area

• Short description of your approach to the proposed assignment that includes team members or additional resources that will be used during this assignment

• Budget (in USD), including including daily rates and number of days and an estimate of additional expenses.

PI101423059

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