Knowledge Management Analyst

Since 2016, UNCDF's programmatic agenda in Bangladesh, has responded to the persisting exclusion of low-income people, especially women, that can limit the potential of individuals and businesses to contribute to and benefit from economic growth. While it started focusing on increasing access and usage of financial services; it has recently evolved to a more comprehensive strategy anchored in the need of building an inclusive digital economy to enable low-income people, especially women, accessing economic opportunities and reduce poverty. UNCDF’s new Inclusive Digital Economy Strategy (2021-2025) leverages the work we have done in the country since 2016 and expands the use of digital solutions to further tackle the main development challenges of the country through the following workstreams.

Policy Workstream: 

In joint implementation with UNDP, UN Women, and ILO, UNCDF is developing the Integrated National Financing Framework in Bangladesh supported by Joint SDG Fund, with UNCDF’s activity focus on SDG 7 and Digital Finance Ecosystem. UNCDF’s Inclusive Digital Economy Scorecard (IDES) and Digital Finance Ecosystem (DFS) Assessment are also conducted towards this project achievements.  In addition, UNCDF is looking at working with public sector stakeholders, associations, and policy makers towards institutionalizing digital financial literacy and seek opportunities to create policy environment needed for female garment workers and other vulnerable groups to achieve financial independence.

Digital Payments Infrastructure Workstream: 

UNCDF is now currently exploring ways to support the country to strengthen and catalyze government led interoperability implementation in Bangladesh. working with public and private sector stakeholders and associations to support in developing joint solutions/infrastructure to improve social protection or welfare delivery systems for female garment workers and other vulnerable groups.

Innovation Workstream: 

Through our work on innovation, we are focusing on women owned MSMEs, resilience from the COVID-19 pandemic, remittances, and migrants and agritech solutions.  Also, we are supporting the growth of innovative digital finance solutions addressing health, well-being, security, safety, finance, and digital, financial, and legal literacy needs for female garment workers (e.g., health insurance, microcredit, digital wallets). We will also work towards supporting digital innovations focused on provide linkages to affordable primary healthcare and quality nutrition.

Skills Workstream:

The majority of the projects under the innovation workstream have either a digital or a financial capabilities component. In addition to that, in partnership with VISA Inc. UNCDF is building digital and financial capabilities of small and micro businesses in partnership with e-commerce platforms. Also, UNCDF works with providers to deliver gender-sensitive Digital Financial Literacy (DFL) training at scale to female garment workers and other vulnerable groups and support them to leverage these trainings to increase financial independence.

Additionally, UNCDF through its global Migrant Money programme has engaged partners in the public and private sectors at the global level (multilateral, standards-setting bodies, and global money transfer operators), regional level (regional economic communities and monetary unions) and country level (line ministries, regulators and financial institutions) to address constraints at the ecosystem, institution, and product levels. This aims to transform the policy, regulatory and innovation landscapes and thus start meeting the needs of migrants and their families by overcoming all the above obstacles. The programme has been active in Bangladesh from the inception, and has actively worked with policy makers, regulators, and the migrant ecosystem at large to strengthen the access and usage of digital financial services and products for remittance in Bangladesh. The programme is currently working on financial resilience with Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEWOE).  To build onto this, the Bangladesh country office is also in the preliminary stages of implementing a project focusing on migrants and their families, focusing on digital financial literacy, skill referrals, entrepreneurship development, financial innovation and policy/advocacy aspects

UNCDF has also been working in the digitization of the Readymade Garment (RMG) sector in Bangladesh, with a special focus on women garment workers. Despite the positive trends, gender gaps persist, in many areas including access to documentation and mobile phones, affordable internet, and in digital solutions beyond just wages. Uptake of digital solutions in general, and digital payments in particular, are limited by the cost of usage, lack of digital literacy, insufficient financial capability, inadequate digital payments acceptance infrastructure and lack of enabling use cases. 

This position would also be responsible for supporting the projects in the country, with special focus on supporting the knowledge management and communications efforts.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of Regional Manager for IDE Asia, and in close collaboration with the Digital Expert & Country Lead for Bangladesh, the incumbent will perform below mentioned duties and responsibilities.

Objective 1: Assist in the development of an investment pipeline and ensure projects & investments in Bangladesh are producing the desired results in the project timelines.

• Support the IDE Country Lead to provide technical assistance to private sector partners and ensure achievement of results of IDE portfolio (Regional challenge fund grants, Agritech grants and MSME project grants) 
• Conduct analysis and research of the political, social and economic situation in the country and preparation of substantive inputs to the country strategy.
• Support to develop regular contact (e.g. monthly) with partners, monitoring overall progress and satisfaction with UNCDF support
• Participate in weekly project progress meetings for projects with partners.
• Support the implementation of all the initiatives in the country to ensure the results are achieved as per expectations.
• Support in effective reporting to donors as well as national stakeholders to ensure they are kept abreast of the activities implemented by UNCDF in the country.
• Assist the IDE Digital Country Lead to review and respond to quarterly reports, ensuring partners are reporting accurately, monitor progress and reporting under agreements and contracts, verify milestones and targets for disbursements
• Support IDE Digital Country Lead in the implementation of country assessments like IDES as well as other studies or researches 
• Organize workshops, meetings and visits as per needs of ongoing projects as per plan.

Objective 2: Support in Resource Mobilisation 

• In consultation with the IDE Digital Country Lead, update on an annual basis the donor map.
• Prepare donor briefs for the use of the IDE Digital Country Lead 
• Maintain updated the corporate UNCDF presentation of activities in Bangladesh.
• Ensure financial and narrative reports are issued on time as per Cost Sharing Agreement requirements with donors.
• Update and manage UNCDF Bangladesh stakeholder list.

Objective 3:  Support UNCDF Bangladesh IDE in increasing the visibility of UNCDF work

• In the framework of IDE, contribute to planning informational campaigns, exhibitions, conferences, social events, and projects to promote a better understanding of UNCDF activities and accomplishments by the general public and/or targeted audiences.
• Establish close working relationships with national level TV, radio, and news agencies to promote and disseminate UNCDF’s mandate, goals, activities, and principles in Bangladesh.
• Suggest stories and topics about the IDE Bangladesh activities for the media.
• Brief and coordinate the work of photographers, designers and videographers for the IDE Bangladesh teams as necessary.
• Organize and participate in press trips, briefing of journalists as well as press conferences of partners.
• Develop new strategies to increase visibility of UNCDF IDE towards partners in Bangladesh.
• Support efforts to establish and maintain an open communication with partners to implement commitments.
• Monitor readership and identify ways that the readership of UNCDF IDE Bangladesh comms material can be increased.
• Draft and edit a wide range of materials, including media products, blog posts, web content, brochures and presentations keeping in mind cultural sensitivities of South Asia 
• Liaise with the Partnerships and Communications teams in Asia Regional Office & HQ and in Brussels for necessary approvals and support for publishing comms materials both online and offline.
• Support the regional and country teams with the planning, development and production of knowledge management and communication assets.

Objective 4 Support UNCDF Bangladesh IDE in advancing cross-learnings among countries and regions.

• Support the IDE Bangladesh team with the development and implementation of a learning agenda and a knowledge sharing strategy to make sure that lessons learned from one initiative contribute to the implementation of the others.
• Support in collection of results at country levels and ensure their dissemination to other countries and regions for learning purposes as well as to advance IDE strategy in the country.
• Identify new and/or innovative communications methods to further publicize the regional activities, achievements and lessons learned.
•  Plan and ensure webinars, online workshops and knowledge sharing sessions are happening with partners on a regular basis and that project results are showcased. 

Objective 5: Operations and project management support

• Assist in preparing grants and performance-based agreements, track progress and take lead in quality assurance for approved partners and for donors.
• Assist in developing all required systems, tools, reports and indicators, required for efficient, effective reporting of ongoing projects in Nepal including periodic reports/projections to UNCDF HQ, UNCDF Regional team, Nepal Rastra Bank, MoF and any relevant stakeholder/Ministries.
• Assist in on-boarding, managing and guiding project interns to ensure high quality deliverables 

The position will be expected to engage with UNCDF Bangladesh Team, UNCDF Regional Team, UNDP Bangladesh team, Donors and our key external stakeholders in Bangladesh as needed, to ensure smooth delivery of our projects. He/she will also engage with the UNCDF Regional Communications Specialist. 

The country weekly meeting with team member will be arranged on weekly basis, the incumbent is required to provide work arrangement and update of projects’ activity to the team. 

The Regional call will be conducted on monthly basis, the incumbent has to be involved on updating and presenting the projects’ progress on each month as well as providing the plan for the following month and potential risks to regional team.

The incumbent will be expected to join weekly progress and planning ahead calls with the Digital Economies Expert, Bangladesh.

The incumbent will also participate in working groups and steering committee meetings as requested. 

Competencies

Core competencies:

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements 
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible 
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination

 Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:

Business Development

• Knowledge Generation: Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for content, or responsive to a stated need.

Business Management

• Partnerships Management: Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts, and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies.
• Digital Awareness and Literacy: Ability and inclination to rapidly adopt new technologies, either through skillfully grasping their usage or through understanding their impact and empowering others to use them as needed. 
• Operations Management: Ability to effectively plan, organize, and oversee the organization business process in order to convert its assets into the best results in the most efficient manner. Knowledge of relevant concepts and mechanism 

Communications

• Digital strategy: Ability to plan the use of resources through digital channels to reach and engage target audiences effectively and to achieve particular objectives

External Relations and Advocacy General (across the functions)

• Event planning and execution: Ability to plan, manage and execute of public and private events to ensure that they support and amplify individual communications and advocacy initiatives, as well as UNCDF's overall brand and mandate.
   

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master’s Degree or equivalent) in Business Administration, Finance, Public Administration, Economics, Development Studies, Political Sciences, Social Sciences or related field is required. 
• A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s Degree) in the areas mentioned above in combination with additional 2 years of experience will be given due consideration in lieu of Master´s degree.

Experience:

• Up to 2 years (with Master´s degree) or minimum 2 years (with Bachelor’s degree) of professional work experience at the national or international level in the development finance domain, especially related to digital financial services, including providing programmes support, hands-on experience in design, and monitoring and evaluation of development projects is required.
• Minimum 2 years of relevant experience in matters related to financial inclusion and digital financial services, particularly of the most vulnerable groups such as women garment workers or migrant families will be valued favorable.
• Minimum 2 years of working experience in a development project team will be valued favorable.
• Excellent oral and written skills; excellent drafting, formulation, reporting skills.
• Experience working in international development organizations is an advantage
• Accuracy and professionalism in document production and editing is an advantage.
• Excellent interpersonal skills; culturally and socially sensitive; ability to work inclusively and collaboratively with a range of partners, including grassroots community members, religious and youth organizations, and authorities at different levels; familiarity with tools and approaches of communications for development.
• Ability to work and adapt professionally and effectively in a challenging environment; ability to work effectively in a multicultural team of international and national personnel.
• Solid overall computer literacy, including proficiency in various MS Office applications (Excel, Word, etc.) and email/internet; familiarity with database management; and office technology equipment.
• Self-motivated, ability to work with minimum supervision; ability to work with tight deadlines.

Required Languages: 

• Fluency in English and Bangla (local language) is required.