Africa Regional Digital Payments Specialist

Position description

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are core principles at UNDP:  we value diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate, we foster inclusion as a way of ensuring all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, and we ensure equity and fairness in all our actions. Taking a ‘leave no one behind’ approach to our diversity efforts means increasing representation of underserved populations. People who identify as belonging to marginalized or excluded populations are strongly encouraged to apply. Learn more about working at UNDP including our values and inspiring stories.

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.

Office/Unit/Project Description

United Nations CapitalDevelopment Fund (UNCDF) is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s least developed countries (LDCs). It creates new opportunities for poor peopleand their communities by increasing access to inclusive finance and investment capital. Established by the General Assembly in 1966 and with headquarters in New York, UNCDF is an autonomous UN organization affiliated with UNDP.

With its secretariat hosted by UNCDF,the Better Than Cash Alliance(BTCA) is a partnership of 80 governments, companies, and international organizations that accelerates the transition from cash to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals by:

• Advocating for the transition from cash to digital payments in a way that advances financial inclusion and promotes responsible digital finance.
• Catalyzing the development of inclusive digital payments ecosystems in member countries to reduce costs, increasetransparency, advance financial inclusion– particularly for women– and drive inclusive growth; and
• Conducting research and sharingthe knowledge and experiences of our membersto inform strategies for making the transition.

Billions of dollars in cash payments and transfers are made daily in emerging and developing economies, includingpayment of salaries, social welfare, relief,payments to suppliers, remittances, etc. 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. This means they are excluded from access to a range of appropriate and affordable financialservices 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 people on low-income, 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 AllianceTeam’s Core Valuesare the following:

• Achieving together
• Striving for excellence
• Service-oriented
• Results oriented more information on BTCA, please visit the website: http://www.betterthancash.org/

The Better Than Cash Alliance is looking to hire an Africa Regional Digital Payment Specialist to work under the supervision of the Head of Agriculture & Anglophone Africa Region on the delivery of member services to African anglophone members.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Head of Agriculture & Anglophone Africa Region, the Specialist will collaborate on the implementation of the regionalstrategy initiatives in the Anglophone member countries which includes the following duties:

1. Regional AdvisoryServices, Africa

• Provide technical advise and supportin designing and delivering of advisory servicesto catalyze priority regional member efforts to responsibly digitize payments, ensuring that they are efficiently implemented, managed, monitored and evaluated, meeting or exceeding all targets. Services may include: technical advisory for specific member initiatives; carrying out digital payments ecosystem diagnostics; policy and strategies development; training workshops for key government officials or business executives with strategic responsibility for payments;
• Ensure partnership with the Regional Head in the design of the Alliance Secretariat priority country strategies incorporating input from the Private Sector and the Africa Advocacy Policy and Partnership Lead ensuring alignment to the overall Alliance African Regional Advocacy Strategy;
• Drive and support the implementation of priority countries strategies, ensuring all priority members: Ethiopia, Rwanda, Ghana, Malawi receive high-quality services in their priority areas and the UN Principles for Responsible Digital Paymentsare disseminated and embedded in member initiatives and policies;
• Draft, develop and deliverstrategy briefings, presentations and communication documents during internal and external meetings, including for Members Services Committee, Editorial and Publication Committee, Executive Committee and Team Meetings when needed;
• Drive successful project management in full compliance of all UNCDF/UNDP rules and regulations in close partnership with the operations and procurement teams to ensure delivery of project milestones;
• Provide advisory support in monitoring of key performance indicators of the overall Anglophone Africa initiatives and strategy, including keeping the Alliance team abreast of their status, achievements, challenges, opportunities and learnings.

2. In-Country Researchand Knowledge Management

• Conduct in-depth research on topics related to digital payments, digital financial services, financial inclusion, digital public infrastructure with a focus on specific markets to inform the regional strategy and the drafting of concept notes for in-country initiatives and engagements of new members;
• Contribute to the development of knowledge products (Alliance’s research and advocacy documents and publications) that support the capacity enhancement of members in the Anglophone Africa region and the wider digital payments sector including for companies and business payment streams;
• Guide  the  whole  Africa  team,  and  the  Communications  team  to  ensure lessonsand achievements from digitization initiatives are regularly distilledand documented from all in-country initiatives and initiatives done by partners;
• Keep abreast of members’ information needs to identify future knowledge and research products that will fill in a gap and provide useful information for members in the region.

3. Global, Regionaland In-country Advocacy:G20 and RegionalOrganizations:

1. In view of the upcoming G20 presidency of the Republic of South Africa, develop and deepen relevant relationships with the Government of RSA, in particular, the Reserve Bank and the Ministry of Finance;
2. Co-lead globalmissions to South Africa and develop an engagement strategyfor RSA;
3. In partnership with the Asia and Latin American Leads, develop a G20 strategy in support of the RSA Presidency under the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusionand the Anti-corruption Working Group tha builds on the work of the Better Than Cash Alliance with the Brazlian and India presidencies;
4. In partnership with the Head of Agricultue and Anglophone Africa and the Africa Policy, Partnerships and Advocacy Lead, grow relationship with Alliance’s members and partners in Africa. Support engagement, development and execution of regional and in-country advocacy initiatives aiming at driving responsible digitization of payments in Africa and the national and regional level;
5. Work with the countrymembers and partnersof the Alliance to developcommitments, key messages and sharing of learnings opportunities to scale responsible digitization of payments in Africa;
6. Undertake speaking engagements for the Better Than Cash Alliance at the requestof the supervisor. .

4. Communications

• Work closelywith the Communication Lead for Africaand the Head of Agriculture and Anglophone Africa Region, regional and countryteams, including communications colleagues, to identifyand seize advocacy and communication opportunities for the Alliance, including conferences, UN, regional and national events;
• Collaborate in organization of events, webinars, conferences and specialized workshops and other knowledge sharing events as directed by the Head of Agriculture and Anglphopne Africa region;
• Draft comment pieces, share news and stories from Alliance members on social media and other communications channels, as appropriate.

Institutional Arrangement

The successful candidate will be home-based and work under the supervision of the Head of Agriculture & Anglophone Africa Regionof the Better Than Cash Alliance. The expected candidate should have the ability to travel frequently to different Alliance members as directed by the supervisor.

Application instructions

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