District Project Associate (NPSA-6), UNCDF [5 Positions, Duty Location: Chattogram, Tangail, Narsingdi, Munshigonj and Comilla]

UNCDF and IDE in Bangladesh

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. This will include 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 the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Oversees Employment (MoEWOE). To build onto this, the Bangladesh country office is also in the preliminary stages of implementing a project named Shafal – Remittance Management for Socio-economic Stability of Migrant Families in Bangladesh – a joint initiative between UNCDF and the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh. This project aims to improve services for the efficient management of migrants’ remittances and strengthen the resilience of migrant families in Bangladesh. This four- year project will focus on five migration-prone districts, primarily in the Chattogram and Dhaka divisions wherein we aim to empower low-income migrant families by enabling productive investments, providing entrepreneurial capacity, and enhancing remittance management systems. 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 M&E, data gathering and learning of all our ongoing projects in Bangladesh, with special focus on migrant and migrant families, as well as RMG project portfolio in Bangladesh.
 

Under the direct supervision of the UNCDF IDE Country Lead Technical Specialist (Digital Finance), in collaboration with UNCDF Bangladesh IDE Digital Expert, the District Project Associate will undertake the following functions:

Objective 1: Support to implement the activities of the project at field level/District and monitor progress against the approved work plan.

• Coordinate the production of projects outputs, as per the project document and work plan in a timely and high-quality manner.
• Facilitate on-ground monitoring and support the implementation of the Shafal project intervention in five districts by collaborating with partners who will provide DFL (Digital Financial Literacy), entrepreneurship training, skills-based training referrals, and promote financial product development on the ground.
• Support in identifying local-level implementation partners, service providers, and potential business opportunities at the district and upazila (sub-district) levels
• Provide support and inputs to operationalize the interventions at the local level for the targeted beneficiaries and report to the project manager on the progress.
• Provide support to establish and maintain field-level partnerships with relevant government and local agencies and organize knowledge dissemination meetings, including local government representatives such as DC/UNO, and relevant representations, and liaise with them to ensure sustainability.
• Conduct preliminary site-level scoping studies to support the implementation of the project, that specifically focus on the most vulnerable populations (i.e., women, migrants etc).
• Perform appropriate project management actions to ensure output and outcomes as outlined in the project document and Annual Work Plan are met in a timely manner.
• Facilitate administrative support to subcontractors and project partners at the field/district levels.
• Provide substantive support to the IDE Country Lead Technical Specialist (Digital Finance) for overall project implementation at the field/district levels.

Objective 2: Support capacity building and knowledge sharing

• Ensure that results from the field and district levels are properly collected and disseminated to other team members and external stakeholders.
• Prepare presentations and briefings including performance monitoring charts and tables on all the results achieved by the project at the field and district levels, or as deemed necessary for internal or donor reporting.
• As requested, assist in organizing and leading information dissemination, seminars, conferences and meeting to take place at the field/district level.
• Ensure Gender-mainstreaming and collection of sex-disaggregate data from partners at the field/district
  levels.

Objective 3: Support for Monitoring and Reporting and Knowledge Management

• Prepare progress and other monitoring reports based on the format provided by the M&E analyst with data collected at field/district levels.
• Prepare and submit weekly, monthly and all other types of progress reports, case studies, good practices, and photos of all field activities.
• Provide information from the field/district levels to prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual progress reports, etc. as per UNCDF and Donor guidelines.
• Collect information about the communities and direct beneficiaries during all the phases of the projects.
• Participate and collaborate with consultancy firms for any kind of study, survey, or assessment of the projects.
• Prepare and keep a database of projects activities with the beneficiary at the field/district levels.
• Collect impact stories from the field to produce case studies as per requirement.
• Prepare background information and documentation, update relevant data for the project and compile background material for donors.
• Support the formulation of new projects, including desk research, documentation, drafting concept notes, proposals and project documents building on the results achieved by the projects.
• The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement:

• The incumbent will work under the supervision of the UNCDF’s IDE Country Lead Technical Specialist (Digital Finance) and closely collaborate with IDE Digital Lead, for Bangladesh.
• 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.
• The country meeting with team members 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 must 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 calls with the Digital Economies Expert, Bangladesh.
• The incumbent will also participate in working groups and steering committee meetings as requested.
   

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

• Experience in working with development projects especially in the area of digital economy and low-income communities.
• Experience in the use of computers, office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.), database packages, and web-based management systems such as ERP.
   

• Previous experience in similar positions will be an advantage.
• Familiarity with the UN project management approach, as well as with Government rules and regulations will be an advantage.
• Demonstrated previous working experience in a project team.
• Familiarity with the administrative, social, and economic context of the mentioned districts and relevant Upazila.
• Experience and knowledge on monitoring and evaluation tools, conducting survey, generating case stories, assessments and producing reports.
• Experience in managing and facilitating with private partners/NGOs and relevant organizations and engage in capacity development.
• Experience in mobilizing community members for development projects and activities.
   

Language:

• Fluency in English and Bangla is required.