Digital Finance Specialist Job Description

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 46 least developed countries (LDCs).  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.

UNCDF leverages digital finance in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve the vision of promoting inclusive digital economies. On that basis, the Inclusive Digital Economies Division of UNCDF adopted the strategy of ‘Leaving no one behind in the digital era’, which is based on over a decade of experience in digital finance in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The goal of UNCDF is to empower millions of people by 2024 to use digital services, which improve their quality of life and accelerate our progress towards the sustainable development goals (SDGs). To achieve this, UNCDF provides capital and technical support through Inclusive Digital Economy programmes to ensure that more households and small businesses gain access to services that expand opportunities and reduce vulnerabilities. The ability of UNCDF to provide risk capital directly to the private sector is helping bring new products and services to under-served and hard to reach markets and spurring innovations. Through flexible grant and loan instruments UNCDF supports a wide range of products and services in various sectors ranging from finance to agriculture, education, health and transportation. This entails working with the public and the private sector to ensure that the services match in particular the needs of key segments such as youth, women, migrants, refugees, and micro-small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

UNCDF requires “Country Relationship Manager” to manage UNCDF Portfolio in Madagascar. The Country Relations Manager will play a critical role in coordinating all UNCDF activities in Madagascar. He / She will manage key functions such as Coordination, Project management, Partnership and Resources Mobilization. The CRM will work closely with the support team in Dakar as well as FMS to ensure effective implementation of IDE strategies and partnerships in the country.

Summary of key functions:

• Lead IDE’s programme management and coherence in the country.
• Develop the necessary pipeline in close consultation and coordination with the government, donors, partners and UNCT.
• Provision of top-quality policy advice services to the Government and facilitation of knowledge building and management.

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

1. Lead IDE’s programme management and coherence in the country focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Manage and coordinate the implementation of projects in accordance with the objectives, work plan and timely budget, efficiently and effectively in accordance with the project document and work plan;
• Ensure that the various documents (multi-year, annual, quarterly, operational work plans, journals, reports) required for the proper functioning of the project are prepared on time according to the required quality standards and updated.
• Coordinate project activities with relevant government activities and initiatives, UNCDF strategy, CPD and UNSDCF;
• Maintain close working relationships with all relevant stakeholders and partners to ensure adequate information flow and cooperation among the project’s participating institutions, in particular, with the Project Committee members;
• Manage and monitor day-to-day budgetary and financial operations to facilitate project audits to ensure accurate and reliable financial reporting;
• Manage financial resources on the basis of value for money and cost effectiveness principles;
• Ensure compliance with administrative and financial procedures in the implementation of the program.
• 2. Develop the necessary pipeline in close consultation and coordination with the government, donors, partners and UNCT focusing on achievement of the following results:
• Represent UNCDF in various meetings with donors and national parties (UN Country Team, Program Management Team, Steering Committee, Investment Committee…)
• Thorough analysis and research of the political, social and economic situation in the country and preparation of substantive inputs to CCA, UNSDCF, and other documents.
• Explore and develop partnerships with potential donors (both traditional and newly established) seeking to encourage their commitment to UNCDF;
• Explore new funding mechanisms through traditional donors, the UN, donor special programs, and private sector and foundations;
• Analyze specific funding trends and patterns which can assist in predicting donor interest in UNCDF programs;
• Explore strategic partnerships that do not involve funding but rather collaboration in other forms (joint advocacy, social mobilization, etc.) around goals and objectives central to UNCDF’s mandate;
• Collaborate with the Regional Office team on positioning and advocating for goals and objectives central to UNCDF’s mandate, raising the visibility and promoting results from country programs and other relevant programming modalities relevant in the region;
• Manage networks of partners in the region, and create mechanisms for interaction among partners to further UNCDF’s mandate;

3. Ensures provision of top-quality advisory services and facilitation of knowledge building and management focusing on achievement of the followingresults:

• Maintain the quality assurance and the validation of the relevant data (indicators, targets, results) in the established information management system for measuring the qualitative and quantitative impact, and report on the progress;
• In addition to regular reporting to UNCDF Regional Office, regularly contribute to donors’ reporting and briefings;
• Facilitate and document human interest stories of beneficiaries and develop various communication materials linked to the socio-economic recovery;
• Identify and formule lessons learned and recommendations to be integrated into broader CO knowledge management efforts;
• Contribute to knowledge networks and communities of practice.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: Supervise one Programme Analyst

People Management Competencies:

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies