• 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, increase transparency, advance financial inclusion– particularly for women– and drive inclusive growth; and
• Conducting research and sharing the knowledge and experiences of our members to inform strategies for making the transition.

Billions of dollars in cash payments and transfers are made daily in emerging and developing economies, including payment of salaries, social welfare and relief, payments to suppliers, remittances, etc. The problems with these cash payments include a lack of transparency, accountability, and security, as well as inefficiency.

Furthermore, the individuals who receive the 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 financial services 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 low-income people, 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 Alliance Team’s Core Values are the following:

• Implement initiatives as agreed with Central Government Ministries, State Governments, Central Bank and other similar organizations, private sector firms, international development organizations, etc., particularly focusing on responsible digital payments with a focus on Digital Public Infrastructure, gender, micro merchants, rural and informal enterprises, etc.
• Track progress of in-country initiatives and ensure liaison with management and procurement teams to ensure delivery of project milestones.
• Maintain correspondence with government and other stakeholders to setup high level meetings, follow- up on advisory activities, etc.

Contribute to in-country advisory work in India and other Asian countries, as needed, for members including governments, companies, international organizations:

• Lead discussions on responsible payments digitization initiatives with Alliance’s members in India.
• Contribute to exploring opportunities in other neighboring countries like Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh etc through research, scoping studies & stakeholder consultations, as needed, and in alignment with the Alliance strategy for Asia Pacific region.
• Lead on preparing initiative concept notes, seek inputs from relevant team members and experts, as needed, and present initiatives to various Alliance sub-Committees.
• Facilitate Alliance’s participation in national and international industry events, conferences, and workshops for advocacy on responsible digital payments and disseminate knowledge products.

Execution of Quality Research

• Research and draft background notes for missions, meetings and/or presentations on topics related to responsible digitization of payments and industry updates, to support Alliance Secretariat’s senior level engagement with the leadership team of Alliance members.
• In partnership with the communications and M&E teams, track progress of the member as learning pieces for other members and Result Measurement Framework and keep abreast of trends and innovation related to digital payments and undertake background research to identify frontier issues to research.
• Undertake background research to identify frontier issues to research and share with wider team as part of learning strategy, and develop and maintain a pipeline calendar for bi-monthly learning sessions with the team.

Global Learnings Consolidation and Exchange/Knowledge building and Learning

• Active leadership on Learnings consolidation for Alliance payment streams, working closely with Regional Leads and Communications specialists.
• In collaboration with the Regional Leads, co-lead in driving the implementation of the Alliance Learning strategy including the distillation of lessons for all ongoing initiatives.
• In partnership with the communications, and advisory teams, keep abreast of global trends monthly on digital payments innovations and share with the wider team.
• Take active leadership in the facilitation of learning dissemination and institutionalization of insights across regions and payment streams, working alongside the communication specialists and leads.
• Engage with concerned Alliance colleagues and LMS vendor to ensure smooth running and updates of the contracted learning modules including a) onboarding, and b) UN Principles for Responsible Digital Payments.
• Lead discussions with key members to develop country specific launch strategies for launch and uptake of UN Principles online course.
• In partnership with Regional Leads, deliver Peer Exchanges for Alliance’s members and co-organize at least 4 Peer Learning Exchanges during this contract. These could be virtual, in person, regional or global.

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact.
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems.
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences.
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands.
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results.
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration.
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity.

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:

Business Direction and Strategy

• Strategic Thinking: Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities, linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions. Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like.
• Business Acumen: Ability to understand and deal with a business situation in a manner that is likely to lead to a good outcome. Knowledge and understanding of the operational frameworks in the organization and ability to make good judgments and quick decisions within such frameworks.
• Systems Thinking: Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact other parts of the system.

Business Development

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

Business Management

• Portfolio Management: Ability to select, prioritize and control the organization’s programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimizing return on investment.

Digital and Innovation

• Digital Inclusion: Knowledge of how digital inclusion works, opportunities and challenges for governments and society.

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in public policy, economics, management, international affairs, political science, or other relevant field or
• First level university degree (Bachelors’ degree) in the above area with two additional years of relevant work experience will be given due consideration in lieu of advanced university degree.
• Certification in Project Management would be an asset.

• Minimum 5 years (with master’s degree) or 7 years (with bachelor’s degree) of relevant professional experience in digital financial services, inclusive finance related areas, both in India and at the international level is required.
• Knowledge and experience of digital payments and digital financial inclusion is required.
• Experience in designing, planning, and implementing government-to- governments exchanges on topics related to digital payments such as Government-to-Person payments, tax incentives, financial inclusion policies, etc., is required.
• Demonstrated experience in multilateral, government relations or inter-government processes in India and other Asian countries is desirable.
• Experience engaging with governments and the corporate sector in India and other Asian countries, desirable.
• Experience conducting research on digital payments, digital financial. services and financial inclusion and knowledge of the main research sources and development partners working on digital payments and financial inclusion, desirable.
• Working knowledge of current developments in payment technologies, including innovative payment methods (e.g., digital government, mobile financial services, pre-paid/reloadable/other cards, etc.) is desirable.
• Understanding of key issues and international good practice relating to financial inclusion and digital payments is desirable.

Required Languages:

• Fluency in spoken and written English and Hindi are required.