Provision of Consultancy Services for Member Need Assessment 2022

1. Background

The Alliance for Financial Inclusion

The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) is the world’s leading organization on financial inclusion policy and regulation. Currently, nearly 100 member institutions make up the AFI network including central banks, ministries of finance and other financial policymaking or regulatory institutions from over 85 developing countries and emerging markets. AFI empowers policymakers to increase the access and usage of quality financial services for the underserved through sustainable and inclusive policies and an effective use of digital technologies.

Policies developed and implemented by the members of the Alliance contribute to a range of the Sustainable Development Goals. by Setting their own agenda, AFI members harness the power of peer learning to develop practical and tested policy reforms that enhance financial inclusion with strategic support from both public and private sector partners.

AFI has 7 Working Groups (WGs): Consumer Empowerment and Market Conduct Working Group (CEMCWG), Digital Financial Services Working Group (DFSWG), Financial Inclusion Data Working Group (FIDWG), Financial Inclusion Strategy Peer Learning Group (FISPLG), Global Standards Proportionality Working Group (GSPWG), Inclusive Green Finance Working Group (IGFWG) and SME Finance Working Group (SMEFWG).

As the key source of policy developments and trends in financial inclusion and as the primary mechanism for generating and incubating technical content in the network, the Working Groups serve as “communities of practice”. Providing a platform for knowledge exchange and peer learning among policymakers to share, deliberate and deepen their understanding, the working groups offer leadership and expertise in their respective policy fields and support the network to monitor new developments in emerging fields.

The knowledge generated via the working groups is disseminated for implementation by a range of capacity building activities such as Joint Learning Programs, Member Trainings, Trainings by Private Sector Partners. The practical experience members garner from engaging in peer learning based capacity building is then applied by members as in country implementation projects which are supported by the provision of financial or technical support to AFI member institutions in conducting activities that aim to deliver financial inclusion policies, regulations, supervisory tools or enablers for the development of policies, such as national financial inclusion strategies

The working groups receive strategic guidance and insight from the High-Level Global Standards & Policy Committee, while the Gender Inclusive Finance Committee, supports WGs in integrating gender considerations into all aspects of their work and support members in fulfilling their Denarau Action Plan (2016) commitment to promote women’s financial inclusion.

AFI members have made further commitments in a range of other accords which can be read here.

The AFI’s five regional initiatives support policy implementation in Africa (AfPI), Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC), the Pacific Islands (PIRI), Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECAPI) and the Arab Region (FIARI).

2. Project Background:

As a member-driven organization, AFI continuously builds its customer orientation, being responsive and flexible to best cater to its members needs and expectations. To do so, AFI conducts an annual Member Needs Assessment (MNA) survey to assess its members’ awareness, usage and satisfaction of its services. The MNA is also used to gauge members’ future priorities and guides AFI’s decisions about services and thematic areas to focus on.

The 2021 Member Needs Assessment will build upon and be compared against the results of previous surveys from 2014 to 2021. Specifically, the 2022 edition will draw patterns and trends regarding member’s needs and AFI’s performance by comparing data from the previous two (2) editions of the Member Needs Assessment.

The MNA will cover up to 90 developing and emerging member countries worldwide, with up to 500 potential respondents. The survey will have 2 separate questionnaires, one for heads of institutions and another for technical level staff.

The assessment will be an online self-administered survey in three languages: English, Spanish and French, questionnaires to be provided by AFI. AFI will be responsible for contacting members to participate in the MNA.

AFI is seeking the services of a market research organization (MRO) or consultant to provide technical support in undertaking the MNA survey.

3. Overall Objective:

The primary objective of the assignment is to provide technical support in data collection, analysis and report writing of the MNA. Specifically, the tasks include:

• Provide input to the primary questionnaire
• Upload the questionnaire to a web platform and generate links for distribution by AFI
• Undertake data analysis including year-on-year comparison
• Develop reports and provide key recommendations against assessment’s objective

4. Key Deliverables:

The following are the key deliverables of this assignment:

• Technical research proposal outlining survey design and methodology;
• An online survey platform for the MNA questionnaires
• Raw data set in ExcelTM archiving all response entry points;
• Draft Report with key findings and recommendations in WordTM / PowerPointTM for AFI’s review;

• Final Report in WordTM / PowerPointTM.

• Timelines and Submission:

The assignment is expected to commence in early-April and end by July 2022 Below is a tentative timeline:

Kickoff – Early April 2022

MNA Survey Online Platform developed – 30 April 2022

Data Collection – May 2022 (3 weeks)

Draft report, raw and formatted data set – End-June 2022

Final report – Mid-July 2022

6. Travel:

No travel is expected for this assignment. The consultant will be required to work remotely and undertake virtual meetings to complete the tasks.

7. Experience and Expertise:

• Relevant academic qualifications: Advanced degree in statistics, market research and analysis, data science, behavioural economics or other related field
• Experience in undertaking market research: More than 8 years of professional experience in undertaking market research at global and/or regional level; demonstrated familiarity member/consumer satisfaction survey, human behavioral, organization branding, etc. are desired.
• Experience in quantitative research methods: Experience in undertaking quantitative research is required; knowledge in statistical software (e.g. SPSS) and/or Microsoft Excel is necessary; qualitative research skills are desired.
• Experience with global and/or regional membership-based organization: Prior experience working with membership-based organization on their satisfaction and/or needs survey is desired; engagement with financial regulatory entities particularly in developing countries would be an advantage.
• Ease of use of survey portal: Data collection tool with user-friendly user interface, customizable for organization branding, and multi-lingual capability
• Language and report writing skills: Fluency in English (oral and writing) is compulsory. Advanced skills in report writing are required.

8. Reporting:

The MRO will report to AFI Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Department. No travel is planned for this assignment. The consultant will be expected to provide regular reports and updates to AFI during the assignment.

9. Proposal Submission Information:

• Conflict of Interest acknowledgement & sign off [Mandatory]
• Workplan [Mandatory – if stated/required]
• Company Registration [Mandatory]
• Company Profile
• Full CVs of lead and support consultant highlighting relevant work
• List of previous or current clients with whom similar work has been conducted
• At least one (1) sample (link or attachments) of a published technical paper on financial inclusion authored exclusively by the lead consultant.
• Reference letter (if any);
• Disclosure statement, if individual has full time or part time employment contract with any organization or government official or indirect involvement in this tender;[Mandatory – for individual participant]

Submission of Technical and Financial Proposals:

• Kindly submit technical proposal using the template given in annexure 1 and financial proposal using the template given in annexure 2, along with the documents listed above
• Technical and financial proposal must be submitted in two separate PDF files, using the given
• The two proposals are to be submitted to the designated email

AFI reserves the right to disqualify incomplete submission and

non-compliance to the above requirements. Notification result will only be sent to shortlisted candidates upon completion.

10. Criteria for Evaluation:

Technical Scoring

1. Profile and Overall Qualification – 30%

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• Profile of individual or firm (5%)

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• Demonstrated ability understanding of the scope of work (10%)

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• Demonstrated ability to write quality reports. Samples of previous work should be submitted by consultant (15%)

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2. Technical Experience – 50%

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• *Experience in conducting market research; research skills, especially qualitative research and data analysis (*20%)

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• *Survey portal – user-friendliness of user interface, customizable for organization branding, and multi-lingual capability (*30%)

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3. Adequacy of the proposed work plan and methodology – 20%**

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• *Technical approach and Methodology (*10%)

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• *Workplan (*10%)

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Evaluation of technical and financial proposals

The evaluation and decision on the best proposal will be made based on the combined criterion, where companies are qualified by means of a score that takes into account the combined valuation of the technical and financial proposals, with the following weights:

1. Technical Proposal: 70% (Seventy percent).
2. Financial Proposal: 30% (Thirty percent).