Alliance for Financial Inclusion
1.0 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).
2.0 PROJECT BACKGROUND
AFI launched the Advancing Women’s Economic Empowerment through Financial Inclusion project in 2019 with the support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). This four-year project was conceptualized around supporting the AFI network’s Gender Inclusive Finance Maya Declaration Commitments and implementation of the Denarau Action Plan (DAP) with the members aspirational target to halve the financial inclusion gender gap across AFI member jurisdictions by the end of 2021.
The overall objective of this project is to prioritize gender and financial inclusion for women, as a key policy consideration for the AFI membership worldwide. Specifically, this project intends to (a) enhance policy knowledge and skills on women’s financial inclusion among AFI members; (b) enhance implementation capacity of AFI members on women’s financial inclusion policies and (c) improve global policy agenda that integrates and priorities women’s financial inclusion. This project also intends to strengthen the AFI Management Unit to deliver additional initiatives on women’s financial inclusion to the AFI network.
A mid-term project review was undertaken in early 2021 and report recommendations were provided.
The main objective of this consultancy is to undertake an end-project evaluation of the Advancing Women’s Economic Empowerment through Financial Inclusion project.
The evaluation is intended to capture the lessons learnt from the project. This will involve an assessment of project achievements and results against its planned objectives and outcomes. The evaluation will cover the overall project lifecycle from its design and planning to implementation and results. The evaluation shall assess the project achievements based on its results framework, the project Theory of Change (TOC), and its performance in project delivery. The findings and analysis from this evaluation will inform AFI’s programming strategy with regards to the GIF workstream and AFI in general moving forward.
The evaluation should be based on the six criteria outlined by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC): relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impact.
3.0 SCOPE OF WORK
Below are the expected scope of the end-term evaluation.
- Review the overall progress made towards achieving the key outputs and outcomes of the project using the project Results Framework and other metrics as appropriate
- Review the project’s relevance to AFI members’ priority needs, identifying gaps and opportunities at the activity level to ensure AFI service delivery meets members’ demand
- Review the efficiency and effectiveness of project implementation by AFI Management Unit, including coordination mechanism and collaboration with the AFI Gender Inclusive Finance (GIF) unit and with other relevant departments within AFI as well as partners / stakeholders outside AFI; as well as budget utilization for project implementation
- Review the extent to which key outputs and outcomes of the project are contributing to the development and implementation of effective financial inclusion policies by AFI member institutions
- Review the extent the project catalyzed a change in attitude and behavior among financial policymakers and regulators on gender and financial inclusion for women
- Review the extent the project is generating impact and the likelihood of the benefits to be sustained after the completion of this project
- Submit an end-project evaluation report of the project outlining recommendations including on the project monitoring and evaluation, Theory of Change (TOC) and impact measurement
- Prepare presentations for the relevant AFI teams, as necessary
The work will be primarily an off-site review in coordination with the AFI Main Office (Kuala Lumpur). The evaluation will be conducted through a combination of desk review of project documents including progress reporting and other related AFI documents, and key informant interviews of AFI personnel, AFI member institutions, and development partners and other stakeholders. Remote interviews with selected AFI member institutions, and/or partners and stakeholders will also be conducted virtually.
4.0 KEY DELIVERABLES
The key deliverables are as follows:
- Inception report detailing the scope of the evaluation, evaluation matrix and work plan
- Draft evaluation report (.docx) and presentation on evaluation findings (.pptx)
- Final evaluation report with recommendations
5.0 TIMELINE AND SUBMISSION
The assignment is expected to commence in mid-September 2022 and be completed by 28 February 2023. The work is expected to be approximately 40 man-days.
Deliverables
Timeline
1. Consultancy assignment kickoff – September 2022
2. Submission and acceptance of end-term evaluation work plan and evaluation matrix – Mid-October 2022
3. Submission and acceptance of draft report of end-project evaluation and presentation on findings – By 13 January 2023
4. Submission and acceptance of final report with recommendations – By 28 February 2023
6.0 QUALIFICATION
- Advanced degree in international development, economics, finance or other related field
- More than eight (8) years of professional experience in financial inclusion, public policy and international development; demonstrated familiarity with gender mainstreaming and/or gender empowerment programming are an advantage
- Experience in program and/or project reviews and evaluations in emerging or developing economies is compulsory
- Prior professional engagement with financial regulators will be an added advantage
- Fluency in English (oral and writing) is compulsory; French and Spanish (oral) are an added advantage
- Experience in data collection, quantitative and qualitative research is desired
- Strong research, reporting, and analytical skills with practical experience in engaging with public sector stakeholders.
7.0 REPORTING
The consultant will report to the AFI Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Department, and is expected to provide weekly progress updates (in English).
During this assignment, consultant will also be working closely with the AFI Gender Inclusive Finance (GIF) Team. No travel is planned for this assignment.
9.0 ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION:
9.1 Disclaimer
The final decision on selection of a firm for this project rests with AFI management team and with the Inquiry. Only shortlisted and successful firms will be contacted.
9.2 Proposal Submission Information
Proposals will be due with the following requirements for submission:
Submission Deadline:
08 July 2022
Documents to be submitted with Annexure 1 and 2:
Firm
- Company Registration;
- Company Profile;
- List of previous or current clientele on similar work;
- References with email contact;
- Joint-Agreement (if any);
- Conflict of Interest Disclosure form;
- At least one (1) sample work (link or attachments)
Individual
- Full CVs with list of previous similar work;
- Disclosure if individual have a full time or part time employment contract with any organization or government official or indirect involvement in this tender;
- Conflict of Interest Disclosure form;
- Reference letter (if any);
- References with email contact;
- At least one (1) sample work (link or attachments)
Method of Submission:
By email to AFI’s Procurement & Contracts Office at
Submission of Technical and Financial:
Kindly submit the followings:
- Using the template/format given in Annexure 1 (Technical) and Annexure 2 (Financial) and/or additional technical proposal for more information.
- Technical and Financial proposal must be separated in different pdf.
- Financial proposals must be USD only. Whereas for Malaysian applicants with Business Registration under Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM), please submit your financial proposals in MYR.
- Proposal to be submitted to the designated email address.
- AFI does not tolerate copyright infringement, including but not limited to infringement, in the form of plagiarism. Consultant or Consulting entity awarded a contract by AFI shall take responsibility to ensure that the authored works, produced in parts or as an entirety of the deliverables stated in this RFP does not infringe on copyrights.
AFI reserve the right to disqualify incomplete submission, overlapping submission, non-compliance to the above requirements. Notification of results will only be sent to shortlisted candidates upon completion.
9.3 Retention of Proposals
All proposals submitted become the property of AFI. AFI will make all reasonable efforts to maintain proposals in confidence and will release proposals only to personnel involved with the evaluation of the project. Proprietary information should be identified in each proposal.
10.0 Criteria for Evaluation
Refer link in ‘How to Apply’ section for more detailed information.
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:
a) Technical Proposal: 70% (Seventy percent)
b) Financial Proposal: 30% (Thirty percent)
How to apply
Interested applicants are expected to submit a proposal with an updated CV and using the template given (Download the RFP document here) by email to AFI’s Procurement & Contracts Office at [email protected] by 8th July2022.
Note: AFI does not tolerate copyright infringement, including and not limited to infringement, in the form of plagiarism. Consultant or consulting entity awarded a contract by AFI shall take responsibility to ensure that the authored works, produced in parts or as an entirety of the deliverables stated in this RFP does not infringe on copyrights.
The final decision on the selection of a consultant/consulting firm for this project rests with AFI management team and with the Inquiry. Only shortlisted and successful consultants will be contacted.