UNCDF: Digital Financial Services Training for Policymakers and Regulators

Deadline: 4-Apr-21

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is seeking eligible organisations to apply to deliver training courses on inclusive digital financial services (DFS), particularly on regulation and supervision of financial technology (FinTech) and innovation, gender mainstreaming, and evidence-informed policymaking including lean data and low-resource options to improve regulatory reporting processes.

Areas of Intervention

Candidates can apply within a single area of intervention or propose a project for a combination of areas:

Area 1: Innovation and FinTech;
Area 2: Gender Mainstreaming;
Area 3: Evidence-Informed Policymaking.

Funding Information

UNCDF’s contributions can range from 50,000 USD to 250,000 USD.

Expected Results

According to the projects and solutions presented, candidates must include in the proposal a complete list of results, outcome indicators and targets for monitoring achievement of different results.
Other indicators would be finalized based on the nature of the project and tracked to ensure its success. Deliverables would be derived from key project milestones to be agreed mutually between UNCDF and the selected applicant in accordance with the identified milestones, outcomes, and targets of the KPIs, during the due diligence and negotiation phase.
In the application form, candidates will have to provide reliable and attainable targets for each of the indicators.

Eligibility Criteria

Entity registration:
- The applicant/lead applicant must be a registered entity and ideally an educational or training organisation (including commercial for-profit firms, non-profit organisations, universities).
- Accredited institutions that can issue a diploma or certification are encouraged to apply.
Country of operation:
- The applicant can be based anywhere globally.
Consortiums (when applicable):
- Applicants may apply only once under this RFA, whether independently or in a consortium.
- Joint applications are accepted.
Solutions to be supported:
- Applicants must have successfully delivered similar training with proven excellent results.
Exclusionary criteria:
- Applicants shall not have been the subject of bankruptcy, liquidation, judicial settlement, safeguarding, cessation of activity or any other similar situation resulting from a similar procedure.
- Applicants and any of their staff or member of their board of directors shall not be included in the United Nations financial sanctions lists, particularly in the fight against the financing of terrorism and against attacks on international peace and security;
- Applicants must not be involved in any of the following activities.
  - Manufacture, sale or distribution of controversial weapons or their components, including cluster bombs, anti-personnel mines, biological or chemical weapons or nuclear weapons.
  - Manufacture, sale or distribution of armaments and/or weapons or their components, including military supplies and equipment.
  - Replica weapons marketed to children.
  - Manufacture, sale or distribution of tobacco or tobacco products.
  - Involvement in the manufacture, sale and distribution of pornography.
  - Manufacture, sale or distribution of substances subject to international bans or phase outs, and wildlife or products regulated under the CITES.
  - Gambling including casinos, betting etc. (excluding lotteries with charitable objectives).
  - Violation of human rights or complicity in human rights violations.
  - Use or toleration of forced or compulsory labor.
  - Use or toleration of child labor.
Applicants shall have fullfilled all the obligations relating to the payment of social security contributions or obligations relating to the payment of taxes in accordance with legal provisions in force in the country of incorporation.
UNCDF will conduct due diligence on selected applicants. Applicants must have documents ready for confirmation that they meet the eligibility criteria including certificate of compliance with the tax authorities and any other documentary evidence that might be requested by UNCDF in addition to the application form.

Selection Process

Step 1: Eligibility screening – eligibility will be assessed according to the eligibility requirements.
Step 2: Evaluation of eligible applications by UNCDF’s technical evaluation panel based on the evaluation criteria.
Step 3: Due diligence – due diligence on the applications and their applicants will be conducted on applications that receive the minimum qualifying score (70/100).
Step 4: Notification of applications – all applicants will be notified of the status of their applications.
Step 5: Pre-Grant negotiation and Performance-based Agreement – the selected applicants will finalise the scope of the grant and finalise budgets, indicators and targets, workplan and disbursements of the Grant that will be released on the achievement of each milestone.
Step 6: Approval of the selected applications by the Investment Committee. Pre-selected applications will be reviewed, discussed for approval by UNCDF’s Investment Committee. Any further due diligence requirements, risk analysis, or milestone recommendations from the Investment Committee will be followed in later steps.
Step 7: Notification of applications – all applicants will be notified of the status of their applications after final approval from UNCDF Investment Committee.