Deadline: 26-Sep-21
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is pleased to launch a Call for proposals from financial services providers to access technical assistance to extend financial services to refugees and host communities in Kenya.
The ILO is working towards enhancing local economic development and increasing economic opportunities for refugees and host communities in Kenya, within Turkana and Garissa counties.
And as part of these efforts, the ILO and its International Training Centre developed the Making Finance Work for Refugees training programme, which aims to help FSPs diversify their product portfolio through serving refugees and host communities in a strategic and cost-effective way.
Objectives
- The objective of the call for proposals is for interested Financial Service Providers (FSPs) to apply for technical assistance from the ILO PROSPECTS Programme to enable them to sustainably provide inclusive financial services to refugees and host communities in the refugee hosting counties.
- The financial institutions that apply should have a keen interest in applying product diversification by implementing interventions geared toward provision of inclusive financial services.
Pillars
- Pillar 1: Education and learning, which aims at making refugees and host communities attractive to the labour market through investments in skills that are in demand by the market.
- Pillar 2: Employment with dignity, which aims at triggering the availability of employment, support to transition to work by enabling refugees and host communities to set up and manage enterprises, create jobs to realise their entrepreneurial potential and improve on their livelihood.
- Pillar 3: Protection and inclusion, which aims at addressing the policy and planning challenges to the positive developments in the local economy and the world of work.
- Pillar 4: Knowledge management, which aims at documenting the lessons learnt from the programme implementation and dissemination of the same to guide future interventions.
Scope of Technical Assistance
- The technical assistance to be provided, by competent experts/consultants, will cover mainly new product development or existing products adaptation for the FSP to pilot-test then launch one (or more) financial product to serve more refugee and host community members, in a strategic and cost-effective way.
- The technical assistance could involve the following:
- Rapid institutional assessment conducted as a preamble to the technical assistance (TA).
- Support in market research to understand the demographics, economic activities of the refugees and host communities of the 2 key refugee hosting counties together with their financial needs. The market assessment could also cover the opportunities and challenges in delivering the financial services to the target market.
- Support and guide the development of an inclusive outreach strategy (relationship, product, communication, delivery components) to ensure financial products and services meet the needs of the target beneficiaries while also ensuring the sustainability and viability of the FSP.
- The financial product specifications will be co-designed by the consultants and FSP. The outreach strategy will also ensure the delivery of financial services to the refugees and host communities is effective and efficient.
- Develop a pilot testing plan and protocol, support the FSPs in monitoring it and jointly evaluate and decide on the readiness of the product for roll out.
- Finalise an operational plan on how to deliver the services to the refugees and host communities with targets on products developed, clients reached disaggregated by gender, volumes of products and financial services delivered over a period of the next one and a half year with quarterly milestones.
- A capacity building plan on how to address the staff skills gaps, marketing of the services, systems, policies, and procedure manual revisions.
Note: This technical assistance would not cover the setting up of new branches.
Eligibility Criteria
The eligible applicants should be FSPs following the below requirements:
- Be a Bank, Micro Finance Institution (MFI) or Savings and Credit Cooperative Society (SACCOS).
- Have office presence or operations in the target counties or have a demonstrated and documented plan to extend services and operations to either of the target counties either directly or through an agent.
- Interested or already offering inclusive financial services to refugees and host communities.
- Be in existence for at least 5 years.
- Be profitable, at least prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
- FSPs that participated to the ‘’Making Finance Work for Refugees and host communities course’’ will be prioritised.
For more information, visit http://www.ilo.org/global/programmes-and-projects/prospects/countries/kenya/WCMS_819765/lang–en/index.htm?shared_from=shr-tls