Background

United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 47 least developed countries (LDCs). With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development.

It’s Local Finance Initiative (LFI) programme is designed to support commercially viable investments with transformational impact to national economies and local communities.

UNCDF has developed SPVs to promote the achievement of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS). SPV, also called a special purpose entity (SPE), is a governance arrangement created by an organization to isolate business risks e.g. operational, political and or financial risk. It is a legal company created for a specific or single purpose. In Tanzania, UNCDF in collaboration with the President Office, Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG) invested in economic infrastructure projects owned and operated by both local authorities and the private sector. Based on this experience and at the request of both the Ministry of Finance and Planning and President’s Office – Regional Administration and Local Government, we are inviting consultants to develop ?standardized National Guideline for SPVs to be used by public corporations, the private sector and others.

The objective of this assignment is to create a better understanding and clear guidelines for the use and development of SPVs created for different purposes.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the UNCDF global LFI technical secretariat based in Tanzania. He/she will, at a minimum, analyze relevant information sources and documents that may provide input as to how the assignment should be approached. He/she is expected to facilitate stakeholder consultations at national and sub-national levels and facilitate workshops for presentation of the draft guidelines. Specifically, the consultant will:

Conduct stakeholders mapping of different organizations at the national and local government level to collect relevant information including their inputs on the assignment.
Review existing SPVs in Tanzania and globally to learn practice challenges, lesson learned, best practices, and other relevant information for the assignment.
Analyse applicable legislative and statutory laws & regulations guiding investments in partnership with local authorities e.g. in the areas of governance, administration, finance, investment etc and implementation of SPVs.
Understand and document the options available for SPV structures used to manage LGA’s projects including wholly owned public projects and those involving the private sector and other stakeholders
Obtain and review different assessments on this topic including recent assessments by PO-RALG in collaboration with other development partners.
Develop two different versions of guidelines as follows:
Guideline #1: A Tanzania National Guideline for establishment and management of SPVs with a focus on public corporations and PPPs. This guideline will be in collaboration with focal points from the Ministry of Finance and Planning, and President Office, Regional Administration and Local Government. For this segment, the consultant will develop training modules and presentation materials; conduct training of Trainers (ToTs) on the subject; and prepare a general TOT training report.
Guideline #2: A generic technical guideline for SPVs to be used in different country settings globally. The difference between guideline 1 and 2 is that the former focuses on the Tanzanian environment while the latter is a general document to be tailored to any developing country.

The guidelines will be developed through a consultative process that will also require travel to selected local authorities in Tanzania.

Outputs/Deliverables

Deliverables are as follow:

An inception report in which among other things, should include a detailed work plan with clear tasks and completion date.
Draft SPV guideline #1: A Tanzania National Guideline for establishment and management of SPVs. This is drafted after the scoping exercise, consultation with various stakeholders, assessment, and analysis of relevant information etc.
Final document – a soft copy in word format of the SPV guideline #1
Draft SPV guideline #2: A UNCDF technical guideline on SPVs for developing countries.
Final document – a soft copy in word format of the SPV guideline #2.
SPV training modules (materials, program etc), a TOT training session and a training report
Each of the above steps is subject to written approval by UNCDF before moving on to another step.

Payment Terms

This contract will be based on the payment terms described below. The contract price shall be all-inclusive with the exception of travel costs and shall include other various expenses incurred by the consultant during the period of the contract. All outputs shall be subject to written final acceptance by UNCDF and subsequent authorization to disburse the payment.

Deliverable 1: Inception Report

Deliverable 2: Final SPV Guideline 1 – Tanzania national SPV guideline

Deliverable 3: Final SPV Guideline 2 – UNCDF technical guideline on SPVs

Deliverable 4: A training session to TOTs on SPV guidelines as evidenced by consultant’s submission of training modules and a training report

Travels

This assignment will involve travels to the capital city to meet with senior government officials and other public institutions, travel to at least two other regions as deemed necessary. These consultations will need to be agreed with UNCDF technical team in the course of performing this task. UNCDF will arrange and separately cover costs related to necessary travels in this regard based on UNCDF rules and regulations

Competencies

Functional and technical competencies include:

1. Project management and writing skills

2. Communication, consultation and presentation skills (including ability to manage social development dialogue processes)

3. Team management skills

4. Planning skills

5. Demonstrated knowledge of research and analytical capacity

Required Skills and Experience

Education, Skills and Experience include:

Education:

Minimum of master’s degree in any of the following areas: Economics, law, international development, investments, Commerce/finance, business or public administration, or related field.

Knowledge and Experience:

The consultant must have a minimum of seven (7) years of progressive relevant experience, with practical knowledge in development finance, investments, or project management.
Experience in the development of national guidelines and other instruments on project finance, investment, PPPs, or similar assignment.
Experience in working with central and local government actors, civil society actors and communities in developing country context
Understanding of private sector and public sector investments, Tanzania local government laws, finance, its administration, governance, and national politics
Understanding of private sector and public sector investments, Tanzania local government laws, finance, its administration, governance, and national politics

Evaluation

Step 1: Longlisting/Screening of applicants

Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the competencies and qualifications below (also stated above) will be longlisted

Education:

Minimum of master’s degree in any of the following areas: Economics, law, international development, investments, Commerce/finance, business or public administration, or related field.

Knowledge and Experience:
The consultant must have a minimum of seven (7) years of progressive relevant experience, with practical knowledge in development finance, investments, or project management.
Experience in the development of national guidelines and other instruments on project finance, investment, PPPs, or similar assignment.
Experience in working with central and local government actors, civil society actors and communities in developing country context
Understanding of private sector and public sector investments, Tanzania local government laws, finance, its administration, governance, and national politics

Step 2: Shortlisting – Desk Review, 60% of the technical evaluation

A desk review of those included in the longlist will be done based on the following evaluation criteria and maximum obtainable points:

Education background and relevant competency skills (communication & writing; research & analytical, and planning & management) – 10 pts
A minimum of seven (7) years of progressive relevant experience, with practical knowledge in development finance, investments, or project management – 25 pts
Demonstrated experience in the development of national guidelines and other instruments on either project finance, investment, PPPs, or similar assignment – 25 pts
Specific experience in working in developing country context (includes understanding of development finance, national & local government issues) – 20 pts
Proposed methodology, approach, and implementation plan to meet the requirements of the TOR (This is one of the documents to be submitted – please see application procedure below) – 20 pts

Step 3: Interviews – 40% of the technical evaluation

A competency-based interview shall thenbe conducted for all the candidates who obtained 70% of the points at the desk review.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% on the total of Steps 1 and 2 will be considered as technically qualified and will be reviewed further for financial evaluation.

Step 3: Financial Proposal Evaluation

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal: lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated x 30%.

Application Procedure

Interested applicants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Proposers who shall not submit below mentioned documents will not be considered for further evaluation. (Note: the system does not allow multiple uploads of documents. Applicants must make sure to upload all documents in one PDF file).

Latest CV with prior experience & references and with cover letter also containing motivation statement
Approach and methodology on how the assignment will be implemented (technical proposal)
A detailed financial proposal indicating the total contract price in USD – please use the offeror’s letter confirming interest and availability, available at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916).

Issuance of Individual Contract

Issuance of Individual Contract will be made to candidate whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable vis-à-vis the requirements of the TOR and the project operating environment; and

Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical criteria (70%) and financial criteria (30%) specific to the solicitation.

Both individual consultants and individuals employed by a company or institution are welcome to apply.

Any individual employed by a company or institution who would like to submit an offer in response to a Procurement Notice for IC must do so in their individual capacity (providing a CV so that their qualifications may be judged accordingly).

Women candidates or women-owned businesses are strongly encouraged to apply.

UNCDF is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when traveling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org.