Organization:Madhya Pradesh
Location :Home based with Travel as per ToR, INDIA
Type of Contract :Individual Contract
Post Level :National Consultant
Languages Required :English
Duration of Initial Contract :45 days during the contract period.
Background
One of the pre-requisites for ‘making the markets work for the poor’ is their participation and access to various financial products as per their needs. Despite various attempts, most of the basic financial services are still inaccessible to more than half the population and the penetration is still poor in the rural and far-flung areas of the country, many of which don’t have access to even the most rudimentary financial services.
With most government entitlement-based schemes related to Pensions, Scholarships and Wages looking at reducing the transaction costs to both the service-provider and the end-beneficiary, the effort of both the state governments and the banking institutions is on reducing the cost of delivery and crashing the time required for making payments to the needy. This has also been coupled with the realization that taking the financial services to the poorest in rural areas is a viable business if one is able to generate the right volumes with low cost of transaction. The poor are also bankable and with the right products and services they can create business and profits for the banks.
Various initiatives have been started by Government of India and RBI for facilitating the access to banking and financial services to the poorest of the poor and a number of states have been making efforts to create viable and efficient models of financial inclusion. In terms of technology a number of technological options have been tested by various players, bio-metric smart cards, mobile banking and palm-top devices to create real-time access to these services in the remotest areas.
Madhya Pradesh has been at the fore-front of this initiative and has attempted to combine the concept of Banking Correspondent with Ultra-Small Banks to provide easy and hassle-free access to financial services in rural areas.
Madhya Pradesh Model of Financial Inclusion
Madhya Pradesh faced a number of challenges in creating a penetration for financial services in the state, which already had a poor coverage as compared to the national average. These included:
Large geographical area:
- Low coverage by formal financial institutions, with existing branches covering a population of nearly 23000 per branch;
- Low financial literacy and hence poor demand for financial services;
- Large number of unbanked areas or ‘shadow villages’;
- Low confidence of both the service providers (banks) and the beneficiaries owing to limited success of past experiments.
With these limitations Government of Madhya Pradesh started off, working at several levels to clear the road- blocks - policy related, commercial, technical and operational. Some of the initiatives included, detailed mapping of the unbanked areas (more than 14,000 of the 54,000 villages in Madhya Pradesh were found to have no access to financial services), doing away with the population norm for providing financial services, using a Service-Area Approach to increase business for area lead banks in each block and Panchayat, converting MGNREGA wage accounts in post-offices to savings accounts, supporting banks in reducing their expenditure on setting up Ultra Small Banks (USBs) and getting the necessary clearances and approval from RBI. Ministry of Finance and Department of Post and Telegraph.
The current efforts have led to the creation of a model of Financial Inclusion which has been termed as the Madhya Pradesh Model of Financial Inclusion and enables direct transfer of all entitlements of Pensions, Scholarships and E-FMS payment of MGNREGA wages into the bank account of beneficiaries in entire state.
Duties and Responsibilities
The scope of work will be divided into two Outputs:
A detailed process documentation of the Madhya Pradesh Model
This part of the work will include a detailed desk review- of relevant circulars, government orders, communication, meeting minutes; stakeholder discussion to understand the process- including interviews with bankers, district/ block/ panchayat level government officials, officials of postal department, cooperative banks, RRBs and the beneficiaries; documentation of the steps that were undertaken by the government of Madhya Pradesh for re-engineering the system towards developing this model.
The process documentation should bring out in detail and in a logical order, how the state government in partnership with different stakeholders created the road-map for re-working the system, preparatory work undertaken before initiating the model, revision of existing norms of banking for greater financial inclusion and changes as viewed from the perspective of the end-user.
The documentation should also clearly bring out how the state has fared in creating access to the most marginalised and geographically isolated social groups for these services.
An evaluation of the state’s model of financial inclusion
This segment of the work will involve undertaking an independent critical evaluation of the Madhya Pradesh Model, based on the understanding developed through the first part of the assignment. The evaluation will include discussion with the relevant stakeholders involved with and impacted by the model to get their perspective, empirical assessment of the functioning of the model based on field visits to 4 representative districts (covering 2 blocks each) within the state.
This will be from the perspective of:
- Technological options adopted for delivering the financial services;
- Human resource deployment -its adequacy and confidence enjoyed among the account-holders/ beneficiaries;
- Effectiveness of coverage to be able to deliver services to the remotest/previously uncovered locations;
- Effectiveness of the model to create access for the most marginalised and persistently excluded groups in the state;
- Timeliness of services and transactions;
- Client-satisfaction and lowering of opportunity/ transaction costs of availing these services; and
- Scale at which people are demanding/ availing other banking and financial services through this channel.
Expected deliverables
Output 1
The documentation of the Madhya Pradesh Model will comprise:
An Executive Summary;
The Detailed Main Report -crisply narrating the process adopted and their result;
A process flow of the model, including an analytical framework of its Critical Success Factors;
A set of 5 case studies from the perspective of different stakeholders as box-insertions within the Main report.
Output 2
The Evaluation Report of the Model will include:
An Executive Summary;
An Analytical Main Report, drawing comparisons with other Models of Financial Inclusion within the country;
Report needs to be categorised into different sections. While the structure of the report will be finalised in consultation with the state government, suggested sections include: Outreach, Financial Services, Effectiveness of USBs, Financial Literacy.
Time-Frame
Output 1
The time-frame for work under this Output is July - August 2013. The deadline for submission of the Draft Report on Process Documentation will be 10 August, 2013 and August 31st, 2013 for submission of the final report, after incorporating the feedback and suggestions from the state government and UNDP.
Output 2
The time-frame for work under this Output will be September - December 2013. The deadline for submission of the Draft Evaluation Report will be 15th November, 2013, presentation of the evaluation before the State Government, select bankers and UNDP Officials around 30th November and submission of the Final Report by 10th December 2013.
Competencies
Functional Competencies:
Understanding of banking, financial inclusion, social sector and rural development related issues and their inter- relationships.
Proficiency in Hindi and English languages- both reading and speaking.
Core Competencies:
- Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
- Positive, constructive attitude to work;
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
Master’s Degree or equivalent in Economics, Finance, Microfinance, Social Sciences, Rural Development, Development Studies or in any field related to the thematic area of financial inclusion.
Experience:
At least 3 years of past proven work in the area of financial inclusion at the international, national or state level;
At least 5 years of past and proven experience of documentation and assessment/ evaluation in the financial;
Experience in the evaluation of large-scale government programmes/ schemes.
Language Requirement:
Excellent command of English language and Hindi is required.
Submission of Proposal:
Financial Proposal: Consultant should specify his/her daily consultancy fee, travel expenses would be handled separately by UNDP as per rules. Assignment requires 45 days spread over contract duration;
CV: Consultant should submit his/her updated CV with three references.
Please note proposals without financial proposal will not be considered.
Individuals working with institutions may also apply, contract would be issued in the name of institution for the specific services of individual.
Evaluation Method and Criteria:
Cumulative analysis
The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
Responsive; and
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
Technical Criteria weight - 70%.
Financial Criteria weight - 30%.
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
Criteria for Technical Evaluation would be as under:
Qualification - 20%;
Relevant Work Experience - 50%.
For any clarification please write to sandeep.sharma@undp.org.
UNDP 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.
Closing Date: Friday, 26 July 2013
How to Apply
http://unjobs.org/vacancies/1374253927206
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