Background

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.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

UNCDF makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 47 least developed countries. 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. UNCDF’s financing models work through two channels: financial inclusion that expands the opportunities for individuals, households, and small businesses to participate in the local economy, providing them with the tools they need to climb out of poverty and manage their financial lives; and by showing how localized investments — through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance — can drive public and private funding that underpins local economic expansion and sustainable development. By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to SDG 1 on eradicating poverty and SDG 17 on the means of implementation. By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a number of different SDGs.

The UNCDF strategy ‘Leaving no one behind in the digital era’ is based on over a decade of experience in digital financial inclusion in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. UNCDF’s vision is to empower millions of people by 2024 to use services daily that leverage innovation and technology and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To achieve this vision, UNCDF uses a market development approach and continuously seeks to address underlying market dysfunctions.

In this regard, UNCDF Tanzania seeks an Innovations Analyst, who has demonstrable experience in project management and network development to support the implementation and monitoring of ongoing innovations projects and the development of new initiatives in line with the Inclusive Digital Economies strategy, specifically, projects focused on access to finance as well as innovation and digital transformation in East Africa.

The Innovation Analyst will be home based, reporting to UNCDF Tanzania’s Country Lead for Inclusive Digital Economies, with occasional travel to project sites.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

UNCDF is currently implementing initiatives in 1) Kigoma under the UN Kigoma Joint Project, focusing on strengthening farmer groups and digitizing value chains to improve agricultural livelihoods (with a focus on women and youth), 2) supporting the capacity building of mid-sized financial institutions to better equip them to participate in the national switch and 3) supporting the development of the fintech sector and innovation ecosystem in Tanzania. In 2023, UNCDF Tanzania will be embarking on additional initiatives leveraging its investment mandate to support start-ups and MSMEs in the larger effort to build and scale innovation in Tanzania.

1) Raise the visibility of Tanzania’s innovation ecosystem in order to attract funding and open access to new markets by helping design and build a regional community of practice for fintechs and technology enabled enterprises; and develop relationships with like-minded regional stakeholders. (25%)

Work with Policy Advisor and fintech team to build off of ongoing learnings from PesaTech initiative and complement support to fintech community.
Engage with UNCDF country teams to leverage knowledge and experiences.
Identify and map regional stakeholders supporting fintechs and e-commerce in East and Southern Africa.
Engage with accelerators, venture/impact funds working in East Africa.
Develop partnership agenda and collaborative activities.
Design regional events and activities (webinars, conferences, study visits).
Perform and draft market scan (opportunities and challenges) of key east and southern African countries for potential fintech expansion.
Draft playbook and/or case studies for fintechs/e-commerce interested in market expansion.

2) Build capacity of hubs and relevant anchor institutions/umbrella organizations that represent the interest of start-ups/tech firms (25%)

Assess and identify national hubs/accelerators for potential partnership.
Perform institutional assessment of potential hub partners.
In collaboration with Policy Advisor and accelerator initiatives, design hub technical assistance program for implementation.
Manage all performance-based agreements with hub partners, competitively identified through public procurement processes. This will include support in drafting and reviewing Terms of Reference & Request for Applications, and monitoring performance against set target milestones.
Support the development of sustainable business models for hubs.
Forge relationships with regional and global accelerator programs to identify areas for collaboration.
Organize and facilitate technical assistance partnerships, trainings and related activities.
Monitor and evaluate the progress and impact of projects by setting and tracking key performance indicators and milestones.

3) Support UNCDF IDE Tanzania with its portfolio of partners and investments. Identify and analyse technology-enabled enterprises, financial service providers, impactful start-ups, and MSME ventures. and support the investment team with the grant-making and investment process. (20%)

Support the process of identifying and investing in technology-enabled enterprises, aligned with partner investment objectives.
Support the grant, procurement process working closely with the operations and finance departments in according with UNCDF’s operation procedures from drafting Requests for Applications (RFA) to performance-based agreements (PBAs).
Perform due diligence on short-listed investments; complete Project Design (PD), Project Workbook (PWB) and other due diligence documentation to inform investment decisions.
Adapt and improve current investment management systems for efficient monitoring of progress.
Contribute to on-going reporting to partners/donors, organizing regular partner meetings, monitoring, and verifying financial and impact performance, and drafting written material for regular updates.
Collect and analyze partner data to demonstrate measurable social and environmental impact.

4) Contribute to the IDE Tanzania knowledge management and results measurement agenda. Capture and disseminate key learnings and market-relevant research to support the innovation ecosystem and raise visibility at global level. (15%).

Work closely with and under the guidance of the Research and Insights Specialist.
Identify market knowledge gaps that could benefit ecosystem.
Identify relevant lessons learned from above-mentioned projects to document them in the form of briefs, blogs or case studies.
Draft publishable briefs, reports, blogs and case studies.
Organize and facilitate periodic learning exchanges including creation of and support to communities of practice, learning workshops and knowledge sharing in relevant fora – on above-mentioned projects – in collaboration with fintech team.
Work with UNCDF’s communications team to ensure knowledge and information is shared with global network of partners.

5) Support with program and project development (15%)

Engage with national stakeholders to better understand government priorities, funding opportunities and partnership potential.
Participate in donor partner group meetings relevant to priority themes (i.e. gender DPG, technology DPG).
Formulate concept notes and proposals for purposes of project expansion and scale up.
Support with the drafting of country program documents.

Institutional Arrangement

The Innovations Analyst will work under the supervision of the Country Lead for Inclusive Digital Economies, Tanzania.

Competencies

Core competencies

Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work.
Think Innovatively: LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking.
Learn Continuously: LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning.
Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process.
Act with Determination: LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously.
Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build and/or /maintain coalitions/partnership.
Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making.

Functional/Technical competencies

2030 Agenda Partnerships

SDG Finance: Innovative Finance.

2030 Agenda Partnerships

SDG Finance: Financial Inclusion.

Partnerships Management

Relationship management: Ability to engage with a wide range of public and private partners, build, sustain and/or strengthen working relations, trust and mutual understanding.

Partnership management

Resource mobilization: Ability to identify funding sources, match funding needs (programmes/projects/initiatives) with funding opportunities, and establish a plan to meet funding requirements.

Digital & Innovation

Digital transformation design: Practical and strategic skills in digital transformation for governments and organizations.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in economics, public/business administration, social sciences, international development or related discipline.
Bachelor’s degree with two additional years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the master’s degree.

Experience:

Minimum 2 years (Master's degree) or 4 years (Bachelor's degree) of progressively responsible experience in innovation project management, investment portfolio management or international development;
Experience in supporting institutional digital transformation;
Experience in project management, monitoring and reporting;
Experience with building networks and partnerships;

Required skills:

Working knowledge and/or familiarity with digital financial services and inclusive digital economies;
Strong working knowledge of investment portfolio management;
Experience in digital transformation.

Desired additional skills:

Experience in project management, monitoring and reporting;
Experience with building networks and partnerships;
Strong and effective communications skills; experience in preparing presentations, case studies and research papers.

Language:

Written and spoken proficiency in English is required.