Calls for Applications

Re-advertized-RfA: AfDB Responsible Digital Payments Guide

  • March 08, 2022

  • Calls for Applications

Summary

The application deadline is 09 March 2022 (23:59 time EST).

As a leading funder of Africa’s development projects, both in the private and public sectors, there is an opportunity for the African Development Bank (AfDB) to develop and adopt an internal tool to guide country/regional teams to assess and understand inclusive digital payments ecosystems, and drive and track progress of responsible digitization of payments needs in member countries. This can help increase financial inclusion, especially among underprivileged segments of the population (women, youth, rural dwellers, MSMEs, etc.), enhance transparency and efficiency in financial services, and build economies that are digital and inclusive.

Digital payments can help enable and accelerate AfDB’s High 5 Strategies, which aim to: Light up and Power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialize Africa; Integrate Africa; and Improve the Quality of Life for the People of Africa. Further, digital payments, especially when delivered responsibly, can play a catalytic role driving Digital Financial Inclusion (DFI), which can contribute to achieving the SDGs.

The Better Than Cash Alliance (the Alliance) will be working with the AfDB FSD team to develop the AfDB Responsible Digital Payments Guide (the Guide), to help AfDB country/regional teams analyze and understand digital payments ecosystems and how to best assess, implement and measure responsible digital payments in serving the needs of targeted populations, as a catalyst for greater financial inclusion across Africa. With the potential to drive DFI, especially for women, increase local resource mobilization for governments, while igniting progress toward many of the SDGs, this guide on building responsible and inclusive digital payments ecosystems will help inform AfDB’s country strategic plans, as well as national financial inclusion strategies. By responsible we mean, designing and implementing digital payments and digital financial services in a user-centric approach, addressing user needs and risks, and ensuring trust in and adoption of those services, especially among first-time users.

The Better Than Cash Alliance is seeking applications from qualified technical partners (e.g., commercial for-profit consulting firms, non-for-profit organizations, social enterprises) with proven experience in conducting multi-stakeholder interviews and analysis for recommendations, as well as in assessing digital payments ecosystems and doing research on the adoption and usage of digital payments in Africa. Experience in facilitating multi-stakeholder workshops, extracting key learnings from initiatives, and providing action-driven recommendations based on innovative approaches, is essential.

The expected outputs are:

  1. Desk research as well as stakeholder consultation through a webinar or in person in collaboration with the Alliance.
  2. AfDB Responsible Digital Payments Guide to be prepared by the consultancy firm working hand –in-hand with AfDB FSD team and the Alliance.
  3. Organize and hold a training for AfDB FSD Team on the final Guide, incl. drafting a training plan and training materials
  4. Responsible digital payments become an essential part of AfDB’s project planning, implementation and progress tracking, as well as of African governments’ agendas, and will guide their policies and development to achieve inclusive growth.

UNCDF will contribute a grant of up to USD 55,000 and will award one applicant pending on the investment readiness level and outreach potential of the solution proposed. The selected applicant who will be technically responsive to this Request for Application will sign a Performance-Based Agreement (PBA).

For requests and queries, send an email to info@betterthancash.org and cc nshuti.mbabazi@uncdf.org, not later than 02 March (23:59 time EST)

All applications must be submitted online 09 March 2022 (23:59 time EST) on UNCDF online platform.

To ensure successful application to the RFA, applicants shall consider the following notes:

  • Click on “Save as a draft” and “Save and continue editing” while working online.
  • Applicants can add collaborators to the application.
  • For successful completion of the application, the applicant shall click on the button "Complete and Submit” of the application.
  • Upon the successful submission, applicants will receive automated notification on the successful submission of their application.
  • Guidance note on how to apply to the RFA is annexed to the RFA - Annex V (Guidance note on how to apply online using the E-investment Platform)

Applicants can access the RFA through the link https://apply.uncdf.org/prog/re-advertize_afdb_responsible_digital_payments_guide and are required to complete the following steps:

Stage 1 “Pre-screening Questions”:

Applicants will need to fill in the online pre-screening questions and upload the required documents “where needed”. Note that once the “Mark as completed” button is clicked, you can no further introduce any change to this section.

Stage 2: “Main Application”

Under this section, applicants will provide information on the:

  1. Address and information of their organization
  2. There is a hyperlink “Technical Proposal Template”. Applicants shall click the link to download the proposal template; fill in the information required; click on the button “Upload a file” to upload the proposal.
  3. CV template. The applicant will download the templates, fill in the information and upload the filled-in CVs.
  4. Project Budget template. Applicants can download the budget template, prepare the budget and upload it to the platform.
  5. Sign-off the Declaration of Conformity
  6. Click on “Mark as Completed”.
  7. Submit

The application deadline is 09 March 2022 (23:59 time EST).

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