RFA: Enhancing Resilience of the most vulnerable segment of the population, including MSMEs, towards an Inclusive Digital Economy through Digital and Financial Literacy and Capacity Building in 11 Pacific Island Countries (PICs)
Summary
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(applications open 10 August 2023)
The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 46 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.
A focus on digital literacy is essential in the Pacific region as technology is rapidly advancing, and digital skills are increasingly becoming necessary for work, business, and communications. Moreover, UNCDF recently completed a Digital and Financial Literacy Baseline Survey (DFLS) that was conducted in seven Pacific Island Countries – Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, and Timor Leste. A finding from the DFLS indicated that Pacific Islanders possess moderate levels of digital and financial literacy but also indicated that there is still significant room for growth in the uptake of digital financial services (DFS), along with familiarity and awareness of practical safeguards for DFS use.
In light of the above findings, it is imperative to take comprehensive action to bridge the digital divide and empower/literate the most vulnerable segment of the population (youth, women, migrant workers, and rural citizens) and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
For these reasons, UNCDF is inviting applications from entities such as FinTech, AgriTech, business development service providers, training institutes, NGOs, consultancy firms, banks, mobile financial service providers, microfinance institutions, e-commerce service providers, and other relevant entities who can come up with innovative, sustainable and appropriate digital and financial literacy and capacity building skills solutions to enhance resilience of the most vulnerable segment of the population and MSMEs towards an inclusive digital economy through digital and financial literacy and business capacity building skills.
The goal of this RFA is to empower the most vulnerable segment of the population including the micro and small enterprises by developing mechanisms and tools that support acquiring of necessary digital and financial literacy and business capacity building skills, to adopt new digital and financial services, and leveraging digital services to increase enterprise performance in the 11 countries which include Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Cook Islands and Republic of the Marshall Islands.
The selected projects through this RFA will be funded by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) under the Pacific Digital Economy Programme (PDEP). The RFA aims at assisting interested applicants to come up with innovative, sustainable and appropriate digital and financial literacy and capacity building skills solutions that enhance the digital and financial growth and resilience of MSMEs, women, youth, small holder farmers, retail merchants, migrant workers, and persons with disabilities. UNCDF’s objective under this initiative is to strengthen capacities for the targeted audience to manoeuvre through economic shocks and participate in the emerging Pacific digital economy.
The applicants’ proposed interventions should deploy their solutions to focus on at least one of these target groups- MSMEs, women, youth, small holder farmers, retail merchants, migrant workers and persons with disabilities, as the goal of this program is to ensure that the targeted audience, whether in the informal or formal sectors of the economy, have a better grasp of digital and financial literacy in order to improve their respective growth in the digital and financial space through well-tailored training courses and innovative initiatives.
Candidates can apply independently or in a consortium. Please verify the eligibility conditions on Section 3.1 of this Request for Application (RFA).
Applicant organization can be registered anywhere globally, if the applicant organization is based outside the Pacific region then it is strongly encouraged to have a local partner that can assist in implementing the proposed projects that must be implemented in at least one or more of the target countries including Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, FSM, Cook Islands and RMI.
Selected applicants will be signing a Performance-Based Agreement (PBA) with UNCDF who will be technically responsive to this Request for Application. UNCDF’s contributions can range from 60,000 USD to 100,000 USD and UNCDF will award between 5 - 8 applications, who score the highest in accordance with the Evaluation Criteria as set forth in the section 3.2, depending on the investment readiness level and outreach potential of the solution proposed. Grant amounts could be larger for ongoing initiatives ready to scale.
The selected applicants are expected to share at least 25% of the total project (for costs such as technical resources, staff, and operational expenses). Applicants may apply independently or in a consortium, provided that the consortium has a pre-established partnership prior to when this request for applications was issued.
Inquiries to this request for applications may be submitted by email to uncdf.rfa@uncdf.org with a copy to olivia.vakaosooso@undp.org. For any email inquiries, please include in your subject line: “Enhancing Resilience of the most vulnerable segment of the population, including MSMEs, towards an Inclusive Digital Economy through Digital and Financial Literacy and Capacity Building in 11 Pacific Island Countries (PICs)”.
