The Alliance for Financial Inclusion
The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) is the world’s leading organization on financial inclusion policy and regulation. Currently, nearly 100 member institutions make up the AFI network including central banks, ministries of finance and other financial policymaking or regulatory institutions from over 85 developing countries and emerging markets. AFI empowers policymakers to increase the access and usage of quality financial services for the underserved through sustainable and inclusive policies and an effective use of digital technologies.
Policies developed and implemented by the members of the Alliance contribute to a range of the Sustainable Development Goals. by Setting their own agenda, AFI members harness the power of peer learning to develop practical and tested policy reforms that enhance financial inclusion with strategic support from both public and private sector partners.
AFI has 7 Working Groups (WGs): Consumer Empowerment and Market Conduct Working Group (CEMCWG), Digital Financial Services Working Group (DFSWG), Financial Inclusion Data Working Group (FIDWG), Financial Inclusion Strategy Peer Learning Group (FISPLG), Global Standards Proportionality Working Group (GSPWG), Inclusive Green Finance Working Group (IGFWG) and SME Finance Working Group (SMEFWG).
As the key source of policy developments and trends in financial inclusion and as the primary mechanism for generating and incubating technical content in the network, the Working Groups serve as “communities of practice”. Providing a platform for knowledge exchange and peer learning among policymakers to share, deliberate and deepen their understanding, the working groups offer leadership and expertise in their respective policy fields and support the network to monitor new developments in emerging fields.
The knowledge generated via the working groups is disseminated for implementation by a range of capacity building activities such as Joint Learning Programs, Member Trainings, Trainings by Private Sector Partners. The practical experience members garner from engaging in peer learning based capacity building is then applied by members as in country implementation projects which are supported by the provision of financial or technical support to AFI member institutions in conducting activities that aim to deliver financial inclusion policies, regulations, supervisory tools or enablers for the development of policies, such as national financial inclusion strategies
The working groups receive strategic guidance and insight from the High-Level Global Standards & Policy Committee, while the Gender Inclusive Finance Committee, supports WGs in integrating gender considerations into all aspects of their work and support members in fulfilling their Denarau Action Plan (2016) commitment to promote women’s financial inclusion.
AFI members have made further commitments in a range of other accords which can be read here.
The AFI’s five regional initiatives support policy implementation in Africa (AfPI), Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC), the Pacific Islands (PIRI), Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECAPI) and the Arab Region (FIARI).
BANQUE CENTRALE DE MAURITANIE
The Banque Centrale de Mauritanie (BCM) was created by law in 1973 and since then, the BCM has been achieving its sovereign goals of promoting a sustainable financial system, maintaining monetary value and controlling inflation, while staying open to payments and mobile money innovations. There is no digital money in Mauritania and the BCM is looking to update the banking sector to incorporate new technologies. Therefore, since 2019, the BCM has been engaged in the process of formulating and implementing a National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) to promote a sustainable financial sector and enhance financial inclusion, specifically targeting non-banked and vulnerable populations like women and forcibly displaced persons (FDPs). The NFIS has the following objectives:
In this purpose, the BCM have requested the support from AFI to fund a national demand side survey on households and MSMEs to increase knowledge on financial inclusion data. In parallel, BCM have conducted a supply side survey towards banks and financial institutions (leasing companies, microfinance institutions…).
The national demand side survey has been completed during 2021 and the results constitutes the baseline of a diagnostic of the financial inclusion which is undertaken by a consultant funded by AFI who will also draft a roadmap to include the forcibly displaced people into the NFIS, in the phase of being formulated.
The financial inclusion diagnostic will enable BCM to have a good understanding on the status of financial inclusion in Mauritania, on the constraints and barriers to access and usage of quality financial services (including digital), and on potentialities on which BCM can leverage for a better access to finance for excluded population in particular women, FDPs and SMEs. This knowledge and understanding of the findings are the foundation for the formulation of the NFIS which will be supported by AFDB. In this context, BCM have requested from AFI the support to define and implement a governance structure to coordinate activities for NFIS formulation and implementation, including a coordination mechanism equipped with a secretariat.
In that objective, AFI seek to recruit a consultant to achieve this assignment and propose a governance structure.
Overall Objective:
The overall goal of the project is to support the formulation and implementation of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy in the process of being developed, through the proposition of a governance structure to coordinate activities for NFIS formulation and implementation, including a coordination mechanism equipped with a secretariat.
This technical support will enable BCM to move forward to the next step of formulating the NFIS with a coherent and structured approach.
i. Rationale
The purpose of this technical support is to provide guidance and recommendations to establish a governance structure with high-level, steering and technical committees, secretariat, working groups and a coordination mechanism which will be carefully contextualized to fit into the context in Mauritania, including recommendations on the needed internal structures within BCM to host such a NFIS coordination mechanism and secretariat.
The technical support will include a benchmark of governance models among AFI members with focus on models that could be adapted in the context of Mauritania. This support will also allow to undertake a stakeholder mapping, to develop TOR for different entities of the governance structure, and to propose a structuration, including the budget and the monitoring tools, for BCM to start the activities of the Secretariat.
ii. Activities
There are six main activities :
The consulting firm/consultant will produce a report on an appropriate governance structure for BCM to coordinate among different stakeholders involved in the formulation of the NFIS, to follow up the formulation, and to closely monitor its implementation.
The following sets out the scope of work and specific deliverables under this brief:
The scope and tentative timelines for this assignment is detailed below:
Activity
Output/ Deliverable
Timeline
Appointment of Consultant and start of consultancy – Early April 2022
Inception Meeting – April 2022
Analysis of stakeholders role and institutional context including onsite mission for consultative meetings with stakeholders – April 2022
Analysis of governance structures compatible with the Mauritanian context – April 2022
Proposal for a suitable NFIS governance structure and Secretariat including review of the current structure in place and onsite mission – May 2022
Organization of the Secretariat including onsite mission – May 2022
Implementation of the Secretariat – June 2022
Workshop presentation – June 2022
Prepare a final report on the path to implement a suitable governance structure with lessons learnt and recommendations – July 2022
During the assignment, the BCM and AFI team will closely oversee, guide, and support the consulting firm/consultant by sharing internal expertise; linking them with key stakeholders; assisting in arranging the consulting firm’s communications; and providing inputs to deliverables. This assignment is expected to involve interactions with key stakeholders. The consultant is also expected to coordinate with the consultant recruited by AFDB for drafting the NFIS, for alignment and sharing of the work achieved.
This consultancy work will require at least two on-site missions (if the consultant is international) to Nouakchott, Mauritania to engage with national stakeholders and to support the high-level workshop. This will be discussed in further detail after the award decision notification. Please include budgeting for workshop-related travel in the financial proposal.
The applicant should be a consultant or consulting firm with a proven record in financial sector development, financial inclusion, or related field.
Throughout the contract period, the consultant will be reporting to the Project Lead from the BCM supported by the Technical Lead from the AFI team supporting this assignment**.**
Submission of Technical and Financial Proposals:
AFI reserves the right to disqualify incomplete submission and
non-compliance to the above requirements. Notification result will only be sent to shortlisted candidates upon completion.
Technical Scoring: Total – 100%
1. Academic Qualification – 20%
**
2. Experience and technical competence of the key staff for the assignment – 40%
**
3. Adequacy of the proposed work plan and methodology in responding to the Terms of Reference – 40%
Evaluation of technical and financial proposals
The evaluation and decision on the best proposal will be made based on the combined criterion, where companies are qualified by means of a score that takes into account the combined valuation of the technical and financial proposals, with the following weights:
a) Technical Proposal: 70% (Seventy percent).
b) Financial Proposal: 30% (Thirty percent).
Interested applicants are expected to submit a proposal with an updated CV and using thetemplate given (Download the RFP document here) by email to AFI’s Procurement & Contracts Office at rfp2211@afi-global.org by 18th March 2022.
The final decision on the selection of a consultant/consulting firm for this project rests with AFI
management team and with the Inquiry. Only shortlisted and successful consultants will be
contacted.
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