UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME has floated a tender for Consultant: Expert on Crowdfunding, Crowdinvestment and Blockchain (IRH). The project location is Slovakia and the tender is closing on 10 Jan 2019. The tender notice number is , while the TOT Ref Number is 29559639. Bidders can have further information about the Tender and can request the complete Tender document by Registering on the site.

Expired Tender

Procurement Summary

Country : Slovakia

Summary : Consultant: Expert on Crowdfunding, Crowdinvestment and Blockchain (IRH)

Deadline : 10 Jan 2019

Other Information

Notice Type : Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 29559639

Document Ref. No. :

Competition : ICB

Financier : United Nations Secretariat

Purchaser Ownership : -

Tender Value : Refer Document

Purchaser's Detail

Purchaser : UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
Tel +421-2-59 337 111 Fax +421-2-59 337 450
Slovakia
Email :registry.sk@undp.org

Tender Details

Tenders are invited for Consultant: Expert on Crowdfunding, Crowdinvestment and Blockchain (IRH).

Background

Achieving SDGs alone according to UNCTAD-s World Investment Report will require $3, 9 trillion per year between 2015 and 2030 for health, education and infrastructure - leaving a $2.5 trillion annual shortfall relative to the current and forecast commitments of $1, 4 trillion. Innovative financing mechanisms can close the gap by channelling the resources that are available at the market and by leveraging the private sector capital worth over $200 trillion to address the most pressing development issues. Governments- potential to strategically mobilize various sources of financing for social purposes remains underutilized while many around the world are dealing with fiscal crises and rolling back many essential services. The alternative finance can help leverage public funding to mobilize various new sources of investment (private and venture capital, P2P lending) for public policy, social services and achieving a number of SDGs, while at the same time realigning interests of various partners and creating new investment opportunities.

This project builds on the successes and lessons learned of the Transformative Governance and Finance Facility [Phase I] and, seeks to utilize new technologies and alternative finance mechanisms in support of the SDG agenda. It is a continuation of UNDP-s partnership with the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, during which, through the first phase of TGFF project, UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub (IRH) established the Alternative Finance Lab (AltFin Lab), in an effort to explore potential and feasibility of various alternative finance mechanisms both in the Europe and CIS (as well as other regions). Through the further work in 2018 on prototypes and expanding to new grounds to understand what has the potential to be catalytic in the Europe and Central Asia context; and initiated globally, the Lab was set to support (in)formal citizen and other groups, government partners, business and others who are willing to experiment with some of the top emerging finance mechanisms. Through this project, the work of the Lab will be further promoted, moving from recognizing promising areas and pilot projects, in creating success stories and upscaling them to the regional level.

In this context, the IRH is looking for the Expert on Alternative Finance mechanisms who will, under the guidance of the IRH innovation specialist, continue to work on and further develop AltFin Lab portfolio of projects, activities as well as work on developing new transformational partnerships and projects, which should all contribute to SDG agenda. The needed Expert will help develop and implement a portfolio of experiments with concerned relevant country office (CO) teams, other UNDP business units, UN agencies and governments in order to better understand their implications and the potential for financing public policies and development.

Location:
Home-based, with possible missions to Europe and CIS region and other locations, if needed




Duties and Responsibilities

he Expert will work under the supervision of Governance and Innovation Specialist at IRH; and in collaboration with COs, work on four (4) different distinct areas of alternative finance. Role of the expert is to support existing projects focused on testing and prototyping; but also moving to scaling up activities:

Crowdfunding and Crowdinvesting

· Supporting new business models regarding civic CF projects and crowdsourcing projects, in RBEC, RBAS and RBA;

· Crowdfunding Lending and Investment - in collaboration with senior alternative finance expert support the number of existing UNDP initiatives and projects on crowdinvesting and bringing them to scale and for renewable energy and SMEs; Supporting projects in RBEC and RBAS, depending on the demand;

· In collaboration with senior alternative finance expert building up crowdfunding platforms developed by UNDP and its partners and exploring moving from philanthropy and donations models to impact investment platforms;

Blockchain technologies

· Identification and development of new strategic partnerships in the area of blockchain for public service delivery and provision of support to COs in RBEC on leveraging these partnerships for development solutions

· Development of regional approach to applying the blockchain technology in addressing development challenges including identification of funding opportunities and provision of support in navigating regulatory frameworks based on experiences of other countries and consolidating lessons learned.

· Exploring new business models for blockchain for development, pitching to and bringing on board new investment projects, including the joint field of practice between crowdfunding and blockchain, including ongoing support to existing projects in Moldova, Ecuador and Lebanon;

· Exploring new financial mechanisms for development including digital coins/tokens for development and drafting the lessons learned how it can be replicated and scaled with UNDP support;

· Provision of support for the blockchain-based technology model for remittances transfer and government services which should be scalable and which, if proved successful, should be upgraded to reach the implementation phase (in particular, Armenia and Tajikistan);

Innovative Financial Technologies

· Testing new alternative finance business models and bringing on board CO teams/their partners interested in carrying it out in their region;

Resource Mobilization and Capacity building

· Strengthening CO personnel 3-4 countries (different from the senior expert on alternative finance) by providing training on tools and methodologies of usage and implementation of alternative finance mechanisms (within their specific context);

· Supporting resource mobilization activities with the TGFF 2 project team.

Within this context, Expert on Crowdfunding, Crowdinvestment and Blockchain will be responsible for delivering tasks, including the following:

Expected Deliverables:
Specific deliverables will be agreed with the certifying officer at the beginning of each month and they will be reported on a monthly basis and will specifically focus on the following:

· Advisory support services to 7-8 COs for designing and implementing crowdfunding investment (civic, reward, equity, debt crowdfunding) campaigns within and outside the scope of the UNDP Global Crowdfunding Academy (number of COs supported, number of campaigns in the design stage/implementation stage, amount of funding raised); and setting up national crowdfunding ecosystems (approximately 50% of the time);

· Supporting the development of UNDP AltFinLab regional HUBs, in the field of alternative innovating financing models (approximately 10% of the time);

· Developing pilot projects on blockchain technology and innovative technologies (AI, AR, VR) (approximately 20% of the time);

· Assisting and organizing work in the field of alternative financing models - from research, advising and setting up innovative financing models, logistics to media communication and building up media presence through social networks and website (altfinlab.org) (approximately 10% of the time);

· Organizing Global Crowdfunding Academy and Alternative Finance Academy in RBEC, RBAS and/or other regions, and assisting with crowdfunding and alternative finance campaigns devising from it (approximately 10% of the time).

Remuneration:
Timeframe: Up to 460 working days over estimated period of two years from the start of the assignment.

Specific timeline for delivery of services will be agreed with the certifying officer at the beginning of each month. Payments will be made in 24 instalments (once a month) upon submitted satisfactory timesheet and progress report against deliverables and upon its acceptance by the Supervisor/Certifying Officer (Governance and Innovation Specialist from IRH).
Travel costs related to the possible missions to Europe and CIS region and other locations, will be paid separately to the Consultant as per UNDP rules and regulations.




Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

· Promotes the mission and values of the UN;

· Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity;

· Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Functional Competencies:

· Strong writing, presentation and reporting skills;

· Excellent communication and team-building skills.




Required Skills and Experience

Education:

· University degree (Bachelor-s Degree) in the field of Business, Energy, Environment or International Development.

Experience:

· At least two (2) years of working experience in the field of crowdfunding, innovative financing models and alternative financing related fields in development contexts is a mandatory;

· Practical experience in organizing group education and in crowdfunding is mandatory;

· At least two (2) years of working experience in the field of blockchain, with a working experience of developing blockchain based prototypes is an asset;

· Proven track record of successfully completed crowdfunding campaigns is an asset;

· Experience with predictive and preventative finance, with a special focus on working experience in the field of Forecast Based Financing is an asset;

Language skills

· Excellent English language skills, both written and verbal are a requirement.

Evaluation of Applicants

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicants- qualifications and financial proposal.
The award of the c

Documents

 Tender Notice