RfA: Development of integrated financial services for girls and women in The Gambia

UNCDF is bringing its expertise in promoting green and climate resilient communities and in financial inclusion, in support of job creation, under the “Jobs, skills and finance (JSF) for women and youth in The Gambia 2018 - 2022” programme funded by the 11th European Development Fund. This programme will contribute to stabilizing the economic, social and security situation of the country during the democratic transition by facilitating social inclusion and employment of the youth and women, with a specific emphasis on promoting gender equality and addressing climate change. It will do so through two components:

• Component 1: Job creation for the youth, women and local communities and equal access to employable skills development.

• Component 2: Improved access to finance.

UNCDF has been actively working to increase financial inclusion through piloting different approaches combining financial and non-financial services. Under component 2 of the JSF programme in the Gambia, UNCDF is addressing financial inclusion as a key contributing factor to unlock the potential of vulnerable segments such as women in driving sustainable and inclusive development. Improved financial capability and access to financial services have the potential to integrate women as drivers of innovative economic growth and job creation in their own communities. As such, UNCDF conducted a thorough assessment of Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Gambia (PoWER) which provides a comprehensive overview of women’s and girls” financial needs.

Objective of the RFA:

The purpose of this RFA is to select two qualified financial service providers (banks, financial institutions, Mobile Network Operators (MNO’s), FinTechs) committed, ready and able to provide integrated financial services targeting women as per UNCDF PoWER assessment findings with the following objectives:

• Develop specific use cases that prove the business case for serving women including challenges that women face in accessing formal financial services.

• Design, pilot and scale up new products and services (e.g. savings, loans and financial education) specifically targeting 20,000 women, in particular young women, in the target areas of intervention.

Particular attention should be given to products and services to women-owned enterprises developing solutions that could help the country to contain the COVID-19 and/or services that could support women to become more resilient to similar type of crises (i.e insurance, targeted savings accounts etc).

Overview of the timeline:

The selected partner will be expected to sign a 24 month agreement with UNCDF.

IMPORTANT! DEADLINE EXTENDED - interested candidates can submit applications until May 20, 2020 5pm GMT+0. Please send your application to jsf.gambia@uncdf.org mentioning the subject of the email "Name of the organization - FS for girls and women in The Gambia"

Contact:

You may send questions to jsf.gambia@uncdf.org before April 30th.