Consultant, for Kissan (Farmer’s) Package

Experience: Minimum 8 years
Location: Lahore (with travel to Islamabad)
Country: Pakistan
Job Category:Consultancy
Last Date:12 October, 2016

Terms of Reference:

Karandaaz Pakistan (“Company”), is a not for profit company, set up by Department for International Development UK (“DFID”) for the implementation of the Enterprise and Asset Growth Programme. The company was incorporated in August 2014. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (“BMGF”) has set up a Digital Financial Services Unit within Company for increasing the reach of financial services through the use of innovative digital technologies. The objectives for DFS unit, all of which are aimed at poor, rural, or otherwise excluded population segments are to: 1) Drive government payments onto digital platforms and develop new digital payment use cases for the public sector; 2) Work with commercial providers to test new digital payment innovations; 3) Conduct regulatory and policy analysis and advocacy to address the remaining policy barriers to digital financial inclusion; and 4) Create public goods to accelerate diffusion of best practices.

Background:

The Punjab government is launching a multi-faceted, five year agricultural intervention aimed at digital and financial inclusion of farmers. Branded the Kissan Package (Farmer’s Package), the intervention aims to reach 500,000 farmers who will be provided interest free loans and agricultural extension services using smartphone platforms. A consortium of banks, telcos & Microfinance Institutions are already part of the program. Recognizing the need for expert advisory, the Government of Punjab has requested Karandaaz to provide technical assistance and support for designing and piloting the intervention.

Karandaaz is seeking the services of a Consultant who has substantial consulting experience in developing mobile financial services, M-Agri products and implementing and designing complex projects in the agriculture sector in multiple markets in Asia, Africa or South America. The Consultant will report to Secretary Agriculture, Government of the Punjab.

The Consultant will be hired for a 12-15 week period and will provide support to the project in the following areas:

Service Design & end to end process mapping, with the objective of placing the farmer experience and government policy objectives at the center of the intervention.

The consultant will be expected to work on challenges identified by Karandaaz through an initial assessment of the services design/process flow and others that may be identified during the course of his or her work.

Technological capacity and enablement – identifying technological requirements for each stakeholder to facilitate smooth operations and optimal farmer experience.

Identifying opportunities for Karandaaz to continue its engagement with the project over the next five years as it evolves from a credit-only scheme to incorporate other features, such as digital payments for farming inputs and digital insurance for crops.

Technical support for designing a Karandaaz-sponsored pilot to test the proposed processes and service design with the objective of assessing their scalability, commercial viability and policy impact.

Deliverables:

The Consultant shall document the assignment in a final report. The reports will cover the following areas:

Stage 1 Report – Discussing a proposed service design/process flow structure based on stakeholder discussions, literature review and field visits. Included will be an assessment of technological, commercial and regulatory angles while keeping farmer experience and policy objectives central to the discussion.

Stage 2 Report – Adds onto Stage 1 Report by providing finalized service design/process flow maps. This will include recommendations on product, technology, liquidity management as well as an assessment of stakeholder constraints and strengths. This report, and accompanying presentation(s), will be finalized in discussion with stakeholders and will form the basis of the government of Punjab project.

Stage 3 Report – The final report adds onto the earlier two by incorporating testing strategy, service design, process flows and assessment framework for the proposed pilot sponsored by Karandaaz. This report will also provide recommendations on the future direction of the overall government intervention while scoping out a roadmap for future cooperation between the government and Karandaaz.

Qualification and Eligibility requirement:

• At least a Master’s degree in Economics, or agriculture related subject or other relevant field
• A minimum of total eight years of professional experience in relevant fields including mobile money and mobile financial services. M-Agri products experience will be preferred
• Ability to interact and work with senior level government officials and private business professionals in banks and telcos
• Demonstrable experience of development and implementation of new business models and digital financial products
  Experience of designing and implementing complex projects or providing consulting support in the implementation of complex projects
• Experience of developing innovative payment solutions to extend the reach of financial services to unbanked populations
• The Consultant will be primarily based in Lahore to support the Agriculture Department. This will require frequent travel between Lahore and Islamabad

Deadline:

Note: Interested individuals, with a deep understanding of the agriculture and digital financial services industry (mobile money, branchless banking, payment services etc), can send their CVs to procurement@karandaaz.com.pk. Please mention the position title ‘Consultant for Kissan Package’ in the subject line.

Application deadline for the position is October 12, 2016.