Starting in January 2024 and until August 2025, the ICR Facility (https://www.icr-facility.eu/) will initiate and animate an Exchange Group to give the opportunity to regional and national DFIs from mainly member states of the OACPS to exchange with peers (representatives from DFIs from non-ACP countries will be accepted but won’t be specifically targeted as members of the group). Evidence from the evaluation of the ICR Facility’s work in support of DFIs as well as initial interviews with DFIs indicate a strong interest among DFIs to connect and learn from each other. 

The DFI exchange group will be used as an “umbrella” platform for DFI-related knowledge sharing and group activities of the ICR Facility, and will also provide the opportunity for DFIs to share and showcase their best practices and experiences. This group hence encompasses two types of events:

1. Events that would have been organised by the ICR Facility irrespective of the existence of the Exchange Group. This includes events that we have organised in the past, such as P2P events, group trainings and webinars.
2. Quarterly 60 to 90-minute peer exchange sessions supported by a facilitator which would not have been planned outside of an organized Exchange Group. In these events, group members can initiate a topic of their choice for exchange with their peers, and the ICR Facility will offer logistical and communication support.

The ICR Facility is looking for a facilitator to support the ICR Facility in implementing and coordinating the quarterly peer-organised events of this Exchange Group. The role of the facilitator would include logistical aspects, stakeholder management, moderation, and communication. 

The ICR Facility is looking for a facilitator to support the ICR Facility in implementing and coordinating the quarterly peer-organised events of this Exchange Group. The role of the facilitator would include logistical aspects, stakeholder management, moderation, and communication. 

The facilitator will provide logistical and thematic support to DFIs wishing to host an event. He/she will support:

• The choice of the session topic
• The logistical organisation of the session (invitations, registrations…)
• The development of content (identifying input providers, PowerPoint presentations…)
• The moderation of the sessions
• Centralising documents and knowledge products related to the session and making them available on the ICR Facility’s website.

They will also provide light support to the management of the Exchange Group, such as reaching out to new potential members. 

The facilitator will be expected to:

1. Support the ICR Facility in identifying topics and hosting DFIs for each quarterly session. 

As the DFI Exchange group sessions shall cater to the interests of DFIs, it is important to identify priority topics and activities among the group. In addition, topics should also be in line with the ICR Facility’s focus on WEE and GLI. Even though the ICR Facility will encourage the discussion of gender-related topics, the Exchange Group will also cover topics for which DFIs have expressed a strong interest. The Exchange Group will offer the opportunity to discuss topics of common interest, for example how to use a certain tool or how to revise a strategy to address a certain challenge. We can also organise region-specific discussions where geography may be relevant, for example meetings for DFIs in small-island nations in either the Caribbean or the Pacific, or jointly. It will also be possible to disseminate lessons learned, for example sharing lessons learned from a gender gap assessment or the refinement of a financial product.

From preliminary discussions with the DFI community, several recurring topics for the DFI exchange group sessions have been identified. They include:

• How to operationalise a gender strategy
• Sharing the first results from the gender assessments implemented by the ICR Facility
• Checklists on how to improve financial products for women
• Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) tools (e.g., impact measurement tools)
• Presentation of other tools that have been developed with the support of the ICR Facility
• Capital raising/ fundraising, diversification of funding sources, especially with regards to gender funding, joint fundraising and deal structuring among peer DFIs
• Product development for a growing market
• Governance topics (e.g., how to deal with non-repayments, how to deal with PEPs, etc.)
• Loan structuring
• Processes that have been supported by the ICR Facility (for example gender aspects in GCF accreditation, lessons learned on how to make gender-responsive M&E systems, digital tools to increase update of loan offerings by female clients, etc.).

Other sources of content will originate from a growing topic list created by the ICR Facility based on the demands of DFIs, from the DFIs directly, or consultants who have worked with the ICR Facility in the past. 

The facilitator will contribute to the selection of these topics. We expect that before each quarterly meeting, the facilitator will identify a DFI willing to host the session and assist in choosing a topic on which they would like to present. The identification of DFI to host and present can be done either through informal contact or through a formal process – that is open to the preferences of the consultant. 

First session of the DFI Network

In Q1 2024, the ICR Facility proposes to host the first meeting session of the DFI Network. The role of the ICR Facility and the facilitator will be to organise, prepare, moderate, follow-up, and evaluate this first session.

We propose this first session to be a presentation of the impact assessment tools which were developed with the support of the ICR Facility in 2022 for the Development Bank of Rwanda (BRD) and the Development Bank of Zambia (DBZ).

Both tools are similar, as they have been developed by the same team of consultants, but have been adapted to each bank’s needs. BRD and DBZ have already had the opportunity to reach out to each other to discuss their use of the tool. Both banks have also shared their interest in hosting a peer exchange session, and expressed their willingness to discuss with their peers their experience in using these tools.

2. Support the logistical organisation of the session (invitations, registrations…)

Once a topic and hosting DFI has been identified for each session, the consultant will provide logistical support to organise the event.

This will mean:

• Making sure the format of the sessions is respected (once per quarter, 60 to 90 minutes, time slot to accommodate participants from as many ACP sub-regions as possible, time allocated to Q&A, Teams or Zoom)
• Identifying a convenient time for the session, depending on the expected participants
• Sending out invitations for the session
• Possibly finding co-moderators for sessions
• Making sure the parameters of the platform used are set up correctly (automatic translation, …)
• Coordinate communicating about the session (through the ICR Facility mailing list, by email and the ICR Facility LinkedIn account).

3. The development of content (identifying input providers, PowerPoint presentations...)

We expect the facilitator to:

• Prepare an agenda for each session
• Prepare a short flyer/email presentation for each session, presenting the content. This can be based on a pre-existing template from the ICR Facility.
• Supporting and guiding the hosting DFI in preparing a presentation, if needed
• Identifying potential additional presenters on the topic selected by the hosting DFI

4. The moderation of the session

Depending on the wish of the hosting DFIs, the facilitator might be responsible for moderating the quarterly online sessions (introduction, time and speaker management, Q&A management, conclusion).

5. Centralising documents and knowledge products related to the session and making them available on the ICR Facility’s website

Before and after sessions, presenters will be asked whether they are comfortable sharing their presentations with participants. If so, the presentation files will be shared in PDF form to all of the participants who attended the session. Some presentations will be shared widely and other will have a restricted access, depending on the topic. Documents can be shared by email and/or on the ICR Facility website.

The consultant will be responsible for collecting the final versions of presentations and sharing them. In the case that they will be published on the ICR Facility website, the facilitator will be responsible for liaising with the ICR Facility’s communication and visibility team who have access to the backend of the website.

6. Management of the community

In addition to supporting the organisation of the sessions, the consultant is expected to provide light support to the management of the exchange group. This includes:

• Setting up a WhatsApp group for the members of the Exchange Group, based on the information provided by the participants registering on the ICR Facility website.
• Updating and sharing information on the website and through the WhatsApp group
• Reaching out to new potential members.
• Putting banks into relation with one another based on need.

For each of the six sessions (once per quarter from January 2024 until August 2025), the consultant is expected to deliver:

• Files presenting the content of the session (presentations shared with participants)
• Monitoring & evaluation products that are needed for the ICR Facility (see Chapter V), including a list of participants for each session that is to adhere to the EU General Data Protection Regulation

At the end of the contract, the consulting team will deliver a short final report following the template provided by the ICR Facility.

The activities are expected to take place from January 2024 to August 2025. Most of the work is expected to be carried out remotely, however, if an event from the Exchange Group is organised on site, the consultant will be expected to travel. Travel will be organised by the ICR Facility and travel fees and per diems will be discussed separately with the consultant should that arise.

The activity will have a maximum duration of 44 days of expertise.