1. Background

The Alliance for Financial Inclusion
The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) is the world’s leading organization on financial inclusion policy and regulation. Currently, 90 member institutions make up the AFI network including central banks, ministries of finance and other financial policymaking or regulatory institutions from over 84 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 AFI members 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 (WG): 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 (updated 2022) 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 complete the AFI platform of services by supporting 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).

2. Project Background

AFI was awarded a grant by the European Commission to implement the Women’s Economic Empowerment and Financial Inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa (WEE-FI Africa) project. This initiative aims to strengthen financial inclusion across Sub-Saharan Africa by expanding equitable access to quality financial services, thereby enhancing financial resilience and overall economic well-being for underserved populations.

The project is designed to support AFI member institutions in the region by fostering a robust regulatory framework and facilitating the formulation of evidence-based financial inclusion policies. Key thematic areas addressed through this initiative include digital financial services and emerging consumer risks, financial inclusion for youth and women, and inclusive green finance. This project leverages peer-learning and evidence-based knowledge to assist financial sector regulators and policymakers to refine financial inclusion policies and regulations, as well as promote policy solutions that are innovative, inclusive and responsive to the diverse needs of the region’s population. This is done through AFI’s established services, platforms and modalities that integrate knowledge dissemination, capacity building, peer-learning engagements, and direct in-country technical assistance, dialogue platforms with private sectors and financial regulatory from developed countries.

By strengthening the financial regulatory landscape, the project aims to create an enabling environment for sustainable financial inclusion, ensuring that regulatory frameworks remain both forward-looking and adaptable to emerging trends. The ultimate objective is to enhance economic participation among marginalized groups, contributing to broader financial stability and inclusive economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

It is against this background that AFI is commissioning an end-project evaluation of the Women’s Economic Empowerment and Financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa (WEE-FI Africa) project (January 2024 – December 2025).

3. Overall Objective

The main objective of this consultancy assignment is to undertake an end-project evaluation of the Women’s Economic Empowerment and Financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa (WEE-FI Africa) project.

The evaluation will assess the project’s design, implementation and outcomes to produce evidence-based insights that will inform future financial inclusion initiatives.

Specifically, this end-project evaluation seeks to:

• Assess project performance and achievements: assess the overall progress made towards achieving the outputs and outcomes of the project using the project’s logical framework.
• Assess relevance and responsiveness: assess alignment of project’s activities and outcomes with the policy priority and needs of AFI member institutions; identify gaps and opportunities to refine AFI service delivery meeting members’ demand.
• Evaluate implementation efficiency and effectiveness: assess the effectiveness of project implementation mechanisms, including coordination mechanism and collaboration among all relevant departments within AFI Management Unit as well as with partners / external stakeholders outside AFI. Examine efficiency of resource allocation and budget utilization for project implementation.
• Evaluate contributions to regulatory advancements: evaluate the extent to which activities and outputs of the project have contributed or influenced the development and implementation of financial inclusion policies and/or regulatory frameworks by AFI Member Institutions
• Assess broader qualitative change: identify any shift in policy narratives, institutional mindsets, or sectoral paradigm that the project may have catalyzed, evaluating its boarder impact on intended beneficiaries and stakeholders.
• Assess impact and sustainability: assess the extent the project is generating impact on financial inclusion and economic empowerment, as well as the likelihood of the benefits to be sustained beyond the project’s implementation period
• Formulate recommendations: provide actionable recommendations to enhance operational effectiveness of AFI Management Unit in project implementation; provide evidence-based insights to improve on future project design, and ensure long-term sustainability of outcomes
• Disseminate findings: submit an end-project evaluation report and deliver presentations to AFI Management and relevant stakeholders, as required.

4. Scope of Work

The end-project evaluation shall confirm to OECD/DAC’s Quality Standards for Development Evaluation. The evaluators shall use the OECD/DAC Glossary of Key Terms in Evaluation.

The tasks that are expected to be achieved include:

• Conduct a desk review of the project document, annual workplan and budget of the project, annual progress report and financial report submitted, logical framework, and other documents as advised by the AFI Monitoring & Evaluation Unit;
  • Develop the evaluation matrix outlining the approach and methodology of this review, including research questions that address the scope of work defined above; develop the workplan for this evaluation assignment;

• Identify key informants for this evaluation assignment – including technical staff of AFI Management Unit involved in the project implementation, selected technical staff of AFI member institutions who are involved and/or participated in the activities under this project, as well as donors, partners and stakeholders as advised by AFI Monitoring and Evaluation unit – and conduct remote or virtual interviews for data and information gathering;

• Develop key deliverables (as detailed in the next section) of this evaluation assignment;

• Provide weekly updates (in writings or virtual calls) to the AFI Monitoring & Evaluation unit on the progress of the evaluation assignment;

• Prepare presentations for the AFI Management Unit and AFI Senior Management Team

5. Timeline and Deliverables

The assignment would be undertaken from 4 August 2025 and ends 15 December 2025, with an estimated level of effort of 20 person-days. The key deliverables for the assignment are as follows:

1. Evaluation matrix and workplan – the evaluation matrix outlines the approach and methodology of this review, including research questions that address the scope defined above;
2. Annotated outline of the report – the provisional document contains the key findings generated from the assessments and recommendations as defined in the overall objective above;
3. Draft evaluation report (.docx) and presentations to AFI (up to 2 presentations) on review findings (.pptx); and
4. Final report with recommendations.

The deliverables and tentative timeline are as per table below:

6. Travel

No Travel is expected for this assignment. The consultant will work remotely and undertake virtual meetings to complete the tasks.

7. Consultant Experience

The evaluation professional or team must have the following qualifications:

Relevant academic qualifications: Advanced degree in international development, economics, finance or other related field;

• Professional experience in undertaking program and/or project reviews and evaluation: more than eight years of professional experience undertaking program and/or project reviews and evaluations in developing or emerging economies is compulsory; prior experience reviewing program/projects of global and/or regional scale is an added advantage;

• Experience in international development: More than 10 years of professional experience in international development. Prior professional engagement with financial regulatory entities particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa be an added advantage; Demonstrated familiarity with digital financial services, gender mainstreaming and/or gender empowerment programming area are an added advantage as well;

• Experience in qualitative and quantitative research methods: Experience in data collection, quantitative and qualitative research are required; strong research, reporting and analytical skills with practical experience in engaging with public sector stakeholders are desired;
  
  
• Language and report writing skills: Fluency in English (oral and written) is compulsory; French (oral and written) is desired.

8. Reporting

During the period of the execution of project, the consultant will report to AFI’s Monitoring and Evaluation department and is expected to provide weekly progress updates (either in writings or virtual calls).

The workplan submitted by the consultant along with the evaluation matrix and workplan will be use for the monitoring and supervision of the progress of this consultancy assignment.

Consultant will also be working closely with the AFI Monitoring and Evaluation team based in AFI HQ in Kuala Lumpur.

9. Payment Terms

The payment terms/schedule proposed for this consultancy are as following:

10. Administrative Information

10.1 Disclaimer

The final decision on selection of a firm for this project rests with AFI management team and with the Inquiry. Only shortlisted and successful firms will be contacted.

10.2 Proposal Submission Information

Proposal will be due with the following requirements for submission:

10.3 Retention of Proposals

All proposals submitted become the property of AFI. AFI will make all reasonable efforts to maintain proposals in confidence and will release proposals only to personnel involved with the evaluation of the project. Proprietary information should be identified in each proposal.

11. Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation of technical and financial proposals

AFI reserves the right to award the most suitable proposal based on the evaluation of combined criterion, where bidders are qualified by the combined valuation of the technical and financial proposals, with the following weightage:

i) Technical Proposal: 70% (Seventy percent)

ii) Financial Proposal: 30% (Thirty percent)