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:

To support members to self-assess and receive systematic peer review of their progress in implementing AFI policy guidance, as well as the effectiveness of the reforms in achieving members’ financial inclusion goals, AFI developed a methodology and process guidance for the piloting of the FICA as an additional AFI service available to members on a voluntary basis.

In 2024, two pilot country assessments were initiated with the Philippines and Zambia, in partnership with AFI’s member institutions (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Bank of Zambia (BoZ)). Valuable lessons have emerged from these pilots to help improve future assessments. One key outcome is to ensure that selected assessors drawn from a pool of voluntary applicants from AFI member institutions with relevant expertise are fully equipped to undertake the technical and robust nature of FICA.

3.         Overall Objective:

The Assessment Team members for the FICA require a diverse set of skills and a deep understanding of the process. Hence, this assignment aims to enhance capabilities of financial regulators and policymakers from within the AFI network to prepare and qualify assessors (i.e. the “Assessment Team”) for the next cycle of assessments, ensuring they have the knowledge, competencies, and tools needed to carry out high-quality evaluations. More details on the overall FICA Project Components can be found below.

With this TOR, AFI seeks to engage a Subject Matter Expert (SME) to work closely with the AFI team to design and develop the online course.

4.         Project Component:

4.1     AFI Policy Models

The core of the country assessment will be the AFI Policy Models of which there are seven currently adopted:

1. Policy Model for Digital Identity and Electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC)
2. Policy Model for MSME Finance
3. Policy Model on Consumer Protection for Digital Financial Services
4. Policy Model for National Financial Inclusion Strategy
5. Policy Model on Core set of financial inclusion indicators
6. Policy Model for E-Money
7. Policy Model for Gender Inclusive Finance

Gender inclusive finance and the inclusion of disadvantaged groups (as per the 2019 Kigali Statement) are also cross-cutting priorities reflected in each Policy Model. Countries may also select additional policy areas where AFI has a mature body of guidance and knowledge products to include in their assessment.

4.2      Assessment Team

For each of the two pilots, the Assessment Team will comprise of senior representatives of AFI’s member working groups who volunteer to participate as an assessor.

4.3      Methods of analysis

The FICA pilot applied two primary methods of analysis:

1. Technical assessment: A desk-based review of policies, regulations, and interventions in the assessed jurisdiction, guided by AFI Policy Models. The process begins with a self-assessment by the member institution, which is then reviewed by the Assessment Team.

*Skills Required:

• Strong understanding of AFI Policy Models and their application in diverse country contexts
  • Ability to interpret legal, regulatory, and policy documents accurately
  • Analytical skills to identify gaps, strengths, and areas for improvement in existing frameworks
  • Attention to detail and ability to synthesize large volumes of technical information into concise, actionable insights

• Effectiveness assessment: A macro-level evaluation of the impact of the country’s financial inclusion strategy in achieving stated goals and outcomes. This combines quantitative analysis (e.g. review of key indicators) and qualitative insights (e.g. stakeholder interviews with agencies and organizations engaged in the National Financial Inclusion Strategies (NFIS)), conducted in-person.

*Skills Required:

• Strong stakeholder engagement and interview skills, including the ability to plan, conduct, and synthesize structured interviews with policymakers, regulators, and relevant stakeholders with a focus on gathering evidence necessary for the purposes of the assessment
• Cultural and contextual sensitivity when engaging with diverse stakeholders
• Competence in interpreting and analysing financial inclusion data sets and indicators
• Strong qualitative research skills, including conducting and analysing stakeholder interviews
• Ability to draw connections between policy implementation and measurable outcomes
• Ability to draft and critically review sections of assessment reports utilizing the evidence gathered through the assessment process

The *skills outlined for both the Technical Assessment and the Effectiveness Assessment represent the essential competencies required of FICA assessors. These will form the foundation of the capacity building training, ensuring that participants are not only familiar with the FICA process but also able to apply the necessary technical, analytical, and stakeholder engagement skills to deliver high-quality evaluations.

5.         Scope of Work:

The SME is expected to lead the process of developing and delivering this online course, in coordination with the AFI team. The course will be developed for and hosted on AFI Educate, AFI’s own online portal for its online courses. The SME will be required to design course content, activities, and assessments that are compatible with the features and technical specifications of this platform. Approximately 23-25 days of work is expected to complete the assignment. The detailed tasks are as follows:

• Pre-development Tasks
• Establish high-quality learning outcomes. Learning outcomes are statements that describe what learners will be able to do by the end of the online course.
• Identify 5 to 7 major topics to be formed as modules that learners need to learn to achieve learning outcomes. Each module should be tailored to an appropriate level of difficulty, whether it be basic, intermediate, or advanced.
• Develop 6 to 9 webpages (approximately 900 words each) within each module, containing relevant content, resources and activities that facilitate learners’ understanding of the subject matter. The best activities are ones where learners are active – e.g. where they are sharing, discussing, creating, constructing, reflecting, applying. The activities should incorporate a variety of different types, including reflections, role plays, scenarios, discussions, creating something, applying concepts to a particular interest project etc.
• The course is expected to have:
  • 3 to 5 technical case studies of AFI member institutions. These case studies would build upon the country’s examples outlined in AFI’s existing publications, offering a more detailed analysis and follow-up question(s). 
  • Development of 2 videos scripts.
  • Learning activities that enable learners to understand the topics/modules.
    • 3 to 4 short activities in each module to reflect upon their learning on specific sub-topics
    • One core activity at the end of each module to reflect upon their learning on the module
    • One fictional case study
  • 2 final assignment questions:
    • Final Assessment 1: 25 Multiple Choice Questions
    • Final Assessment 2: Essay
  • Suggest additional readings that are relevant to the course, including AFI website
• Development Tasks
• Review and validate the storylines or scenarios that are interspersed with quizzes, information nuggets, assignments and case studies developed by the AFI team.
• Review and validate the functional prototype of the online learning courses developed by the AFI team.
• Submit to AFI Team the final version of the online course.
• Post-development Tasks (to be completed after the course has been published and subscribed)
• Facilitate the first cohort. The facilitator should:
  • Encourage meaningful discussions among learners to extend the ideas being shared
  • Observe learners’ engagement and provide support and encouragement to those at risk of becoming disengaged
  • Guide learners to manage their own learning
  • Know when to become involved and when to step back in discussions and
  • Build a sense of community within the course
• Moderate webinar session(s) during the first cohort.
• Assess and mark the learner’s answers to the Final Assessment 2 question(s).

This assignment is offsite work and involves the following:

The technical content of the online course must prioritize the practical application of knowledge and skills directly relevant to the work of financial regulators.

The SME is expected to work with the AFI Team, to get an understanding of the AFI technical content and organizational context.

The SME is required to collect additional input from the selected AFI member institutions in developing effective case studies/simulations/scenarios.

6.         Timeline and Deliverables:

Work is proposed to be undertaken between November 2025 to September 2026. The key timelines are summarized in the table below:

Deliverables	Estimated Days of Work	Tentative Timeline
Upon submission and acceptance of the following: Course Content Development Activity and Assessment Development Review of 50% On-platform Development Review of 100% On-platform Development	Maximum of 21 days	End of March 2026
Upon completion and acceptance of post-development tasks	Maximum of 4 days	End of September 2026

7.         Travel:

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

8.         Consultant Experience:

The contract should be awarded to a firm consultant or individual as the SME. The consultant(s) who will be assigned for the assignment should have:

• 8-10 years of experience in working on financial inclusion with a focus on financial inclusion policy and regulations-related work and activities
• Experience in developing online course or organizing training programs
• Excellent knowledge and experience of country assessment processes (e.g. FATF Mutual Evaluations, etc.)
• Experience of working with policymakers/regulators and other financial inclusion stakeholders
• Excellent communication and coordination skills – verbal and written

9.         Reporting:

Throughout the contract period, the SME will be reporting to Robin Newnham, Head of Policy Analysis & Guidance (PAG) and Vidhya Raman, AFI’s Policy Specialist of PAG.

10.         Payment Terms:

The payment terms proposed for this consultancy are as follows:

Deliverables	Percentage
Upon submission and acceptance of Course Content Development	20%
Upon review and acceptance of 50% On-platform Development	20%
Upon review and acceptance of 100% On-platform Development	30%
Upon completion and acceptance of post-development tasks	30%
	100%

11.      Administrative Information:

11.1       Disclaimer

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

11.2       Proposal Submission Information:

Proposals will be due with the following requirements for submission:

Submission Deadline:	15 October 2025
Documents to be submitted with Annexure 1 and 2:
Firm	Company Registration;Company Profile;List of previous or current clientele on similar work;Workplan (graph/timeline)References with email contact;Joint-Agreement (if any);Conflict of Interest Disclosure form;At least one (1) sample work (link or attachments) if any
Individual	Full CVs with list of previous similar work;Disclosure if individual have a full time or part time employment contract with any organization or government official or indirect involvement in this tender;Workplan (graph/timeline)Conflict of Interest Disclosure form;Reference letter (if any);References with email contact; At least one (1) sample work (link or attachments) if any
Method of Submission:	By email to AFI’s Procurement & Contracts Office at RFP2530@afi-global.org
Submission of Technical and Financial:	Kindly submit the followings: Using the template/format given in Annexure 1 (Technical) and Annexure 2 (Financial) and/or additional technical proposal for more information. Technical and Financial proposal must be separated in different pdf. Financial proposals must be USD only. Whereas for Malaysian applicants with Business Registration under Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM), please submit your financial proposals in MYR. Proposal to be submitted to the designated email address.AFI does not tolerate copyright infringement, including but not limited to infringement, in the form of plagiarism. Consultant or Consulting entity awarded a contract by AFI shall take responsibility to ensure that the authored works, produced in parts or as an entirety of the deliverables stated in this RFP does not infringe on copyrights.
AFI is not bound to accept the lowest quoted bid and reserves the right to disqualify incomplete submission, overlapping submission, non-compliance to the above requirements. Notification of results will only be sent to shortlisted candidates upon completion.

11.3       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.

12.     Evaluation Criteria

The proposals submitted will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Technical Scoring Criteria
Profile and Overall Qualification	20%
Technical Experience	50%
Experience in developing online course or organizing training programs related financial inclusion policies	25%
Knowledge and experience of country assessment processes (e.g. FATF Mutual Evaluations, etc.)	25%
Adequacy of proposed workplan and methodology	20%
Technical approach and research methodology	10%
Workplan (include Level of Effort of team/individual)	10%
Sample Work – financial inclusion policy and regulations-related work and activities	10%
Total	100%

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)

How to Apply

Interested applicants are expected to submit a proposal with an updated CV and using the template given by email to AFI’s Procurement & Contracts Office at rfp2530@afi-global.org by 15th October 2025, Wednesday.

Note: AFI does not tolerate copyright infringement, including and not limited to infringement, in the form of plagiarism. Consultant or consulting entity awarded a contract by AFI shall take responsibility to ensure that the authored works, produced in parts or as an entirety of the deliverables stated in this RFP does not infringe on copyrights.

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