Are you looking for a new challenge? Are you passionate about increasing financial inclusion for underserved groups? Would you like to build and manage a large and diverse portfolio of technical assistance projects to financial service providers in South Asia? Do you have experience of working with a broad range of stakeholders to deliver high quality, impactful results? Are you passionate about transforming ideas into action? If so, we would like to hear from you!

Project Background

British International Investment (BII) is the UK’s development finance institution. BII invests with the aim of solving the biggest global development challenges by investing patient, flexible capital to support private sector growth and innovation. BII has over 70 years of experience successfully supporting the sustainable, long-term growth of businesses in Africa and Asia, and has recently expanded to invest in the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean.

BII invests to achieve impact and a financial return. Over the past five years, BII has committed almost £7 billion to new investments, with net assets growing in value to approximately £7.5 billion. BII are now invested in 1,200 businesses which directly employ over 900,000 workers and support many more. Over the next five years, BII plan to grow further, and aim to commit around £9 billion in new investments over the period. BII has a longstanding commitment to Financial Services (we have a portfolio of over $2bn invested in financial services across more than 150 investees which represents about one third of BII’s total portfolio by value).

Over the last two years, BII has scaled-up its technical assistance activity to unlock impactful investments and promote sustained practice changes in financial services providers, leading to improvements in the relevance, quality, affordability, and/or accessibility of finance services for underserved groups, green sectors, and/or high impact SMEs. To support this, BII has launched FSG Plus, a flagship technical assistance facility for the financial service sector, implemented by DAI.

In South Asia, BII is working with financial institutions to drive the impact of its investments with a range of advisory projects focusing on inclusion, gender, climate and productivity. This has included the development of gender action plans and research to establish the business case for financial institutions to serve more women-led SMEs.

In partnership with the Gates Foundation, BII is now seeking to scale-up efforts to increase financial inclusion in South Asia (India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan) through a dedicated facility to promote the financial inclusion of underserved customer segments such as women, rural populations and high impact SMEs (including women-led SMEs).  The facility will provide tailored support to FIs directly as well as building capacity more broadly through a series of research and events activities.

The South Asia Inclusion Facility Lead (“Facility Lead”) will have day-to-day responsibility for the implementation and management of the facility, with the support of the FSG Plus team, thus playing a pivotal role in driving change within organisations to catalyse impact. This full-time position will be based in India with office space provided in BII’s and Gates’ Foundation offices. The Facility Lead will be expected to be able to travel within India and the South Asia region.

 

Summary of assignment

We are looking for a dynamic Facility Lead to join our team. This position will have overall responsibility for the successful delivery of a portfolio of gender and inclusion advisory projects in the financial services sector across South Asia. The incumbent will report to the FSG Plus Technical Director (based in London) and will work closely with the FSG Plus GESI Lead.  This hands-on role will directly support BII’s and Gates’ gender and inclusion goals in the region. As part of their responsibilities, the Facility Lead will be expected to:

Stakeholder management and pipeline development

·        Work hand in hand with various BII Financial Services investment teams (Equity, Debt, Financial Services Funds, Trade and Supply Chain Finance and Intermediated Credit) and Gender teams, as well as teams within the Gates Foundation, to identify and bring to life opportunities to provide technical assistance to financial service providers in South Asia (including BII investees, sub-investees and pipeline companies) to drive BII’s and Gates’ GESI priorities in the region.

·        Proactively engage with financial institutions and other key financial sector players across the region to develop a pipeline of advisory projects and supporting research and communications activities.  

Project design

·        Drive the TA origination process including the identification of TA need and development of project concepts, offering tailored guidance and support to potential TA recipients.

·        Co-create Technical Assistance projects with interested financial institutions that meet the needs of the organisation and the impact objectives of the initiative.

·        Prepare and present concept notes, applications, and Terms of Reference to ensure consistency with priorities, goals, and objectives, as well as a case for impact.

Project management and delivery

·        Acting as a primary point of contact for project implementation. Project management responsibilities will include:

o   managing consultants to deliver high quality results, manage risks, ensuring projects are delivering to the workplan and objectives.

o   oversee quality assurance of technical deliverables, including coordination of the review process and provision of feedback, communicating concerns, and proactively managing consultants delivering advisory projects.

o   coordinate with the FSG Plus Project Coordinator on TA provider procurement and contracting issues

o   reviewing progress and deliverables to ensure the results achieve the targets and that learning is effectively gathered and shared

o   early identification and mitigation of risks and issues, and effectively and efficiently communicating concerns and responses to FSG Plus Technical Director

o   acting as the main point of coordination between TA recipients, TA providers and the BII /Gates teams

o   contributing to reporting requirements of BII and the Gates Foundation as required.

Learning, events and external engagement

·        Manage a learning and communications workstream with the aim of producing case studies, compelling thought pieces and other research and learning materials to support the programme

·        Present findings and results of the projects at senior stakeholder presentations and webinars, both internal and external.

 

Requirements

This role requires:

·        Ability to work independently and to tight deadlines, working across multiple geographies and diverse teams.

·        Previous experience working with financial institutions in South Asia to drive internal change, support the development of new products, and entering new markets. A strong network of contacts within the financial sector is desirable. Experience delivering or overseeing TA in related areas is desirable, including: gender product development, product bundling, customer value proposition development, gender market research, MIS data harvesting, or diversity in sales and marketing techniques.

·        Knowledge of issues and opportunities for FIs in the areas of gender equality, women’s economic empowerment, youth engagement and social and financial inclusion. Understanding of general trends in GESI, and global awareness of GESI integrations is expected.

·        Ability to manage multiple, competing priorities in a high paced work environment, collaborating across different teams, organisations, and stakeholders at all levels.

·        Ability to organise and deliver workshops, events and dissemination activities with the support of the FSG Plus team.

·        Experience in the conception, design, and implementation of technical assistance/advisory projects with Financial Institutions.

·        Familiarity with the work of development finance institutions such as British International Investment, and philanthropic organisations such as the Gates Foundation, across South Asia.

·        An open, collaborative, hands on, and engaged nature. Proven experience in relevant project management and management of technical assistance and technical deliverables, with an ability to proactively identify and work to resolve issues as they arise.

·        Ability to contribute to and work positively within a team, including clients, consultants, investment teams, and FIs.

·        Experience in developing and disseminating learning and knowledge sharing materials.

·        Openness to periodic travel within South Asia.

 

Level of effort

This is a full-time position and will be based in India with office space provided in BII’s and Gates’ Foundation offices.

 

Annual salary

Competitive

Deadline - 24/2/2025

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