Mercy Corps Indonesia is a local organization based in Jakarta. Mercy Corps Indonesia helps people to recover from crisis conditions they face and then turn it into the opportunity to improve the quality of life. Based on the local needs, our program helps people throughout Indonesia with the tools and supports that people need. By implementing programs that focus on small business solutions, by creating a market approach and financial literacy, Mercy Corps Indonesia helps to create a market system that is effective and serves to reduce poverty. Besides, Mercy Corps Indonesia establishes financial literacy and business management skills as well as improving financial access.
To contribute to the government of Indonesia’s strategy of the National Strategy of Financial Inclusion (SNKI) in June 2012, with branchless banking and financial literacy, called out as the priority areas, Mercy Corps Indonesia has been implementing both research-based and practical programs to accelerate the financial inclusion rate for women entrepreneurs through the existence of branchless banking agents. The interventions delivered through the program of Mobile Financial Services for Female Entrepreneurs (MFS, 2016-2018) and continued with a follow-on program of Scaling-up Women Entrepreneurs Empowerment Training (SWEET, 2019-2020) which already reached out to more than 3,500 women entrepreneurs and 400 branchless banking agents in five districts in East Java.
MFS is testing a set of interventions using Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) targeting branchless banking field agents and female entrepreneurs in East Java in order to learn which activities are most cost-effective in promoting women’s uptake of mobile savings. Ultimately, the pilot aims to identify a business model that can be adopted and scaled up after the initial pilot, eventually to reach thousands more female entrepreneurs throughout the country
As the first phase intervention, the project was producing tailored financial literacy and business training for 2,000 women entrepreneurs and 400 branchless banking agents, randomly selected across five districts of Ngawi, Bojonegoro, Tuban, Lamongan, and Gresik, in East Java province.
MFS aims to identify a cost-effective and sustainable approach to promoting the uptake of mobile financial services, particularly savings, by female entrepreneurs, as a way to increase women’s investment in and profit from their businesses. The project is designed with a vision of bolstering financial inclusion for Indonesian women entrepreneurs by taking advantage of recent developments in the banking the sector, which has led to several branchless banking initiatives, presenting a unique opportunity for making financial services more accessible to the unbanked.
SWEET conducted to follow up on the findings that came
out of the implementation of the
(MFS). As the second phase, the SWEET project’s goal has been to expand the financial literacy training to add 1,500 women entrepreneurs located in three districts of Ngawi, Bojonegoro, and Tuban.
The aim of the SWEET program has been that women entrepreneurs, categorized as micro-entrepreneurs and below, will have improved knowledge and skills around financial management that applies to their household and business. Additionally, SWEET program participants have understood the different types of branchless banking products and have actively used saving products through digital channel services. Part of the wider the objective has been to influence saving behavior and to see for whether savings are used for family welfare, re-investing into the business for its growth.
The program participants also received mentoring support to refine the financial management skill to increase savings and later on investing it back to their business. The key objectives were 1) To ensure that the targeted women entrepreneurs understood the difference between household and business financial transactions and are able to distinguish and prioritize the needs, 2) To support the targeted women entrepreneurs to begin saving practices and link them with branchless banking services.
The MFS/SWEET The program needs the consultant(s) to conduct the writing and documenting the process of the program’s lessons learned and develop an appealing report (book) out of the process. The lessons learned should highlight both the practices that work well and need to improve. The consultant should also review the program approach, methods, and implementation that contributed to the results. The consultant should be able to translate the already available data collected in a wide range of formats, structured or anecdotal, photos and videos, matrices, and presentations, into an appealing and informative document that will easily be understood by a wider audience outside of the organization.
The consultant will conduct a set of activities as described, but not limited to, below:
The Consultant should complete these main outputs:
The consultant should develop an appealing, clear, concise, and informative lessons learned document. The main content of the document should not exceed 50 pages, including executive summary, infographic, and recommendation. A technical explanation should be comprised of appendices, including a list of participants being interviewed and other information. The information should have relevance to the lessons learned analysis and findings.
We need a consultant (individual or institutional) with a strong background in communications with a focus on community engagement, women empowerment, and/or evaluation, in particular in Financial Services, Financial Inclusion, or Economic Development and Empowerment. The Consultant should have a creative/popular writing skills (non-scientific approach), excellent knowledge of assessment method and data analysis, good network and resources, and good understanding in the participatory process. It would be beneficial if The consultant has the following skills and competencies:
Please email your CV and a sample of similar work to
at the latest.
Thank You,
Yayasan Mercy Corps Indonesia
