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Financial Inclusion Global Practice,

The World Bank

Terms of Reference for Short Term Consultant

Background

Across the world, policy makers are concerned with building deep and stable financial markets, with the

twofold objective to foster private sector development and to provide citizens with adequate instruments to

achieve their financial goals. In both high-income countries and developing economies, individuals are

required to take increasing responsibility for managing a variety of risks over the life-cycle (longevity, illness,

unemployment). These two very broad policy objectives – promoting financial sector deepening and

supporting the individual ability to smooth consumption over a lifetime – have determined an increased

attention on the issue of financial literacy and capability.

In order to foster participation in increasingly sophisticated financial markets, both supply-side and demand-

side interventions are likely to be required. On the supply side, adequate financial infrastructure must be

developed to promote access and to grant the necessary consumer protection mechanisms. On the demand

side, consumers need to be better informed about the features of financial products, have the confidence to

interact with providers of financial services, know how to choose and use these products and where to seek

advice, and be aware of their rights and available redress mechanisms.

The Financial Inclusion Practice of the World Bank has been assessing existing financial consumer protection

(and financial capability) frameworks in 18 countries, by reviewing their laws, regulations and practices and

by comparing them to international good practices. Based on these diagnostic reviews the World Bank

provided recommendations on ways to boost levels of financial capability and financial consumer protection

frameworks. For being able to have a useful baseline assessment against which the macro impact and

effectiveness of financial education interventions and financial consumer protection reforms and can be

assessed, the World Bank also conducts nationally representative Financial Capability and Consumer

Protection (FCCP) surveys.

The main objectives of the Word Bank’s Financial Capability and Consumer Protection survey are i) to

support the advancement of financial literacy and capability in middle and low income countries ii) to provide

information which is particularly relevant to strengthen existing consumer protection frameworks, especially

in the context of low and middle income countries.

Once the fieldwork is completed and datasets are delivered to the World Bank, the team analyzes the data to

understand the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics and different aspects of financial

capability, such as the interaction of knowledge, behavior, skills, and attitudes, and to understand the context

of the household’s financial decision making. The team uses statistical methods to construct measures of

financial capability and to identify the most vulnerable groups of the population who would benefit the most

from any financial education interventions. The analytical tools used include standard regression methods,

cluster analysis and factor analysis among others.

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Scope of Work/Activities to be carried out by the Consultant

The core task of the research consultant is to support the World Bank team in conducting the FCCP surveys

and in analyzing the collected FCCP data. The consultant will be working under the supervision of the project

Task Team Leader. The consultant will also collaborate with the other World Bank staff and consultants as

needed.

Specific tasks will involve:

- Data preparation (understand data structure, convert data in different formats, clean the data, generate

new variables, harmonize and merge datasets for cross-country analysis)

- Programming of STATA do files in order to check the data quality of delivered FCCP data sets in the

most efficient way;

- Interacting with implementing survey firms to obtain necessary information about the data and the

fieldwork;

- Assisting in analyzing the data descriptively and by means of more sophisticated statistical methods

(e.g. factor analysis, cluster analysis, regression analysis);

- Generating STATA tables and graphs with TeX output;

- Creating TeX documents which can be automatically updated with new STATA output;

- Drafting report chapters to document the analysis conducted;

- Providing data content to the WB’s new responsible finance website.

Additional tasks might involve:

- Co-authoring papers which for instance examine the relationships between financial

literacy/capability/financial inclusion.

Skills and Qualifications

- Minimum of Master's degree with background in economics, statistics, econometrics;

- High level of proficiency with STATA programming;

- Strong micro-econometric skills;

- Experience in using TeX;

- Experience in using and managing quantitative survey data;

- Experience in questionnaire design, survey data collection and cleaning;

- Strong analytical and conceptual skills, ability to interpret and present statistical information;

- General understanding and familiarity with financial literacy and education, financial inclusion, access

to finance, and/or financial consumer protection;

- Strong communication skills; ability to effectively communicate in English (writing and speaking);

- Demonstrated commitment to teamwork and working with multidisciplinary teams, but also ability to

work independently.

Other

All information gathered and information and reports produced under this TOR remain the property of the

World Bank which retains the right to use them in whatever way or form it deems appropriate. The consultant

working on this task does not have the right to use data/information/reports gathered of produced in the course

of undertaking the work outlined in this TOR for publication or presentational purposes without first obtaining

the prior approval of the World Bank Task Manager for this particular task.