Jobs - 44765- ICT Focal Point, Union Assembly of Myanmar

ICT Focal Point, Union Assembly of Myanmar

Location :

Nay Pyi Taw, MYANMAR

Type of Contract :

Service Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

06-May-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

SC-9

Duration of Initial Contract :

End of 2015

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

End of 2015 (with possibility for extension)

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The 2008 Constitution of Myanmar provides for legislative assemblies at the Union (national) level and at the level of Regions and States. At the national level the Parliament, known as the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Union Assembly), consists of two chambers – the Pyithu Hluttaw (House of Representatives) with 440 seats and the Amyotha Hluttaw (House of Nationalities) with 224 seats.

75% of the members of both Houses are directly elected with the remaining 25% being appointed by the Commander-in-chief of the Defence Services. At the time of writing, there are 30 women MPs elected in both Assemblies (26 in the House of Representatives and 4 in the House of Nationalities). At the regional/state level, the Constitution provides for a unicameral parliament for each of the seven States and seven Regions within Myanmar, for a total of 14 legislatures.

The Union Assembly, being a relatively new legislature has in its short history made impressive progress in moving forward a very full legislative schedule, and adopting standing orders and basic procedures, as well as taking steps to improve the structures and services provided by the administration of parliament. The Parliament was re-established in 2010, following national elections.

In terms of its administrative development and expansion, the Union Assembly is planning a phased approach to increasing its staffing levels across the secretariat. The first phase (Jan –June 2013) saw each of the three houses of the Union Assembly identify their respective staffing needs. A second phase (2013-2015) includes the approval of staffing plans followed by the recruitment of new staff with the intention of adding up to 1500 staff by March 2014, taking the staff numbers to 2000 by 2015 (from the current approx. 500). It has been decided that there will be three Directorates- General, one for each Hluttaw.

In 2012 and 2013 the IPU organized several assessment missions to assist the parliament in identifying its future requirements as it strives to become a modern and effective institution.

In December 2012, in partnership with UNDP IPU began a project in support of the gradual establishment of the Library, Research and Information Services (LRIS) for the Union Assembly, an area considered a priority by the parliament.

Furthermore, discussions with the parliamentary leadership, a cross-section of MPs, key staff and a range of other stakeholders, resulted in the identification of a number of common parliamentary development priorities forming the basis for a full-fledged three-year UNDP Parliamentary Support Programme, in partnership with the IPU. The Programme was approved in April 2013 and its implementation has commenced.

ICT at the Union Assembly

In light of the strive to become a modern and effective institution, and considering the expansion of the administrative organization of the Parliament, the introduction of a well-planned ICT infrastructure, systems and applications is seen as critical to support and improve the policy-making and legislative processes as well as the internal and external exchange and dissemination of information of the Union Assembly. ICT can also help parliaments achieving their goals of transparency, openness, efficiency and effectiveness and enhance the participation of citizens in the life of the parliament

Against this background and as part of the IPU/UNDP Partnership, two ICT technical advisory missions were conducted respectively in July 2013 and November-December 2013, where the first mission focused on an assessment of the current state of ICT (previously never done), and the second mission focused on providing capacity building for IT staff of the Parliament, and further ICT advisory guidance to the Parliamentary leadership and the IPU/UNDP Partnership on how to address the main persisting ICT gaps and challenges identified and consolidated throughout the two missions.

These include the lack of:

ICT technical leadership on the Parliament’s side;
Basic ICT network cabling and infrastructure within and between the parliamentary buildings;
Data centre facilities including proper and safe housing, and core systems and infrastructure;
ICT back-office services including domain control, printing, filing, email, back-up, intranet etc;
An ICT management / operations structure based on four minimum areas including network administration, system administration, applications development, and helpdesk / user support;
ICT capacity within the current IT team i.e. specific skills and specialized ICT knowledge on system planning, development, implementation and operations / maintenance.

Overcoming these gaps and challenges is absolutely critical for the Union Assembly, as they all represent the very core foundations for ICT in any parliament (or any organization using ICT on this scale).

Failure to effectively address these gaps and challenges will greatly hamper the provision of modern parliamentary information services, and hold the Parliament back in its strive to become a modern and effective institution.

Enhancement of parliamentary ICT technical competence, operational structure and capacity

Responding to theses gaps and challenges, in collaboration with the Directorate-General of the Union Assembly, the IPU/UNDP Parliamentary Strengthening Programme intends to support the Union Assembly with the enhancement of its parliamentary ICT leadership, operational structure and capacity through the recruitment and placement of a National ICT Project Officer at the Parliament of Myanmar (hereinafter: Parliamentary ICT Project Officer) for a period of two years, starting early 2014.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Parliamentary ICT Project Officer (recruited and placed by IPU/UNDP) shall be assigned by the Union Assembly Director-General in an interim IT management role, with the overall duties to provide daily ICT technical leadership to the current IT team and oversee all IT initiatives, as well as gradual work to increase the internal capacities of the current IT team to a level that internal succession of the interim management role is technically possible.

In this role the Parliamentary ICT Project Officer will report directly to the Director-General on all parliamentary ICT matters and on-going activities concerning the Union Assembly.

He/she will specifically be responsible for:
Leading the parliamentary ICT operations by:

Formulating ICT implementation proposals, at the request of the DG and/or other delegated divisions, offices of the Union Assembly e.g. Committees, Library, International Relations, etc;
Formulating ICT project plans for approved proposals, including writing high-level business analysis requirements, detailed technical specifications, project planning, budgeting, resources allocation;
Formulating requests for information (RFIs) and request for proposal (RFPs) for the implementation of approved projects, from IT vendors and suppliers;
Managing all internal ICT implementation projects as well as overseeing/reporting on projects implemented by external IT vendor and supplier (e.g. data centre, network installation etc in 2014);
Daily management of the 4 ICT Operations sub-areas, including: Network Administration, System Administration, Applications Development and Helpdesk/User Support. As such he/she (with the DG approval) will re-structure, allocate and organize the respective IT units and staff according to parliamentary best practices;
Developing an ICT roadmap for the Union Assembly - for Directorate-General, including tracking of all ongoing/planned ICT initiatives, and reporting to the Directorate-General;
Accompany the DG to international workshops and conferences related to ICT in Parliament e.g. World e-Parliament Conferences, ICT Study Tours etc;
Develop proposals to provide for ICT links/access between the Hluttaw and the state and regional parliaments;
Advise the DG and all other delegated divisions, offices and units on e-Parliament concepts and best practices.

Leading the parliamentary ICT capacity building activities by:

Developing IT training, learning and career development paths based on overall Union Assembly ICT needs, staff skill levels and e-Parliament best practices;
Manage the continued organization of ICT training for staff begun in 2013;
Deploying and facilitating existing IT staff onto upcoming IT projects to be carried out by external suppliers for knowledge transfer and learning purposes (e.g. data centre and network installation projects in 2014);
Day-to-day coaching of existing IT staff with regard to IT system planning, development, implementation and management/maintenance practices and processes.

Location

The Parliamentary ICT Project Officer shall be based at the ICT offices of the Union Assembly in Nay Pyi Taw.

Competencies

Client orientation, partnering and working in a matrix organization;
Communication and advocacy;
People management, especially performance management, team-building and staff IT training & development.

Technical Expertise

Skill set in one or more relevant programming software used for portal development and/or CMS platform (e.g. PHP);
Sound knowledge of Windows based domain control, file system environments;
Sound knowledge of Open Source solutions;
Sound knowledge of server systems and applications including e-mail, web server, file server;
In-depth, current expertise and demonstrated experience in information and communications technology in the ICT applications and ICT infrastructure area, and especially of (popular) databases and web-based ICT solutions (e.g. MySQL, PostGre etc);
Ability to develop ICT planning and roadmap documentation.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Bachelor degree (or equivalent) in IT or Computer Science or Business Administration.

Experience:

A minimum 4 years of work experience with significant IT project and application system management responsibilities. Significant work experience with IT project design, management and implementation;
Relevant work experience in ICT infrastructure management, system design, disaster recovery and business continuity planning;
Work experience with internet/intranet/client-server/database technologies and proven ability to work with groups of technical and non-technical team members and users;
Experience with data center management and network administration;
Previous experience with e-documentation, office automation and/or knowledge management systems;
Proven record of project management responsibility for global ICT initiatives and projects and implementing change management programs;
Experience of working in parliaments or government environments is considered an advantage;
IT project management certification (or evidence of training) will be highly considered.

Language

The working languages are Myanmar and English.

Submission of Applications

Qualified candidates may submit their application, including a letter of interest, and a complete Curriculum Vitae on line through https://jobs.undp.org/index.cfm. Proposals are also welcomed from IT consultancy companies. For any query, please send email to the IPU and UNDP as follows:
Inter-Parliamentary Union
E-mail: Mfr@ipu.org

UNDP Myanmar
E-mail: edin.elgsaether@undp.org

Additional Considerations

Applications received after the closing date will not be considered;
Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified;
Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.