Background

Ukraine has made significant strides in digitalizing the state and its functions. Successes of the Prozorro system, implementation of the national interoperability system for state registries (Trembita), increasing the transparency of public sector through open-data initiative, development of digital public services under "State in smartphone" initiative are well-known and documented. The Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT) created in 2019 aims to continue and expand this trend. Most recently, the Government-launched the "Diia.gov.ua" e-services delivery web-portal and its namesake mobile application. These digital products embody the newest trends of digitalisation for citizens.

With support from its partners, MDT aims to rapidly develop new and improved e-services that will offer an enjoyable and secure experience. Recently Ukraine saw the development and implementation of several high-profile e-services in different spheres – business registration, construction, birth related services (eMalyatko), and others. At the very end of 2020, MDT launched a mechanism for individual entrepreneurs to apply for state support in the most battered economic sectors. E-service expansion, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, helps citizens get no-contact access to governmental services. Such services also cut state administrative costs, bringing about more transparency into government-citizen interactions and slashing petty corruption.

Rapid development of e-services poses new challenges – cybersecurity threats and risks of personal data leak. To address this challenges MDT is constantly working on improvement of the Diia infrastructure (data centre, a set of web-portals and mobile application) information security, organizes “Bug bounty” challenges and performs data protection audits. In august 2021 MDT launched second “Bug bounty” challenge for the Diia application, this bug bounty is the first public bug bounty launched by MDT.

On 1 January 2021, UNDP launched its new Digital, Inclusive, Accessible: Support to Digitalisation of State Services in Ukraine (DIA Support) Project. The project is made possible due to support of the Government of Sweden and is carried out in close collaboration with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine (MDT) and other government stakeholders.

The project builds on extensive UNDP experience in two areas: administrative service reform and reengineering and digitalising public administration processes with broad citizen and expert engagement. As part of the project, UNDP will help the government partners – primarily MDT – select several service clusters in use by citizens representing vulnerable groups. Services will be packaged to accommodate everyday needs and transposed into a fully digital format. While working on creation of new digital services, the DIA Support Project will certify the software systems developed under Ukrainian regulations and in line with international cybersecurity practices.

Duties and Responsibilities

2. Objectives of the assignment / Scope of services

Through DIA Support Project, UNDP is supporting Ministry of digital transformation of Ukraine with implementation of new e-services in the Diia mobile application. Following Diia App e-services were created with support of the project:

• Obtaining a Certificate of Insured Person OK-5 and OK-7 form (launched on 18.07.2022)
• Online registration of IDP with allocation of monthly assistance (launched on 19.04.2022)
• Pension certificate (launched on 31.08.2022)
• IDP Status termination (in development)

To implement high quality e-services with positive user feedback and good successful use statistics it is necessary to organize high quality support for service implementation. MDT is organizing first and second line of e-services users support and trying to automate user support procedure by creating “frequently asked questions” lists for e-services, introducing chat-bots with automatic answers and online consultations for most common questions. But to achieve good results for user satisfaction and successful/refused applications ratio, a complex implementation support is required, including analysing of user feedback, planning further development and upgrading of e-services. To implement these tasks UNDP DIA Support Project is looking for an individual consultant.

The main objective of the assignment is analysing user complains and test results, developing the thematic action plans on e-service improvement and upgrade. 

3. Measurable outputs of the work assignment/deliverables 

It is expected that the National Consultant for Diia application e-services support will deliver the following services (non-exhaustive list): 

* The consultant should provide his/her proposal regarding the quantity of working days needed for each deliverable, based on the tentative deadlines indicated above, and indicate in the financial proposal amount distribution by deliverable section. 

4. Management arrangements  

The National Consultant for Diia application e-services support will be primarily responsible for achieving the objectives of the assignment. He/ She will be responsible for all personal administrative expenses associated with the assignment.  

5. Monitoring requirements / Terms of payment  

The National Consultant for Diia application e-services support will work under the overall supervision of the DIA Project Manager and will work closely with DIA Support Senior IT Specialist. 

All deliverables shall be approved by UNDP in written form through e-mail after consultations with MDT or MSP. No documents should be published or distributed to third parties without the approval of MDT/MSP and/or UNDP. 

All documents should be submitted to the UNDP in electronic form (*.docx, *.xlsx, *.pptx, and *.pdf or other formats accepted by UNDP). The language of the materials and reports is Ukrainian. The analytical paper should be submitted to UNDP for comments and approval.

UNDP will provide payment upon provision of each deliverable duly certified by UNDP in accordance with the schedule below: 

Deliverable 1. 25% 

Deliverable 2. 25% 

Deliverable 3. 25% 

Deliverable 4. 25% 

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism;
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Required Skills and Experience

7. Required experience and qualifications

• At least university degree (Bachelor’s) in computer science, communication technologies, cybersecurity or another information technology related sphere
• At least 5 years of experience within IT related projects
• At least 3 years of experience as a computer systems engineer
• Experience in software testing is an asset.
• Experience in government IT related projects is an asset.
• Fluent Ukrainian; working knowledge of English will be an asset;

8. Documents to be included when submitting the proposal

9. Financial Proposal

Lump sum contract

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (please, refer to Section 4 Measurable outputs of the work assignment/deliverables). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of Cost by Components.

10. Evaluation Criteria

• Educational background – 10 pts max
  • 10 pts – Master degree or similar in computer science, communication technologies or cybersecurity;
  • 8 pts – Master degree or similar in other information technology related sphere;
  • 7 pts –Bachelor’s degree in computer science, communication technologies, cybersecurity or another information technology related sphere.

• Experience within IT related projects – 35 pts max
  • 35 pts – 10+ years of experience;
  • 32 pts – between 6 and 9 years of experience;
  • 30 pts – at least 5 years of experience.

• Experience experience as a computer systems engineer – 10 pts max
  • 10 pts – 8+ years of experience;
  • 9 pts – 4 to 7 years of experience;
  • 8 pts – at least 3 years of experience;

• Experience in software testing -5 pts

• Experience in government IT related projects – 5 pts

• Language Skills – 5 pts max
  • 5 pts – Native / fluent Ukrainian. Working knowledge of English;
  • 4 pts – Native / fluent Ukrainian.

Maximum available technical score – 70 points

EVALUATION METHOD:

Cumulative analysis

Contract award shall be made to the incumbent whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) having received the cumulative highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight: 70%

* Financial Criteria weight: 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70% from the maximum available technical score (49 points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal and will equal to 30. All other price proposals will be evaluated and assigned points, as per below formula:

30 points [max points available for financial part] x [lowest of all evaluated offered prices among responsive offers] / [evaluated price].

The proposal obtaining the overall cumulatively highest score after adding the score of the technical proposal and the financial proposal will be considered as the most compliant offer and will be awarded a contract.