Background

Malawi faces a structural development challenge in the absence of a comprehensive and accurate system of national identification. This scenario fundamentally undermines most citizens’ right to identity and the   consequences are multi-sectoral, where citizens’ access and entitlement to services are uncertain. Equally, the absence of a centralized and up-to-date national register has led to a fragile capacity for evidence-based planning, social support service targeting, and accountable administrative systems. Efforts in various arenas have led to fragmented initiatives, creating costly or unsustainable silos of information, while also imposing institutional and technical obstacles to interlink information.

In this regard, the   National Registration Act (No. 13 of 2010) mandates NRB to establish and maintain a national population register of citizens aged 16 and above. In implementing the mandate, the NRB in collaboration with development partners instituted a National Registration and Identification System (NRIS) project whose expected results are to:

• Design, establish and manage the necessary systems, infrastructure and equipment for the National Registration and Identification System that employs biometrically secure and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) compliant Smartcards;
• Supervise the mass registration for all eligible Malawians (an estimated 9 million) within the country in 2017;
• Transition the system to a continuous registration model in 2018 and develop the operational capacity of NRB to maintain the system;
• Provide an interface to other public and private sector systems that allow for appropriate data sharing within a legal framework that complies with international principles and standards for the right to privacy and data protection; and
• Ensure the effective management of the project.

The mass registration phase has completed the registration of 9 million citizens aged 16 and above and card distribution is completed.

In this context, the present ITB refers to the transition of the system to a continuous registration model in 2018. The NRIS project through this ITB, endeavours to connect 96 selected Post Offices to the 27 District Fibre Drop Off Points (FDOPs) on the Fibre Optic Backbone (FOB) located in each District Registration Office (DRO). 

Duties and Responsibilities

Project Objectives

The proposed network will be utilised by NRB to:

• Connect each of the 96 PO RCs to the closest or convenient DRO
• Register 2,000 citizens per day in 124 (28 DROs + 96 POs) RCs across the country
• Transmit registration data (1 MB per citizen, thus 2GB in total) from 124 RCs to Central Database in real-time
• Update status and text data (2KB per citizen per RC, thus 832MB in total) and to be synchronized back to RCs
• Optimize the GWAN networks

Scope of supply of the IC

The overall requirement of this exercise involves the provision of the following elements Basically the red items in Figure 2: Overview of Network Required:

Determine bill of materials and detail cost for:

• Conduct a feasibility study to establish the most commonly used equipment used by Malawi Mobile/Telecom/Internet Operators
• Routers, switches, and network cables at the DROs and POs
• Using relative the IC supplied mapping of GIS software to determine the number and GPS coordinates of towers or repeater stations required
• All components and equipment required for the tower/repeater stations complete with autonomous operation using solar and battery systems or other equipment. The list should for example include, but not limited to:
• Towers (can be a simple pole attached to the building to establish line of sight),
• Repeater Towers,
• SIM Cards,
• Modems,
• Switches,
• Patch Cables,
• Power Cords, and
• Power Multiplug Extensions for the Registration Centres to be connected to the FOB drop-off points.
• Estimated man work hours required for the tower/repeater stations complete with civil works and autonomous operation using solar and battery systems or other equipment
• Estimated man work hours required to install the routers, modems, and switches in both POs and
• Estimated man work hours required to commission and test the communications between all POs and HQ
• Estimate Training Schedule including possible topics and time duration/frames
• Optimum Operational schedule and teams structure(s) for completing the works
• Complete Bill of Materials required to launch an UNDP ITB

Be part of the technical evaluation team as technical expert

Oversee the Theory Training before installation. NRB will provide staff who will join the successful bidder’s technicians for theory training on the supplied equipment on overview, detail routing, configuration, connections, various connectors, installation, and troubleshooting.

Oversee the Installation and Hands-on Training during installation. NRB will provide staff who will accompany the successful bidder’s technicians for hands-on training during installation.

Final Quality Assessment on equipment and installation.

Optimizing performance of the GWAN. The GWAN is currently experiencing connectivity and performance issues, which the IC needs to investigate, report on recommendations, and implement the recommendations. The GOM is using the following switches, VPNs/VLANs, and Fiber network/switches/routers, which the IC needs to ensure are optimally configured:

Cisco Nexus 7000 Series

Cisco Catalyst 4507 R+E

Cisco ASA 5585-X ssp-10Cisco Router 2900 series

Dell sonic Wall NSA 3600

Emphasis on abovementioned equipment should be to go through the configuration which was done by third-party consultants, explained in detail, and optimized for:

Bandwidth configuration in Nexus 7000 series

Exploiting some features in Nexus 7000

Routing in Nexus 7000, cisco catalyst 4507

Supporting materials required for the mission provided by the IC

• Telecoms Software to calculate optimum placing of repeater towers and 3G/4G towers/points
• Topographic maps of Malawi to be used by software
• Supporting documents to support choices of equipment

In addition to supporting materials, the IC need to

• Book and pay for flight tickets
• Book and pay for hotel accommodation, breakfasts, and dinners
• Arrange for transport from hotel to UNDP offices in Area 12, Lilongwe

Competencies

• Excellent understanding in using software to determine topography and range (line of sight) of microwave signals and 3G/4G signal ranges;
• Excellent knowledge of current equipment used in the telecoms market with the objectives in mind;
• Good knowledge of what equipment to be expected in Malawi with the objectives in mind;
• Excellent system analytic skills;
• A good understanding of cyber security and ethical hacking.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Mminimum Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or Telecommunications.

Experience:

• 10 years’ practical experience in Telecommunications with Mobile Network Service Providers;
• Required 5 years’ practical Technical IT experience in a Multi -national enterprise;
• Preferably 5 years Technical IT Operational Management with practical experience in implementing Telecommunication Networks
• 5 years’ practical experience in designing Telecommunication Networks;
• Experience in CCNE, MCSE, ITIL, VMWARE;

Expert Cisco router and wireless expert with hands-on experience with:

Cisco Nexus 7000 Series

Cisco Catalyst 4507 R+E

Cisco ASA 5585-X ssp-10

Cisco Router 2900 series

Dell sonic Wall NSA 3600

• Experience working with ITIL aligned service delivery, change management and problem management
• People and Project Management Collaborative working relationship with Enterprise Architects
• Project Management and Second Level Technical Support in implementing improvement initiatives
• Ability to present at IT Management meetings, including metrics for Servers, networks and IT Support
• Monitor performance of ICT infrastructure against expected delivery targets to identify areas for improvement
• Forward planning and effective coordination and monitoring of infrastructure operating functions to ensure optimal IT service continuity, capacity and availability
• Managed synergy between infrastructure delivery and business applications requirements
• Experience of conditions in Africa, preferably Malawi, but at least 3 countries in sub-Sahara Africa but not affiliated with any Malawi Mobile/Telecoms Service Providers (This will lead to exclusion or disqualification of related operators during ITB)

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English

UNDP will provide:

• Vehicle and driver for field trips to tricky areas (only if supporting documents for justification are submitted);
• GPS coordinates of DROs and POs thus providing end points;
• GPS coordinates of current towers, which can be used to reduce cost;
• GPS coordinates of Police Stations thus providing possible routing or repeating tower locations.

Existing National Registration and Identification System:

The NRB with funding from Government of Malawi (GOM) and through the UNDP National Registration and Identification System (NRIS) project, established a data centre capable of storing all Malawi citizens’ records including their personal information, photo, 10 x fingerprints, and several supporting documents. NRB further established a biometric de-duplication system capable of using facial and fingerprints to eliminate duplicates. In addition, NRB established a Card Production Facility (with a capacity of up to 500,000 cards per annum) to cater for continuous registration starting in January 2018. While these systems and software already exist, they are not part of this ITB.

Further, GOM has already connected 6 Districts Registration Offices (DROs) onto a Fibre Optic Backbone (FOB) through Simba Net / World Bank and is currently connecting 21 other DROs through ESCOM / Huawei / China.  This connection process is expected to be completed by end of July 2018 and the resulting network can be seen as one network since NRIS has its own Virtual Private Network (VPN). However, 1 district (Likoma Island) and three other districts will not be covered by this FOB but should be connected via other means to the closest FOB drop off point. The NRIS is running on Government Wide Area Network (GWAN) and it is envisaged that GWAN through this ITB will be extended to the 96 selected Post Offices or Registration Centres (RCs). The consultant does not need to worry about the current GWAN and how to configure it, but just that the FOB does exists, and it is managed by e-Government Department.

Methodology:

It is planned that registration centres (RCs) during the continuous registration will be 28 District Registration Offices (DROs) and 96 Post Offices (POs). The RCs in the 96 Pos need to be connected via microwave and 4G network to the nearest (or most convenient) drop-off point located at the DROs. This ITB covers the investment of the infrastructure required to connect one or more computers at each PO RC, to the closest DRO.

It should be noted, that GOM tasked ESCOM to expand the reach of Internet to the general public via ISPs. Therefore, it is possible that the GOM through the department of e-Government will use the proposed infrastructure as a possible Internet Service Provider (ISP) as long as the NRB have priority on the bandwidth and the NRB bandwidth usage from PO to DRO is free. However, UNDP/NRIS will not be involved in the negotiations between the ISP and the GOM on the matter of making profit from providing Internet Services to the general public. The NRIS project through this ITB, endeavour to only invest in the infrastructure to provide free bandwidth from PO to DRO to NRB.

Evaluation:

The award of the contract shall be made to the Individual International Consultant who has received the highest score out of pre-determined technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation. Please note that UNDP might interview the candidates, however questions will fall under above criteria below:

Technical criteria weight – 70 %

Financial criteria weight – 30 % 

Criteria A:  Professional experience:

Required minimum Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or Telecommunications

Required 10 years’ practical experience in Telecommunications with Mobile Network Service Providers

Required 5 years’ practical Technical IT experience in a Multi -national enterprise

Preferably 5 years Technical IT Operational Management with practical experience in implementing Telecommunication Networks

Preferably 5 years’ practical experience in designing Telecommunication Networks

Experience in CCNE, MCSE, ITIL, VMWARE

Exchange expert Cisco router and wireless expert with hands-on experience with:

• Cisco Nexus 7000 Series;
• Cisco Catalyst 4507 R+E;
• Cisco ASA 5585-X ssp-10;
• Cisco Router 2900 series.

Dell sonic Wall NSA 3600

Excellent understanding and experience in using software to determine topography and range (line of sight) of microwave signals and 3G/4G signal ranges

Excellent knowledge of current equipment used in the telecoms market with the objectives in mind

Good knowledge of what equipment to be expected in Malawi with the objectives in mind

Excellent system analytic skills

A good understanding of cyber security and ethical hacking

Experience working with ITIL aligned service delivery, change management and problem management

People and Project Management Collaborative working relationship with Enterprise Architects

Project Management and Second Level Technical Support in implementing improvement initiatives

Ability to present at IT Management meetings, including metrics for Servers, networks and IT Support

Monitor performance of ICT infrastructure against expected delivery targets to identify areas for improvement

Forward planning and effective coordination and monitoring of infrastructure operating functions to ensure optimal IT service continuity, capacity and availability

Managed synergy between infrastructure delivery and business applications requirements

Experience of conditions in Africa, preferably Malawi, but at least 3 countries in sub-Sahara Africa but not affiliated with any Malawi Mobile/Telecoms Service Providers (This will lead to exclusion or disqualification of related operators during ITB).  Total score points 40.

Criteria B:  Technical Proposal:
Understanding of the task, soundness of methodology proposed and schedule in the technical proposal with demonstrated track record in doing related work.  Total score points 30.

Financial total score 30.

Scope of price proposal and schedule of payments:

A Lump Sum Amount payable modality is envisaged upon submission of deliverables and acceptance/approval by UNDP Country Office for each identified task (reflected in the agreed and signed specific TOR.  The lump sum amount is inclusive of all the costs related to the assignment. Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. All planned costs related to this consultancy must be specified in the proposal by contractor for this assignment.

Submission of proposals:

Interested and qualified International Individual Consultants are invited to apply. The applicants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

A technical proposal detailing applicants’ understanding of ToRs, proposed methodology, and CV.

A financial proposal breaking down cost for each operational line and professional fees (this must be submitted separately).

Contacts (email and phone) of 3 former clients who will act as referees.

A detailed list of similar assignments (copies of these may be requested as necessary) that the consultant has conducted in the past.

“UNDP is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Women and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply”.

Interested firms that meet the above specifications should submit a proposal through  https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm or procurement.mw@undp.org by 7th August 2018. Proposals that do not meet above specified requirements will not be considered.