UNDP Jobs - 77626- National Consultant (Database Restructuring Expert

National Consultant (Database Restructuring Expert)

Location :

UNDP/EGEMA Project, Kabul, AFGHANISTAN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

02-Apr-18 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Three months (with maximum 66 working days)

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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

UNDP Global Mission Statement

UNDP is the UN’s global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with national counterparts on their own solutions to global and national development challenges.

UNDP Afghanistan Mission Statement

UNDP supports stabilization, state-building, governance and development priorities in Afghanistan. UNDP support, in partnership with the Government, the United Nations system, the donor community and other development stakeholders, has contributed to institutional development efforts leading to positive impact on the lives of Afghan citizens.

Over the years UNDP support has spanned such milestone efforts as the adoption of the Constitution; Presidential, Parliamentary and Provincial Council elections; institutional development through capacity-building to the legislative, the judicial and executive arms of the state, and key ministries, Government agencies and commissions at the national and subnational levels.

UNDP Programmes in Afghanistan have benefited from the very active support of donors. UNDP Afghanistan is committed to the highest standards of transparency and accountability and works in close coordination with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the UN system to maximize the impact of its development efforts on the ground.

Organizational Context

Enhancing Gender Equality and Mainstreaming in Afghanistan

Based on experiences and lessons learned from the GEP-II, the new phase of the Gender Equality Project was developed as Enhancing Gender Equality and Mainstreaming in Afghanistan (EGEMA) with four pillars:

Institutional Strengthening of the Ministry of Women Affairs(MOWA);
Creating a national pool of Gender Experts;
Women’s livelihoods strengthening and;
Gender Transformative approaches.

Overall objective of the consultancy:

The main objective of the consultancy is to enter the revised indicators of NAPWA into the NAPWA online database (Dari, Pashto and English), enter the 2015 baseline figures into the database, clear structure of the database irrelevant words/points are omitted, MOWA M&E and line ministries relevant staff trained in using the database, can enter data, retrieve data, and produce reports and develop the database user’s manual.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work and Deliverables:

The consultancy includes followings specific objectives:

To assignment beside coordination and cooperation with the IT department of MOWA will cover entering the revised NAPWA indicators (Dari, Pashto and English) along with the figures of 2015 baseline survey on NAPWA conducted by GEP-II project of UNDP Afghanistan into the online NAPWA database. The consultant will also develop a user guide or manual for using the database and train relevant staff of MOWA and six sector ministries in using the database. The specific tasks shall be the following:

Effective functioning NAPWA online database:

The annual data on implementation of NAPWA entered into the database, the data analyzed and NAPWA annual progress reports on gender produced;
The MOWA and line ministries relevant staff can enter data into the computer and generate required reports;
Migrate (Insert) Dari NAPWA Indicators;
Migrate (Insert) Pashtu NAPWA Indicators;
Migrate (insert) the 2015 baseline survey data;
Migrate( insert 2015 NAPWA baseline survey figures);
Deploy of the final and clean version of the database in Ministry of Communication (ANDC) to go live.

The MOWA M&E and line ministries relevant staff trained in using the database and refine the user manual:

Users’ manual or guide developed for the use of the database;
MOWA M&E and line ministries relevant staff trained in using the database, can enter data, retrieve data, and produce reports;
Assist the M&E and line ministries relevant staff in solving any problem they face in using the database;
Response to user needs and questions regarding the database use;
Revise and refine NAPWA Database User Manual to make sure that all the new modifications are reflected in all the languages (English, Dari, Pashto);
Supervise all the testing of the system and fix Bugs/Errors identified during Data Entry.

Structure of the database cleared, irrelevant words/points are omitted:

Clean the database and application by removing unnecessary modules and data;
Rectify and fix page languages as now English headers can be seen in Dari and Pashto data entry pages. This task will be achieved by changing the language of the local pages. The following pages need to be fixed in terms of language (Manage NAPWA, Manage Indicators, Manage Sectors and Manage Organization etc.);
Fix the language in report section as there is a mix of languages used in the Dari, Pashto and English pages;
Trouble-shooting and monitoring of database problems. Ensure that the database is protected from malicious virus attacks and deploy countermeasures in the event of the attacks;
Liaison with the ministry of tele communication and if required visit the national data center where the database deployed on the MOWA server;
Maintenance of measures in place for business continuity and disaster recover processes and procedures including backup and restoration of both server and local storage facilities;
Networks administration support to other line ministries as required.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables; and Payment Percentage:

Deliverable 1: Clear structure of the Database, enter the revised NAPWA indicators (Dari, Pashto and English), enter the 2015 baseline survey data into the NAPWA online database and develop and reform the NAPWA online database. (25%)
Deliverable 2. Develop user’s Manual for the NAPWA online database to enable users to enter data, retrieve data and prepare; get approval of UNDP (EGEMA) and MOWA for the manual; and deliver training to M&E staffs of MOWA to use the Manual. (35%)
Deliverable 3. Deliver trainings to the staffs of other line ministries on the User’s Manual that can enter data, retrieve data, and produce reports. (20%)
Deliverable 4. : Coordination and collaboration with IT Department of MOWA for handing over the NAPWA online Database to MOWA; liaison with MOWA and the National Data Center of the Ministry of telecommunication and Information Technology for checking the database and provide them with required information and training if required and be responsive to the requirements for NAPWA Database during the contract period. (20%)

Methodology

Consultant will require to meet with EGEMA specialists to go over the details of assignment; get acquainted with the NAPWA database and relevant materials to enter the revised NAPWA indicators(Dari, Pashto and English) and the outcome of the 2015 Baseline Survey on NAPWA;
Develop a training course on the use of the database for the relevant staff of MOWA and the six sector ministries. Prepare a user guide or manual for the use of the database;
During the assignment the consultant work with the M&E department of MOWA to involve the staff in use of the database;
Report to EGEMA specialists on regular basis and provide updates on progress and any arising issues.

Payment Modality Payments under the contract shall be delivery based and be made on receipt of the specific milestone reports indicated above and payment shall be made upon approval by EGEMA Project Manager. Upon receipt of final comments, the consultant shall finalize the report for formal acceptance by UNDP at which point the final payment shall be released.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values: demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity;
Organizational Awareness: demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
Development and Innovation: take charge of self-development and take initiative;
Team Work: demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds;
Communicating and Information Sharing: facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling 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 favoritism.

Functional competencies:

Familiarity with the gender issues, gender mainstreaming, gender equality and women’s empowerment;
Knowledge of government institutions particularly ministry of Women Affairs;
Demonstrates good writing skills and the ability to synthesize large amounts of information into succinct written notes/reports, summaries;
Strong proven capacity in training, coaching;
Ability to develop creative solutions;
Ability to liaise with stakeholders and partners, including government, civil society, international organizations;
Ability to work in culturally diverse environments and display diplomacy and tact;
Knowledge of socio-economic performance in Afghanistan or post-conflict countries.

Management and Leadership:

Ability to manage time and meet tight deadlines;
Focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
Builds strong relationships with clients and external actors;
Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

Bachelor Degree in Computer Science with specialization on software engineering;
Any Microsoft certification related to web development will be an advantage.

Relevant experience:

With bachelor degree, minimum 4 years of relevant experience in ASP.NET (MVC), SQL Server, Crystal Reports, JavaScript, jQuery, jSon and CSS is required;
Proven experience in development and administration on database. Database project development and customization experience based on UNDP EGEMA requirements, ability on network communication and backup system data recovery for development databases and web applications.

Language:

Excellent written and spoken Dari or Pashtu and English is required.

Institutional Arrangement

The Consultant will work under the supervision of the EGEMA Project Manager.

Duration of the Work

The duration of the assignment is 3 months (with maximum 66 working days).

Duty Station

The consultant will be based at the office of the policy department as well as its Statistics and IT divisions of MOWA, Kabul, Afghanistan.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

The contractor shall submit a price proposal as below:

Professional Fee – The contractor shall propose a daily fee which should be inclusive of his/her professional fee, local communication and transportation costs. The number of working days for which the daily fee shall be payable under the contract is 66 working days.

The total professional fee, shall be converted into a lump sum contract and payments under the contract shall be made on submission and acceptance of deliverables under the contract in accordance with the abovementioned schedule of payment.

Evaluation Method and Criteria

The offer will be evaluated by using the Best Value for money approach (combined scoring method). The Technical Proposal will be evaluated on 70%. Whereas the Financial Proposal will be evaluated on 30%.

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and;
Having received the 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 of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Criteria 70 points

Technical Proposal (50 marks)

Technical Approach & Methodology (30 marks) – Explain the understanding of the objectives of the assignment, approach to the services, methodology for carrying out the activities and obtaining the expected output, and the degree of detail of such output. The Applicant should also explain the methodologies proposed to adopt and highlight the compatibility of those methodologies with the proposed approach;
Work Plan (20 marks) – The Applicant should propose the main activities of the assignment, their content and duration, phasing and interrelations, milestones (including interim approvals by the Client), and delivery dates. The proposed work plan should be consistent with the technical approach and methodology, showing understanding of the TOR and ability to translate them into a feasible working plan.

Qualification and Experience (20 marks) [evaluation of CV]:

Bachelor Degree in Computer Science with specialization on software engineering with any Microsoft certification related to web development will be an advantage (5 marks);
Minimum 4 years of relevant experience in ASP.NET (MVC), SQL Server, Crystal Reports, JavaScript, jQuery, jSon and CSS (10 marks);
Excellent written and spoken Dari or Pashtu and English (5 marks).

Financial proposal: 30 Marks

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

Duly accomplished Confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II);
Personal CV or P11, indicating all experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

Technical proposal:

Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment and work plan as indicated above.