Background

The Goverment of Albania (GoA) has recently approved a new law on protected areas and over the long-term, this should result in a significant improvement in the overall management effectiveness of the country’s system of protected areas, covering 460,060ha of marine and terrestrial habitats.

The current funding baselines for the Protected Areas (PAs) system, and the capacities to administer and improve PA revenue streams, are still well below the levels required to ensure that the protected area system can properly serve its function as an important tool to protect biodiversity. So, if the Ministry of Tourism and Environment(MoTE) and its agencies is to fulfil its protected area mandate, it will need to have the ability to: (i) secure sufficient, stable and long-term financial resources for protected areas; (ii) allocate these resources in a timely manner and appropriate form to cover the full costs of protected areas; and (iii) ensure that the protected areas are managed effectively and efficiently with respect to conservation and other complementary objectives.

This project seeks to assist the GoA in reducing existing funding gaps for the system of protected areas, improving the management of individual protected areas, improving cost-efficiencies in individual protected areas and building the financial management capacities of protected area staff in the National Agency of Protected Areas (NAPA).

The project will focus project activities at two levels of support: (i) building the financial management capacities of the agency responsible for administering the system of protected areas; and (ii) demonstrating the efficacy of different financing strategies in a sub-set of individual protected areas. The project will seek to strengthen the capacity of MoTE and NAPA to effectively plan, administer and manage the financial resources for the protected area system.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main tasks of the technical expert are to provide guidelines and technical specifications for e-ticketing system for the protected area of Dajti with the main following criteria to be met:

  Overview

As with all new installations of both technology and operational methods, there is an understanding that specific vendors may have differing views as to what they see as the ideal solution, the following sections outline the core features and physical structures required.

The core solution needs to have the following overriding characteristics / features:

1.       Simple to operate

The system must have a simple and understandable user interface for the staff at the sites to use, it should ideally start into a sales screen and have minimal options for them to have to select. 

The interface must be capable of being used by someone who is not computer literate. Prices and other mechanisms should be preconfigured and not able to be altered, expect through sufficient access rights. 

The interface to access the system and subsequent sales screens must be in Albanian by default for all installations.

 2.       Ease of customer interaction

All systems that the customers interact with as part of the offered solution – Kiosks / Web Pages / Turnstiles, should be designed to remove any confusion from the process being attempted. 

The languages that will be offered are Albanian/English.

3.       Web enabled

Whereas the current operational method is for “at the door” purchase, a key strategic objective is to offer online purchasing through an evolving digital strategy. 

Therefore, the system should provide either a white labelled or API solution to enable a web sales front end. This should offer the purchase of individual, group or multi-site ticket options if / when required to be offered. 

There should be the logic or rules to allow the automatic application of discounts for groups or other parties, as configured in the system at a basic level. 

Any web system needs to be fully mobile optimized, and not rely on specific technologies, Java, Flash etc. to be used effectively. 

4.       Offline Mode Enabled

Systems that could operate in “offline mode” – that is being able to sell and validate tickets whilst there is no Internet connection. 

Whilst a site has been operating in “offline mode”, its sales, redemptions and other activities should be stored locally and communicated to the central system as soon as a connection is available.

5.       Centralized Reporting

The system will need to offer multisite and income stream reporting to the central system administrators in NAPA. 

Reports should be offered to analyze both financial transactions for the purposes of audit and reconciliation, but also customer analytics, looking specifically at hourly, daily and weekly patterns, cross site comparisons and group, language and sales channel analysis. 

This should ideally be automatically combined or calculated and not required processing by human intervention.

6.       Multi-Currency

The system should ideally be able to calculate, present and process charges in Albanian Lek, Euros and US Dollars.

7.       Access Control

The system should have, but not rely on a physical method of preventing entry until payment has been made or ticket redeemed. This may be through a traditional tripod turnstile or half height gate(s) or similar. 

Ideally the method of validation will be a bar code, magnetic stripe or similar low-cost method for the media and hardware to create and validate the entry token. 

The system must have a anti pass back system to ensure that each ticket can only be redeemed for the paid number of visits. 

Where a ticket has been presented and found to be invalid, there will need to be clear indication of this to the operational staff on site.

The system will need to be able to produce and report on multi use tickets, which may be issued to staff and / or residents of the sites to facilitate continued access

 8.       Fraud Prevention Measures

In addition to the physical turnstiles or gates, the system should have measures in place to prevent the gates or turnstiles being held open to allow free admission. 

These could include manual admission counters or people counting mechanisms. 

Where a gate or turnstile has been opened for in excess of 30 seconds a warning message / alert or similar security log should be recorded in the systems and reported to the central system administrator.

 Dajti Park Entrance Specific Requirements:

 Operational

 The proposed solution is to construct a pay boundary at the national park entrance. 

Exit from the site would be through the same boundary by use of a one way locking turnstile or gate. 

Tickets should be dispensed from either a new constructed ticket desk / cabin facility adjacent to the pay boundary, or possibly, through a kiosk facility. 

 Requirements for e-ticketing provider

•        Provision of Barrier structure to prevent crossing the pay boundary except;

         -Through entry turnstile or gate released by ticket validation

         -Through exit turnstile or gate operating in exit only mode

•        Provision of Point of sale unit, integrated, credit card terminal and printing mechanism

•        Possible provision of automated ticket purchase kiosk at pay boundary

•        Connection of wiring between turnstiles and ticket cabin / kiosks 

•        Provision of online sales facility

•        Construction of ticketing cabin or similar close to pay boundary.

•        Provision of wiring ducts and channels.  

 Overall the consultant will provide for the best operational solution for the PA e-ticketing entrance system and detailed technical specification and cost estimation.

Main deliverables:

60%- 10 December 2018-Draft report

40%- 10 January 2019- Final report

Competencies

Corporate and Core 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 favoritism.
• Communication - Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.
• Planning & Organizing – Develops clear goals in line with agreed strategies, identifies priorities, foresees risks and makes allowances accordingly.
• Organizational Awareness - Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
• Teamwork - Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Accountability – Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, cost and quality standards

Functional competences:

•       Thorough understanding of disability issues, human rights, social inclusion and social services

•       Excellent inter-personal and teamwork skills, networking attitude;

•       Capacity to deliver as per deadlines;

•       Ability to pick up new terminology and concepts easily;

Required Skills and Experience

Education: 

•       University degree in mechanical engineering, information technology engineering,  environmental engineering or related field.

Experience:    

•       At least seven years of relevant experience.

•       Previous experience in developing technical specifications for IT and infrastructure solutions.

•       Demonstrated ability of analytical and report drafting work.

Language Requirements:

•       Fluency in English.

Evaluation of Applicants

•       Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated;

•       Individual consultants will be evaluated based on Combined Scoring method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal;

•       Combined weighted scoring: Technical (70%); Financial (30%).

30 % or 30 points: Previous experience in developing technical specifications for IT and infrastructure solutions.

20% or 20 points: -University degree in mechanical engineering, information technology engineering, environmental engineering or related field.

20% or 20 points: -At least seven years of relevant experience.

Application Procedure

Interested applicants are advised to carefully study all sections of this ToRs and ensure that they meet the general requirements as well as specific qualifications described. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

The application should contain:

• Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position. Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application.
• Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability-please fill in the attached form... Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability.  
• Latest personal CV, including past experience from similar projects or completed and signed UN Personal History Form (P11) for Service Contracts (SC) and Individual Contracts (IC) – Blank form Download here.
• Financial Proposal in ALL - specifying a total lump sum in Albanian Lek ( The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable -qualitative and quantitative- 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 this lump sum amount-including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).http://www.un.org.al/doc/Financial%20Offer%20template.doc
• Copy of Diplomas and copy of Passport.

Kindly note that Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal are two separate documents and should both be part of your application. 

How to Submit the Application:

To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

• Merge your CV or P11, Financial Proposal Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and cover letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded;
• Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement);
• Click “Apply Now” button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click “Submit Application;”
• Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above);
• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

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.

Due to a large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process