Scope of Work - Terms of Reference (TOR)

Section 3: Terms of Reference (TOR)

C. Scope of Work

The scope of work includes situations in which a country already has an existing information

32 management system, as well as countries which do not yet have any system in place at all. This Terms of Reference document seeks to meet the needs of both of these types of countries having diverse requirements at different stages of strengthening their aid management systems and processes.

The Contractor is expected to deliver the following products and services to client partner countries in order to build the latter’s local capacity in implementing strong development effectiveness processes/systems. Guided by the global initiatives on aid/development effectiveness and the needs as specified by the client partner country, the Contractor is expected to be able to deliver on any or all of each service area (and their individual components), as deemed necessary by the client. As part of this tender process the Contractor is required to present their relevant experience in the following service areas:

33 LOT 1 / SERVICE AREA 1: PROVISION OF MODULAR OPEN DATA INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

SYSTEMS

Open Data Information Management Systems are software applications designed to capture, and process information. It is essential that any new system complements and interoperates seamlessly with other tools and processes/frameworks that are already in place as part of the client country’s development architecture. The Contractor will therefore be required to conduct a scoping exercise as part of Service Area 1 to identify and address linkages and synergies with existing or planned government systems. The same scoping exercise will also identify capacity constraints that might hinder the handover of ownership of the system.

The information needs of governments in relation to the flows of development assistance and other financial flows change over time, and the system should be modular to support the client partner government as its needs develop. Initially, the system has application in a range of distinct settings (though nothing in this Terms of Reference should limit the opportunity for Contractors to innovate and possibly offer new generation systems at either country, regional or global level). Among the initial settings foreseen, the system firstly gives governments tools to better coordinate and manage their aid and other types of foreign flows. Secondly, it provides the opportunity for governments to strengthen their public financial management systems, be able to hold Development Partners to account on their international commitments to make aid more predictable, and also improve on the government’s transparency and accountability to its citizens. Thirdly, the system offers support to the particular needs of post-conflict or fragile states that are in need of urgent recording and coordination of massive amounts of aid and other inflows in order to ensure its effective allocation and utilisation.

The Open Data Information Management System software being offered should have all of the following Core capabilities (as indicated in the sections below), and the process of defining the requirements should be informed by a scoping mission undertaken by the Contractor:

I. Input Allow for the automatic import of new and modified activities in IATI-XML format1 as well as OECD/DAC CRS data and data from the forward-spending survey.

i) More than 300 publishers including bilateral and multilateral donors, international and national NGOs, CSOs, foundations, and private sector now publish timely and forward-looking information on aid, development and humanitarian flows to the IATI standard, and this is available through the IATI Datastore². Each Open Data Information Management System must include a module providing an interface with the IATI Datastore so as to ensure seamless import of updated activities from donor databases to partner countries’

databases, and an API driven service to export data into XML and/or JSON format. The needs will be defined in close consultation with the client partner government. The Contractor, in collaboration with the client partner government, should define a feature that will enable Administrator approval of data import/export.

ii) Monitoring of global indicators (such as Busan) and nationally defined development effectiveness indicators

Current international dialogue on development effectiveness is guided by the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation that was agreed upon at the 2011 Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, Republic of Korea. Underpinning

1 The IATI standard is a framework for publishing information on development cooperation activities in a timely, comprehensive and forward-looking manner (http://iatistandard.org/)

2 http://datastore.iatistandard.org/docs/

34 this Global Partnership is a framework for monitoring the implementation of a set of actions agreed at that forum. The Open Data Information Management System on offer should ensure that the indicators for monitoring the Busan actions are embedded, and that users will be able to monitor on progress of the actions’ implementation at any point in time. In addition, many partner countries are defining development effectiveness indicators and targets at the national level, which should also be monitored through the same system/tool.

iii) Record on- and off-budget activities for all agents in the aid-delivery chain

The ability to capture on- and off-budget activities is essential for recipient countries to distinguish those Development Partners (DPs) that are making efforts to strengthen the former’s Public Financial Management (PFM) and other country systems, by aligning their aid to national priorities as identified in the national budget.

iv) Sub-national geocoding of activities

The Open Data Information Management System should be able to spatially represent aid interventions (via an interactive map tool) in order to empower partner governments to conduct gap analyses and make informed resource allocation decisions.

v) Budget Integration

This is a key process within PFM system that helps allocate finances based on identified national priorities. The Open Data Information Management System should have a component/module that interfaces with existing budgeting applications.

vi) M & E

Monitoring and evaluation of development outcomes is key to the process of planning.

This component/module within the Open Data Information Management System should enable partner governments to track progress in their implementation of set development goals.

vii) Development Partner/Provider Profile

The Open Data Information Management System should provide a module that consolidates key statistical data of each reporting Development Partner in order to facilitate analysis and empower decision-makers.

viii) User-friendly data capturing interface

The Open Data Information Management System should have an intuitive and user-friendly data-capturing interface (form) with multiple languages capability.

II. Output - Integration with other related systems

i) Interface with government public financial management systems

The Open Data Information Management System needs to create an interface with other existing PFM systems, in order to ensure complementarity and comprehensiveness of information on aid/development effectiveness. Interoperability with other technologies is critical to this functionality.

ii) Interface with national monitoring systems (development indicators)

There needs to be an interface between the Open Data Information Management System and national monitoring systems (e.g. national statistical databases) so that governments

35 can visualise the contribution of aid to the country’s attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), their successor goals, and other national socio-economic plans.

III. Output – Data accessibility and formats:

i) Be publicly accessible via the internet

The Open Data Information Management System should be publically accessible and thus conform to W3C Web Accessibility standards so as to ensure that the majority of people have access to the content being provided through the Internet. The system should be accessible on all modern standard compliant browsers and the interface should be responsive to mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones.

ii) Design, view and print reports in flexible and modifiable formats

The ability to generate various types of reports based on the data stored in the database is essential. The reporting feature should be intuitive, user-friendly, and allow for printing of reports into (but not limiting to) the following formats MS Word, MS Excel, CSV, and PDF.

iii) Export data in IATI-XML format

The Open Data Information Management System must include an interface with the IATI Registry in order to enable seamless export of activities.

iv) Web interface, including the possibility of decentralized data entry by remote users The Open Data Information Management System requires a web interface that allows different types/levels of access to the database: read, write, and administrator are the minimum access levels to be included.

v) Web portal

The Contractor will develop a web portal that will provide a platform for Internet users to access (in one location) all the relevant content pertaining to aid/development effectiveness as well as query various reports from data stored in the Open Data Information Management System. This will provide an information-sharing platform that the client partner government can utilise to disseminate different types of aid/development effectiveness information to the public at large.

vi) Offline module

The Contractor will be required to develop a module for offline data entry activities for use in countries where Internet infrastructure is not reliable. An Internet connection will only be required to upload already-entered data.

IV. Output. Replication of systems and customization

i) Replication of the system and customisation

The Contractor will be required to replicate a system they have developed for one local partner with another partner from a different country. In such cases, base software should be offered to the local partner at no cost. Customizations and costs involved for the new implementation should be agreed with the local partner in accordance with the terms and conditions of this LTA.

Expected Outputs

36 I. Core Modular Open Data Information Management System solution that is comprised of the

functionalities/modules listed in Service Areas 1 and 2 above.

II. All hardware and network requirements and costs associated with them are clearly identified, documented and agreed by the client partner government.

III. Industry standard software development, coding and quality assurance methodologies are implemented and full documentation of source code and internal functions of the system handed over to relevant staff of the client partner government.

IV. If the offering is Open Source, all attempts should be made to make the source code freely available for further customization by a third-party.

V. End user manuals handed over to relevant staff of the client partner government at the end of the development cycle. The Contractor will be required to explicitly authorize staff in the client partner government and provide training/certification for them to manipulate the source code in whatever manner they see fit, in order to meet evolving requirements of the system.

VI. At least six (6) months of warranty period after production implementation and sign off by the client partner government in which “software bugs” will be fixed within an accepted time period with no additional cost to the client.

Bidders shall meet the following requirements:

• Prior experience in designing, developing and supporting implementation of web-based data collection, data storage and reporting systems.

• Experience of implementing such systems in developing countries is an added advantage.

• Extensive knowledge and experience in the field of user interface design, web application development, and data science is required.

• Extensive knowledge and experience in the field of international relations, development cooperation/economics, aid effectiveness, and aid transparency is essential.

• Proven experience in using CMMI or equivalent framework for all product and service development.

The Contractor will provide a team of experts suitable and sufficient for the timely implementation of the agreed solutions.

LOT – 2 / Service Area 2: Technology Services and System Sustainability

Technology services will provide backup technical support to the administrators and users of new and/or existing Open Data Information Management Systemsolutions. These services will include inter alia, development of new modules, and provision of training/mentorship to national counterparts in charge of operating/managing the systems.

The notion of system sustainability is essential to ensure that the client partner government can eventually own, maintain and manage its own system. Therefore, the Contractor in this Service Area will be required to demonstrate how they will address this issue for both existing and new

37 implementations, defining the strategies through which technical knowledge and capacity of local system operators will be strengthened to manage, modify, and maintain the system with diminishing technical support from the Contractor over a period of time. The Contractor is required to establish a clear timeframe and define the activities they will carry out for developing, maintaining or customizing an existing system, developed by a firm in LOT1 or complete handover of a system to the concerned national officer(s). All ‘one time’ and recurring costs, including but not limited to proprietary software or third party components should be included in the contract and agreed with the client partner governmentand included in monitoring reports to UNDP.

Expected Outputs

I. A clear strategy on how to empower teams from new and on-going implementations to effectively sustain the system beyond current Technical Support arrangements.

II. A report on the training of the different categories of users and operators, for both new and on-going implementations, as identified in the scoping exercise.

III. A sample quarterly “Issues Log Report” that will illustrate the volume and nature of issues (technical or otherwise) that will have been raised by each partner country implementation, and documenting how each issue will have been handled by the Contractor and the time taken to address it. It should also indicate the maximum turnaround time allowed for each issue to be resolved, and the penalties applicable in the case of delays. Furthermore, this report should also provide an analytical presentation of the data contained in the report.

IV. In case of Knowledge or System transfer, at least one (1) key personnel is made available for at least two (2) full weeks to the client partner government within two (2) years of signing the Long-Term Agreement.

V. Quarterly report to be submitted to UNDP indicating the status and value of all contracts established or extended through this Long Term Arrangement.