Job: ICT CONSULTANT

Location : Freetown, SIERRA LEONE

Application Deadline : 14-Oct-13

Additional Category Democratic Governance

Type of Contract : Individual Contract

Post Level : International Consultant

Languages Required : English

Duration of Initial Contract : six (6) months

Background

Following the successful conclusion of the 2012 elections, UNDP's Support to the Electoral Cycle in Sierra Leone 2011 – 2014 Programme continues to support the sustainability of ICT know-how and the development of long-term capacities of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), including voter registration. To this end, the Programme will also provide ICT assistance to the Government of Sierra Leone to harmonize its national civil registry with NEC's voter database, as well as other agency databases, so that NEC may receive a voters register derived from an integrated national civil registry, thereby reducing the cost of voter registration and ensuring harmonization of government registries. To this extent ICT Analyst under the guidance and the direct supervision of the Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) of the Support to the Electoral Cycle in Sierra Leone 2011 – 2014 Programme, will support the Senior Electoral ICT Advisor in enhancing NEC's voter registration ICT capacities as well as support the Senior Electoral ICT Advisor in the development of an integrated national civil registry an initiative headed by the National Registration Service (NRS).

Further to the above mentioned, under the guidance and direct supervision of the DCD or Operations Manager, the ICT Consultant advises on ICT services, develops and implements ICT management systems, provides information management tools and technology infrastructure in medium and large Country Offices.

The key results have an impact on the overall efficiency of the Country Office including improved business results and client services. Forward-looking ICT management has an impact on the organization of office management, knowledge sharing, and information provision.

Direct technical support to NEC and NRS will improve the technical competency of both institutions. The successful creation of a new integrated national civil registry and provision of technical advice to NEC and NRS will harmonize several government databases and create a unified national database. This new database will reduce voter registration costs for NEC, and ensure the harmonization and integrity of civil data. The Government of Sierra Leone's ability to register citizens and manage data across ministries and institutions will greatly improve the efficacy of government, public planning, and national cohesion.

Duties and Responsibilities

Ensures implementation of ICT strategies and introduction and implementation of new technologies, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Full compliance with corporate information management and technology standards, guidelines and procedures for the CO technology environment;
• Analysis of the requirement and elaboration of internal policies and procedures on the use of ICT.
• CO ICT business processes mapping and elaboration/establishment of internal Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in ICT management, control of the workflows in the ICT team;
• Participation in the office business process re-engineering activities and ensure that business needs drive IT solutions related to corporate resource management;
• Conduct of market research and analysis, and introduction of new technology for country office system updating and improvement;
• Provision of advice on and assistance in procurement of new ICT equipment for the CO and projects, provision of technical specifications and information on best options in both local and international markets;
• Development and update of the ICT annual plan and road map. Development and update of the business continuity plan, disaster recovery plan, ICT infrastructure and training plans. Follow up on their implementation;
• Provision of support to the use of Atlas (UNDP's implementation of PeopleSoft ERP) functionality for improved business results and improved client services;
• Leadership of the ICT team for effective and client-oriented services.

Ensures development of information and documentation management system focusing on the achievement of the following results:

• Development and implementation of CO information and documentation management system in accordance with UNDP policy and the country office needs.

Ensures efficient networks administration, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Monitoring of the computing resources to provide a stable and responsive environment;
• Operation of network utility procedures defining network users and security attributes establishing directories, menus and drive-mappings, configuring network printers and providing user access;
• Monitoring of backup and restoration procedures for both server and local drives.
• Timely upgrade of LAN infrastructure and Internet connectivity to meet UNDP requirements;
• Provision of technical advice on network administration to other agencies as required and monitoring preparation of bills for cost-recovery for the services provided.

Provides web management services, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Identification of opportunities and ways of converting business processes into web-based systems to address the issues of efficiency (e.g. office management systems, donor profile software, knowledge management systems);
• Creation and technical maintenance of the CO websites and Intranet;
• Provision of technical advice on web management to other agencies as required and monitoring preparation of bills for cost-recovery for the services provided.

Ensure facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing in the CO, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Identification and promotion of different systems and applications for optimal content management, knowledge management and sharing, information provision;
• Organization of training for the operations/projects staff on ICT issues;
• Synthesis of lessons learned and best practices directly linked to ICT management;
• Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.

Ensure support to the Senior Electoral ICT Advisor in providing strategic ICT advice to NEC focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Establishment of a limited in-country voter ID card printing facility for NEC;
• Establishment of an in-country biometric de-duplication facility correspondent to emergent policies on data harmonization across government agencies;
• Provision of training for NEC IT staff in substantive areas such as database management, software management, and hardware management with attendant focus on ensuring sustainability of NEC's IT operations;
• Routinely monitors NEC performance in relation to specified IT tasks as defined in NEC's annual work plan;
• Assist in the generation and preparation of narrative reports on the status of pertinent activities in NEC's annual work plan.

Ensure support to the Senior Electoral ICT Advisor in providing strategic ICT advice to NRS focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Analysis of NRS data and NEC database to determine the feasibility of merging and creating a new, integrated national ID database based on structure of NEC's current database;
• Routinely monitors NRS performance in relation to specified ICT tasks as defined in NRS's annual work plan;
• Assist in the generation and preparation of narrative reports on the status of pertinent activities in NRS's annual work plan.

Reporting Mechanism:

The consultant will report directly to the DCD/Operations Manager on operational related deliverables and Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) on Elections related deliverable.

Competencies

Building Strategic Partnerships:

• Maintaining a network of contacts;
• Maintains an established network of contacts for general information sharing and to remain up-to-date on partnership related issues.

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Basic research and analysis;
• Generates new ideas and approaches, researches best practices and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things;
• Documents and analyses innovative strategies and new approaches.

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise:

• Fundamental knowledge of own discipline;
• Understands and applies fundamental concepts and principles of a professional discipline or technical specialty relating to the position;
• Possesses basic knowledge of organizational policies and procedures relating to the position and applies them consistently in work tasks;
• Identifies new and better approaches to work processes and incorporates the same in his/her work;
• Analyzes the requirements and synthesizes proposals;
• Strives to keep job knowledge up-to-date through self-directed study and other means of learning;
• Demonstrates good knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments.

Promoting Organizational Change and Development:

• Basic research and analysis;
• Demonstrates ability to diagnose problems and identifies and communicates processes to support change initiatives.

Design and Implementation of Management Systems:

• Research and analysis and making recommendations on management systems;
• Maintains information/databases on system design features;
• Develops simple system components.

Client Orientation:

• Establishing effective client relationships;
• Researches potential solutions to internal and external client needs and reports back in a timely, succinct and appropriate fashion;
• Organizes and prioritizes work schedule to meet client needs and deadlines;
• Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships within the work unit and with internal and external clients.

Promoting Accountability and Results-Based Management:

• Basic monitoring;
• Gathers, analyzes and disseminates information on best practice in accountability and results-based management systems.

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity;
• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
• Self-development, initiative-taking;
• Acting as a team player and facilitating team work
• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
• Creating synergies through self-control;
• Managing conflict;
• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others;
• Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
• Informed and transparent decision making.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master's degree in Information systems, Information Management or Bachelors with four years of experience in, Computer Science or related discipline;
• Cisco Certified Network Engineer (CCNE) and Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE);
• If certification is not available at the time of recruitment, it should be obtained within 6 months.

Experience:

• Two(2) years of relevant working experience, including development and implementation of ICT strategies, management and supervision of ICT services and teams, hardware and software platforms, telecommunications facilities, knowledge of Windows-based packages/applications, experience in web design and development of web-based office applications.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in the UN language and national language of the duty station.

Evaluation of Criteria and Weighting:

The expert will be evaluated against a combination of technical and financial criteria. Maximum score is 100%

The technical evaluation will include the following:

• Background and minimum educational qualification 10%;
• Practical previous experience and Methodology of Approach 30%;
• Substantial professional knowledge and experience in ICT 50%;
• English Language Fluency 10%.

Financial proposal: 30%

Application Procedures:

Qualified and interested national candidates are hereby requested to apply. The application must contain the following:

Brief letter of application;

• Detailed time line methodology on how the candidate wish to conduct the work;
• Completed P11 form – http://sas.undp.org/documents/P11_personal_history_form.doc;
• Detailed achievement based CV;
• Financial proposal (inclusive of all cost ; consultancy fee, travel, administrative cost(if applicable) and printing etc).

Payment Modalities:

Payment will be made in three installments upon satisfactory completion of the following deliverables:

• 1^st Installment : 20% upon signing of the contract;
• 2^nd Installment : 40% upon submission of draft report;
• 3^rd Installment : 40% upon submission of the final report.

Please note that applications will only be considered if they include the technical (methodology of approach) and financial proposal, as well as CV.

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.

More Info and Application