Location :
Male', MALDIVES
Application Deadline :
27-Oct-13
Type of Contract :
Other
Post Level :
Other
Languages Required :
English
Starting Date :
(date when the selected candidate is expected to start)
03-Nov-2013
Duration of Initial Contract :
45 working days
Expected Duration of Assignment :
45 working days
Background
The geographical dispersion of the Maldives poses many challenges in communication and exchange of knowledge such has been the case for the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture (MoFA); with only two agricultural centres located in the North and South respectively, the means of imparting knowledge and technical expertise is limited and extremely costly.
Farmers contact the Ministry on a daily basis via phone to clarify agriculture related issues such as pesticide usage, disease and infestation management, etc. Information and materials were previously made available in Male' Nursery, and a significant number of people from the islands visited the Nursery to purchase pesticides, fertilizers and obtain information on solving problems they encounter in farming. However the functions of the Nursery had to be halted with the indefinite relocation of the Nursery.
The current arrangements are not the most convenient in disseminating the right information to the right people; these services do not always directly reach the farmers themselves, and there is therefore a mismatch of expertise with the target audience. Moreover, the needed technical expertise is not always available from the Ministry as extension officers and other technical experts are often in field on official business. Field visits are arranged as much as possible for provision of training and extension, but this is extremely costly and not sustainable as it does not reach a wide audience at once. Demonstration is a crucial aspect in the context of agriculture, as explaining technical and often complex procedures without visual aid is not very feasible. These challenges relate to the transfer of information both ways, i.e. the collection from farmers and dissemination from MoFA.
With the identified need for an organised and systematic mechanism to address these issues, MoFA planned to develop an Agriculture Information Dissemination Centre (AIDC) under the Support to Integrated Farming project assisted by UNDP Maldives. A concept note on the AIDC was developed in 2012, which was envisaged to be an information kiosk that would provide and collect information on agricultural practices, pesticide usage, disease management and institutional training, with possibilities for expansion to include even other areas covered in the Ministry's mandate such as fisheries, mari-culture, aquaculture, cooperatives and market related information. However, with a physical location for such a centre still unidentified, the Ministry seeks to implement the initial stages of this concept in a virtual manner, which could in the future be integrated into the wider AIDC concept, once established.
Duties and Responsibilities
Scope of Work:
The firm, under the overall supervision of MoFA and UNDP, will have the following major responsibilities:
- Conduct a situation analysis on existing data management methods
- Present a clear methodology to carry out the assignment
- Identifying the limitations of existing data management methods
- Review all existing regulatory framework that relates to management of agricultural related data and identifying enforcement side weakness in data management and strengthening the regulatory framework, if any.
- Develop a framework and standards for a back-end database for the collection and management of agricultural data
- Conduct consultative discussions with the technical team and other stakeholders as necessary and collect the necessary information , and work closely with the MoFA/UNDP team in identifying the specific requirements to be included
- Develop the content management system for the AIDP
- Develop a short user manual on usage and management of the database and CMS by the staff of MoFA
- Conduct a short training on the implementation and usage of the AIDP for relevant staff of MoFA
While the firm is free to determine the actual format of the AIDP, it should be discussed with the project management team and relevant technical staff from MoFA at all stages of drafting and finalising. The final product should include but not necessarily be limited to the following requirements:
Back-end Development Requirements
- Formulation of appropriate definitions, standards and classifications for data collection/management and generation
- Developing a structural framework (procedures and policies) for data sharing and standard operation procedures (SOPs)
- Preparation and formulation of a comprehensive technical specification and a framework for the development of a web based agriculture database to collect/compile data and generate reports from the agricultural sector and a portal for dissemination and outreach.
CMS Functional Requirements
- All content on the website should be accessible in both Dhivehi and English
- One focal administrative user function should be created with authority to approve and give rights to other internal staff as administrative users.
- Administrative users (MoFA) should be able to create, activate, deactivate and delete users, and should be able to authorize access levels to other users.
- External users (audience) should have the option of registering a login username and password for frequent use. However access to general information should not be restricted to registered users only.
- Avenues to incorporate the following functions should be created:
- Videos relating to activities such as education programmes, archive of conferences
- Events pages, research articles, contribution and basic agriculture newsfeed
- Infographics, PowerPoint presentations and testimonies.
- Maps of current agricultural islands commercial and where production is more
- 'Catalogue'/ information about educational programmes and training programmes
- Call for experts, jobs and procurement
- Photo gallery
- Static pages (administrative information)
- Meta-data on documents uploaded (for better search)
- Registration forms for events, training and other programmes
- Integration of social media share buttons
- Interactive education programme selector
- A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section should be included.
- A Contact function should be included for users to submit questions if not found in the FAQ section
- A Live help (online chat support system) should be included
- MoFA contact information and step-by-step procedures to get further assistance should be clearly defined.
- The AIDP shall provide a link to the main website of MoFA ( www.fishagri.gov.mv) and vice versa. Links to other related website should also be provided on the AIDP.
CMS Development Requirements
- An existing open source CMS, FAQ and Live Support system should be used, to reduce cost and duration of the development.
- Thaana fonts should be embedded and Thaana Keyboard JavaScript should be used on all user input fields to facilitate automatic selection.
- FAQs section should have subject wise break-downs with auto-complete search feature:
- Ability to add remove, modify questions and answers.
- Ability to create sections/categories and assign questions and answers to those sections
- CMS should be user friendly, allows the minimal staff knowledge to upload and maintain content on the website;
- Should have ability to store and display Multimedia content (PDF, Streaming Videos, Animated Content)
- Should include a comment feature
- Should have the ability to search by topic and keyword
- The dynamic web site editor (WYSIWYG) within the CMS should allow users to use the following editing features:
- Ability to use the cut, paste, or copy buttons or use the right click button on the mouse.
- Ability for text to be centered, right or left aligned, bulleted, numbered, and formatted and changed colors.
- Ability to create a link to another web site or a link to another page on your web site.
- Ability to insert picture/video and upload new pictures/video to your web space.
- Ability to change the size of the picture using the editor by dragging the mouse pointer.
- Ability to create a table of any size, with or without borders.
- Ability to copy paste from MS Word/Excel, to the backend of the CMS keeping fonts and formatting, for easy content update and migration.
CMS Website Page Management:
- Ability to add more pages, delete pages, archive pages and modify pages.
- Ability to move pages both in the menu and between sections
- Ability to create categories/sections and assign pages to those categories/sections.
Expected Output
- Inception report on the situation analysis of existing data management mechanisms.
- Back-end database for collection and management of agricultural data, with technical specifications, structural framework and SOPs
- Content management system and structural layout for the AIDP
- Short manual on usage and management of CMS
- Short training on implementation of AIDP for relevant MoFA staff
Organizational Setting
- The firm will be monitored, overseen and supervised by the Project Management Team (PMT) led by MoFA, in close collaboration with the Policy and Inclusive Growth unit of UNDP Maldives. The firm shall report regularly to the PMT and provide updates on progress as agreed.
- The firm is not expected to develop any of the actual content; the content will be developed and reviewed by the technical team from MoFA, and provided to the firm for incorporation into the AIDP system.
- The Ministry shall make available and provide the relevant documents, data and information at the disposal of the Government for the purpose of this assignment. Such information which is not of public nature shall be considered confidential and should not be disclosed to any other party.
- Payment schedules of the Institutional Contract Fees will be made according to the timetable of deliverables (%). The timetable of outputs shall be decided based on the proposals submitted and the negotiations carried out with the successful party, and will be stipulated in the contract which shall be signed with the successful party.
- Final acceptance and certification and approval of the output submitted by the firm will be done by MoFA and UNDP.
Duration:
Duration of this assignment is 45 working days from the day of appointment. Expected start date is as soon as possible.
Proposal Submission
Eligible parties interested to deliver the above scope of work are requested to submit their proposal. The following shall be included in the bid:
- Methodology and Approach
This section shall highlight the methodology and approach that the consultancy firm proposes to deliver the scope of work. It shall highlight the various stages that will be followed through in the development of the web portal including CMS under the scope of work.
- Profile of the Consultancy Firm
Please provide details of the core team of consultants who will be working on this project, together with their profiles stating details of relevant work experience of the firm and individual consultant/s, particularly in the areas of expertise specified.
- Proposed Timeline
Please submit a detailed work plan with timeline on how the scope of work will be delivered.
- Financial proposal
Please provide lump sum quotation for the assignment with breakdown
- List of three referees with email and/or recommendation letters from past assignments
For any queries regarding TOR please e-mail to Aysha Solih @ aysha.solih@undp.org
Competencies
Functional Competencies of key personnel of the firm:
- Proven analytical and inter-personal skills.
- Research and evaluation skills including ability to synthesize information
- Excellent oral, and effective presentation and report-writing skills;
- Ability to work under with minimum supervision, while meeting deadlines.
- Excellent social and communication skills
- Ability to work in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural settings
- Excellent computers skills required
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;
- Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment
Qualifications :
Required Skills and Experience
Education
- The firm should be able to provide at least one consultant with a degree or higher education in ICT, web design, information management, mass media or other related field.
Experience
- Demonstrate a sound record in providing consulting services for similar web portal development assignments
- A minimum of 5 years' experience in web portal design, development of CMS, and undertaking similar type of work.
- The firm should be able to offer within its team of consultants, technical expertise in web development, coding and graphic design among other relevant areas.
- Past experience of the firm in developing similar materials for international organizations and government of Maldives would be an added advantaged.
- Ability to meet deadlines and prioritise multiple tasks
Language Requirements: Fluency in both written and spoken English
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.
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