Sunday, December 16, 2012

Oxfam GB TOR for Development of a Commodity Tracking, Distribution and SMS Aggregation Platform in Mogadishu Somalia


Development of a Commodity Tracking, Distribution and SMS Aggregation platform in Mogadishu Somalia

Terms of Reference

1.0 Background


The prevailing situation in Somalia makes humanitarian access to conflict affected communities difficult, and is a critical challenge at times of acute crisis such as cholera outbreaks.  
Humanitarian space’ in which aid in Somalia can safely be delivered is limited due to insecurity and bureaucratic impediments which restrict the movement of humanitarian agencies and impact on their capacity to manage and monitor the delivery and impact of aid.

Oxfam GB is one of the key WASH actors in Somalia and just concluded a successful phase one of a pilot project using mobile phone based platform to undertake public health promotion. 
The pilot was implemented in five districts in Mogadishu and covered 10,000 phone users. An end of project evaluation indicated good uptake and high interest from communities and actors in Somalia. 
One of the key recommendations from the evaluation was to test the application beyond messaging. After lengthy consultations with stakeholders it was agreed that the current mobile phone public health platform be transformed into an mWASH application able to implement a complete WASH program. 
The mWASH platform should have capacity to undertake NFI distributions as well as conduct accompanying community education all on phone. 

2.0 Purpose of the consultancy

The consultancy involves development and testing of a Commodity Tracking, Distribution and SMS Aggregation (CTDA) platform in Mogadishu Somalia. 
The CTDA component should be interoperable with the existing SMS based interactive community education platform. 
The aim of the CTDA component is to add a function to manage distribution of WASH Non Food Items (NFIs) and enable a fully fledged integrated mWASH (mobile based WASH) program in the insecure/hard to reach communities in parts of Somalia. 
The assignment has software development, hardware upgrade as well as field support dimensions.

3.0 Methodology

The consultancy shall be executed in the following key steps:
  • Planning – shall involve technical requirement analysis to determine the cope/capabilities of the software required
  • Implementation – shall involve actual design and programming
  • Testing – shall form an integral part of the development process to ensure that defects are recognized as soon as possible.
  • Documentation – shall be undertaken throughout the process of development for the   purpose of future maintenance and enhancement 
  • Deployment – shall start after the code is appropriately tested, and approved for release. Involves upgrading of the messaging centre in Mogadishu through remote support. Ultimately this should result to a universally deployable software code that can be used to set a messaging centre in other countries/contexts
  • Maintenance – 2 month remote support and maintenance during the pilot phase.  This will involve trouble shooting and responding to software and hardware performance related queries from the field.
  • Service hosting for 6 months – during the field trial period
4.0 Outputs

Key outputs shall include:
  • A functioning coded program
  • An error free functioning software - at test run
  • An upgrade to the hardware in Mogadishu to meet functional requirements of the new software
  • A summative report documenting all the programming process/codes used
  • A functioning application at community level- includes setting up all interoperability requirements and deployment to the field
  • Continuous remote support – including error rectification for two months
5.0 Management of evaluation

A global Public health advisor based in Nairobi shall be directly responsible for the planning and execution of this consultancy.

760 Contractual Matters

Binding agreements will be drawn in a form of a contract to which this TOR shall serve as an annex or addendum. 
The contract will stipulate all the legal and statutory obligations as required by law and relevant to both Oxfam and the consultant.


8.0. Timing / Work Plan

The estimated duration of the assignment is two months and five weeks divided as follows:
  • 4 weeks (1st Jan to 30th Jan 2013) for the software development.
  • One week (1st – 8th Feb.  2013) for deployment of the software and setting up of relevant hardware in the field.
  • Two months remote support (Feb 8th 2013 – April 7th 2013 )
9.0. Consultant qualifications & experience

The consultant should have the following competencies and qualifications
  • University qualification in IT with specialization in software development
  • Demonstrated experience developing SMS based and other mobile phone based public health applications – this includes proof of at least one application working in the field.
  • Demonstrated experience  working with SMS gateways APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)
  • Experience in development of dynamic content driven enterprise web applications.
  • Experience in development of flexible and highly scalable J2EE applications
  • A professional command of English, both oral and written; good report-writing
10.0. Application procedure

Application for the consultancy shall be done as follows:
  • Read the enclosed diagrammatic representation of the existing software application
  • Read the enclosed functional requirements document for the new (CTDA) software application
  • After appraising yourself on what is existing and in consideration of the requirements stipulated in the functional requirement document and elsewhere in this TOR, develop a one page concept (mainly diagrammatic) detailing how the new CTDA would look like – this includes all the interfaces and how it will interoperate with the existing platform
  • Develop a stepwise work plan of how you would go about the tasks
  • Include a budget – detailing costing for each milestone – including six months hosting and two months remote maintenance
Additional   documents can be downloaded online via  http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what-we-do/about-us/working-at-oxfam using  INT5898

The one page concept, work plan, budget and CV (company profile) should be sent to somalijobs@oxfam.org.uk, not later than close of business on Friday, 21 Dec 2012.

Please include, “Commodity Tracking, Distribution and SMS Aggregation platform in Mogadishu Somalia” in the subject line of your e-mail. 
Only those short-listed will be contacted.