Consultancy:Developing online monitoring system

Oxfam in Nepal

Oxfam has been working in Nepal since the early 1980s undertaking various development initiatives addressing the poverty and injustice faced by women and other socially and economically excluded groups. The level of Oxfam's engagement increased substantially after restoration of democracy in 1990 as it became easier for civil society to work in the new political environment. Over the years, Oxfam has worked in partnership with local civil society organisations and the government to promote rural livelihoods, and vulnerable communities' resilience to climatic shocks and disasters. It has also significantly contributed to empowering community people, especially women, to; negotiate with people in power, influence decision making processes, claim rights and essential services to which they are entitled, demand accountability on the part of duty bearers and engage larger masses in advocacy efforts. Oxfam also worked closely with UNHCR in providing assistance to Bhutanese refugees during the 1990s. Oxfam and its long term programme partners believe that the underlying structural causes and drivers of poverty must be addressed if improvements in peoples's lives are to be broad and lasting. Poverty is not one-dimensional; nor is it purely local in its causes and solutions. Therefore, Oxfam's work addresses not only material and technical change, but also the related economic, social, institutional and policy changes which are necessary to end poverty and achieve development and wellbeing. The Oxfam Nepal Vision is: The people of Nepal are empowered and work together to attain a life of dignity with justice and equal rights for all. The Overall Nepal Programme Goal is: to improve the well being of vulnerable people through strengthening their participation in development and governance processes and reducing poverty and suffering.

Details / requirements:

Consultancy Title: Developing online monitoring system 

 Proposal Submission Deadline: 23 November 2017  

 Send Proposal to: consultancy_nepal@oxfam.org.uk  

Terms of Reference (ToR)

Hiring a consultant for Developing online monitoring system 

Background

After the two major earthquakes of April and May and subsequent destruction of nearly 700,000 houses, Oxfam in Nepal had been actively working in response and recovery in 7 of the 14 affected districts. Now transitioning to reconstruction, and in line with current needs , Oxfam has allocated majority of its resources into construction of infrastructures and gearing towards rebuilding of at least 500 housing units across 5 districts under its shelter programme. Nation wide reconstruction is taking pace with 50,251 building constructed while 130,234 buildings under construction as of September 2017. People in far flung remote areas are facing innate challenges in receiving information and technical assistance so as to build earthquake resistant houses in compliance with minimum requirements set by the government failure to which bars them from getting additional grants from the government to support reconstruction. Limited access to information, the houses rebuilt may not incorporate earthquake resisting features in course of its construction making them more vulnerable in disasters which is critical.  Oxfam is providing technical assistance to 15 Rural Municipalities and 3 Municipalities in 6 of the most affected districts namely Sinhdupalchok, Gorkha, Dhading, Nuwakot, Kathamndu and Lalitpur.  

Objectives of the Assignment

The proposed technology serves the following objectives; 

  • To provide on line monitoring and feedback loop capabilities at central and district level on housing construction status
  • To provide easy database management and reader friendly graphical reporting of beneficiaries  

Scope of Services and Tasks and Activities to be completed 

To monitor construction activities, an online as well as mobile application will be predominant tool for data collection and transmission. If such tool that  can be downloaded on to the tablets devices provided by Oxfam to the field based site supervisors overseeing a construction of houses to improve oversight in remote locations. The  system will improve coordination between Technical person  at district level and central level to provide input in real time to supervisors in the field as well as produce high quality reports.  

The consists of a web application, a mobile app, and the back-end servers to support data collection and communication. This innovation, coupled with mobile unit and ongoing community and door to door messaging will substantially result fewer buildings built erroneously and be deemed as non-complaint and more families seeking to following earthquake resilient procedures and materials.  

The app will consist of three sections: 1) Beneficiary disaggregated data 2) household technical assistance and 3) permanent house construction monitoring. Beneficiary data will ensure a unique identification to each household while progressively measuring level of support to each of them. Technical assistance section will record the status of household with each visit, identify defects if any, suggestions provided and feedback from the household. It will also have link to ready to use reference documents published by NRA. Construction monitoring includes sequential monitoring of construction phases with at least 3 defined milestones (plinth level, roof level and completion). At least nine sub section to be included in construction monitoring section. All data are to be filled as the construction is progressing and (auto) uploaded on a daily basis to be fed onto online monitoring platform. Global positioning system(GPS) and pictures will be imbedded onto the data collection process to ascertain actual field presence of partner and spatial mapping of beneficiaries. 

Expected Deliverables 

Phase

Major Task

Deliverable

Timeframe

Planning meeting with Oxfam and other partners

Development and finalisation of questionnaire and forms and data collection/analysis tools

Final questionnaire and forms, detailed budget and timeline schedules

2 days

Software  preparation

Set up of software for a real time data collection

Draft of mobile application -beta version- test run (soft copies)

 3 days

 Website preparation/Configuration

Setup, link and analytical presentation of database in a user friendly website

A fully working database, with user friendly GUI and a dashboard able to provide clear data analysis and reports

3 days

 Monitoring of real construction site

Monitor sample construction and collect/analyse data

Real time feedback loop for construction is monitored and the data collected and analysed

3 days

Final software , website preparation and training

Finalise the software application, Download to partners tablets, Prepare PowerPoint for wider knowledge dissemination,

Software finalised, Presentation to share the use of application,. (soft copies)

3 days

Reporting

A work report on various deliverables assigned by Oxfam

A final report

2 weeks

On-going maintenance

To clean the software of bugs and coding errors as the project goes on. Robust dedicated server for app, database and website

 Dedicated server

4 months

 Reporting Line Manager

The consultancy firm will work under the direct supervision of Oxfam shelter technical Lead with technical support from IT Manager. 

Duration: Start date and completion date

The assignment will be for 5 months starting from November, 2017. 

Detail Budget breakdown 

S.No.

Particulars

Unit

Unit price

Total price

1

Application configuration (design, layout, UI)

LS

 

 

2

Interactive website development

LS

 

 

3

Database hosting server/platform

LS

 

 

4

Training to Oxfam staffs  with training materials

pacs

 

 

5

Test monitoring of app

LS

 

 

6

Maintenance  off app, website and database

LS

 

 

7

Consultancy cost

LS

 

 

Sub total

 

 

 

 

 

Value added tax

13%

 

 

 

TOTAL CONSULTANCY BUDGET IN NPR INCLUDING ALL TAXES

 

 

 

 Terms of Payment

The last instalment will be paid upon the submission of assignment as per this Terms of reference with full satisfaction evaluated by hiring manager

 Documents for submission

  • Technical and Finansial Proposal with CV of lead consultant
  • Company Registration Certificate
  • VAT registration certificate 
  • Tax clearance certificate (2073/74) 

Confidentiality / Non disclosure

All material issued in connection with this ToR shall remain the property of Oxfam and shall be used only for the purpose of this procurement exercise. All information provided shall be either returned to Oxfam or securely destroyed by unsuccessful applicants at the conclusion of the procurement exercise.

During the performance of the assignment or at any time after expiry or termination of the Agreement, the Consultant shall not disclose to any person or otherwise make use of any confidential information which s/he has obtained or may in the course of this agreement relating to partner organization/Oxfam, the respondents or otherwise.

The consultant will be required to sign a non disclosure / confidentiality agreement as part of their undertaking of this work.  

Intellectual property, Copyright, and Ownership of all prepared information

The Consultant shall retain all rights to pre-existing (background) intellectual property or materials used by the Consultant in the delivery of this study. All arising intellectual property, ideas, materials, processes or processes formed in contemplation, course of, or as result of this study shall be passed to Oxfam without restriction.

The Consult shall warrant that all arising Intellectual Property, materials and/or products produced in pursuit of this study shall be original, and shall not infringe on any third party’s claim. All technical or business information, in whatever medium or format, originated, collated or prepared by or for the Consultant in contemplation, course of, or as result of this assignment shall be transferred to Oxfam without restriction on completion and shall not be used by the Consultant for any other purpose without express written permission of Oxfam’s Head of Programme Funding.

Copyright of all arising documents, data, information or reports produced by the Consultant under this agreement shall belong to Oxfam and will be passed to Oxfam without restriction. Such documents, data, information and reports shall not be used by the Consultant for any other purpose other than in conjunction with this assignment, without the express written permission of Oxfam’s Head of Programme Funding.

Response 

The Consulting VAT Registered Individual/Firm should submit a proposal to Oxfam by 23 November 2017 via mail to consultancy_nepal@oxfam.org.uk, clearly mentioning the title of assignment in their email subject line.

Job Overview

Category Consulting & Professional Services
Openings 1
Experience Please check details below.
Education Please check details below.
Posted Date 07 Nov, 2017
Apply Before 24 Nov, 2017
City Lalitpur