Back CONSULTANCY FOR ONLINE CONFLICT MONITORING SYSTEM

Terms of reference

Mode of work: Distant/Online

1. Search for common ground

Search for Common Ground (Search) is a non-governmental organization working to transform the way the world deals with conflict. We have acquired over 35 years of experience in peace building and are based in over 30 countries around the world. In each project Search seeks to engage all stakeholders to work together to address shared challenges and develop joint solutions. We have led programs around the world to help societies channel their differences away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative solutions, with activities that range from conflict mediation and peace education to stabilization and women’s empowerment. Search’s mission in Yemen is to promote a culture of dialogue and diversity through the involvement of all components of society, while reinforcing their capacities. Search-Yemen is working during the ongoing conflict to help members of Yemeni society approach conflicts and differences in a constructive manner, through cooperation and dialogue. Search-Yemen is currently operating in eight governorates and maintains relationships with a wide and robust network of local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).

2. Purpose and goals of the Consultancy

YCSP is active in crisis analysis. The goal of this Consultancy is to build upon deeper analysis and prioritize information on recent changes in the humanitarian context. The successful consultants will design an online system which is capable of categorizing, summarizing, and visualizing the data that highlights to following elements in a readable and accessible format:

1. context development, including recent developments and assessment of related risks with respect to aid delivery context and other major events which feed into the conflict dynamics;
2. Impact of the context development on the work of the INGOs and their response to humanitarian crises and needs and other major events;
3. Impact of the INGOs work and interventions on the dynamics of the context;
4. Sentiments and opinions of the public, influencers and aid practitioners on how the INGOs should address rapid changes in the context(s), including who should be involved and how, and how the aid delivery should be delivered to maximize effectiveness.

The incumbent Consultant will design and deliver an online system with a solid analytical framework to monitor the overall development of humanitarian context in order to provide timely and evidence-based data and analysis for better decision-making in the humanitarian response. The system should be able to track and monitor quantitative and qualitative indicators based on the proposed analytical framework. The system should help the analysts in tagging and categorizing the data based on the framework. The end users should be able to download it based on their requirements. With help from the YCSP teams, the incumbent Consultant should provide the YCSP with a detailed analysis of the end user requirements.

The system should offer the options to import data from Excel sheets, CSV files, Word documents, text files, PDF documents, SQL, MS ACCESS and MongoDB, and should provide mechanisms for migrating the data from/to the above-mentioned formats. The system should provide easy mechanisms for tracking down pre-defined indicators, to be given to the incumbent Consultant, and to accept adding new indicators as per the requirements of the YCSP teams. The system should make it easy for the team and analysts to manage, filter, and manipulate the data as well as conducting rigorous data analyses procedures and tests. Further, the system should offer provisions for integration with other online systems of the YCSP through safe and secure mechanisms. The system should serve as a tool for monitoring and a repository of data based on the given and/or additional indicators. The incumbent Consultant has to submit detailed Unified Modeling Language (UML) design diagrams of the proposed system and how the different components interact with each other.

3. Scope

The incumbent Consultant should have a strong background and experience in quantitative and qualitative research design and methodology, in addition to web design and system design and analysis. In consultation with the YCSP competent teams, the incumbent Consultant will:

1. Review the existing framework of the YCSP monitoring and analysis and offer substantial contributions to bridge the gap between the current and the desired status and level of performance. **

2. Review the YCSP indicators and offer substantial contributions to enrich them and add new indicators as required by the end users of the YCSP analysis and as recommended by the YCSP competent teams.**

3. Design a dedicated table for the metadata of the indicators/variables being monitored and analyzed by the YCSP platform. The metadata should be both machine and human readable, and it should serve as basis for making decisions in automatic or manual tagging and classification. **

4. Design the backend databases, logic and algorithms which will be interacting with the Graphical User Interface and the various user roles such as admins, editors, analysists, end users etc. **

5. Design the front-end GUI which will provide easy and lucid functionalities and options for performing the required tasks as per the requirements of the YCSP teams and the end users alike. The incumbent Consultant should provide a detailed UML diagram of the various user roles which will be interacting with the system. The GUI should have a dedicated, flexible and user-friendly user management module. The GUI should also a dashboard which will be interacting with the different users based on their roles. The front-end GUI should be able to provide static and dynamic outputs such as texts, images, videos, visualization, interactive maps and graphs etc. The end users should be able to set alerts for the topics they are interested in and receive notifications via emails once new updates are available in the system. **

6. The incumbent Consultant should train the YCSP thoroughly on how to use the proposed online system. A separate section should be dedicated to “Help” and “How to” which will be completely prepared by the Consultant, and geared towards the different user roles of the system. **

7. The incumbent Consultant should provide a complete documentation of the system, and indicate which part of the documentation to be viewed by the public users and which parts are meant to the admins and elevated users. **

8. The system should be secured and safe, dynamic and flexible, advanced yet simple and not process-heavy.**

4. Key deliverables

The incumbent Consultant should submit the following deliverables:

• Online system for monitoring and analysis as per the specifications laid out above.
• Detailed UML designs of the components of the system and how they interact with each other and the different user roles.
• Testing and setting up the system.
• Detailed and easy to understand documentation of the entire system in English language, with diagrams, screenshots and videos (although videos may be submitted later on) showing the different how-to procedures and uses of the system.
• Full training of the YCSP teams on how to use the system and interact with its components.
• The final revised analytical framework.
• The final list of indicators after agreement with the YCSP teams.
• One full time analysts to track and monitor the indicators based on the final framework.
• Maintenance of the entire system in a quick and reliable way that should address the issue once it is reported.
• Monthly data extracted from the system
• Data visualization (interactive maps, dashboards, timelines) tailored to the needs of YCSP and the end users.

5. Duration

The duration of this consultation is SIX MONTHS starting from the day of signing the contract with the incumbent Consultant.

6. General provisions

1) All intellectual property materials and rights developed throughout this Consultancy will be the sole property of the YCSP.

2) Continuation of the Consultancy is subject to the quality of the performance of the incumbent Consultant and the system being free of bugs, troubles and complaints by the YCSP team or end users.

3) Other terms and conditions will be negotiated with the shortlisted consultants as required.

7. Ethical Considerations

The Consultancy firm is required to respect the following Ethical Principles:

• Comprehensive and systematic inquiry: Consultant should make the most of the existing information and full range of stakeholders available at the time of the review. Consultant should conduct systematic, data-based inquiries. He or she should communicate his or her methods and approaches accurately and in sufficient detail to allow others to understand, interpret and critique his or her work. He or she should make clear the limitations of the review and its results.
• Competence: Consultant should possess the abilities and skills and experience appropriate to undertake the tasks proposed and should practice within the limits of his or her professional training and competence.
• Honesty and integrity: Consultant should be transparent with the contractor/constituent about: any conflict of interest, any change made in the negotiated project plan and the reasons why those changes were made, any risk that certain procedures or activities produce misleading review information.
• Respect for people: Consultant respect the security, dignity and self-worth of respondents, program participants. Consultant has the responsibility to be sensitive to and respect differences amongst participants in culture, religion, gender, disability, age and ethnicity.

In addition, the Consultant will respect SFCG’s evaluations standards, to be found in SFCG’s evaluation guidelines: http://www.sfcg.org/programmes/ilt/dme_guidelines.html

8. Data Quality Assurance and Management

All deliverables will be reviewed and approved by our country office and global Institutional Learning Team prior to acceptance of the final product.

9. Timeline

The duration of the contract will be a total period of 6 months with 6 cycles, and each cycle is of one-month time. The duration starts from the time of signing the contract. Specific dates will be agreed upon at the beginning of the Consultancy. The incumbent Consultant should provide clear and detailed timeline showing the phases of delivering the deliverables. However, the online system should be delivered and set up in full functionality in a period to be agreed prior to signing the contract.

10. Requirements and qualifications of the incumbent Consultant

The incumbent Consultant should possess the following skills and experience:

· Documented evidence of experience in online system designs for the conflict monitoring and analysis

• More than 2 years of experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative studies in conflict monitoring and analysis, including collecting data in interviews, surveys and focus groups;
• Experience in conflict analysis and working with justice and civil society sectors;
• Experience working with international organizations;
• Experience conducting quantitative surveys and analysis;
• Evaluation methods and data collection skills;
• Familiarity and experience with contextual challenges in the geographic location(s) where the study will take place.

In addition, the Consultant is required to respect the following Ethical Principles:

• Comprehensive and systematic inquiry: Consultant should make the most of the existing information and full range of stakeholders available at the time of the review. Consultant should conduct systematic, data-based inquiries. He or she should communicate his or her methods and approaches accurately and in sufficient detail to allow others to understand, interpret and critique his or her work. He or she should make clear the limitations of the review and its results.
• Competence: Consultant should possess the abilities and skills and experience appropriate to undertake the tasks proposed and should practice within the limits of his or her professional training and competence.
• Honesty and integrity: Consultant should be transparent with the contractor/constituent about: any conflict of interest, any change made in the negotiated project plan and the reasons why those changes were made, any risk that certain procedures or activities produce misleading review information.
• Respect for people: Consultant respect the security, dignity and self-worth of respondents, program participants. Consultant has the responsibility to be sensitive to and respect differences amongst participants in culture, religion, gender, disability, age and ethnicity.

11. Selection Criteria

Consultant proposals will be selected for:

1. Relevance of proposed methodology to the goals, objectives, and requirements for the Consultancy.
2. Technical Quality of proposed system, its design and functionality, ease of use and flexibility of the system backend and front-end components.
3. Records and qualifications of the incumbent Consultant teams and specialists.
4. Proposed budget in relation to proposed methodology, deliverables and team composition.
5. Timeline for proposed activities.

12. Who can apply?

Specialist Consultants, research centres, IT firms, or synergies of research centres and IT companies.

13. required documents

To apply, interested research and IT firms are requested to submit the following documents:

• Profile of the firm/ CV in case of individual consultants;
• CVs and qualifications of the team members to embark on designing and delivering the system (in case of firms).
• Qualifications and CV of the analyst(s) who will be doing the human analyses of the data (in case of firms).
• A technical proposal proposing a methodology for the Consultancy together with a financial proposal for the completion of the aforementioned deliverables and a short cover letter.
• Three INGOs references, with contact details and with stating the name of the assignments and the value of the contract.