Digital Research and Evaluation Tracker

Plan International Asia-Pacific Regional Hub

Terms of Reference (ToR)

Establishment of a Digital Research and Evaluation Tracker

Introduction

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. As an independent development and humanitarian organisation, we work alongside children, young people, our supporters and partners to tackle

the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood and enable children to prepare for and respond to crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge. For over 80 years we have been building powerful partnerships for children, and we are active in over 75 countries.

Background

Asia Pacific (APAC) Regional Hub of Plan International has been working as a catalyst to bring meaningful impact in the lives of children, adolescents and youth, with a special focus on girls and young women. In order to design quality programmes, understand the baseline situation, assess impact of the interventions, etc. every year the countries under APAC Regional Hub conduct numerous researches and evaluations. Usually, the countries develop their annual research and evaluation plan in their own way. No standard template is used across the countries in APAC Hub. At regional level, we find difficulties to compile information and compilation of information manually is not efficient as well. We also face challenges to track progress in research and evaluation activities and provide timely support to the country offices (CO).

Eventually, a need has been emerged to have a system in place which will provide real-time information on the research and evaluation plan and progress in activities at COs.

Establishment of a digital research and evaluation (R&E) tracker at COs as well as at APAC Hub will help us to know the plan, track the progress and extend support accordingly to get quality deliverables. It will also support to create synergy between R&E initiatives undertaken by CO and APAC Hub.

Therefore, to mitigate the challenges and obtain real-time data we propose to establish a digital R&E tracker. For this purpose, a service provider will be engaged behalf of Plan APAC Regional Hub as per this Terms of Reference (TOR).

Scope of the Assignment

The scope of the assignment includes design, development and deployment of the digital research and evaluation (R&E) tracker. The R&E tracker will serve different types of users, and the dashboard will include various analysis. The assignment will preferably include, but not limited to:

· To develop and introduce a web and mobile browser based1 R&E tracker.

· To create a platform that will assist the staff members at country offices as well as regional hub to ensure uniformity in reporting

· To generate real-time and consistent data regarding research and evaluation activities in the countries and APAC Hub.

· To ensure minimum effort for data compilation to create report.

· To create a dashboard to make the information available to the information- users/decision makers as and when required.

The detailed scope of the assignment is given in Annex 1.

Key Deliverables and Timeframe

Total duration of the assignment is 20 calendar days after signing of the agreement. By the 23rd June 2022, the system should be in place and ready to roll out across the countries and APAC Hub. Expected deliverables of the assignments are given in the following.

1. An inception report not more than 15 pages by the 30th May 2022.

2. A fully functional server-side application along with architectural design document.

3. API specification and documentation of the server-side application.

4. A fully functional Android based mobile app to perform as client of web-system.

5. An HTML user manual integrated with the server-side application.

6. A pdf user manual for the users.

7. Full source code with database ER diagram of the server-side application as well as Android mobile app with adequate inline documentation.

8. After rolling out the system in July first few months will be considered as pilot and assistance will be needed in piloting and adjustment in system based on findings in the pilot.

9. Hosting of the platform. Plan APAC Hub will not maintain any server for this. Therefore, the hosting of the platform will be done by the service provider.

Ownership of Source Code, Warranty and Maintenance and Support and Server Hosting

The service provider is required to hand over the final product within stipulated time. The final product, source code, intellectual property, documentation and all items specific to this product will be under the Plan APAC Hub’s exclusive ownership.

The service provider will render all support activities related to the followings until the warranty period expires. Warranty period will be one year starting from the final acceptance of the final product by Plan APAC Hub.

· Troubleshooting at the application/database level

· Query resolution to assist focal staff in APAC Hub in day-to-day operation

· Fixation of bugs, incorporation of minor changes, performance optimization etc.

After the warranty period, there will be Service Level Agreement (SLA) signed by Plan APAC Hub with the service provider.

The specific SLA covering maintenance support activities, query resolution time, and proposed penalties for noncompliance will be designed by the service provider and submitted along with proposal.

As hosting of the platform will be done by the service provider, the maintenance cost/annual cost should be provided in the proposal. In addition, the applicant should mention how data privacy will be maintained and support will be provided for data retention/restoration.

Ethics and Child Protection

Plan International is committed to actively safeguarding children and youth from harm and ensuring children’s rights to protection are fully realized. Plan takes seriously the commitment to promote child safe practices and protect children from harm, abuse, neglect and any form of exploitation as they come into contact with Plan International supported interventions. In addition, we will take positive action to prevent child abusers from becoming involved with Plan International in any way and take stringent measures against any Plan International staff and/or associate who abuses a child. Decisions and actions in response to child protection concerns will be guided by the principle of ‘the best interests of the child.’

Therefore, the service provider should abide by our safeguarding policy and during assignment must take into consideration that their activities are not doing any harm to children, adolescents and youth.

Qualification and Competency of the service provider

The service provider should have the following competencies at the minimum:

· At least 7 years’ demonstrated experiences in developing similar system involving server-side application and Android based apps together in limited resources setup preferably in Asia Pacific region.

· Experienced to work with development organizations.

· Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to quickly incorporate feedback from different individuals.

Training and Capacity building

Training on the functional as well as technical aspects of the application developed will be an integral component of the assignment. The service provider will train all the aspects of the application to selected staff members in APAC Hub. A training manual has to be delivered by the service provider for cascading the training to country offices.

Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation criteria are in the following.

Criteria / Weighted Score

Track record, general reliability including experience and capacity on technical analysis and financial capability / 20%

Qualifications and competence in the combination of personnel proposed are suitable to develop the system / 20%

Experience in development and implementation of similar system involving web application and Android based mobile app for development organisations in Asia Pacific region. /30%

Detailed methodology, installation and execution plan / 10%

Financial proposal / 20%