Firm for Developing Project Management Information System

Interested firm, please visit ADPC Website > Procurement Notice to download the full version of ToR and the application form.

Section I: Introduction and Background

About Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

ADPC is an autonomous international organization with a vision to reduce disaster and climate risk impacts on communities and countries in Asia and the Pacific by working with governments, development partners, international organizations, NGOs, civil society, private sector, media, and other key stakeholders. Established in 1986 as a technical capacity building center, ADPC has grown and diversified its expertise across social and physical sciences to support sustainable solutions for risk reduction across a broad range of specialist areas. With over 100 staff from 19 different nationalities and a wide range of professional expertise from atmospheric scientists to social scientists with experiences from all levels of engagement typically required for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Resilience (CR) in an effective manner. ADPC is a competent regional resource center and has seven thematic departments: ADPC Academy, Risk Governance, Climate Resilience, Urban Resilience, Health Risk Management, Preparedness for Response and Recovery, Geospatial Information. These are supported by Finance, Human Resources and Administration, and Strategic Planning departments. In addition to the departments, ADPC works on three cross-cutting themes: Gender and Diversity, Poverty and Livelihoods, and Regional and Transboundary Cooperation through permanent working committees. For details, please refer to ADPC website at http://www.adpc.net/.

About Climate Adaptation and Resilience for South Asia project

The "Climate Adaptation and Resilience for South Asia" or CARE for South Asia project is a five-year (2020-2025), regional project supported by the World Bank, and implemented by Asia Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and Regional Integrated Multi-hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES). The project is supporting the region in building resilience to climate change by improving the availability of regional data and knowledge, developing guidelines, tools and capacities, and promoting climate-resilient decisions, policies and investments across key sectors. The development objective is to contribute to an enabling environment for climate resilience policies and investments in select sectors and countries in South Asia. Key stakeholders include governments, and technical agencies at the regional and national level. With the financial support from the World Bank Group, ADPC will be implementing a five years’ project, titled “Climate Adaptation and Resilience Project for South Asia” (CARE).

Background

To increase resilience and achieve climate commitments, there is a need for a transformational shift towards policies and institutions that enable climate resilient investments. Investing in more resilient infrastructure is both profitable and urgent as disruptions are extremely costly for governments, households and private sector and large ongoing investments in infrastructure assets will have long-lasting repercussions as poor maintenance and natural disasters result in a vulnerable stock.

At ADPC and under the CARE for South Asia project, the existing processes are largely manual, tedious and time consuming in terms of generating and using the information for decision-making. While most of the activity and project data is stored in the activity database, more information on financial and human resources, amongst others, is stored in other systems which are not linked, and readily available. This has resulted in difficulties of accessing the necessary data and information, processing and analysis, comparing performance, as well as responding adequately, and timely to the information needs of donor and other key stakeholders. The primary means of gathering data and information is through weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual reports, providing both quantitative and qualitative data, from national, as well as from the regional staff/networks. Reports are supported by evidence of results reported in multiple document formats. Bulk of documents are shared and filed for wider sharing electronically per reporting period, and it is anticipated that this volume will increase in the coming years. Skills and competencies of CARE/ADPC staff are fairly adequate, but require further training and technical support, especially as ADPC seeks to adopt a robust and automated Project Management Information system (PMIS) tailored to the needs and priorities of the project.

Given the size and the components of the project, performance tracking assumes a critical role in the management of the project. However, it would be practically challenging if not impossible to track and maintain the performance related information from different project units manually. Therefore, the ADPC needs to procure the services of a competent and professional agency to establish a functional PMIS to facilitate implementation of the CARE for South Asia Project and facilitate in performance tracking on a continuous basis.

Section II. Objective and Scope of Work of the Assignment

Objective

The main objective of this consultancy is to assess the existing setup, which includes a review of the current processes in place, submit a comprehensive design brief consisting of PMIS architecture (process mapping, proposed software and hardware solutions, human resource capacity building, user manuals and any other related ancillary scope), scope and extent of the system, specifications as well as detailed costing and proposal for the supervision of the installation, commissioning and user acceptance testing, amongst others, for the successful Implementation of a PMIS for ADPC. The specific objectives of the consultancy service are to:

1. Define requirements for an integrated online (web-based) PMIS accessible to different stakeholders across and with varying levels of access, to enhance the ability of ADPC to manage the project and monitor results periodically;
2. Design and develop the system as a common tool for reporting and assessing performance and development results;
3. Install, test and commission the PMIS and performance of the User Acceptance Test (UAT);
4. Develop an operation and user-maintenance manual and train the staff of ADPC. The online system will be designed to support CARE for South Asia project monitoring, evaluation, learning and information sharing based on the Results Framework.

The online system must allow for quantitative and qualitative data entry provisions in English language at the national and regional levels. The system must also facilitate data analysis and generation of reports as per the needs of the project. The system will be designed to facilitate user’s interaction by requiring minimal human work, more computer work and allows integration with current or upcoming systems. The system should be designed with security embedded at different levels by authenticating users, data validation to prevent inaccurate data entry, and also generation of required reports. In addition, audit trail failure to inform who and when a data was created or modified should be implemented. The firm needs to work closely with Project Director, the Project Implementation Unit, and the Human Resources and Finance departments of ADPC to work towards the following:

Scope of work

The scope of works is as follows:

1. Consultation with Project Director, the Project Implementation Unit, and the Human Resources and Finance departments of ADPC to understand all the key activities and deliverables to implement the PMIS.
2. Assess the current processes at ADPC and make recommendations, on how a comprehensive, efficient and cost-effective PMIS can be implemented.
3. Evaluate and recommend latest technology and standards to adopt for IT equipment and infrastructure of the PMIS to ensure reliability, interoperability and scalability in the long term.
4. Assess the current staffing capacity to operate the proposed PMIS at ADPC and recommend whether additional staff is required. The consultant is also expected to provide a training plan for the current staff.
5. Provide cost estimates and time frame for the implementation of the PMIS using different technologies like Cloud Computing, Sharepoint, Open Source similar to Drupal etc. Annual maintenance costs for the proposed technology should also be provided.
6. Develop and present a prototype model for the new system and supporting IT infrastructure.
7. Procurement of all hardware, software and ancillary applications and installation and creation of an integrated online PMIS.
8. The firm shall submit to the Project Director weekly progress reports as well as a final commissioning report, which will be the basis for payment under this phase.
9. Installation, testing and commissioning of the PMIS and performance of the User Acceptance Test (UAT).
10. Provision of training/capacity building to staff of ADPC on use of the PMIS. This will include firstly an operation and maintenance manual for the PMIS and secondly, a training plan as well as in-house workshops/ training sessions for ADPC staff. The final report on training will include both the training plan as well as contents of the in-house workshops/training sessions.

Selection Criteria

• Number of years in developing similar systems of other organizations;
• Number of qualified software developers and consultants who have previously developed a PMIS or project management software;
• Experience in developing systems of similar organizations in the region;
• Availability to contact during ADPC working hours and be able to find work solutions when issues arise without further financial implications;
• Expertise in mobile support version would be preferred.

Selection Method

The Firm will be selected in accordance with ADPC’s procurement process and in compliance with the World Bank Procurement Regulations.

Reporting Relationships

The Firm will report to Project Director and work in close coordination with other key members of the PIU. The Firm will also coordinate with the Human Resources and Finance departments of ADPC.