Consultancy Title: Android Application Developer (8 months)

Contract

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, innovation.

Under the framework of social protection, UNICEF Jordan aims to strengthen national system to support vulnerable children to access integrated and inclusive social protection services by providing 1) Technological solutions and capacity building activities of national partner (such as the National Aid Fund NAF through the development and maintenance if their MIS ) 2) Child cash transfers to support multidimensionally poor children’s access schools and retain their attendance 3) An integrated package of services aiming to support child development, child wellbeing and human capital through the Makani Program. below is a brief explanation on each of these three pillars:

The National Aid Fund (NAF) is an independent institution, which was established by Law (Number 36) in 1986 to provide protection and care for needy families and improve their standard of living. The NAF cash transfer program is the largest public cash-transfer based social safety net in Jordan. It provides monthly aid services to approximately 93,000 households, constituting 7.5% of the Kingdom's population. The NAF organizational structure operates nationwide with 41 offices across the country and approximately 400 staff members. The NAF services to needy families fall under several programs that targets vulnerable individuals and families who fall under certain categories in regular or temporary basis. Services of NAF include also Physical Rehabilitation, Training and Employment programs.

In May 2018, the government approved a plan to expand and improve NAF by adding about JD 100 million to the current budget to add 85,000 beneficiary households during the period between 2019-2021. This plan aims also to improve targeting, the graduation of NAF beneficiaries, the mechanism for receiving and responding to applications and grievances, and the Management Information System (MIS). UNICEF is supporting NAF in developing and maintaining the MIS system. The system has been developed for its current phase, but would need additions, updates and changes to meet the requirement of the upcoming phases.

in addition a System Integrator (SI) for the design, development and implementation of the National Unified Registry (NUR) platform has been designed. The main objective of establishing the NUR platform was to provide a secure, reliable and automated mechanism for f data exchange mechanism between government agencies to support better targeting of social safety net programs; while the outreach worker program aimed to develop an efficient outreach mechanism through technology-based interventions.

The first phase of the NUR platform development has been completed with the design and implementation of the data exchange platform. The Government of Jordan has successfully tested the performance of the NUR platform to assess the eligibility of households for the NAF’s Takaful program through verification/validation of administrative data. During the first two rounds of registration, conducted in July and December 2019, the NAF received more than 360 thousand applications.

How can you make a difference?

Under the direct supervision of the Chief of Social Protection, the temporary consultant will work for three months on the following;

The consultant’s responsibilities shall be to work closely with the Application Developer, NAF and UNICEF team for achieving the overall objectives of this assignment.

Specific tasks and responsibilities include:

• Support the customization of the MIS as per the business needs of the Regular Monthly Program which will be integrated in the future to Takaful program that was developed by Optimizia;
• Support NAF to during the handover of the system from Optimiza and take a lead role in ensuring the system is well functional and that the key deliverables from the Optimiza as a part of the handover are in acceptable condition to independently maintain the system with minimal support or without from Optimiza, if needed;
• Understand the business needs for the integration of Regular Monthly Program with the NUR platform and infrastructure for seamless data exchange with other external agencies;
• Support NAF by conducting a diagnostic review, system analysis and assessment of the existing NAF system and a new cash transfer program to document a summary outline of the findings, gather business requirements, recommendations with a view of fulfilling the outlined objectives of this assignment;
• Develop an implementation work plan based on the project objectives and taking considerations of the existing IT systems and infrastructure to address the MIS design issues and implementation challenges;
• Supervise, monitor and mobilize IT consultant’s team to ensure timely completion and delivery compliance of the duties and tasks assigned to the team;
• Document progress and activities report stating the work accomplished, issues and challenges, next steps, key recommendations and timeline for each activity identified.

Key Deliverables

1. Summary Inception report highlighting the work plan, activities and the brief outline of the understanding of the program business needs -– to be reviewed by Unicef technical team.

2. Technical documentation focusing on the overall MIS design architecture (regular monthly program), entity-relationship diagram (ERD), inter-linkages, data attributes of the proposed system development – to be reviewed by Unicef technical team.

3. Demonstration of the system modules in regular iterations to review the progress and compliance.

4. Commencement of user training, system installation, configuration and deployment in real environment data center.

5. Report on the final system handover and compliance on the deliverables including updated source code files, system documentation, user manual etc.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Education: A minimum of BSc degree in Computer Programing or any relevant field with at least 5 year(s) of overall software development and android software development experience.

Experience:

• Proven knowledge of Android SDK, Eclipse, Android Studio and/or appropriate equipment and software.
• Extensive hands-on experience of creating custom UI controls, designing protocols, implementing interfaces, and performance optimization.
• Working knowledge of Web Services & REST (JSON) APIs.
• Familiarity with Team Foundation Service or Git source code management.
• Manage the full technical life-cycle of Android applications during each development phase.
• Work from UI/UX requirements, APIs, mockups to build functional, high-performance Android phone and tablet apps.
• Document and maintain design specifications, source code, and archives for new applications and ideas.
• Perform individual project components within the entire development lifecycle including implementation, testing, deployment and maintenance.
• Diagnose performance issues, fix bugs to increase the functionality of new applications.
• Understand the nuances of fragments and Android XML layouts, and how to create adaptive interfaces that work for multiple device form factors.
• Obtain buy-in from leadership in order to secure resources for app development.
• Knowledge of Android SDK, Eclipse, Android Studio and/or appropriate equipment and software
• Extensive hands-on experience of creating custom UI controls, designing protocols, implementing interfaces, and performance optimization.

Language: Excellent command in Arabic and good command in English.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

Child Safeguarding remarks

This position is not considered an elevated risk role. However, UNICEF reserves the right to conduct further vetting/ assessment within the scope of child safeguarding as appropriate.