Development of award management tracking tools and dashboards Consultant

Job Description

Background

IRC is striving to increase its efficiency and effectiveness in managing awards and sub-grants and use of technology and access to real time date with clear visualization to allow the IRC and all its user to obtain accurate and up to date information in a glance for internal and external purposes. This will allow the IRC to increase its internal control on donor requirements and award management to be ensure donor and internal compliance, best use of resources, accuracy and robust information management system.

Scope and objectives

The main purpose of this consultancy is to design and develop a set of grant and sub-grant trackers including but not limited to; reporting, payment, contracts and amendments, due diligence and pre-award to allow the IRC Afghanistan to ensure proper management of existing and future awards and contracts from donors and management of funds and projects allocated to IRC’s implementing partners/ sub-grants.

The tracker will also include specific focus on elements related to project management for each IRC Afghanistan projects including but not limited to: burn-rates and spending status, and targets achievement.

The consultant is expected to conduct several meetings with the IRC grants and partnership unit and possible other stakeholder to understand the needs, layout and structure of the trackers required and design them accordingly.

The second phase will include presenting the outcome of the trackers/ databases that were created in well-designed dashboard with visualization (including multiple charts and filtering options) according to IRC’s branding guidelines – which will be shared with the consultant upon hiring.

Additional notes:

- The preferred tools/ software to be used, are excel for the trackers/database and PowerBI for the dashboard. But IRC might decide to shift to other if the consultant presented better suited software and options

- This consultancy will include data entry and the transfer of all existing IRC Afghanistan information into the new tools – the consultant will be required to sign a confidentiality disclosure and will not be permitted to share any of the content of these information to any external entity

- This consultancy can be done remotely and does not require in-person presence in Afghanistan

- The consultant will be asked to present progress on at least even three days basis (or ad-hoc as needed) to ensure proper revisions are completed and factored into the final design

- The dashboard must include the ability to filter information by donor, sector, geographical coverage, donor code amongst others

- Must ensure the relevant IRC grants and partnership team members are briefed and trained on the new system

- Must be fluent in English

Deliverables:

The lead consultant will be responsible for:

1. Designing and developing award and sub-award management trackers including: reporting (for donors and partners), payments (for donors and partners), partner due diligence, contract database and amendments, pre and post awards, spending status, and achievement on targets). 2. Consult with the grants and partnerships team to gather information on the needs and design of the tools. 3. Develop an dashboard that is automatically connected to the trackers/ tools that are developed with adequate filter options and dashboards with multiple options and charts as required by the grants and partnership team of IRC Afghanistan 4. Data entry and/or import all existing IRC grants data to the new tools 5. Provide suggestions and areas of improvement 6. Allow a minimum of one month period after the end of the consultancy and accomplishment of the delivery for trouble shooting any bugs or technical issues free of charge – this will not include adding new features or designing of new tools. 7. Ensure all grants and partnership teams are orientated and trained on how to use the new tools, data entry and navigation of the dashboard 8. Work with IRC’s IT to ensure the PowerBI is linked to IRC service and accounts

Qualifications

Time Frame

The assignment is expected to be undertaken ASAP and take a maximum of 10-15 consultancy days. This time should include undertaking all the above deliverables. The due dates for each of the deliverables will be agreed upon following further discussion with the selected consultant. The consultant should also be able to undertake some of the tasks concurrently to fit within the planned timeframe, without compromising the expected quality.

Reporting and Authorship

The consultant shall report to the IRC’s Director of Awards, Business Development and Partnerships and shall conduct regular briefings on the progress, challenges, and recommendations at each stage of the assignment.

Ownership and copyright of all developed tools and materials will be the sole and exclusive property of the IRC. The consultant will submit all original documents to the IRC and shall not re-produce information from this exercise in any form (electronic, hard copies) to a third party without written permission from the IRC.

Requirements:

- Experience as a developer, data management, or related topics. - Team-working and communication skills. - Knowledge and experimental techniques for gathering both qualitative and quantitative data to inform the design of the system. - A history of dataset, trackers and dashboard or related work. - Proficient in English. - Knowledge of award management and project management cycle is strongly preferred - Experience in working with NGOs is strongly preferred