Individual contractor for UNECE Sustainable Transport Division IT projects

Result of Service - Online eCMR record management module: source code for both the backend and the frontend versioned using Git, including automated tests, configuration and build settings of the new web application module. All assets should conform to the specifications listed above and to the instructions given by the TIR secretariat during the consultancy; - Online eCMR record management: schema of the database and master reference data versioned using Liquibase and Git, user and configuration settings of the database. All assets should conform to the specifications listed above and to the instructions given by the TIR secretariat during the consultancy; - Backend eCMR API and eTIR advance data integration: updated source code for both the backend and the frontend versioned using Git, including automated tests, configuration and build settings of the updated web application module. All assets should conform to the specifications listed above and to the instructions given by the TIR secretariat during the consultancy; - Backend eCMR API and eTIR advance data integration: updated schema of the database and master reference data versioned using Liquibase and Git, user and configuration settings of the database. All assets should conform to the specifications listed above and to the instructions given by the TIR secretariat during the consultancy. - TCHP and ITDB API extension: updated source code and schema of the database and master reference data versioned using Liquibase and Git, user and configuration settings of the database. All assets should conform to the specifications listed above and to the instructions given by the TIR secretariat during the consultancy.

Work Location Home country

Expected duration Date of contract: 1 March 2022 - 30 April 2022

Duties and Responsibilities 1. Background The United Nations (UN) Secretary General report on “Shared responsibility, global solidarity: Responding to the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19”, published in March 2020 mentions “…innovative tools such as the ECE eTIR/eCMR systems that allow to exchange electronic information without physical contact, and other tools that promote transparency, information sharing, and facilitate the flow of goods across borders should be used.”

The TIR secretariat following the UN request for immediate response to COVID-19 pandemic participates in the UNDA project on “Transport and trade connectivity in the age of pandemics UN solutions for contactless, seamless and collaborative transport and trade”. The main objective of the project is to implement United Nations solutions, including standards, guidelines, metrics, tools and methodologies to immediately help governments, including customs authorities and other border agencies, port authorities, and the business community world-wide, to keep transport networks and borders operational to facilitate the flow of goods and services, while containing the further spread of the Coronavirus.

Common standards and a greater use of technologies can significantly reduce physical contacts among people in cross-border supply chains and, thus, facilitate the seamless flow of goods and services without spreading the virus. The implementation of the computerized version of the TIR procedure, the eTIR international system, and its interconnection with the National Customs Systems, ensures seamless, paperless and contactless harmonized electronic exchange of data in digital transport corridors, border crossings and trade operations.

UNECE administers the TIR Convention, which has at present 77 Contracting Parties and which provides for an internationally recognized procedure to facilitate the cross-border transportation of goods in transit through the use of a standard document, the TIR Carnet, which also serves as proof of existence of an internationally valid guarantee. The Contracting Parties to the TIR Convention launched in 2003 the “eTIR Project”, aimed at providing an exchange platform for all actors (customs authorities, holders and guarantee chains) involved in the TIR system, known as the “eTIR international system”.

In the context of the eTIR project, the Annex 11 of the TIR Convention which describes the eTIR procedure has been adopted by the Contracting Parties in February 2020 and has entered into force in May 2021. The eTIR specifications, which describe how the eTIR international system communicates with the information systems of the other stakeholders, are being finalized in their version 4.3. These specifications envision the development of a web application for TIR Carnet holders to submit advance data including all related attachments (like the CMR document – “Convention relative au contrat de transport international de marchandises par route”) to the eTIR international system so it can be forwarded to the relevant customs office before and during TIR transports.

2. Objectives, duties and responsibilities: The individual contractor will help the staff members of the TIR secretariat in performing the following activities and producing the related deliverables:

eCMR record management module in TIR Carnet holder portal: 1. The TIR secretariat should share the source code of TIR Carnet holder portal with the individual contractor that may have to work in partnership with other teams currently in charge of developing the TIR Carnet holder web portal, as well as any asset needed, to allow the individual contractor to perform the work needed. The individual contractor will consider all information sent by the TIR secretariat as confidential and shall not share it with anyone. At the end of the contract, the individual contractor shall permanently delete from her/his workstation(s) all information sent and shared by the TIR secretariat; 2. The individual contractor will design, implement and test a web application, as an extension to the TIR Carnet holder web portal (currently in development), to allow TIR Carnet holders users to manage eCMR form records as part of the TIR Carnet holder web portal. This web portal functionality should allow TIR Carnet holders with the appropriate user rights to fill out eCMR forms online, to save them, to print them as PDF, and to visualize them; 3. The main deliverables and functional specifications of this web application are the following: a. Online eCMR record management module: i. It should allow for filling out eCMR online form containing all the fields as described in the UNECE CMR Convention; ii. It should allow for saving draft and final/submitted versions of the eCMR records; iii. It should allow for viewing the saved eCMR records in a list with basic filtering capabilities (status, date, consignor) and search by eCMR ID. iv. It should allow for editing and cancelling the eCMR records. v. It should allow for printing individual eCMR records as a PDF document (template to be provided and should be easy to change, e.g. by using variables to enter fields in template placeholders) b. Backend eCMR API and eTIR advance data integration i. It should allow for generating the eCMR records via an API/ web service ii. It should allow for eTIR advance data users to “generate” eCMR records (to attach them afterwards) based on the eTIR advance data provided in the associated User Interface. iii. It should allow for eTIR advance data users to attach to eTIR advance data related messages (E9 and E11) existing/submitted eCMR records as PDF and XML documents. c. Integration to the TIR Carnet holder web portal: i. It should be possible to enable/disable (hide) the functionality as portal administration parameter; ii. This new module access should be reserved to authenticated users with eCMR read-only or write user access (user management system to be adapted to allow granting those user accesses); iii. The backend part should support the web application frontend (as part of this consultancy) and future access for mobile applications; iv. All developed backend web services should be accessible and documented for future mobile applications; v. It should include the web services and front-end pages usage tracking for Matomo or Google Analytics; vi. It should be multilingual, support Unicode and will be implemented in English. All resources should be centralized to ease the localization and translation efforts; vii. It should propose a responsive, modern and user-friendly interface consistent with the one featured in the rest of the TIR Carnet holder; viii. It should be fully usable on the latest versions of, at least, the following web browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge; 4. The sitemap of this functionality is the following: a. (In secured Home page) eCMR: module: i. (Index/default) List-view (with for each record: view details, print options) ii. eCMR record details view (with edit, cancel and print options) iii. eCMR record new/edit view b. (Secured) Administration for the TIR secretariat i. User management (update to add write or read-only rights to use eCMR module) 5. The main technical specifications of this module of the TIR Carnet holder web application are the following: a. The frontend is implemented using HTML 5, CSS 3 and the ReactJS framework to connect to the backend; b. The frontend uses the Bootstrap framework to adopt a responsive design and be fully usable and offer a good user experience on all terminal devices (laptop, tablet and mobile phone); c. The backend should be implemented using the latest stable version of Java and the Spring Boot framework; d. The database holding the information in the backend is PostgreSQL; e. The schema of the database and its changes are versioned using Liquibase; f. The backend components of the web application should be hostable on Linux servers (CentOS 8) and on Docker containers; g. This web application is connected to the International TIR Data Bank (ITDB) and to the eTIR international system. 6. The main development processes for this web application are the following: a. All technical assets should be versioned on the Git repository managed by UNECE; b. Automated tests (unit tests and UI tests) should be written to cover the main user stories and scenarios of the web application.

Backend/ITDB API extension: 1. The TIR secretariat should share the source code of ITDB web services with the individual contractor that may have to work in partnership with other teams currently in charge of developing the TIR Carnet holder web portal and extending the ITDB, as well as any asset needed, to allow the individual contractor to perform the work needed. The individual contractor will consider all information sent by the TIR secretariat as confidential and shall not share it with anyone. At the end of the contract, the individual contractor shall permanently delete from her/his workstation(s) all information sent and shared by the TIR secretariat; 2. The individual contractor will design, implement and test a set of web services, as an extension to the existing ITDB and TCHP backend APIs, in order to allow for the future development of the customs officer/ITDB Mobile app, in particular the following API endpoints shall be implemented: a. Read-only authentication (based on username/password, no MFA): i. returning user rights and user details; ii. with extended token expiration time (should be a parameter); b. Seals and Stamps i. Country list: returning the list of countries with Seals or Stamps records; ii. Country details: returning the list of seals and stamps images with the associated titles and descriptions (FR, EN and RU); c. Customs office (pre-existing from the TCHP project): i. CO list: returning the list of all TIR enabled customs offices with basic information; ii. CO details: returning all the details about a specific customs office; d. National associations (pre-existing from the TCHP project): i. List request: returning all national associations data e. TIR Transport (pre-existing from the TCHP project): returning the contents of the eTIR message I6 upon submitting a guarantee ID

General remarks for this module 1. The individual contractor will attend all relevant virtual meetings planned by the TIR secretariat to ensure a smooth communication and resolution of the possible issues that may arise; 2. The individual contractor will closely work with the TIR secretariat by following the same Agile approach in terms of software development life cycle for prioritizing, selecting, implementing, testing, deploying and documenting the functional and non-functional aspects of the web application and of the changes brought to TIR Carnet holder portal.

Qualifications/special skills Academic Qualifications: First degree in Computer Science, IT or related domain is required. Experience: A minimum of five years of relevant experience is required. Knowledge of Java/J2EE, ReactJS, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and relational databases is required Knowledge of the source code of the TIR Carnet holder portal (TCHP) and International TIR Data Bank web applications is required. Language: Fluency in oral and written English or French is required.

No Fee THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.