Systems Developer & Programmer

Contract

This is a National Consultant contract. More about National Consultant contracts.

Background

Eswatini’s economic performance has been on the declined since the early 1990s. The average annual rate of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth fell from 8% in the 1980s to 4% in the 1990s and downward trend has been persistent. Official estimates indicate that economic growth in Eswatini has been subdued below the desired 5% real GDP growth rate. Given the estimated population growth rate of 2.9%, the unimpressive economic growth implies a deterioration in the standard of living as measured by per capita income. Furthermore, Eswatini has the 10th highest income inequality in the world with a Gini coefficient of 51.5.

In Eswatini, 37.4% of the population is aged between 15-34 years, with a 50.7% and 49.3% ratio of females and males respectively. Evidently, the youth population is fast growing and theoretically should offers a great opportunity for economic growth. If properly harnessed, young people in Eswatini could be a great resource and an engine room for economic growth from a human capital point of view. However, the inability of the economy to grow as fast as the youth bulge poses a great social and demographic risk. The population has been growing faster than the economy is able to grow and provide economic opportunities for the youth such as jobs, both graduates and non-graduates.

The economy is largely public sector driven, with government being the biggest employer, and any growth stimulus usually comes from capital projects initiated by the government. The size of the private sector is small and largely dominated by manufacturing firms that offer a low wage. The private sector in Eswatini has been unable to create employment opportunities for the youth hence the high youth unemployment that stands at 50.1% in population that has a 70% youth base. Studies have pointed to the mismatch between skills required by industry and what the country’s education system is offering as one of the key contributors to the high number of unemployed graduates or youth in general. Other studies have alluded to the weak investment environment as one of the contributors to low economic growth, leading to high unemployment.

The Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Development Policy was developed with the aim of providing a conducive environment that encourages entrepreneurship, including youth entrepreneurship. According to the UN Youth Entrepreneurship Report (2013), youth in Eswatini are drawn to entrepreneurship out of necessity to escape unemployment, but not as an opportunity to realize their lifelong vision. As a result, many businesses are not sustainable. Although entrepreneurship has been identified as a viable career path for the youth, there has been little programmatic focus and policy intervention to support the course. It has been observed that most youth in Eswatini prefer formal employment hence the need to empower them with a skills development and enhancement programme that strategically links graduates with local private and public sector employers.

According to the Eswatini national Skills Audit Report, labor market trends have only changed marginally in the last 14 years and are characterized by low labor diversity and dynamism. The service sector constitutes more than 60% of overall employment while agriculture is just above 10% and industry is under 20%. The advent of the covid 19 pandemic led to the decline a decline in industry employment rate due to forced company closure. The labor market in Eswatini is predominantly driven by the service sector and informal employment.

SCOPE OF WORK

In response to this complex development challenge, the UNDP in collaboration with the Government of Eswatini and other key stakeholder are seeking to establish two tracks of livelihood opportunities for 1) unemployed graduates through a Youth Fellowship Programme and ii) non graduates with little to no higher-level education. The Youth Fellowship Programme aims to promote youth employability and access to decent jobs by placing unemployed graduate youth in private companies, public sector and non-government organization for a 6-12-month internship programme. The experience provides a punchers chance to garner the necessary experience for possible permanent employment placement. The non-graduate component caters for youth that have not had formal training post their high school education with tradable rudimentary to intermediate artisanry skills through an accelerated vocational training programme.

UNDP Eswatini is seeking the services of an individual consultant with adequate skills to establish a digital market ready platform/portal that has the capability to allow prospective participants to enrol for the Graduate Fellowship Programme, while also allowing potential employers to sign up and express their human capital needs in the very same system. Furthermore, the system must have the capability (algorithm) to match graduate applicants with the needs of participating entities based on a predetermined selection criterion.

Duties and Responsibilities

BASIC FUNCTIONALITY ELEMENTS

The following are the core functionalities of the system or portal.

1. Allow graduates, non-Graduate and volunteer to register in the system by uploading personal bios/cvs in a given format as predetermined by the selection criteria. The system must also allow the annexing of documentary evidence for each applicant such as CV, certificate etc
2. Allow candidates to capture their resume data into the system in order for the information to be accessed through a data filter functionality
3. Allow partner or employing organisation registering their details and human capital needs
4. The system must allow graduate to search for an opportunity and likewise, employers must be able to search for a specific profile of graduates /candidates
5. The systems must be able to analyze the data in the form of number, gender of applicants and selection, fields of study, business sectors etc and present in a user-friendly format and run a preselection process as the first step of selection, further selection can be done an appointed panel.
6. The system should also allow for feedback to selected candidates and/or companies on the final outcome.
7. The system must be able to import and export all data in a spreadsheet for viewing and further processing and analysis.
8. Systems must be able to provide basic analytics relevant to this project

The above functionality should be customised with the specific indicators from UNDP. UNDP shall retain administrative rights of the system. The candidate shall upon logging into the portal, observe a dashboard displaying new matched opportunities, application history and other information and relevant links. The organisation will also have a dashboard available upon logging, displaying matched candidates.

Candidates will be required to submit monthly reports in a format designed by UNDP. Reports must be submitted through the portal. Upon submission by the candidate, the report will be shared with UNDP and the organisation where candidates are attached. The organisation will have to approve or verify the report before it is closed.

BACK-END FUNCTIONALITY

1. System must allow graduates to be automatically matched with relevant opportunities. The portal must allow candidates to observe all opportunities available to them on their dashboard, including details of the hiring organisation.
2. UNDP will formulate a grading system or predetermined selection criteria that will enable the best candidates to be matched with an organisation. The system should display the matching candidates in the order of matching percentile, with the opportunities specifications.
3. One of the mechanisms to match will be by skill and qualification where; the graduate will score high if they meet the skill and qualification required by the organisation or employer. The employer may specify further requirements where upon applying, the candidate will be required to submit answers specific to the opportunity in order to assist with the grading.
4. The application should produce general reports about transactions that occur on the system, including analytics of users, gender, numbers, sectors, field of study, etc. In addition, the system must have a dashboard allowing for further data analysis.
5. Web Scraping - The application shall have a tab to automatically fetch data from partner organisations’ career websites or online pages. This will allow the application to be updated as soon as new opportunities are available at participating organisations.
6. Web API - An Application Programming Interface (API) should be developed within the application. This will allow data to be shared with partner organisations for inclusion in their websites or applications.

ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY

1. Online Collaboration - A community shall be established where candidates can discuss in a social networking environment and share tips, documents, useful links etc. All other stakeholders will have access to the Online Collaboration platform and be able to contribute.
2. Hiring Workflow - Following a successful fellowship, organisations will be able to define their Hiring Workflow, and execute it on the portal if they decide to hire a fellow. All relevant information, from when the candidate registered on the portal and the monthly reports submitted will always be available to the employer.
3. Alerts - The system should provide email and SMS alerts to job seekers as soon as matching opportunities are available. Organisations can additionally send communication to candidates from the portal.
4. Application Tracking - Upon submission for a matching opportunity, the candidate will be notified at all stages of their application. For example, when the application is reviewed and moved to the next stage.

DURATION OF THE WORK

The Consultant will be contracted by UNDP and will be supervised by the same in collaboration with the University of Eswatini. This assignment is for duration of 30 working days starting and requires someone who already has a prototype product that require basic customisation to meet the requirements of the end user. As part of the contract for this assignment, the consultant shall guarantee a 6-month defects liability period where the consultants shall be liable to make good of any design defects or glitches on the product at no cost. The consultant is expected design, run and demonstrate the full functionality of the system as per the stated specifications. The design script of the system shall remain the property of the contracting authority.

Deliverable

Time Frame

Front end Web Design

5 working days

Backend Functionality

10 working days

Training manual and user-guide for the system

1. Develop a training manual and user guide
2. Transfer skills through training the team that will sustain the management and backend support of the system

5 working days

System monitoring, reporting, problem solving and final report including administrator rights

10 working days

Total number of days

30 working days

DUTY STATION

The Consultant will for the duration of the assignment will be based at the UNDP country office in Mbabane and must frequently provide updates to the Contracting Authority (UNDP) in particular the IT department to ensure that the design is in accordance with the requirements of the programme.

Competencies

STANDARDS OF PERFORMANCE

The Consultant shall perform the Services and carry out its obligations hereunder with all due diligence, efficiency, and economy, in accordance with generally accepted professional standards and practices, and shall observe sound management practices, and employ appropriate technology including safe and effective equipment, machinery, materials and methods. The Consulting firm shall always act, in respect of any matter relating to this Contract or to the Services, as a faithful adviser to the Client, and shall always support and safeguard the Client’s legitimate interests in any dealings.

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES

1. Ability to bringing together diverse groups of people, data, information or ideas, and technology to design services or solutions
2. Ability to develop solutions to problems by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process
3. Ability to communicate in a clear, concise, and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience
4. Ability to respond timely and appropriately with a sense of urgency, provide consistent solutions, and deliver timely and quality results and/or solutions to fulfil and understand the real customers' needs. Provide inputs to the development of customer service strategy. Look for ways to add value beyond clients' immediate requests. Ability to anticipate client's upcoming needs and concerns.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• At least a degree in computer science or equivalent or in systems and software design or similar.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of experience in the field of information technology, software application, Prime-faces, Java Persistence API (JPA), Hibernate
• Programming and information management
• Proven experience of at least 3 projects of similar nature and complexity.
• Proven certified proficiency and fluency in the latest programming technology languages such as Java Enterprise Edition (JEE)/Java Server Faces (JSF)/ASP or ASP.Net/ ASP or ASP.Net
• Proven experience in the following roles: Web Development, ASP Web Development, VB.Net Web Development, Junior Web Development, Dot Net Web Development, ASP.Net Web Development, and Web Application Development
• Experience designing and using AODOCS (Workflow / Advanced Search / Document Validation / Records Management / Retention / Metadata / Tagging / Check-in / Check-out / Version control).
• Excellent knowledge of mastering websites operation and back-end design management..

Language Requirement:

• Proficiency in written and spoken English and SiSwati.

Additional Information:

How to Apply:

Interested and qualified candidates should submit;

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;Letter of Confirmation of Interest template
2. Personal CV or P11, (P11 form); indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

Please note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents in one single PDF file to attach).

Incomplete applications will be excluded from further consideration.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

• Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and experiences will be weighted a max. of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%.