Southern African Trade and Connectivity Project (Malawi)
REFERENCE NUMBER: MW-MTPW-463838-CS-INDV
1.0 Background
The Government of Malawi (GoM) through the Ministry of Transport and Public Works MoTPW has applied for financing toward the cost of the Southern Africa Trade and Connectivity Project (SATCP). The MoTPW intends to apply part of the proceeds of this financing to eligible payments under the contract for hiring Software Consultant to design, develop and deliver a Projects Monitoring and Evaluation System for the Ministry of Transport and Public Works
The MoTPW invites applications from suitably qualified and interested candidates to fill the position Software Consultant to design, develop and deliver a Projects Monitoring and Evaluation System for the Ministry of Transport and Public Works, recruited as individual consultant following World Bank Procurement Regulations dated September 2023.
Position Title : Software Consultants to design, develop and deliver a project Monitoring and Evaluation Systems for the Ministry of Transport and Public Works
Time Commitment : 100%
Accountable : Director of Policy and Planning
Duration of Assignment : 1 year.
2.0 The Objectives of the Assignment
The objective of this assignment is to design, develop and implement an M&E software solution that supports the MTPW to monitor progress and delivery of the various projects and programmes under its responsibility.
The M&E system will be a web-enabled application that will allow MTPW offices access to a single software application to create, monitor and report on the various projects and programmes under its responsibility. It is anticipated that through use of the M&E system efficiencies will be gained in eliminating the need for manual collection and consolidation of progress reporting information from disparate sources and from these developing manual progress reports. Moreover, the system would be able to generate automated and periodic reports and provide real-time oversight to MTPW management of key performance indicators (KPIs) and raise alerts for projects and programmes not meeting or falling behind their KPIs presenting in a dashboard.
The selected Consultant will be further required to install the software on a production and backup environment, most likely a local cloud environment operated at the National Data Centre of the Ministry of Information and Digitalization in Lilongwe with Backup Data Centre in Blantyre, with due security and protections observed.
Equally, the Consultant will be expected to deliver training to MTPW staff to both administer and operate the M&E system, covering both technical and functional training respectively, with relevant system manuals and training guides prepared.
3.0 Scope of the Assignment
The consultant will deliver the following tasks during the assignment:
Task 1: Inception Study
Upon appointment, the Consultant should undertake an inception study. The resulting Inception Report should address the consultants understanding of the assignment, matters of project approach, a detailed workplan, findings on current MTPW project monitoring operations with user requirements detailed, and highlight all critical tasks and risks associated with the project that need to be addressed.
Task 2: application Design
The Consult should next undertake a period of application system design, with production of a System Design Specification to address all user requirements early defined. It is envisaged that the Consultant will have detailed workshops/discussions with MTPW officers to fully address all desired system requirements. The Consultant should also at this stage determine all local cloud hosting needs and work with MTPW to establish the necessary development, testing and production/backup environments when needed, noting contracting for such services may take time.
Task 3: application Development and Prototype testing
With an approved System Design Specification, the Consultant will commence software development leading to delivery of a prototype system and its testing for MTPW users. It is envisaged MTPW will establish a dedicated project team of involved officers to work with the consultant in an Agile approach to development.
In depth functional tests will be performed on the prototype system based on agreed test plans and this will involve close interaction with the MTPW project team. The Consultant will rectify bugs and errors in the system found as a result of the tests, together with fine tuning functionality to finalise the system application.
Task 3: System Training and piloting
Having developed the system and having this formally accepted, the Consultant will be required to move to pilot the prototype M&E system at MTPW head office with participation of selected key stakeholders to conduct end-to-end operational tests of the system and its features.
The task activities will necessitate installation and configuration of local cloud production and backup environments at the national data centre, development of a training plan and training materials, and thereafter delivery of training on all aspects of system use with at-desk support for the period of piloting. This task will also deliver all standard reports as determined by MTPW.
Task 4: System Rollout
With successful pilot operations conducted, the project will move to system rollout at all concerned departments and district location (where applicable). This task will include formal launching of the MTPW M&E system and progressive rollout to all departments and named offices. As with the pilot, this stage will necessitate delivery of training for all concerned officers.
Task 5: System Support
Following successful system rollout, the Consultant will provide a period of on-call support for a period of 1 year commencing after system rollout to resolve any outstanding issues with the system and bugs as they may arise. At the same time the Consultant will provide handover of system administrative duties, delivering training where required.
4.0 Reporting Requirements
Beside those reports mentioned as deliverables under section 3, the Consultant will also be required to submit to MTPW and PIU the following reports:
Monthly Progress Summary, summarizing status of the assignment and activities against milestones, emerging risks, and outcomes against the Project Plan. The summary will incorporate a Monthly Log of issues and Service Calls to accurately catalogue all issues experienced in system design, development, testing, piloting and implementation so that they might be dealt with in an efficient and effective manner and build a knowledgebase within MTPW.
5.0 Qualification and experience
The Consultant should satisfy the following conditions:
- Msc in Computer Science, Information Technology or a relevant discipline.
- Minimum of 7 years of professional experience in software application design and development for the delivery of information systems, with sound knowledge of internet technologies using current tools and methodologies.
- Proven knowledge of open-source products, open standards and Agile development methodology are essential.
- At least 7 years of experience in analysis/design and further 4 years programming on development of systems using relevant W3C standards, JAVA SCRIPT, VB SCRIPT, PHP, SSL,Python, ASP.NET, Java.
- Sound knowledge and experience with PHP, MySQL, Apache, and ASP.NET, XML, HTML, XHTML, DHTML, SQL Server, and website maintenance.
- During the past 4 years, the Consultant must have completed at least 2 contracts successfully involving the development, installation, and provision of technical support for bespoke software system for government agencies.
- Experience with use of formal Project Management and Logframe approaches would be an advantage.
- Experience in working on international donor funded projects would be an advantage.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills in English.
- Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that have expertise in field
- Professional Certifications in JAVA/Python/PHP/. Net frameworks programming highly desirable
6.0 Duration of the assignment
It is the intention of the MTPW to have a fully functional M&E system operational at all its offices by week 28 (7 months) and as such the assignment will be for a total of 170 days covering a 2-year period, where the consultant shall be expected to work fulltime during the first 7 months of the project, which shall cover the following phases; inception, design, development, piloting and roll-out. Following the rollout of the system, the consultant shall be retained for 1 year, on part-time basis to provide on-call system support as per the schedule of tasks in the table below.
The assignment will commence immediately upon contract award and mobilisation of the Consultant. The following timetable provides a tentative schedule and may be used by the Consultant as a basis for overall planning and scheduling of assignment activities.
| Tasks | Duration | Completion (by) |
| Task 1: Inception Study | 2 weeks | Week 2 |
| Task 2: Application Design | 4 weeks | Week 6 |
| Task 3: Application Development and Prototype Testing | 14 weeks | Week 20 |
| Task 4: System Training and Piloting | 4 weeks | Week 24 |
| Task 5: System Rollout | 4 weeks | Week 28 |
| Task 6: System Support | 48 weeks | Week 76 |
A letter of Intent to carry out the assignment, a technical proposal to demonstrate their capability in developing M&E systems preferably in Transport sector
At least (3) Traceable referees where the Consultant has worked and developed working systems
Interested Individuals meeting the stated requirements should submit their Expressions of interest including updated detailed curriculum vitae (CVs) and copies of professional certificates must be delivered in a written form to the address below (in person, or by mail, or by fax, or by e-mail) by 5th March, 2025 on or before 16:00 hours, local time.
The Project Manager,
Southern Africa Trade and Connectivity,
Ministry of Transport and Public Works,
P. Bag 322,
Lilongwe
Malawi.
(Attention: The Procurement Specialist)
Alternatively, applications may be emailed to: procurement@satcp.mw; copy
andrew.sungitsa@satcp.mw
