Ethiopian Migrants Data Management System –Technical and Software Bug Fixing, Updating and Knowledge Transfer

Background

The ILO in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA) through its EU funded project “Development of a Tripartite Framework for the Support and Protection of Ethiopian women Domestic Migrant Workers to the GCC States, Lebanon and Sudan” developed the “Ethiopian Migrants Data Management System (EMDMS)” in 2016. This decentralized migrant electronic registration software system record the whole migration process of Ethiopian labour migrants. To ensure the alignment of the system with the revised proclamation and signed BLAs and to decentralize the system to the region, the ILO in collaboration with MoLSA continued to work on the database management through the second phase project entitled “Improved labour migration governance to protect migrant workers and combat irregular migration in Ethiopia” funded by FCDO. The database has been decentralized in Amhara, Oromia, Tigray and SNNP regions and Addis Ababa City Administration and the alignment of the system has been finalized, however the regional system has not been operationalized. Even though the system has gone LIVE and is functional at the Federal level, some bugs are making it difficult for the system to function smoothly and at full capacity. It is critical to fix the bugs that arises from time to time to ensure that the system functions optimally. Moreover, MoLSA in house capacity has to be built to ensure that such bugs are fixed in timely manner and are capable to manage the software independently without any external support. The absence of in-house capacity in MoLSA coupled with the fact that the software developer cannot continuously do cleaning of the software and bug fixing and lack of proper software documentation per module compounded the need to require further support from software developer. To this end, the ILO in partnership with MoLSA would like to seek the service of a software developing company to provide the technical support. The required support comprises specific and time bound deliverables with the ultimate objective of ensuring the full and smooth functionality of the Ethiopian Migrant’s Database System both at Federal and Regional level through software update and bug fixing, developing and transferring of software documentation per module, transfer of knowledge by building MoLSA in-house capacity, and upgrading the software/system to ensure sustainability.

Objective

The overall objective of the technical support is to address the technical challenges the software is encountering through bug fixing, updating the system, manual development and technical training to MoLSA IT staff with the aim to ensure the full and smooth functioning of the system at both Federal and Regional level. More Specifically:

• The consulting firm will conduct continuous software update and bug fixing;

• The software developer will make modifications to the software code based on the revised Proclamation 923/2016.

• The software developer will upgrade the EMDMS as required.

• The software developer will monitor and resolve any technical challenges in connection with the EMDMS immediately as it arises during the contract period.

• The consulting firm will improve the performance of the system.

• The software developer will prepare proper software documentation per module and hand over to MoLSA to ensure that MoLSA have all the required information in the absence of the software developer.

• The software developer will conduct the necessary training to ensure that knowledge is fully transferred to MoLSA staff to manage the database.

Scope of Work and Responsibilities

In supporting the Overseas Employment Directorate of MoLSA and the MoLSA IT Unit, the consulting firm will:

• Fix any errors or bugs that are encountered on the EMDMS system.
• The firm should avail technical personnel to provide support in person or online, within 30 minutes for most urgent requests or within one business day for less urgent requests.
• Prepare and deliver all software documentation per module regarding the database to MoLSA. These include system documentations (system design, database design, deployment architecture) and documentation on the software codes of the EMDMS application including the purpose, design and interrelationship of the application modules.
• Ensure that the EMDMS currently deployed will function effectively and consistently by solving technical issues and fixing bugs.
• Ensure knowledge and technical programming knowledge is transferred and capacity of MoLSA IT staff is built by working closely with relevant stakeholders.
• Ensure the database is fully functional and operational at the Regional level.
• Be responsible for maintaining the integrity and performance of the database.
• Based on the request of MoLSA IT department, the consulting firm will conduct modification of the software codes based on the amendment and coming into effect of the Overseas Employment Proclamation 923/2016.
• Conduct regular health checks with constant monitoring and maintenance to ensure the database environment is performing optimally at all times.
• Take pre-emptive action by analysing patterns to take remedial actions before they become frequent system and technical issues.
• Prepare, compile and document all software documentation including System Architecture and Database Structure to handover to responsible team of MoLSA
• Upgrade the database management system, the web server and the application framework to the latest available stable versions

Minimum qualification & experience required for consulting firm and team experience

• Team leader of the consulting firm must at least have a Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or related field;

• Five or more years of professional experience in Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP application development.

• The team should consist of the following members at the minimum:

• Role: Project Manager:

  Qualification and Experience: The Project Manager, MSC in Project Management, Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field of study, has a minimum of 5 years of relevant project management experience and has undertaken (as PM) at least 2 relevant and comparable assignment in the last 5 years

• Role: System Developer

  Qualification and Experience: At least two (2) System Developers, BSc in Computer Science, Information Science, or related field of study, have developed at least 2 comparable PHP-MYSQL web applications in the last 3 years.

• Role: System Tester

  Qualification and Experience: At least one (1) tester, BSc in Computer Science, Information Science, or related field of study and has 2 years of relevant and comparable experience

• Role: Technical Trainer

  Qualification and Experience: At least 2 years’ experience in technical writing and training delivery

• Proven time management skills, coordination and knowledge of database design.

• The consulting firm must have renewed Business License, VAT Registration, Tax Clearance Certification and TIN Certification;

• Highly skilled Database Administrator with expertise in MySQL highly desired.

• Experience in all aspects of database implementation, updates and troubleshooting.

• Experience in working with similar assignments with proven track record

Timeline

The agreement will be valid for a period of two and half months (15 April - 31 June 2021).