E-Governance project in Bhutan - looking for an international IT expert

The Department of Information and Technology, Ministry of Information and Communications, Royal Government of Bhutan, is urgently seeking to recruit an international IT expert for a duration of four months. The expert will work under the UNDP/ICT TTF supported project on "Localization of E-Governance". S/he is expected to develop a low level open source based e-platform containing generic services modules, train the local ICT team, and develop how-to manuals. For more information, see attached ToRs.

Deadline for applications is 8 October 2008.

Qualified candidates are invited to submit their application (letter of interest including information on consultancy fees and availability, together with CV) to Ms. Laurence Levaque via email to: laurence.levaque@undp.org

Recommendations of possible candidates who are qualified to undertake the assignment are welcome.

Terms of Reference

Post Title: International IT Expert

Agency: Department of Information and Technology, Ministry of

Information and Communication, Royal Government of Bhutan

Duty Station: Thimphu, Bhutan

Language(s): English

Duration: Four months (commencing as soon as possible)

I. Background:

Bhutan is currently undergoing significant political, social and economic transition with its preparations for adopting Democratic Constitutional Monarchy in 2008. E-governance has a tremendous potential as a mechanism for furthering good governance and democratic participation, which is at the core of effective public service delivery. The introduction and development of e-governance systems play a crucial role in service provision from the government to the people, especially men and women living in remote rural areas of Bhutan.

While the RGoB has attached high priority to e-governance with regard to its Development and usage as a component of the broader governance reform agenda, there is currently insufficient institutional capacity and a lack of e-governance service applications. This project will therefore provide technical and institutional support to develop user-friendly e-application and standardized platform for local government bodies and service providers, which will facilitate an increased public access to information resulting in greater transparency, efficiency and accountability in public service delivery. The outputs of the project are: 1) Standardized e-platform model for a Geog (block) Administration Office developed and experimented; 2) Forestry and Dzongkhag (district)-Geog e-services developed and piloted as an integral part of One-Stop Shop Approach in a selected Dzongkhag at two rural Geogs and one urban area; 3) National replication plan on the local e-platform model and commonly used services developed.

II. Duties and responsibilities:

1. The expert should be working in the PHP Zend framework with the latest version of PHP and Mysql/PostgresSQL whichever is relevant for the task.
2. The expert should be confident with the entire web programming API on the latest PHP Zend framework.
3. Should be interested and willing to train ICT professionals from various ministries on the Zend framework and PHP Mysql/Postgressql platform, so that they will in turn be able to develop and deploy different services from different ministries on the same e-platform.
4. Should be willing and able to lead a team of ICT professionals to build few custom e-service applications on top of the e-platform. For instance getting firewood approvals, timber approvals etc.
5. Should have good documenting skills and should lead the documentation of the e-platform and the few custom e-services built on top of it.
6. The international ICT expert should be willing to work remotely with the team and therefore should have excellent verbal and written communication skills.
7. Should have leadership qualities to motivate a team of ICT graduates to become competent PHP Zend framework developers.
8. Should be familiar with Component based web services and should suggest better solutions for the said implementation.
9. The ICT expert will, in consultation with DIT design the overall architecture for the e-platform and the prototyped services.
10. The ICT expert will conduct the systems analysis and draft the findings into a report which will be submitted to DIT.
11. The ICT expert will be employed locally and remotely for a total period of 4 months.
12. When the ICT expert is in Bhutan he/she will be based the entire time in DIT where he/she will be provided with a desk, PC, Internet and printing facilities.
13. When remotely located the ICT expert should be available regularly for ad hoc consultations and regular consultations will be conducted at least once a week with the development team in Bhutan.


III. Outputs:

The following outputs will be produced by the expert:
1. A low level e-platform which contains generic services modules, which can be easily used to develop other e-services.
2. The expert will also be required to train the ICT team (10-15 persons) so that they will be able to independently develop services on top of the e-platform for the different Ministries as well as make changes to the low level platform as and when required.
3. The expert will be required to develop comprehensive documents for the e-platform as well as the e-service prototypes. He/she will be required to develop comprehensive, readable How-to manuals that explain the e-platform and its architecture and a well structured how-to manual to develop or deploy other services on top of the e-platform. A FAQ/forum should be setup to answer queries regarding the platform and how it should be used.

IV. Qualifications:

The International ICT expert should be an expert on the PHP Zend framework and should have worked for at least 3 years on the PHP Zend framework and developed projects using the Zend framework.

He/she should also have at least 5 years experience on PHP, MYSQL / PostgreSQL.

He/she should be able to communicate well in English.

He/She should have leadership skills and should have experience leading and motivating a team of programmers.