Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations s1

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Terms of Reference for National PSA (PSA.NAT) Vacancy Number: FVAC17.014 Name: Promotion of Agricultural Livelihoods and Employment through Investment in Land Reclamation and Water Reservoirs

Job Title: IT application development expert

Division/Department: FAO Representation in Lebanon

Programme/Project Number: OSRO/LEB/602/NET

Duty Station: Beirut

Expected Start Date of Assignment: September 11, 2017 Duration: 4 man-months (WAE basis) Dany Lichaa El-Khoury Project Manager / CTA Reports to: Name: Title: Ales Krisper Information Technology Officer, CIO GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF TASK(S) AND OBJECTIVES TO BE ACHIEVED

Background

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) is currently implementing a project funded by the Dutch Government and entitled “Promotion of Agricultural Livelihoods and Employment through Investment in Land Reclamation and Water Reservoirs” in close collaboration with the Green Plan. The project responds to the reduced livelihood and food security levels resulted from the Syrian crisis. It tackles its negative impact on the host communities through the support to the agriculture infrastructure development in small mountainous exploitations, and improving the agricultural productivity and the farmers’ income, in addition to the creation of employment opportunities for both host communities and Syrian displaced.

The project aims as well to build the capacities of Green Plan to assist poor farmers in deploying agriculture infrastructure, as well as to contribute to the implementation of the new Green Plan Strategy Plan 2015-2019 in sustaining rural livelihood while improving water and soil conservation.

The project has four Outputs:

Output 1: The Green Plan procedures are simplified, updated and tailored to the work requirements;

Output 2: All existing farmers’ applications are reviewed and suitable projects identified and approved;

Output 3: Land reclamation and water infrastructure construction sites are implemented;

Output 4: Sustainable agriculture production for individual small and medium male and female farmers are designed and supported with appropriate training;

This current assignment is part of Outputs 2, 3 and 4 above. The project aims to build a generic software application and database for the workflow of small grants to beneficiaries that enables a good management of the large amount of data associated with the process and maintain high-level of security and integrity of this data, and that allows for systematic follow-up of processes and workflow. Therefore, the FAO representation in Lebanon is looking to recruit an IT Application Development Expert to design and develop the required application and database.

Specific objective of the assignment

The IT application development expert is expected to:

1. Assess the business needs of the project in terms of management, workflow and approval sequence, and accounting;

2. Develop the application and database;

3. Train FAO staff on the use of the application;

4. Provide maintenance and support. Duties, Responsibilities and Scope of Work

1. Analyse the business needs that cover project requirements on management, workflow and approval sequence, and accounting;

2. Submit the draft application design, modules and functions to FAO senior staff for review and clearance;

3. Taking into consideration the FAO senior staff comments, build the necessary software application, design documents including the layout of the developed software application, different workflow forms and modules, the database structure and required reports. The application and database would allow for changes in the processes and datasets to accommodate various types of workflows and include at least:

 Beneficiaries submission form (include scanning of documents);

 Control forms (generated from within the application) including: . Livelihood control form (questionnaire - may import data from xml or Excel) . Preliminary field inspection form (Tabular data); . Audit application submission (Yes/Needs adjustment function - restrictive authority); . Executive Committee approval on application (Yes/No function - restrictive authority); . Start of work ordinance (Yes/No function - restrictive authority); . Notification of work completion (Yes/No function - restrictive authority); . Works reception from (Tabular data, may be linked to the Preliminary field inspection form); . Audit works reception (Yes/Needs adjustment function - restrictive authority); . Executive Committee approval on works reception and disbursement to beneficiaries (Yes/No function - restrictive authority);

 Reserve funds module (request to reserve funds & approval functions - restrictive authorities);

 Agreement signature (Yes/No function - restrictive authority);

 Monitoring results (Tabular data – generated from within the application);

 Payment module (request to pay, approval, paid functions – restrictive authorities);

 Bank payment instruction (list of beneficiaries to be paid);

 List of beneficiaries disbursed with the related amounts;

 General inquiries and reports from the database.

4. Develop the approved software application with an easy user interface in English (Language: Windows Application [.Net Technology]);

5. Use [.NET] native components and free licenses (no third party paid licenses);

6. Develop the database on SQL Server Express or any other free editions;

7. Recommend cloud hosting with appropriate backup and disaster recovery system, and the needed securities in terms of anti-hacking, alert and notifications, data locking, digital signature and encryption, etc.;

8. Develop the application with the ability to log and archive changes, log actions and allow for security audit;

9. Install and field test the software application and fine-tune as necessary the software application after the field testing;

10. Prepare Installation CDs (5copies) of final tested software application (system and database) with the instruction manual for installation and running;

11. Provide relevant documentation: Engine Guide, User Guide, Setup Guide, Administrator Guide if any, and any other necessary documentation, all in English;

12. Develop an after delivery support methodology;

13. Train project staff and designated FAO staff on the installing, use and maintenance of the software application;

14. Provide, for 3 months after the training completion, full maintenance and support for bugs/errors through emails, phone calls and visits when needed;

15. Assist, if requested, in briefing meetings for the benefit of FAO Representative, Resilience Coordinator, Steering Committee, and senior related staff;

16. Write and submit a mission final report.

Profile and minimum expertise required

- University Degree in Computer Sciences;

- A minimum of 10 years of experience in the field of computer application systems and database;

- A minimum of 5 years of experience in the field of training on software-based management, workflow and accounting; - Demonstrated experience in designing and developing software applications for management and accounting;

- Previous experience in collaborating with agriculture development project and international and national experts would be a plus;

- Excellent written and oral working knowledge in English and Arabic;

- Initiative, judgment, organizational ability and a good sense of teamwork and human relations.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS Expected Outputs: Required Completion Date:

a. Draft design, modules and functions of the application report a. 30/09/2017

b. Training of FAO staff on the use of the application b. 01/12/2017

c. Latest version of the software application and database structure on CD; c. 30/12/2017

d. Latest version of the software application source codes on CD (the copyright of the software d. 30/12/2017 developed will be the exclusive property of FAO);

e. Application Documentation; e. 30/12/2017

f. Final Installation CD; f. 30/12/2017

g. Mission Final Report. g. 31/01/2018 Submission guidelines: If you wish to apply for any vacancy, please submit your Personal History Form (PHF) by e-mail with the job code number and position title in the subject line to: [email protected] no later than Friday 18 August 2017, also it is mandatory to fill the PPF (Personal Profile Form from I-Recruitment) by Accessing the following link http://www.fao.org/employment/en/ Late applications will not be accepted. Only applications with a completed PHF will be considered. The PHF is available on the following link: (http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Employment/docs/Personal_History_Form.doc) Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. FAO seeks to ensure that male and female employees are given equal career opportunities. FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender and culture. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality.