Procurement Notices

Background

IT Developer for Digital Healthcare Waste Registry (Open to Nationals only)

A. Project Title: Learning from China's Experience to Improve the Ability of Response to COVID-19 in Asia and the Pacific Region

B.Project Description

With the continuing spread of COVID-19 globally, impact on human health and the economy intensifies. Confirmed COVID-19 cases, as well as probable and suspected cases, continue to increase in most of the regions in the Philippines, with a high concentration in Metro Manila. Proper management of the significant medical, household, and other hazardous waste being generated is an urgent and essential intervention as it could pose additional risks to health and the environment. The ADB has estimated that in Metro Manila, around 280 tons per day of additional medical wastes will be generated, or 16,800 tons for 60 days. There are currently more than 11,000 metric tons of health care waste issued with special permit to transport by the DENR since the March lockdown.

Health care facilities follow stringent guidelines in waste management issued by the Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). However, with the increasing volume of medical and hazardous wastes, including infected face masks, gloves, gowns, coveralls, and other protective equipment, the capacities of hospitals, especially those catering to COVID-19 patients and probable and suspected cases, may soon be not enough. Treatment, storage and disposal facilities and personnel in the country are also limited, mostly located in the National Capital Region. There have been reports that hospital wastes are also being refused by waste management actors due to fear that they might also get infected.

In this context, this regional COVID response project (the “Project”), funded by China’s South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund (SSCAF), aims to effectively improve the response to COVID-19 in the areas of medical waste management and preparedness in the Philippines, with special focus on following strategic areas: 1) improving the medical waste management capacity technically and operationally to prevent the further containment of COVID-19 and to respond the increasing medical waste and enhancing the technical capacities of health care workers and service providers to treat medical waste; 2) provision of capacity development (provision of technical training materials and training courses) on general health precautionary measures to health care professionals, local government staff and others that carry out essential services (transportation, energy, water, waste, food delivery); 3) sharing good practices and experiences at the regional and global level for future responses and preparedness for related pandemics.

This assignment will build on and add value to China’s and UNDP CO’s ongoing efforts to support the Philippines to reduce the risks and impacts of COVID-19. A Digital Healthcare Waste Registry will be developed by the consultant that enables hospitals to trace the source, the treatment, and the destination of each bag of healthcare waste.

Duties and Responsibilities

A.  Objectives and Scope of Work

The Consultant will be responsible to develop a Digital Healthcare Waste Registry (the Registry) that could be used at hospital level to trace the source, the treatment, and the destination of each bag of healthcare waste.

The Consultant shall report to the focal Programme Officer and work in close collaboration with the Climate Action Programme Team (CAPT) and a Firm contracted by UNDP (the Firm) as well as stakeholders, including the Department of Health (DOH), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium (DJNRMHS) and the City Government of Pasig (Pasig LGU).

Specific tasks are as follows:

• Collaborative development of the technical design.
  • The Consultant shall be responsible for the development of the technical design of the Registry with collaborative support from the Firm or other consultants.
    • The Firm or other consultants will provide support on need analysis, use-case and the functional specification.
  • The Registry shall be based on open-source technology. The proposed technology is KoBoToolbox (https://www.kobotoolbox.org/), while it is subject to change after discussion between the Consultant and the focal Programme Officer.
    • The Registry shall be able to collect data through both Android App and web form on mobile devices. KoBoToolbox supports both options.
  • The technical design shall
    • Enable the Registry to trace the source, the treatment, and the destination of each bag of healthcare waste at hospital level.
    • Follow Modular Design and Contain Technical Architecture that describe usage of each module and connection among modules.
    • Contain Data Architecture that characterizes data flow, data storage and etc.
    • Contain Analysis and Software Requirement where the Consultant will be conducting needs analysis and initial specification.
    • Contain a simple visualization dashboard to monitor the status of healthcare waste generation, with timescale of daily, weekly, monthly and annual and selection of reporting facilities.
    • Ensure the Registry is user-friendly for both data collector and data analyst.
    • Data should be able to be linked to DOH and DENR’s existing platforms for monitoring and further analysis through API, source data or webpage embedding.
    • The Consultant shall consult stakeholders, the Firm, and other consultants to finalize the functional specification of the technical design.
• IT development and testing of the Registry.
  • The Consultant is responsible to
    • Develop the Registry based on the technical design.
    • Develop a simple visualization dashboard based on the technical design.
    • Develop a testing plan and submit the testing result.
    • Test the Registry with the dashboard and ensure it is working properly as expected.
  • If exists, the source code shall be published on a Git repo under the MIT License and the source code shall contain no sensitive information.
  • A testing instance shall be deployed by the Consultant on a cloud server provided by UNDP.
• Pilot deployment
  • The Registry is expected to have a pilot deployment at two hospital / facilities for 2-4 weeks, supported by stakeholders, the Firm or other consultants.
  • A pilot instance shall be deployed by the Consultant on a cloud server provided by UNDP, and the Consultant shall be responsible for operating and maintaining the pilot instance.
  • The Consultant is responsible to carry out a set of user manuals on 1) registry deployment, 2) data collection and 3) data analysis.
  • The Consultant shall support UNDP in conducting the pilot deployment of the Registry in selected hospitals/facilities, including training sessions for hospital workers on submitting data to the Registry and sessions on how to operate and maintain the Registry.
  • The Consultant shall support the Firm or other consultants on developing a pilot plan and submitting the pilot result.
  • The Consultant shall improve the digital registry based on findings of pilot deployment, and also fix bugs that are identified during testing and piloting. The registry should be to run smoothly and match the functional specification.

B.                  Expected Outputs and Deliverables

 Institutional Arrangements

• The Consultant shall report to the UNDP Programme Officer that is supervised by the UNDP Outcome Lead of the Climate Action Programme Team of the Philippine CO.

• UNDP will provide to the Consultant all relevant background documents and a Server to host testing and pilot instances of the Registry. UNDP is not required to provide any physical facility for the work of the Consultant, and the Consultant is expected to provide his/her own laptop for the work requirement. All logistical arrangements including professional fees, transportation within Metro Manila, living allowances, communications, consumables, insurances, etc. will be covered by the Consultant.

• All documents and data provided to the Consultant are confidential and cannot be used for any other purposes or shared with a third party without any written approval from UNDP.

• The outputs shall be delivered through a participatory approach, engagement with government, involving training sessions and focus group discussions with team members.

D.                 Duration of Work

• It is estimated that the work shall involve a total of 50 person days spread over 4 months, tentatively commencing 15 October 2021 and ending on 31 December 2021. The Focal Programme Officer shall review outputs/deliverables and determine whether to accept them within ten (10) working days after submission.

E.                  Duty Station

• The Consultant should be based in Metro Manila.

• In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and declaration of State of Public Health Emergency in the Philippines, all work and travel of the Individual Consultant shall be done within the guidelines and and protocols issued by the Philippine/Local Government,. Field work, trainings, meetings, and coordination shall be done in compliance with community quarantine policies. On-site activities may be cancelled or switched to online modality according to the Focal Programme Officer’s decision.

• Other engagements are home-based and for accessibility and availability to allow for discussions and reporting on progress of activities, regular online meetings shall be conducted. Schedule of these meeting will be discussed post-award.

• The Consultant will not be required to report to office regularly, but status report on the outputs shall be expected from time to time or when per requirement basis.

• No travel outside Metro Manila is expected for this consultancy.

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience

 Qualifications of the Successful Individual Contractor

The successful Individual Contractor should meet the following minimum qualification

Education

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in relevant fields such as Computer Science, Mathematics, Environmental Sciences or Engineering, Health Science, Medical or Chemical Engineering, or related fields

Experience

• Minimum three (3) years of previous work experience on IT development, KoBoToolbox/ODK Application, or related field.
• Completed at least one (1) project on IT development, KoBoToolbox/ODK Application, or related field. Please submit 1 sample work.
• Previous experience related to solid waste management, healthcare waste management, survey or KoBoToolkit is preferable
• Submission of at least one (1) sample work related to any of the following themes: data collection, business intelligence, IT development related to healthcare or solid waste, or relevant fields.
  • Each sample work shall contain a short summary in English, which describe the technical architecture, the development process and the usage of final deliverable.

Language

• Good in spoken and written English and Filipino

Competencies:

Corporate Competencies

•      Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN mission, vision, values, and ethical standards

•      Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability

Other Competencies

•      Demonstrates strong analytical skills and mature judgment well-planned and organized;

•      Ability to work in close collaboration with a group of national and international experts, to meet strict deadlines and plan the work according to priorities;

•      Demonstrates capacity to plan, organize and execute effectively;

•      Ability to establish effective working relations in a multi-cultural team environment;

•      Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;

•      Facilitates and encourages open communication in the team and with stakeholders;

•      Excellent written communication and presentation/public speaking skills

B.                  Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The financial proposals from possible candidates should be expressed in lump sum amount for the delivery of outputs identified below. The total amount quoted shall be “all-inclusive” of all financial costs related to this engagement (i.e. professional fees x number of person-days, supplies & materials, reproduction, communications including internet, transportation for activities within Metro Manila),  that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor should be factored into the final amount submitted in the proposal. Travel, as deemed relevant by UNDP and compliant with government guidelines on community quarantine, will be arranged and paid for by UNDP and should not be included in the financial proposal.

Medical/health insurance must be purchased by the individual at his/her own expense, and upon award must be ready to submit proof of insurance valid during contract duration.

The contract price will be fixed output-based price. Any deviations from the output and timeline will be agreed upon between the Contractor and UNDP and will be implemented through issuance of contract amendment.

Payments will be done upon satisfactory completion of the delivery by target due dates. Outputs will be certified by the Team Leader of the Climate Action Programme Team of the Philippine CO prior to the release of payments.

The Payment terms are as follows:

C.                  Recommended Presentation of Offer

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability (UNDP template);
• Personal Curriculum Vitae, indicating all past experiences from similar projects as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate and at least three (3) professional references with contact information;
• Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP. Please include cost of health insurance for the duration of the contract only.
• Submission of one (1) sample work.

Incomplete submissions MAY result in disqualification.

D.                 Criteria for Selection of Best Offer

The combined scoring method where the qualifications will be weighted 70% and combined with the price offer which will be weighted 30% shall be adopted.

Only applicants who will obtain at least 70 points out of 100 obtainable points will be considered qualified and shortlisted.

Offerors must upload in one (1) file the aforementioned documents.

Templates for a) P11 Personal History Form and b)  Offeror's Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal (Annex 2) are available through the link below. UNDP General Terms and Conditions for Individual Contractors  are also available: http://gofile.me/6xdJm/bE9TCw8fU

Incomplete submission of required documents may result in disqualification.

Please see the deadline of submissions above.

In view of the volume of applications, UNDP receives, only shortlisted offerors will be notified.