Consultancy Opportunity: Digital Delivery Consultant – Girl Effect International

Who we are

Girl Effect is an international non-profit that builds media that girls want, trust and need. From chatbots to chat shows and TV dramas to tech, our content helps adolescent girls in Africa, and Asia make choices and changes in their lives.

We create safe spaces for girls, sharing facts and answering questions about health, nutrition, education, and relationships, empowering girls with the skills to negotiate and redefine what they are told is possible “for a girl”.

Our reach is 50 million and counting. And we’re using technology to reach girls at scale so every girl can choose to be in control of her body, her health, her learning and her livelihood.

Because when a girl unlocks her power to make different choices that change her life, it inspires others to do so too. She starts a ripple effect that impacts her family, community, and country.

That’s the Girl Effect.

Background

For over a decade, Girl Effect has been building technology that aims to create a safer and more accessible world for women and girls, using the insights and experiences girls share with us.

From websites and chatbots to IVR services, innovation for us is about using the right tech in the best way to reach girls and meet their challenges. As technology evolves and girls’ habits change, we adapt and improve the platforms, processes, and infrastructure that underpin everything we do.

Context

Girl Effect’s Global Technology Team oversees the management, maintenance and delivery of our technology infrastructure backlog using agile practices, and the delivery of key digital innovations within the organization, such as our AI-driven chatbots.

We have recently moved into an exciting period of tech development in Kenya – growing our internal technology team, establishing relationships with new technology vendors, and migrating our technology to new homes. We are now looking for a Digital Delivery Consultant to join us and facilitate the delivery of our growing technology roadmap, our backlog and projects, whilst playing a key role in helping the team achieve its strategic objectives. The successful candidate will join a cross-functional, international team working at the cutting edge of tech-for-good.

Responsibilities Include:

• Support our teams with scope refinement, design and delivery of technical projects, include:
  • application of agile software delivery methodologies
  • sprint planning, ticket/backlog management and maintaining delivery momentum,
  • capacity planning and resourcing
  • management of a selection of technology partners and creating clear visibility of their work
  • ensuring work meets acceptance criteria, is correctly documented, reported, run, on time and within budget
  • providing regular progress updates to stakeholders across multiple departments
• Create technical and business documentation on Notion and Google Drive, include:
  • briefs, scopes, reports and other project and product planning documentation
  • risk reporting
  • TORs, PRFs, RFPs
• Support the Digital Delivery Manager and Director of Technology to define roadmaps and manage the org-wide technology backlog, including logging requests from teams.
• Work with the broader organization to modify our ways of working for efficient delivery processes and continuous improvement.

Expected Commitment

• The assignment is expected to take approximately five months.
• The consultant will be expected to spend up 24 hours or 3 days a week on this project.
• The consultant’s assignment period starts in July 2023 and ends in December 2023

Who You Are

Skills and Expertise:

• 3-5 years of experience in project management, ideally with the delivery of multilingual projects and technology infrastructure (hosting and data platforms, CMS, etc.)
• Substantive working knowledge of CMS e.g. Wagtail, WordPress, Drupal, or other open-source technologies.
• Experience using Jira and Confluence to manage project delivery; ideally, also working experience setting up boards, forms, epics, processes, etc.
• Working knowledge of Google Analytics, Facebook Ads Manager, or other analytics/insights tools and how to use data to influence decision-making.
• Experience working in a software development team.
• Agile methodology experience or certification.
• Experience managing technology backlog.
• Prioritization with stakeholders.
• Experience managing third-party software vendors.
• Designing and inputting into roadmaps.
• Experience with Content Management Systems.
• Product / Project Management experience of at least 2 years. Core project management principles related to stakeholder management, briefing, scoping, status updates, risk & mitigation planning.
• Must have experience with web & mobile development.

Nice to have

• Experience in the ICT4D space.
• Understanding of managing & planning technical maintenance / technical debt strategies.
• Experience working alongside Site Reliability Engineering / Hosting Services.
• Understanding of data protection legislation impacts in technology.
• Experience working in a global setting.
• Interest in Social Development & Girls Empowerment.
• A big bonus for chatbot exposure.

Behavioral Strengths

• A fast learner.
• Someone who is willing to take the initiative ·
• Someone who is methodical in their approach and values technology development processes like Agile.
• Someone who is passionate about social development and global issues.
• A positive attitude.
• Good communication skills.
• Time and task manager.
• Good team player.
• End-user focused.

Reporting

The consultant will report to Girl Effect’s Director of Product and Technology.

Tentative Timelines

• Terms of reference published: April 30th 2023
• Deadline for responses: June 12th 2023
• Consultant selection, contracting and briefing: End of June
• Start Date: July 1, 2023

Location

The consultant must be based in Kenya (remote) and must be conducive to working with teams in South Africa, Tanzania, Ethiopia, the UK, the USA, and India.

Proposal Submission

Your proposal, should you be interested (Max 5 pages), should cover

• Your understanding of the brief and why you feel you are well-placed to advise us on this
• Credential/Profile/CV
  • Please showcase any previous work that you consider relevant to what we are trying to achieve, how we approach our work, and the audience we cater to. Describe the qualifications, experience, and capabilities of the firm or consultant in providing the requested services.
• Reference-Provide at least three references for similar contracts with a description of the service provided and the contract periods of performance.
• Breakdown of Costs with applicable taxes and other charges clearly identified in KES. Consultants should provide their daily or hourly billing rate or their proposed fixed fee for the requested deliverables.
  • All applicable taxes should be quoted separately;

In their proposal, the bidder must demonstrate an understanding of the requirements described in the RFP and demonstrate how the bidder will meet the requirements of the evaluation criteria.

GE is not liable for any cost incurred during the award/contract preparation, submission, or negotiation of the award/contract. All submitted documentation and/or materials shall become and remain the property of GE.

VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for 90 days from the date of bid closure.

Evaluation Criteria

The criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are listed below.

Technical Evaluation

• Interpretation and understanding of this TOR – 10%
• Showcases relevant experience in having done previous similar work with relevant agencies or organizations – 20 %
• Geographical Experience in Kenya -10%
• Evidence of a minimum of three contactable references – 10%
• Experience and Qualification, share your CV/Profile/Credential – 20%

Financial Evaluation

• Value for money/proposed budget breakdown – 30%

Equal Opportunities

Girl Effect is committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity, or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

We are committed to building an organization that is truly representative of the communities that we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to procuring consultancy services of organizations and individuals with a deep understanding and experience of our programming markets and diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds.

Safeguarding

You may be required to undertake safeguarding checks. Shortlisted consultants will be assessed on our organizational values at the interview stage. The successful consultant will be expected to adhere to our safeguarding policy. We encourage you to read and understand our safeguarding policy, the executive summary of which can be found here. We have zero tolerance for all forms of violence against children, beneficiaries and staff.

Tax

Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position with regard to provisions of the Kenya jurisdiction tax legislation when developing their proposals.

Disclaimer

GE reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, the number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice, and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party. GE shall inform the ONLY successful applicant(s). The process of negotiation and signing of the contract with the successful applicant(s) will follow.