Послуги Digital Assessment Implementer (Eurasia Foundation)

JOB TYPE:                              Consultancy

Eurasia Foundation’s (EF’s) Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services (TAPAS) Activity requests proposals from qualified firms to conduct a digital readiness assessment in Guatemala. The assessment is expected to produce a product roadmap as well as technical and user requirements for a Diia-inspired mobile Super App for Guatemala’s online public services platform.  TAPAS is co-funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and UK Aid and is implemented by Eurasia Foundation. 

BACKGROUND

Diia:  TAPAS is an eight-year, $53 million anti-corruption through eGovernance program in Ukraine. Funded by USAID and UK Aid, TAPAS unites the government and people of Ukraine to develop e-governance tools that improve government transparency, accountability, and public service delivery. Through the TAPAS Activity, USAID has supported the development of Diia, a smartphone Super App and web portal that provides customized and secure government service delivery to citizens, residents, and businesses. Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT) leads the development and expansion of the Diia ecosystem to establish a new level of interaction between the state and citizens, one that is convenient, humane, and eliminates opportunities for corruption. In addition to the Diia Super App and web portal, the Diia ecosystem includes the Diia.Digital Education Platform, Diia.Engine, Diia.Business, Diia.Open Data, and Diia.City.

Diia relies on a robust set of interoperable registries, a rapid application framework, and an interoperability layer, which are core underlying components of digital government systems. Many of the software elements developed as part of the Diia ecosystem, including the Super App, are being made open source, allowing other like-minded governments and entities to leverage these investments in Ukraine for their own digital government needs. 

To facilitate cooperation and assess the readiness of these countries to adopt innovative digital solutions, two tools have been developed. The Platform Questionnaire captures information about the state of digital architecture, digital identity, data systems, internet connectivity, smartphone user rates, and other relevant factors. The Pre-Discovery Survey gathers primarily technical requirements data that may not be readily accessible from open sources (e.g., information about base registries, number of records, digital signatures, and others) that is needed to develop the partner government’s desired innovative solution(s). 

The success of Diia in Ukraine has prompted substantial international interest and attention, including from other governments seeking to transform how they deliver public services to residents and businesses. Several countries expressed interest in adopting innovative GovTech solutions and learning how they might draw applicable lessons from Ukraine’s experience with Diia. With support from EF TAPAS, the MDT, is eager to share solutions and best practices from the Diia ecosystem and foster sustainable technology transfer. Sharing these solutions is expected to increase Ukraine’s visibility among the international GovTech community and strengthen the MDT’s role as an international leader and partner in innovative GovTech.

New Initiative: In January 2023, USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced that USAID and the Government of Ukraine are partnering to model Ukraine’s digital government approach, particularly the Diia app. Through the EDGE Fund, USAID has allocated $650,000 to the TAPAS Activity to explore whether partner countries can leverage the experience of Ukraine to help build sustainable digital government systems. 

Guatemala’s Digital Government Ecosystem

In 2021, Guatemala passed Decree 05-2021 Law for the Simplification of Administrative Requirements and Procedures, to offer its government institutions a legal framework for the simplification and digitalization of public services. The Law aims to advance government administrative management by reducing bureaucracy and introduce programs related to open government – i.e., transparency, participation and collaboration.  The ultimate goal of the law is for every Ministry to offer web-based services to help citizens save time and resources, and the Government of Guatemala (GoG) can offer increased transparency.

The number of ministries making efforts to streamline their procedures and digitize access to them has increased considerably. However, the lack of a national digital ID and data exchange system has led to each ministry developing its own online user interface (UI) and login credentials. For citizens, this siloed approach has largely digitalized the existing bureaucracy, replacing the former complexity of deciding which ministry office to visit with the question of which online portal to visit. In a first effort to address this inefficiency, the Simplification Directorate within the Presidential Commission for Open and Electronic Government (GAE) developed an online catalog composed of each ministry’s procedures with links to their individual portals, while the ministries modernize their internal management and information systems.

The GAE is now advancing a whole-of-government approach by preparing the country for a Diia-inspired ‘government in a phone’ mobile Super App that will further simplify the lives of citizens and their interactions with the state.

Project Objectives

The Digital Assessment Implementer’s overall objective is to produce a roadmap and prototype to inform the development and implementation of Guatemala’s first ‘government in a phone’ mobile Super App and digital documents and services based on the lessons learned from Ukraine’s deployment of its Diia digital citizen experience platform (CXP).

This overall objective should be achieved through Discovery Phase activities and the Digital Assessment Implementer will: 

1. Recommend the digital public infrastructure (DPI) architecture required for the app e.g., digital identity systems, interoperability systems, electronic payment systems, encryption/security, application programming interfaces (APIs), open standards;
2. Demonstrate the look and feel of Guatemala’s mobile app CXP and digital documents;
3. Highlight relevant user-driven public service delivery processes; types of legislation, regulation, and standards; and normative administration approaches needed to simplify the life of the citizen.

Please note that implementation of the specific solution(s) will be separate and outside this project’s scope.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT) is the beneficiary of this project.

Activities

The Digital Assessment Implementer is expected to design the flow of assessment activities using the methodology guidance prepared by EF TAPAS as described below:

Phase 1:  Assess Technical Readiness

Objective:  Evaluate the government’s various online portals and citizens’ user experience (UX) in the context of the country’s digital landscape, specifically:

• Understand GAE’s project objectives and priorities, target users, desired solution, and its intended benefits.
• Understand the current user journey and experience accessing and using the ministries’ online portals and GAE’s catalog of procedures, for example:
  1. Major pain points and utility of the current application and issuance processes for two documents and related services;
  2. Mobile and fixed broadband internet connectivity, adoption, and usage; and smartphone ownership;
  3. Mobile banking tools and digital payment platforms;
  4. High-level scan of current eGovernance landscape for laws, regulations, or standards that may directly impact the delivery of digital documents and services;
• Understand the current state of the government’s relevant technical infrastructure, for example:
  1. Availability and quality of digitized registries and technology stack;
  2. Opportunity for data exchange interoperability between registries/information systems, e.g., data exchange platforms, APIs, and other data exchange protocols;
  3. Data centers (on-prem and cloud), communication network infrastructure, document management systems, cybersecurity infrastructure;
  4. User identity authentication and authorization systems and digital signatures.
• Gain a high-level perspective of current public service delivery processes, administrative capacity, and human capacity factors impacting them.
• Based on the above analysis, formulate initial recommendations for the intended mobile app, documents, and services while also highlighting major challenges, limitations, and resource gaps.

Phase 2:  Propose Product Vision, Roadmap & Requirements

Objective:  Propose the vision, roadmap and requirements for the new ‘government in a phone’ app and its first two digital documents and services:

• Formulate the vision for the proposed mobile app and its expected benefits for citizens and registry owner(s);
• Create the features roadmap (e.g., user stories) for the mobile CXP and each document and service based on GAE’s functional and non-functional requirements, including a multilingual interface;
• Outline the key registration and/or delivery processes for the documents and services;
• Recommendations should address at a minimum:
  1. Mobile-first, user interface to serve as a simple and consistent, whole-of-government UX and design;
  2. Back-end technical architecture components, including data flows, registries, interoperability platforms, and other DPI;
  3. Detailed list of functional requirements to meet usability expectations, e.g., Diia-like user-centric UX/UI design principles, government brand/style standards, user authentication/authorization, document/service-related features, APIs;
  4. Relevant non-functional requirements, e.g., iPhone/Android versions, accessibility and performance service level agreements, security and encryption standards/protocols, open standards.
• Conduct the above activities through a consultative process, including knowledge sharing sessions with the relevant stakeholders;
• Obtain feedback and approval from the designated government representatives and other stakeholders.

Phase 3:  Design Visuals & Prototype

Objective:  Create visuals and clickable prototypes that demonstrate the functionality, look, and feel of the mobile app and each proposed document and/or service’s features:

• Draft mockups to illustrate basic design elements, e.g., screen design, brand elements, content, and imagery of user interfaces.
• Clickable UI prototypes that simulate user interactions and navigation flow to demonstrate feature functionality and user experiences, e.g., individual screens, buttons, navigation elements, and the user authentication/authorization method.
• Create the above visuals for iPhone/Android versions and inclusive access (i.e., users with disabilities), as needed.
• Confirm the UI design with the representatives of the respective agencies.

Information for the above-mentioned activities will be obtained by the Digital Assessment Implementer through the Pre-Discovery Survey, desk research, documentation provided by GAE and other government stakeholders, key informant interviews, and workshops as well as through consultations with key government representatives, MDT, and the EF TAPAS team. Some of this information may already be available by the project kickoff.

Deliverables & Estimated Timing

Technical Solution Proposal. This deliverable summarizes the findings, project objectives, and purpose described in Phase 1 activities, including an overview of the current state of the contextual conditions and DPI, and initial recommendations for the development of the mobile app and documents, which takes into consideration any major technical or other relevant gaps unique to Guatemala.

Solution Vision and Roadmap Documentation. This deliverable establishes the guiding vision for the mobile app platform and documents and defines a comprehensive roadmap with detailed technical frameworks needed to develop and integrate them with existing CXP and DPI e.g., vision statement; beneficial impact on users and other stakeholders; systems, process, and data flow diagrams; conceptual architecture frameworks; user journey maps; lists of functional and non-functional requirements; and roadmap milestones and timeline.

Visuals and Prototypes. This deliverable supplements the Solution Vision and Roadmap Documentation with mockups and clickable prototypes highlighting the user interface design, functionality, and overall user experience. This approach aims to demonstrate the alignment of the technical specifications with the desired user-centric design, ensuring its practicality and effectiveness.

EF TAPAS estimates the completion time for all deliverables is six (6) weeks.

Selection Criteria 

The service provider will be chosen through a competitive selection process. The decision on the winning bid will be determined by a tender commission comprised of specialists from EF TAPAS and the MDT, based on an assessment of the proposal in comparison to other submissions and following the “price-quality” principle.

Please note that only legal entities are eligible to submit a proposal. Bidders must furnish a team of experts dedicated to this project and offer a resume for each team member as part of their proposal. 

For assessing proposals submitted in response to EF’s call for the Digital Assessment Implementer in Guatemala, we’ll use the following selection criteria:

Institutional Presentation

• Experience of the project manager, who must possess a proven track record leading similar assessments and preparing digital solution development roadmaps.
• Strength of the project team’s technical knowledge in Diia mobile application development approaches, design philosophy, digital architecture, and implementation methods is a must.
• Capacity and expertise of the project team in user-centric design principles to create visually appealing and user-friendly mockups and prototypes.
• Experience of the proposed team in conducting comprehensive research in diverse geographical contexts, ideally including Central American countries.
• Demonstrated capacity of the project team’s writing, documentation and presentation skills to produce detailed and well-organized reports and presentations.

Technical Approach 

• Proposal’s conformance to the requirements of the technical specifications 
• Quality of the management plan for the project team
• Integration and delivery of technical assistance and capacity building of local partners
• Proposed timeline and delivery schedule to fulfill the scope of work effectively and efficiently 

Cost 

• Reasonable and understandable budget. The Digital Assessment Implementer is responsible for the provision of interpretation/translation services and must include these costs in their proposal.  
• Fair market prices for proposed goods and services 
• VAT exemption, where applicable

Apply 

Interested bidders should submit the following via EF recruitment platform at:https://www.eurasia.org/careers/9200649671382_1/ 

• Written proposal describing their technical approach and relevant past performance
• Resume for each team member
• Cost proposal

Application deadline: April 11, 2024