Вакансія: National Consultant acting as Digitization Specialist – Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast

1. Context

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been active and present in eastern Ukraine for the past decade, prior to the conflict, with a focus on community development, civil society development, and environmental protection. Work on addressing the specific conflict-related development challenges built on this earlier engagement, established partnerships, and started in 2015 through the United Nations Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme (UN RPP). UN RPP is a multi-donor funded framework programme formulated and led by the UNDP in collaboration with the Government of Ukraine and in cooperation with a number of partnering UN agencies (UN Women, FAO, UNFPA). UN RPP was designed to respond to, and mitigate, the causes and effects of the conflict in the east of Ukraine. It is an integral component of the UNDP Country Programme and is therefore fully aligned with the United Nations Partnership Framework (UNPF).

In October 2018, four UN agencies (UNDP, UN Women, FAO and the UNFPA) have countersigned a new joint project document, funded by the EU. The overall objective of the project is to restore effective governance, support economic recovery and promote reconciliation in the crisis-affected communities of Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts in Ukraine, thereby enhancing the credibility and legitimacy of local governments in the government-controlled areas of the regions. It will contribute to peacebuilding and prevent further escalation of the conflict in Ukraine through effective and accountable decentralization, gender-responsive recovery planning and equal access to services, as well as enhanced economic recovery and development.

Component ІІІ of UN RPP “Community Security and Social Cohesion” aims to reach some of its goals through implementation support of the projects strengthening community security and social cohesion through testing innovative legal aid, access to justice, conflict resolution and peacebuilding mechanisms at local level.

One of the objectives of the Project is to improve the efficiency of justice in the context of the ongoing armed conflict in the east of Ukraine. The state faced the context of the armed conflict without relevant experience and preparation; without a full and complete understanding of the required capacity building activities and preservation of archives. The importance of preserving documents, court cases and archives is constantly emphasized by international institutions. As a part of the implementation of the Unified Judicial Information and Telecommunication System and in order to improve access to justice for citizens, including vulnerable groups within the areas affected by the conflict, a pilot project will be implemented to digitize court case materials in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. For this reason, UN RPP seeks for three qualified professionals who will digitize courts documents of Sievierodonetsk city court of Luhansk Oblast, Artemivsk city court of Donetsk Oblast and Zhovtnevyi district court of Mariupol city in Donetsk Oblast.

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https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=99482 

2. Scope and Objective of the Assignment

The digitization specialist (hereinafter – Contractor) will be responsible for digitizing archival and incoming documents in court using the appropriate equipment to be provided by the respective court.

The Contractor will also ensure the mainstreaming of gender equality and women’s empowerment considerations in the field of expertise, promote a safe and enabling environment free of any kind of discrimination and abusive behaviour, and use the principles of gender-responsive communications in line with the UNDP corporate standards. 

3. Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision and day-to-day coordination with UNDP and representative of the respective local court the Contractor will be responsible for digitizing incoming documents and archival documents on civil and criminal cases (a list of documents will be specified by the court representative).

The Contractor will be responsible for conducting the following activities:

- Digital scanning (digitization);

- Ensuring the safety of archival documents during their scanning;

- Quality control of digital copies;

- Post-processing of digital copies and their placement on data storage item.

a) Digital scanning (digitization)

The necessary equipment and premises will be provided by the court. The contractor must carry out their work per the instructions received from the court representative, who will specify a list of documents for digitization, file name requirements, their systematization, etc. The Contractor will receive materials for digitization on a daily basis. Selection and preparation of documents, everyday control of scope and quality of work will be under the responsibility of the relevant court representative.

The Contractor is responsible for the proper use of the provided equipment and should digitize provided documents. The number of documents will be determined by the court representative, in number the more the better, using an acceptable workload and prioritize the quality of the work. By the end of every working day, documents must be digitized, indexed, and listed into the digital register.

b) Ensuring the safety of archival documents during their scanning

The Contractor ensures the scanning of documents in accordance with the applicable rules and regulations, taking into account the minimization of the harmful effects of reproducing equipment on documents (avoiding alter documents integrity and others). Control over ensuring the safety of documents when scanning them is carried out by the Contractor.

c) Quality control of digital copies

To control the quality of the created digital copies, the Contractor can use a combination of visual control methods:

• tasteful review and comparison of the original documents with digital copies;
• matching the number of digital files to the number of sheets, checking the sequence of sheets;
• checking the availability of digital copies of returns of sheets of documents;
• check the readability of the document for 200% scaling;
• estimation of the image density.

The control of the quality of digital copies must be carried out repeatedly at different stages of the creation:

• at the stage of creating master copies in the process of digitizing;
• after the translation of the scanning program into the graphics editor, before renaming the file and writing it to the built-in storage media;
• in case of identification of defects in the copy at any stage, it is necessary to repeat the procedure for working with the digital master copy. 

d) Post-processing of digital copies, placement on data storage item

The Contractor is responsible for the post-processing of digital copies which includes, but is not limited to:

• removal of unnecessary parts of the image, if any (for example, the edge of an adjacent sheet, foreign objects in the frame), while not losing any image;
• saving the image in a file of the format set for master copies (at the same time compression with quality losses is not allowed);
• indexing files (the requirements for this will be provided by the court representative);
• replication of the received files on external data carriers – CDs or optical disks (CD-R, DVD-R), excluding a possibility of the following before record of the information on these digital carriers;
• marking of external information carriers and creating of their digital register.

The Contractor is responsible for filling in the table on a daily basis regarding the number of digitized documents with the indication of the number of sheets.

After each month of the assignment the Contractor will provide to UN RPP 1-page written report on the job done, which will include:

• the total number of scanned papers;
• the number of scanned pages from incoming documents and archive documents;
• number of scanned court cases by types;
• time was spent for scanning (for one page and in total);
• proposals of process improvement (if any).

All reports must be cleared by a court representative who will coordinate the Contractor’s work and be signed by both of them.

4. Deliverables

The following deliverables will be provided by the contractor

5. Proposed Payment Schedule

UNDP will pay the negotiated amount in 3 tranches as per delivery of the outputs outlined above.

Payments will be processed upon full completion and acceptance of contractual obligations where the UN RPP Community Security and Social Cohesion Coordinator signs certification of acceptance. 

6. Monitoring and Reporting Requirements

The Contractor shall work under overall guidance and direct supervision of the UN RPP Community Security and Social Cohesion Coordinator in accordance with terms of deliverable submission through meetings\calls\mails and through the operational communication with the Rule of Law Associate.

Digital versions of reports and duly completed timesheets should be prepared and submitted for clearance and approval by the UN RPP Community Security and Social Cohesion Coordinator in accordance with terms of deliverable submission.

The Contractor should clearly and concisely identify the work that has been carried out during this period, list major accomplishments, and difficulties/problems encountered during the process. The report should also indicate whether the result was achieved or whether there is a delay in the implementation of the planned activities. In the case of a delay, the reasons and advised solutions should be clearly stated.

7. Experience and Qualifications Requirements

• Education: At least Bachelor’s degree in IT, administrative, social, legal, archives and records management or any other relevant educational background
• At least 1 year of secretarial experience or experience in any other related field
• At least 1 year of experience with office equipment, scanning of documents
• Languages proficiency: Proficient in Ukrainian

Competencies:

• Sound judgment and maturity to foster a positive work environment
• Strong user of office software packages
• Strong user of office equipment
• Result orientation
• Attention to detail, quick learning, accuracy
• Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
• Demonstrates corporate knowledge and sound judgment
• Demonstrates/safeguards ethics and integrity
• Gender mainstreaming 

8. Documents to Be Included When Submitting the Proposals

Applicants shall submit the following documents:

9. Financial Proposal

Lump sum contract

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in instalments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

Travel costs

All envisaged travel costs and/or accommodation must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. UN RPP, however, may help (if needed) with logistics on mentioned issues around Ukraine. Should the Individual Consultants wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources. In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultants, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. 

10. Evaluation Criteria

Technical evaluation Criteria:

• Education: At least Bachelor’s degree in IT, administrative, social, legal, archives and records management or any other relevant educational background – pass/fail
• At least 1 year of secretarial experience or experience in any other related field- pass/fail
• At least 1 year of experience with office equipment, scanning of documents – pass/fail
• Languages proficiency: Proficient in Ukrainian- pass/fail

11. Evaluation Method

Lowest price and technically compliant offer

Contract award shall be made to the incumbent whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

responsive/compliant/acceptable (fully meeting the TOR provided) offering the lowest price/cost).

https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=99482