Tender for Development of a Dynamic and Structural Data Analytical Module for EACWARN Systems and Tools

EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY

INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANCY TO DEVELOP A DYNAMIC AND STRUCTURAL DATA ANALYTICAL MODULE FOR EACWARN SYSTEMS AND TOOLS

1.  BACKGROUND

The Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community (EAC) provides the legal basis for the EAC to engage in peace and security issues. Article 5 of the treaty stipulates that one of the objectives of the Community is “the promotion of peace, security and stability within, and good neighborliness among the Partner States” and Article 123 states that the Community shall pursue the objectives of the Community by “peaceful resolution of disputes and conflicts between and within Partner States”.

Article 124 acknowledges the close linkage between peace and security and social and economic development and the achievement of the objectives of the Community by stating that “The Partner States agree that peace and security are pre-requisites to social and economic development within the Community and vital to the achievement of the objectives of the Community. In this regard, the Partner States agree to foster and maintain an atmosphere that is conducive to peace and security through co-operation and consultations on issues pertaining to peace and security of the Partner States with a view to prevention, better management and resolution of disputes and conflicts within and between them”.

To operationalize these provisions, in November 2006, the EAC Council of Ministers adopted a Strategy on Regional Peace and Security which provided for enhanced cooperation among Partner States through establishment among others of a Conflict Early Warning Mechanism and a Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution Mechanism, respectively in its goal 14 and 15. The Strategy was revised in 2014 to include new and emerging peace and security threats. Based on the above, the EAC Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution Mechanism (CPMR Mechanism) and EAC Early Warning Mechanism (EACWARN) were established and are now operational.

EACWARN aims at facilitating the anticipation, preparedness and early responses to prevent, contain and manage situations that are likely to affect peace and security in the EAC region. With respect to this important function, the EACWARN is working on developing a dynamic and structural data analytical module which will facilitate systematic gathering of qualitative and quantitative statistical data from various online sources including news media, social media, blogs, publications and other open sources relevant to the region. The Dynamic and Structural Data Analytical module is also expected to be compatible with EACWARN Field Reporter Tool, which once fully developed and operational, will be an integral part of the system.

2.  RATIONALE

The operational effectiveness of an Early Warning System is highly dependent on the integrity of systematic data collected overtime. At the moment, EACWARN has been collecting dynamic data on daily basis. However, the form of the data collected does not provide aggregated quantitative measures of the reported events that could be used easily to produce data-driven analysis. The counts of each event type and a measure of its intensity, either positive (for cooperative events) or negative (for conflictual events) is not aggregated into a format that can inform the analytical work conducted on periodical basis. In realization of this limitation, EACWARN intends to employ the current data mining techniques in order to bridge this shortfall. With the Dynamic and Structural Data analytical Module we anticipate to track both verbal and non-verbal behaviours of the reported peace and security events for the region.

In view of the above therefore, EACWARN will have a wide-scope of dataset in monitoring and analysing incidents, situations and developments occurring in each Partner States. It is our belief that this system will enrich the data collection and analysis function that will facilitate production of rich and well-informed analysis for our EAC Decision Makers.

3.  DEVELOPMENT OF THE EACWARN DYNAMIC AND STRUCTURAL DATA ANALYTICAL MODULE

Since EACWARN Dynamic and Structural Data Analytical Module need to be compatible with other existing AU Continental and Sister RECs Early Warning Systems in operation; a consultant with previous working-experience with such systems will be an added-advantage to be engaged to undertake this assignment.

At the Africa Union and other RECs, the Africa Media Monitor (AMM) application, the Field Reporter Tool and Africa Prospects Tool for Structural Data Analysis are already in use. Thus, given that all RECs and RMs signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the use of these tools with African Union, the development of any Early Warning System at the RECs level need to ensure harmony, compatibility and operability with these systems without compromising contextual peculiarities.

Hence, in-line with this; development and deployment of the Data Analytical Module will involve aspects of integration with existing AU-CEW System and Tools. So technical stakeholders during implementation in this assignment will involve EACWARN Officers, EAC Partner States Experts as well as Technical Experts from the African Union Continental Early Warning System (CEWS) and other RECs and Partners with practical Technical knowhow to Structural Vulnerability Assessments Tools and System.

4.  OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The overall objective of the assignment is to develop a Dynamic and Structural Data Analytical Module which facilitates systematic collection and aggregation of dynamic and structural data from various online open sources as well as other sources relevant to the EAC region. Collection and Aggregation of these dynamic and structural data will be guided by the EACWARN Indicators Framework.

5.  SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

Specifically the consultancy service will design and develop an EACWARN Dynamic and Structural Data Analytical Module, while ensuring that: 

1. the system is compatible with other AU-CEWS and Sister RECs Systems and Tools;
2. its automated data collection and aggregation facility are guided by the EACWARN Indicators Framework and context;
3. the system includes a full range of incidents both positive (for cooperative events) and negative(for conflictual events) aggregated dataset which will assist in formulating trends analysis in a given period;
4. the system includes data export facilities into other formats such as MS-Excel, MS-Word and CSV file format.
5. data integrity and security standards are employed into the system.

6.  METHODOLOGY

EACWARN and the Consultant will work remotely to develop the system and then call for a stakeholders’ meeting to demonstrate and solicit inputs for integrating them into the final product. The consultant will integrate the stakeholders’ inputs before the system is pre-tested and deployed.

7.  EXPECTED OUTCOMES AND DELIVERABLES

The consultant is expected to come-up with the conceptual design and a pilot test Dynamic and Structural Data Analysis Module for EACWARN System and Tools which comprised the following features;

1. Country context – historical knowledge of structural profiles and past peace and security incidences.
2. situational awareness – measured event trends from current media and/or field reports,
3. collaborative assessment – an evidence-based, expert-curated discussion board, and
4. Visual analytics – geographic, graphic, tabular, and text-based reports, summaries, and archives to provide current, contextualized risk assessments with actionable prevention and mitigation options.

8.  QUALIFICATIONS AND COMPETENCIES

The Consultant should have:

1. An Advanced degree in Information Technology with substantial training in Political Science, International Relations, Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution;
2. At least ten (10) years relevant work experience in a Government, in an international or regional organization and/or in an IT policy research think tank;
3. Proven experience in the design of data mining tools and systems;
4. Excellent communication and presentation skills;
5. Creativity, initiative as well as capacity to work under pressure;
6. Excellent command of English and proficiency in both written and spoken English – the official EAC language;

9.  DURATION AND CONSIDERATION OF THE EXPERT SERVICES

The Consultant’s services shall be granted thirty three (33) days consultancy services to develop the Comprehensive and Customized Dynamic Data Analytic Module.

In consideration of this assignment, the Expert rendering this service shall be paid by EAC as articulated below:

1. EAC shall provide a remote access to EACWARN Servers for installation, testing and launching once the system development is done. The system will be pilot tested by EACWARN Staff to confirm if the system development have been carried in accordance to the terms of reference.
2. Additionally, a per diem for five (5) nights will be paid to the Consultant at the EAC official rate per night and an economy class return ticket to come to present the Dynamic and Structural Data Module to a wider EAC stakeholders’ workshop which is planned to take place in the first quarter of the year 2021.

10.  TIME SCHEDULES

This assignment is expected to commence on November and end by 30^th December 2020.

11.  CONTRACT

The Consultant will enter into a written contract for the delivery of the above mandate, which includes the duties and responsibilities of the Consultant and the Client (EAC Secretariat) and remuneration among other things.

12.  LIST OF DOCUMENTATION

The following documents will be availed to the consultant for reference and use in the design processes:

1. The Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC
2. EAC Protocol on Peace and Security
3. The MoU between AU and the RECs/RMs on Cooperation in Areas of Peace    and Security
4. EAC Strategy on Regional Peace and Security
5. The EAC Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution Mechanism
6. The EAC Early Warning Mechanism (EACWARN)
7. The Roadmap for the Operationalization of EACWARN
8. EAC Indicators’ Framework
9. AU instruments and any other relevant to Early Warning and national early warning centers.

13.  EVALUATION CRITERIA

Evaluation criteria

The following criteria will be used in the evaluation of technical proposals submitted

The evaluation committee considered that a score of at least 75% demonstrates sufficient technical capacity to undertake the assignment.

14.  DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION

The submission will be made not later than Wednesday 25^th November, 2020 at 11.00 addressed to the:

Secretary General
East African Community Secretariat
EAC Close
EAC Registry, Ground Floor, EACJ Wing
P.O Box 1096,
Arusha,
Tanzania