MEAL Consultancy

1. BACKGROUND

Asmae-Association Sœur Emmanuelle (Asmae) is a French international solidarity NGO specialized in child development. Independent, secular and apolitical, it is open to all. Created in 1980 by Sister Emmanuelle on the basis of her experience with rag-pickers in the slums of Cairo, Asmae continues its action in accordance with the values and methods inherited from its founder: listening and proximity, pragmatism, taking into account differences, professionalism and reciprocity. Asmae's action aims to support vulnerable children and their families through tailor-made and long-term support for local actors working in the fields of early childhood education, livelihood, socioeconomic development, and child protection.

Asmae has been working in the Lebanon since 1986 and is currently supporting programs on Prevention and Care of Children at Risk and Adolescence Support, in addition to other cross cutting issues such as access to quality education, inclusion of children with disabilities and gender mainstreaming. Asmae is currently working in partnership with several local NGOs and is part of different networks (such as the National Child Protection Working Group and the Lebanese Humanitarian INGO Forum).

Within the framework of this project, Asmae and 2 Lebanese associations: Developmental Action Without Borders / NABA`A and Farah Social Foundation (FSF) are collaborating in a process of co-construction, co-porting and co-leading the project.

Asmae Lebanon is currently implementing four different projects in different geographical areas in Lebanon, in partnership with local organizations using a long-term partnership approach.

1. Rationale

Since the capacity development of the local partners is an essential component of Asmae’s work, in order to foster the localization concept, ensure sustainability, and empower the local community to achieve quality implementation goals, Asmae aims to develop the capacity of its partners through different training, consultancies, coaching and other types of support.

Whereas Asmae conducted a capacity-building assessment of its partner organization, Farah Social Foundation, the need for creating a MEAL web application has been decided upon mutually by both organizations. This consultancy is part of Asmae’s commitment to its partners by providing them with adequate support based on defined criteria of assessment accompanied by realistic needs.

1. OVERVIEW of the main objectives

This consultant is expected to equip Farah Social Foundation with a Web Application that acts as a profound MEAL system with the required installation, training, accompanying, and maintenance. The whole design phases and testing must be done in coordination with FSF relevant staff and under the supervision and follow-up of Asmae relevant advisors.

Upon finalizing the web application project, FSF relevant staff should have the full understanding and knowledge on how to operate the system fully, and have the reasonable time to test it and report on any concerns or problems that may arise with a commitment by the consultant to fix and edit immediately.

1. Methodology and Topics

This consultancy is expected (and not limited to) to cover the following areas:

• Inception Phase (Content Creation): receiving the necessary content from FSF required for the creation of the application such as (text, images, links, logos, sitemap, reports, etc… and whatever the consultant sees needed for the startup of the project).
• Phase 1 (Data Structuring): creation of the database design.
• Phase 2 (Design): designing the web application by tailoring it according to FSF’s needs and in compliance with the original website theme and branding guidelines.
• Phase 3 (Web Application Development): this includes assuring that the website is readily accessible to search engines, tracking web traffic toward the website, establishing a Google Search Console account for monitoring critical metrics, assuring compatibility with a variety of popular websites, purchasing of a domain name unless FSF has its own domain, optimizing website security and content distribution, hosting, and scalability.
• Phase 4 (Testing and Quality Assurance): this phase includes functional, compatibility, performance, security, usability, accessibility, and regression testing.
• Phase 5 (Training): one full day training session in addition to supplying a training manual to all the relevant FSF staff.  
• Phase 6 (Delivery and Launch): delivering a fully functional web application that is ready and where FSF relevant staff have confirmed their ability to operate it in full capacity and understanding.
• Phase 7 (Maintenance): warranty over the Web Application for any misfunctioning over technical reasons must be for a full year included within the full consultancy.

1. Target Participants

The training will be provided to the relevant staff to be suggested by FSF.

1. Tasks and expected deliverables

• Content Creation
• Web-Application Development and Design
• Testing, Training of Staff
• Launching Final Application
• Maintenance strategy

1. Other Information

• Asmae will be responsible for financing this consultancy.
• Material and training should be provided in English; however, explanation of concepts and discussion could be in Arabic.
• Asmae will be responsible for accompanying, monitoring and advisory on the web application project in general in coordination with FSF relevant staff.

Qualifications

This is a freelance post for individuals or companies with the below minimum requirements:

• hold a degree in software development, CIS, or any other relevant web design degree;
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in the domain of website and web application creation;
• Proven track record of successful work in a similar field;
• Strong communication and facilitation skills,
• Understanding of different participants’ backgrounds, and cultures taking into consideration gender sensitivity.
• Fluency in Arabic and English language skills: Written skills – proposal writing.
• Adherence to deadlines;