TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR A CONSULTANT: IMCHA PROGRAM WEBSITE DEVELOPER

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is a leading pan-African research institution headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, that conducts high quality policyrelevant research on population, health, education, urbanization and related development issues across Africa. APHRC actively engages policymakers and other key stakeholders to help ensure decision-making across the continent is informed by rigorous evidence-based research.

APHRC is looking for a consultant to develop a website that will promote research on Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) in Africa through the innovative mechanisms of the Innovating for Maternal and Child Health in Africa (IMCHA) program. The website will be used by research scientists to share resources and also contain information that is relevant to external stakeholders in MNCH. The website should be modern, dynamic, and user-friendly, allow for multiple administrators, and built on an easy to use platform that also complements IMCHA’s engagement with researchers in Africa.

Organizational Unit

Policy Engagement and Communications Division

Background

The Innovating for Maternal and Child Health in Africa program seeks to improve maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes by strengthening health systems to become more equitable, using primary health care as an entry point. Two inter-related components, Implementation Research Teams (IRTs) and Health Policy and Research Organizations (HPROs), have been designed to collaborate on improving the translation of research evidence and learning into policy and practice for effective MNCH interventions in ten countries across the continent.

A consortium of three institutions — APHRC, The East, Central and Southern Africa (ECSA) Health Community (ECSA-HC) and Partners in Population and Development’s Africa Regional Office (PPD-ARO) – have formed the East African Health Policy and Research Organization (EA-HPRO). The EA-HPRO drives the MNCH research to policy process by working with 13 IRTs in five countries in the East African region: Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda.

Similarly, the West African Health Organization (WAHO) ensures coordination of regional health interventions across the Economic Community of West African States, working as part of the IMCHA program with seven IRTs in four countries: Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal.

The specific objectives of the IMCHA program are to:

1. Identify and maximize opportunities for policy influence for MNCH issues.

2. Influence policy and programmatic decisions and actions on MNCH in the target countries informed by evidence provided by IRTs.

3. Build consensus for MNCH issues to drive policy outreach at national regional and global levels.

4. Develop and agree on a regional MNCH agenda together with the legislative and economic bodies.

5. Strengthen the capacity of IRTs for long-term and systematic engagement with decision makers in their respective countries for more effective uptake of the evidence they generate.

To attain these objectives, IMCHA requires, among other things, an effective website that is a hub for research scientists to share resources, and provides an interface for interaction among other features. APHRC is therefore seeking the services of qualified and professional consulting firm or individual to develop a website that will meet the features above and more as is listed below:

• Site news/Trending now content blocks: The web solution will provide content/screen areas containing: Calendar, upcoming events, latest news/site news and trending topics.
• Built on CMS as opposed to static HTML (e.g. WordPress, Drupal or Joomla)
• Interactive – provides features for registering to blog, uploading news stories and blogs, comments and linked documents like reports and facts and figures in PDFs etc.
• Integrate Twitter and Facebook posting; website should facilitate streaming of information between these different platforms
• The website should be responsive capable of displaying on desktops, mobile, tablets etc.
• The website should be cross platform compatible with multiple browsers including: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Chrome.
• Migration of content from EA-HPRO website and WAHO website
• Should be user-friendly and attractive with modern user experience (UX).
• Capable of hosting mailing lists.
• Enabled subscription feature to distribute monthly newsletters. This will be linked to the organization’s default contact database to allow automatic updates.
• Ability to host multimedia content and have them streamed on the website
• Chat tool support
• Has a discussion board and black boards for collaboration and content sharing
• Capability of hosting online teaching sessions (E-Learning)
• Dynamic layout and view of profiles (Steering Committee, Implementing Research Teams, Partners etc.) A dynamic display and easy to add template which allows for automatic resizing of images to set website dimensions
• That is RSS feeds capable, and can be tracked/analyzed via Google analytics or other recommended platform.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for the website to improve visibility
• Publications: has a modern display of publications that also allows for easier scrolling and navigation.
• Online form: Should enable users to submit various requirement and content
• Bi-lingual feature to suit English and French users of the website
• Backend support for privileged content editors and administrator
• Full site search support
• Capable of handling multi-media content including text, images, video, documents

Training of staff

Training of staff from IDRC, APHRC and WAHO on management, maintenance, content uploading, getting analytics, and other functions that may come with this specific website.

Sample Layouts

The shortlisted applicants will be required to make presentations on at least three sample layouts that will suit the needs of the program.

Timeliness

The consultant will deliver on all the listed areas by 31 August 2017. However, a first draft of the website layout with content will need to be presented by 10 April 2017.

Deliverables

A fully functional website that reflects all the requirements stated above and as will be discussed and agreed upon by the successful consultant once on board.

How to Apply

If interested please email jobs@aphrc.org and copy procurement@aphrc.org. Title your application as IMCHA Website Development with:

1) A proposal with links to your portfolio

2) A CV of your professional experience

3) A quotation with specific costing and timelines indicating the milestones.

Application deadline: Please apply by 28 February 2017.