Digitization of Study Circle Materials at We Effect – July 2025

Digitization of Study Circle Materials

Terms of Reference for the digitalization of study circle materials and ensure they are available on ICT platforms for the Women Empowerment and Micro Small Enterprises Support
Introduction

We Effect is a Swedish development organisation with a regional office in Southern Africa and country offices in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It supports development powered by people who themselves live in poverty and works with local organisations. We Effect’s vision is a sustainable and just world free of poverty. To succeed, it must start by changing the situation for the most vulnerable – women and youth, who constitute 70% of those living in poverty.

We Effect in Southern Africa believes that the most effective and sustainable approach to addressing the root causes of poverty is by taking a holistic and multi-levelled gender transformative approach. This means together with our different partner organizations, we will work at different levels to contribute to the overall programme: at personal, social, material, organizational and structural levels. We Effect has global and regional strategies, whose focus is being Stronger Together and prescribes gender equality as the core of all We Effect work.

We work in the thematic fields of sustainable rural development and adequate housing. We apply a human rights-based approach in our programmes, assisting people living in poverty to secure their rights and entitlement to adequate living conditions and broad empowerment. We Effect targets women in partner organisations to secure them the same rights and entitlements as men, especially to own and control land and access to financial resources. Partner organizations include farmer organizations, housing cooperatives, and savings and credit associations. The core strategy is to strengthen cooperatives of women and men living in poverty through membership-based democracy, long-term economic thinking, social responsibility, and transparency.

We Effect is inviting consultancy companies or individual consultants for the digitalization of study circle materials and ensure they are available on ICT platform for the Women Empowerment and Micro Small Enterprises Support project implemented in eight greater Lusaka areas namely Mutendere East; Chainda; John Howard; Chawama; Kamanga; Garden; Mandevu and Ngwerere. The consultant (s) will work closely with We Effect ICT and Project teams and, the project partners and community stakeholders.

Project Background

We Effect Zambia and its partners ChildFund and Civic Forum for Housing and Habitat Zambia (CFHHZ) with funding support from the European Union through the European Commission’s Lusaka Transmission Distribution Rehabilitation Project (LTDRP)- Low Voltage Distribution Network are implementing the Women Empowerment and Micro Small Enterprises Support project starting in June 2023. The project will end in May 2026. It is being implemented in eight greater Lusaka areas namely Matendere East; Chainda; John Howard; Chawama; Kamanga; Garden; Mandevu and Ngwerere.

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the increased access to complimentary services including business management/entrepreneurial skills and credit facilities among women benefiting from the subsidized Lusaka Transmission Distribution Rehabilitation Project (LTDRP) electricity connections in the target areas of Lusaka.

The project specific objectives are:

1.      To build or strengthen resilient and profitable women and youth owned business that ensure continuous delivery of quality empowerment services to vulnerable women, and youth in the target areas.

2.     To promote gender coordinated transformative, sustainable, and rights-based empowerment services that foster women and youth’s entrepreneurship in the target areas.

Detailed description of the work to be done:

Digitalisation of study circle materials

Objective: To digitize all study circle material to enable efficient, accessible and secure storage.

Quality Standard: All scanned documents must be in PDF format with a resolution of at least 300 DPI

Responsibility: The consultant(s) in conjunction with IT as well as focal persons will be responsible for the setup and maintenance of the digital system.

Compliance: All digitization activities must comply with the applicable data protection regulations

Searching and indexing: The digital system must be indexed and searchable through key alpha-numeric data. Minimum searchable field requirements are as per the data fields mentioned above. Searching by other document types would be an additional advantage.

Users: It is an advantage if the digital system is a multiuser system, accessible over the network and with different roles and permissions. The use of opensource platforms and tools is highly advisable.

Document scanning: The consultant to provide scanning services and uploading of study circle materials for the initial batch of upload of documents. Thereafter, administrator or focal person(s) from the client We Effect will be responsible for uploading documents.

Document protection: The consultant should highlight data storage protection methods as well as data download security protocols.

Duration of cloud hosting: The consultant should highlight cost for hosting of cloud services and back-end support for a period of one (1) year.

Migration of data: The consultant should bear in mind that all data uploaded in the cloud based services is property of We Effect and must be available for migration at the end of said period.

Data sizes: In the event that the size of allocated data paid for is exceeded, the consultant must notify the client We Effect and clearly highlight the extra cost for additional data required beforehand.

Training: The consultant must highlight the cost for training of administrators and focal points from the client We Effect on the use of the system and duration for training.

Payment terms: The consultant is to present clear cost for entire objective as well as clear payment terms.

Qualifications and criteria:

i.                  MSc. or similar degree in Computer Science/Information Technologies,

ii.               Demonstrated knowledge of digital records management technologies and their application in handling of training materials.

iii.             Understanding of networks, databases and other IT technologies.

iv.              The experience of drafting study circle material management strategies is an advantage.

v.                Existing web hosting services references.

vi.              International experience of similar assignments in three different countries. African countries experience is an advantage.

vii.            Proficient English and excellent technical writing skills. Ability to write clear, correct, and technical English.

Submissions of applications close on 10th July 2025 at 17:00 hours

Send your applications to procurement.zambia@weeffect.org