International Expert in the Development of One-stop Shop Concept for Public E-services

LEPL Digital Governance Agency (DGA) operates under the Ministry of Justice of Georgia. One of the Agency’s goals is facilitating the introduction of digital governance principles in the process of public governance; also, DGA is entitled to provide natural and legal persons with tailored, available, effective and transparent electronic services.

Between 2012 and 2018, the My.gov.ge portal was developed as a single national one-stop-shop for online government services. The objective was three-fold: to establish an online national “shopping centre” consisting of all government services offered online; to successfully reach all citizens and businesses using the internet and e-ID, and improve the value-added by government investments in IT front and backend service production and delivery systems. The portal focuses on high-volume, high-frequency service areas. Built according to international standards for web-accessibility (WCAG 2.0 AA), it is fully accessible to the visually impaired. The portal was built reusing critical components like the national data distribution infrastructure, payment components, logins for unique and secure login, single-sign-on capabilities between the portal and other government sites and services, etc.

More than 700 services are integrated and available for natural and legal persons on the portal (the total usage rate of e-services from January 1, 2021, to March 31, 2021, was 327,545.). While the financial benefit and cost savings are difficult to estimate, the costs of processing and delivering an online service is estimated to be 1.5 times cheaper on average than a physical service request handled by the Public Service Hall, that is USD 6 to USD 4 cheaper (GEL 15 to GEL 10).

The portal lives up to current international and national cybersecurity, data protection, and privacy standards and has an average uptime of 99.9%.

Initially, only 50 government e-services and up to 80 utility payment services were offered through the portal, although at the moment, citizens can benefit from more than 700 e-services and additional 80 utility payment services. Enlargement of the portal has created new needs and challenges. Although thematic topics group e-services, it is still challenging to navigate the portal and find a relevant service. UX/UI analysis has not been conducted, and there is no life cycle of services implemented on the portal. The portal does not offer any informational pages that may explain legislative aspects of services, procedures established by government institutions, statistics, or alike. 

The overall objective of the consultancy is to provide relevant advice to the Digital Governance Agency of the Ministry of Justice on conceptualizing the upgrade of the Unified Portal of E-services – My.gov.ge. The assignment’s outcome will be a concept developed based on stakeholders’ and users’ needs and feedback on how to upgrade the portal and what functionalities its new version will have. The concept will become a foundation on which technical works will be based later and will serve the larger goal of making the e-services more accessible, user-friendly and convenient for the Georgian citizens.

Under the direct supervision of the PAR Project Manager and in close cooperation with relevant DGA representatives, the international expert is expected to assume the following duties and responsibilities: 

•  Work with DGA and relevant representatives from other public agencies to discuss, plan and coordinate the development of all deliverables under the given assignment;
• Get familiar with: “E-Georgia – Decades for successful transition“; draft Digital Strategy of Georgia (2021 – 2024) and other relevant documentation;
• Get familiar with the functionality of My.gov.ge (UX, UI, navigation, registration, authentication, authorization, general functionality, different types of services (integrated, semi-integrated etc.);
• Conduct interviews with stakeholders – public and private organizations’ representatives (Data from citizens re the user experiences and needs will be collected by a local expert.) (the list of stakeholders will be developed in cooperation with DGA representatives) – to collect feedback on My.gov.ge;
• Advice the local expert on the development of methodology for collecting data on user experiences and needs as well as generating ideas from citizens regarding the upgrade of My.gov.ge;
• Get familiarized with the report (analysis of collected data) developed by the local expert and reflect the findings in the concept paper as needed;
• Develop a document on best international practice on one-stop-shop governmental portals for electronic public services;
• In partnership with DGA, conduct workshop for governmental and private organizations’ representatives (stakeholders) to discuss their experiences, needs and future plans in relation to the portal and identify the best practices;
• Summarize the feedback and information collected through the workshop as well as other sources, such as an individual interview with relevant stakeholders;
• Develop a draft new concept of My.gov.ge, based on best international and local practice and collected findings;
• Develop a presentation on the draft new concept and present it to stakeholders, conduct a discussion and collect feedback;
• Reflect the collected feedback into the draft and develop the final draft concept of My.gov.ge;
• Present the final version of the concept to stakeholders;
• Develop a final report, reflecting the steps undertaken as part of the consultancy assignment, listing the challenges, lessons, learned, etc.;
• Perform other relevant tasks as deemed necessary.

Deliverables

The consultant is expected to produce the following deliverables:

Deliverable 1 – Workshop with relevant stakeholders to collect feedback on My gov.ge; moderation and relevant presentation. Summary Document of the workshop. Submission Date: 2 weeks after the commencement of the assignment; 

Deliverable 2 – A document on best international practice on one-stop-shop governmental portals for electronic public services – 1 month after the commencement of the assignment;

Deliverable 3 – Draft Concept Paper on My.Gov.ge and its presentation to stakeholders. The document will contain an introduction, current situation analysis (portal assessment and gaps, based on findings of interviews, workshop and other sources) and recommendations for raising public awareness on the Portal as well as its improvement, including User Interface approach, User Experience approach, thematic topics and categorization of e-services, navigation approach, examples of most used services life cycles in 2-3 one-stop-shop government services, best approach for interactive help in services usage, feedback mechanism approach, approach on adaptation for persons with disabilities, list of reports/statistics needed for monitoring and assessing the portal for incidents and/or further improvement. Submission date – 2 months after the commencement of the assignment;

Deliverable 4 – Final Concept Paper on My.Gov.ge and its presentation to stakeholders. The final version of the portal shall have an end-user feedback tool incorporated into it to engage the wider public, including underrepresented groups (such as persons with disabilities), in needs identification and feedback collection. Submission date – 2.5 months after the commencement of the assignment;

Deliverable 5 – A final report describing the consultancy process and the steps undertaken as part of the consultancy assignment, listing the challenges, lessons learned, etc. Submission date – 3 months after the commencement of the assignment.

Management Arrangements

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the UNDP Project Manager and in close consultation with the relevant team from DGA and other agencies as needed.

Payment modality

The Consultant will be paid a lump sum in two installments upon submission of the deliverables according to the below schedule:

1. Deliverable 1 – Workshop with relevant stakeholders to collect feedback on My gov.ge; moderation and relevant presentation. Summary Document of the workshop; Deliverable 2 – A document on best international practice on one-stop-shop governmental portals for electronic public services: 2 weeks after the commencement of the assignment – 35% of the total fee
2. Deliverable 3 – Draft Concept Paper on My.Gov.ge and its presentation to stakeholders; Deliverable 4 – Final Concept Paper on My.Gov.ge and its presentation to stakeholders; Deliverable 5 – A final report: 3 months after the commencement of the assignment – 65% of the total fee

• Demonstrated commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values;
• Sensitivity and adaptability to cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age;
• Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty.
• Demonstrated ability to apply good judgment in the context of the given assignment;
• Ability to conceptualize analytical frameworks based on available information and resources;
• Strong communication and organizational skills as well as teamwork capabilities;
• Excellent writing, editing and oral communication skills in English;
• Ability to work toward creative, participatory and inclusive solutions;
• An ability to complete the task in a timely fashion.

Education:

• Higher education in public administration or related fields will be considered an asset (4 points).

Experience:

• At least seven years of relevant work experience related to electronic governance (minimum requirement: 7 years – 9 points; More than 7 years – additional 3 points);
• Proven experience in development, implementation and/or improvement of the one-stop-shop portal of public services (minimum requirement: 7 points);
• Experience in the development of a comparable concept document in the field of public service delivery and related issues (short-listed candidates will be requested to submit such documents) (minimum requirement: 7 points);
• Proven experience in collecting information/feedback from different groups of stakeholders through interviewing or other data collection tools (minimum requirement: 5 points);
• Experience in planning and moderation of online workshops on comparable issues will be considered an asset (5 points);

Language requirements:

• Fluency in English language (both written and oral).

Evaluation

Offerors will be evaluated against a combination of technical and financial criteria provided in the below table. Technical criteria consist of a desk review and an interview. Maximum obtainable score is 100, out of which the total score for technical criteria equals to 70 points (70%) and for financial criteria 30 (30%). Technical criteria compose of desk review (40 points) and interview (30 points). Offerors not meeting any of minimum technical qualification requirements will be automatically excluded from the list of candidates for further technical evaluation. Offerors obtaining minimum 28 points as a result of the desk review (criteria 1, 2, 3 and 4) will be short listed and invited for an interview. Offerors obtaining minimum of 21 points as a result of the interview (i.e. minimum of 49 points in the technical criteria) will be considered qualified and requested to provide financial proposal for the assignment.

Financial Proposal

Lump sum contracts : 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 installments 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.