Technical Expert/s - Advising Frontier Tech Hub on the Technical requirements for identification and registration systems to support deduplication in humanitarian contexts in Ethiopia

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Terms of Reference

Position: Expert in digitalised identification and registration systems for beneficiaries in humanitarian and development contexts in Ethiopia.

Scope: Market and landscape analysis

Focus: Frontier Technologies in Humanitarian Contexts / Low-Resource Settings

Location of study: Ethiopia

Application Deadline: 8am, 13 January 2025

Duration: Phase 1 (1-2 months), additional opportunities after phase 1 may follow for a period of up to 5 months

Budget: Max £8000-15,000

 About the Frontier Tech Hub

 The Frontier Tech Hub works with the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) at the intersection of tech, innovation, and international development. 

We work across three main areas:

 ·       We work with FCDO colleagues and key stakeholders to fund, test and scale frontier technologies worldwide. Since 2016, we’ve worked with 70+ FCDO staff on 58 pilots across 32 countries.

·       We connect FCDO colleagues with one another and the world of tech, helping them to explore the future, being critically curious about what radical technological transformation means for the future, and consequently, FCDO.

·       We gather and share learnings from across our portfolio of pilot projects, sharing thought leadership from the frontier of tech for impact within the FCDO’s work.

The Hub is managed by three partners: Results for Development (R4D), DT Global (fka IMC Worldwide), and Brink. It’s funded by UK Aid from the UK Government

About the FT Hub Demand-Led Workstream

The FT Hub Demand-Led Workstream is currently piloting a demand-led approach for collaborating with country ecosystems to identify and explore truly local and demand-driven challenges in low/middle-income contexts which can be addressed through the application of frontier technology solutions. We define ‘demand’ as the request / articulation of interest for a particular product or service (the innovation) by potential adopters of the innovation (which could include governments, civil society and/or target users in the general population).

FT Hub, with key ecosystem actors, has scoped key sectoral and cross-sectoral challenges in the in the humanitarian context including a lack of comprehensive and streamlined digitalised identification and registration systems of beneficiaries to support deduplication of efforts. The next phase will include deeper market and landscape research and analysis, and demand articulation to further narrow down refining the priority problem statements, their root causes and identify opportunities for intervention.

Background

In Ethiopia, the FT Hub has been engaging with the FCDO and key stakeholders to identify key sectoral and cross-sectoral challenges in the country, particularly in the humanitarian sector. One key cross-sectoral challenge that has been highlighted is the lack of comprehensive and streamlined digitalised identification and registration systems for beneficiaries which contributes to difficulty tracking vulnerable groups, missed opportunities for delivery of essential services, and potential duplication of efforts.

In the context of:

·       the realities of the rollout of the National ID system,

·       fragmented, non-interoperable identification systems across the various sectors, ministries, and partners using many different systems and products for different purposes,

·       hard-to-reach and “missing” groups (e.g. children, IDPs, pastoralists, people in conflict zones and remote areas etc.),

the FT Hub is responding to demand signals from key stakeholders to explore frontier solutions that address the need for a comprehensive and streamlined digitalized identification and registration systems for beneficiaries, providing data that can for example, link to centralized systems and provide personal records, preventing duplication of records.

Some of the key questions the Hub is asking are:

·       How might frontier technologies address registration challenges in low-resource settings to speed up & improve accuracy of the data capture process for identification of those receiving humanitarian or development assistance?  

·       How might we support implementing partners to have interoperable and safe sharing of identification so that they have a single beneficiary view for each person that also is interoperable with government ID systems?

·       How might we support implementing partners to register identity data of people from hard-to-reach populations (like young children) and responsibly and safely utilize such data to ensure that such vulnerable populations get all the cross-sectoral assistance they need while respecting privacy and data rights?

Therefore, the FT Hub Demand-Led Workstream is seeking a consultant to undertake a market and landscape analysis of challenges related to addressing the need for a comprehensive and streamlined digitalised identification and registration systems for beneficiaries within humanitarian contexts in Ethiopia.

Scope of Work

We anticipate that there may be various scopes of work available throughout the FT Demand-Led innovation process exploring technologies for addressing streamlined, interoperable, digitalised identification and registration systems for beneficiaries in humanitarian contexts in Ethiopia. We would therefore, ideally invite applications from identification / deduplication technical consultants who can potentially commit to a longer-term engagement with FT Hub demand-led innovation exploration in Ethiopia.

This ToR outlines the first phase of work only, representing the first phase of our innovation process.

Phase 1 – Scope of work

The selected consultant will engage in an iterative process deconstructing the demand-led challenges cross-sectoral challenge of a lack of a comprehensive and streamlined digitalised identification and registration systems described in the background section into specific problem statements, conducting root cause analyses and market and landscape research that leads to the identification of potential specific points of intervention and use cases for the application of tech solutions.

Starting with tools that have been developed as a guide to support this scope of work, the selected consultant will expand explorations, bringing their rigorous research and   implementation experience working identification and addressing duplication in humanitarian and/or development contexts.

Indicative activities are as follows:

1.      Conduct a landscape and market analysis of identification registration in Ethiopia particularly in humanitarian contexts, with a focus on the challenges of a lack of comprehensive and streamlined digitalised identification and registration systems for beneficiaries.

The goal of this activity is to use demand-led signals in the ecosystem to decide on specific potential problem statements and understand their root causes and identify potential use cases. This may include answering questions such as:

·       What are the local contextual challenges with identity registration in humanitarian contexts? What are the root causes underpinning this challenge? Which of these would be the highest priority to address?

·       Who is responsible for addressing these challenges typically and what roles do the various key stakeholders play? Who is accountable for what? What roles do government agencies play? What roles do development actors play?

·       Who is most affected, what regions are of particular concern for these challenges? Where (geographically) are there opportunities for impact? What are the priorities of government, development sectors and humanitarian sector and where are there intersections?

·       What are the current approaches to addressing these challenges? Please note we recognise that humanitarian contexts vary significantly depending on the type of crisis, location and length of crisis etc. and we only require a very high-level mapping and articulation.

·       Market Analysis: What promising practices/approaches exist to address these challenges in the context. Please indicate the scope of use (e.g. pilot, widespread roll out, standard practice), access, affordability and current impact and gaps. 

·       Ecosystem mapping – Identify the wider ecosystem actors currently engaged in tackling the problem, and articulate the relative needs, priorities and interests of different ecosystem actors.  

2. As a result of the landscape and market analysis, make a recommendation of 3-4 specific problem statements and their root causes.

·       Demand Verification- Articulate and analyse ‘demand’ for these problem statements using the demand-led Excel template which will be provided to you.  Please ensure demand articulation is evidence-led, and sources are referenced.

3. Suggest 2-3 particular use case in the humanitarian context for addressing the challenge of the lack of a comprehensive and streamlined digitalised identification and registration systems for beneficiaries. Please consider gender equity and social inclusion as you make your recommendations. For each use cases, you will need to focus on the specific situation in which a product or service could potentially be used:

·       How might the suggested use case in the humanitarian sector have applications in the broader development sector?  

·       What specific aspect of the stated challenge and problem statement will be addressed?

·       Which location and context would you propose for each use case? Rural or urban? Where in Ethiopia and why?

·       Which stakeholders might be directly involved in the use case. (e.g. IDPs, community health workers, community members, women, regional health bureaus, development partners)?

At a high-level it would be useful to consider how the use cases proposed fit within the current approaches to deduplication and (interoperable) identification of beneficiaries in the humanitarian sector. 

4.      Design and deliver a workshop for our key cross-sectoral stakeholders in Ethiopia with the objective of  validating, reframing and enhancing specific problem statements surfaced in the analysis and identifying target outcomes. This workshop can be online if the consultant is not based in Ethiopia.

A Phase 2 scope of work will be decided upon immediately after phase 1 and will focus on research landscaping promising frontier technologies related to the identified use cases, from across the globe and assessing their compatibility with the Ethiopian context in terms of the opportunities and risks.

Deliverables and timelines

1. Evidence-led market and landscape report and analysis (as per scope of work above) - January 31st

2. Demand-ed analysis/articulation template filled in (excel template is provided), or alternative documentation to Excel - January 31st

3. Design of the workshop shared with FT Hub - January 31st  

4. 2–3-hour presentation of key findings of market/landscape and tech research to key stakeholders- February 7th

5. Delivery of workshop with key stakeholders in Ethiopia - February 7th

Type of Consultant, Skills & Experience

The consultant or partner may be an individual consultant who brings in additional expertise at relevant times throughout the process and/or a team of consultants or an organization. 

FT Hub is keen to recruit local consultant(s) to support on this Phase 1 scope of work and to continue with subsequent opportunities to work with FT Hub on this innovation opportunity in possible subsequent phases. This could potentially be a longer-term piece of work with FT Hub. FT Hub will prioritise local or regional consultants who have extensive experience in the identity registration/deduplication approaches in the humanitarian sector in Ethiopia or East Africa, but international consultants are welcomed.

Essential:

·       10+ years’ experience in the identity registration/ deduplication approaches in the emergency/humanitarian sector

·       3-7+ years’ working in tech and innovation for identity registration / deduplication in the international development or humanitarian contexts either for INGOs, private sector consultancies, innovation agencies and/or government

·       Significant demonstratable experience of producing market analysis and formative research reports for key sectors in international development

·       Strong ability to analyse information and data, distil complex concepts into clear messaging and synthesis information in a logical and coherent way

·       Strong written and verbal communication skills, including demonstrated ability to develop and deliver compelling presentations

·       Demonstratable experience of delivering workshops to stakeholders. Excellent facilitation skills and an ability to identify consensus with a diverse range of stakeholders.

Desirable

·       Knowledge of working in early-stage innovation with start-ups, innovators, accelerators, incubators or other forms of start-up architecture, or early-stage innovation, and emerging technologies. 

·       An understanding of innovation processes, tools and resources

Budget:

The range of the budget available is £8,000 to £15,000 (inclusive of tax).

Application Process

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis with the application deadline being January 13, 2025 by 8:00 GMT. Interested applicants should be available to start work immediately. Applicants should submit:

·       CV(s) of consultants demonstrating relevant experience.

·       A 1 page cover letter explaining the experience of the consultant(s) relevant to this scope of work.

·       A high-level technical and financial proposal outlining the approach to the work, timeline, and budget and day rates of consultant(s) and number of days to deliver the scope of work.

Applications should be sent to Frontiertechhub@dt-global.com (with “Demand-Led Identification Tech & Innovation Expert Ethiopia” in the subject line)

Evaluation Criteria:

Technical expertise: Demonstrated strength of applicant/s technical expertise and experience outlined in the CV and covering letter (80)

Strength of commercial proposal: (20)

Enquiries:

Please contact frontiertechhub@dt-global.com for further enquiries regarding this Terms of Reference or for further information on the Frontier Tech Programme. Title your enquiry ‘Advising Frontier Tech Hub on the Technical requirements for identification and registration systems to support deduplication in humanitarian contexts in Ethiopia’.

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