The Local Government Division (LGD) has been implementing the Activating Village Courts in Bangladesh Phase-III Project with financial supports of EU, GoB and UNDP in across all UPs (4457 UPs) in Bangladesh, excluding CHT (amounting to 4,457 UPs). The duration of the project is five years starting from July 2022. It has three components: first to activate Village Courts in 3,041 Union Parishads in Bangladesh; second to maintain the performance of the 1,416 courts activated under AVCB-I and AVCB-II; and third to ensure the Government has the capacity, resources, and ownership to take over the management and oversight of VC services so that the project gains are sustained.

The overall objective of the project is to increase access to justice and Social Harmony for people in rural areas of Bangladesh, especially women and disadvantaged groups. The specific objective is to improve capacities of local justice actors to meet the justice needs of the population and offer appropriate legal services in the form of well-functioning village courts and to empower people living in rural areas, especially women, the poor and other disadvantaged groups to access Village Courts to resolve minor disputes. Digitalization of monitoring, reporting and VC’s case management system are one of the major activities under output 1.3 and 2.2. Hence, the project has planned to scale up web based VCMIS (Village Court Management Information System) in activation areas to enhance case management, reporting and monitoring of Village Court’s performance. The project also has a plan to piloting of VC digitalized system for service providers and end-users, develop and implement GEMS (GPS-based E monitoring system) and PMIS (Project management Information System) to track the progress of different indicators mentioned in the Logical Framework. To develop and deploy the digitalized village court and monitoring system, a National UNV expert will be hired under Planning, M&E and Knowledge Management component of the project.

The MIS Development Expert (National UNV Expert) will report to National Project Coordinator and work under the direct supervision and guidance of the Team Leader (Planning, M&E, and Reporting). The major responsibility of this position is described as below:

A. Scaleup / Implementation of web-based Village Courts Management Information System (VCMIS), PMIS (Project MIS) and GEMS (GPS-based E-Monitoring System)

 Develop and maintain a comprehensive understanding of the village court’s proceedings system, including its technological requirements and law amendments.
 Analyze current VCMIS application and prepare a report and documentation to determine if further development is needed.
 Design / develop any new feature or necessary changes to the front-end and back-end structures for further development of the VCMIS.
 Provide all kinds of support relevant to VCMIS implementation, testing, update (if necessary) and technical support including user account creation on VCMIS software and ensure smooth operation of VCMIS in large scale throughout the activation area.
 Monitor VCMIS software and server performance in regular basis to avoid unplanned out-ages and down time and supervise respective vendor to perform periodic server maintenance and servicing to improve operational efficiency.
 Provide assistance for preparing TOR/MoU, documentation, and other necessary supports to hire training vendor/DoICT (Department of ICT) for VCMIS training.
 Prepare user manual and necessary documentation for ToT (Training of Trainer) and as-sist in organizing and providing TOT to VCMIS trainer to be hired by vendor or third party.
 Migrate VC case data from VCMIS piloting period to upgraded VCMIS application.
 Regularly monitor case data updates in VCMIS, identify any issues, and share them with supervisors or relevant staff to implement corrective measures.
 Prepare VCMIS training plan, training materials, training schedule, presentations.
 Supervise VCMIS training with vendor/ DoICT staffs and assist in training program scheduling, participant registration, enrolment, and tracking of attendance or completion and implement the participants feedback mechanism.
 Assist/supervise technical support assistant to provide support VCMIS users.
 Assists in developing video / interactive tutorial for VCMIS.
 Participate coordination session with relevant stakeholders (LGD, BCC, A2i, LGSP-3 or other stakeholders.) for VCMIS training and ensure ICT equipment (on demand basis).
 Assists in preparing handover strategy for VCMIS to ministry of LGD.
 Ensure development, upgradation, and implementation of PMIS.
 Provide assistance for GEMS development and implementation.
 Provide assistance for PMIS and GEMS training, tutorial preparation and maintenance support for both system and users.

B. Development/Deployment of VC Digitalized System in 100 unions:

 Assists to prepare requirement study on VC Digitalized system, SRS (software requirement specification) and database schema.
 Upgrade existing VCMIS to connect with necessary functionalities including publicly accessed VC case application form, case fees, payment procedures and SMS integration to be part of development of VC Digitalized System.
 Supervise the mobile app development for VC Digitalized System.
 Assists in preparing VC Digitalized System training plan, training materials, training sched-ule, presentations.
 Assists in organizing and providing training for Digitalized VC system.
 Provide maintenance and technical support for users during piloting of Digitalized VC system in 100 unions.

C. Capacity building and training

 Provide/Supervise training to VCMIS users on demand basis.
 Assists training on PMIS, GEMS, VC Digitalized System for both PMU and field level staffs.
 Provide any other software (such as data entry and data edit, effective system administration etc) training to the relevant personnel.
 Prepare and update training manual for all kind of users.
 Prepare user guide/technical guideline to operate VCMIS and any other MIS.
 Explore training venue, budget and accommodation for training participant.

D. Server maintenance and backup strategy

 Analyze and evaluate prominent server specification to run web based VCMIS, PMIS, GEMS, VC Digitalized System, and any other Management Information System (MIS) to proposed area having 100% up time guaranty

 Monitor load on database server and application server and take necessary step for load balancing.
 Take proper step to upgrade capacity of server time to time due to maintain increasing load and traffic on server.
 Analyze and evaluate stable internet connectivity to VCMIS end users.
 Interface with users to identify computer related needs and provide appropriate soft-ware/hardware support applicable to those needs.
 Recommend and implement new technology solutions to improve productivity.

Assist with any other tasks as relevant and assigned by the NPC and/or supervisor.

11. Results/Expected Outputs:

 Ensure implementation of Digitalized village court and monitoring system.
 Ensure successfully piloting of VC Digitalized system in 100 unions.
 Supply / provide data/information on success of the project to monitor the achievement and dissemination of success of the project.

• Integrity and professionalism: Demonstrated expertise in area of specialty and ability to ap-ply good judgment; high degree of autonomy, personal initiative and ability to take leadership; willingness to accept wide responsibilities and ability to work independently under established procedures in a politically sensitive environment, while exercising discretion, impartiality and neutrality; ability to manage information objectively, accurately and confidentially; responsive and client oriented.

• Accountability: Mature and responsible; ability to operate in compliance with organizational rules and regulations.

• Commitment to continuous learning: Initiative and willingness to learn new skills and stay abreast of new developments in area of expertise; ability to adapt to changes in work environment.

• Planning and organizing: Effective organizational and problem-solving skills and ability to manage a large volume of work in an efficient and timely manner; ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor (own) work; ability to work under pressure, with conflicting deadlines, and to handle multiple concurrent projects/activities.

• Teamwork and respect for diversity: Ability to operate effectively across organizational boundaries; ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and harmonious working relations in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity and gender.

• Communication: Proven interpersonal skills; good spoken and written communication skills, including ability to prepare clear and concise reports; ability to conduct presentations, articulate options and positions concisely; ability to make and defend recommendations; ability to communicate and empathize with staff (including national staff), military personnel, volunteers, counterparts and local interlocutors coming from very diverse backgrounds; ability to maintain composure and remain helpful towards the staff, but objective, without showing personal interest; capacity to transfer information and knowledge to a wide range of different tar-get groups;

• Flexibility, adaptability, and ability and willingness to operate independently in austere, remote and potentially hazardous environments for protracted periods, involving physical hardship and little comfort, and including possible extensive travel within the area of operations; willing-ness to transfer to other duty stations within area of operations as may be necessary.

• Genuine commitment towards the principles of voluntary engagement, which includes solidarity, compassion, reciprocity and self-reliance, and commitment towards the UN core values.

• Experiences in web-based application design & development including expertise in system requirement study in developing web-based application, PHP framework (Laravel), MySQL/MariaDB, responsive user interface design (HTML, CSS, JavaScript and jQuery) and implementation in larger scale.

• Minimum 2 years relevant skills in web server management (server provisioning, cloud-based server management, server performance upgradation, caching mechanism, data archiving, data backup strategy).
Other skills:

• Demonstrated networking and partnership building skills are required.

• Strong expertise in coordinating activities is required.

• Working experience with UN Agencies/INGOs/Bangladesh Government/ Recognized Software firm in Bangladesh.

• Web-based software application development, cloud server management, system maintenance and backup.

Dhaka is located in central Bangladesh along the Buriganga River. Not only is it the capital city, but it is also the largest in the country. It is the centre of political, cultural, and economic life in Bangladesh. The official language is Bengali, while English is the working language of UN Agencies. In recent decades, Dhaka has seen the modernization of services, communications, and public works. The city is attracting large foreign investments and greater volumes of commerce and trade. It is also experiencing an increasing influx of people from across the nation; this has reportedly made Dhaka one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. Dhaka is connected to other cities by rail, road, and by air and internationals can move easily from one city to another.

Dhaka has venerable green spaces, including many gardens and parks, historical places, and nice restaurants. The weather is tropical – hot and very humid during the summer monsoon season (April-September) and drier and cooler in the winter (October-March).

While Dhaka is not categorized as a hardship station, the volunteer should be prepared for limitations in freedom of movement on foot, by public transport, and to certain locations.