The Design and Development of Anguilla Social Protection Management Information System (MIS)

Design and Development of Anguilla Social Protection Management Information System (MIS)

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Institutional/Corporate Contract

Terms of Reference (TOR)

Summary: 

Background:

In 2021, the Government of Anguilla, in collaboration with UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean Area, undertook a comprehensive assessment of the national social protection system’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The objective of this Assessment was to evaluate the effectiveness of Anguilla’s response to the COVID-19 global pandemic through its social protection system, and more broadly to identify strengths and weaknesses of its prevailing social protection system, its shock responsiveness, and key recommendations for future consideration. One of the key recommendations of this assessment, was the development of a robust management information system (MIS) to effectively manage the entire group of processes involved in providing support to new and/or existing beneficiaries under the Public Assistance Programme (PAP) and other key social assistance programmes. 

A robust MIS presents the opportunity to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Government to effectively implement, manage and monitor its main social assistance programmes. One of the key benefits of social protection MISs is that they can lead to more equitable distribution of resources, the effective management of multiple social protection programmes and increased efficiency through economies of scale (Barca & Chirchir, 2014). MISs also promote accountability, transparency, and can contribute to better coordination of services and linking beneficiaries with other government programmes (Villalobos et al., 2010). As such, MISs facilitate intra-Government coordination, especially in response to shocks, as data can be easily stored and shared across multiple relevant Departments, Ministries and Agencies.

In understanding the important role MISs play in promoting efficiencies in the delivery of social protection, the Government of Anguilla, sought to design and roll-out an effective and cost-efficient social protection MIS.As such, in June 2022, the Ministry of Social Development and Education, in collaboration with UNICEF ECA, commenced its work on the design and development of the national social protection MIS via a Roundtable discussion with integral Government stakeholders. These sessions also included a demo by the International MIS consultant to participants on best practices in international management systems and prospective options that can be customized to the Caribbean context. Following these sessions, the MIS Consultant began preparatory work in Anguilla, in 2022, focusing on comprehensive technical technological and programmatic analyses. The findings and recommendations of this work were presented to key Government stakeholders during Social Work week 2023, on March 23, 2023, focusing on a Review of Anguilla’s Social Protection Management Information System Workshop. Key Government stakeholders participated in the Workshop, including the Social Security Office which also delivered a presentation on its MIS.

An agreement was reached among Government stakeholders to establish a Technical Working Group (TWG) to oversee the design and development of this national social protection MIS as, inter alia, intra-Ministerial coordination and cooperation is integral to the process. It was agreed that the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Social Development and Education would oversee/Chair the TWG, reporting to the Minister of Social Development and Education.

The TWG aims to create a platform for technical coordination and learning related to the design and development of a national MIS to support the management of the main social assistance programmes in Anguilla. The TWG is a formal technical group, of key Government stakeholders, chaired by the Department of Social Development, that will report to the Minister of Social Development and Education. The TWG through regular meetings and agreed upon actions, will facilitate inter-Ministerial coordination and promote interoperability of systems. It will be linked to integral components of the national protection eco-system, engaging with non-Government actors e.g., financial organizations and beneficiaries, as required. The institutional contractor will be expected to work closely with the TWG, taking on their feedback and comments, in the design and development of the MIS. 

Objective and Specific Tasks:

The objective of this assignment is to design and develop management information system (MIS) software for the main social assistance programmes under the remit of the Ministry of Social Development and Education, Anguilla, which includes the Public Assistance Programme (PAP) and Medical Exemption programme. The system must be designed in a modular format that will allow further development and interoperability with other national systems, such as the Social Security’s MIS, and child protection case management systems. The assignment will first support the Government in the migration, translation, and management of key business processes as highlighted in the end-to-end process review from paper based to digital processes with the creation of a refined Software Requirements Specifications (SRS), and Standard operating procedures culminating in delivery of a complete software solution.  The institutional contractor will be required to lead the process of designing and developing the MIS with close collaboration of the Technical Working Group for the MIS, led by the Ministry of Social Development and Education in the Government of Anguilla.

Of note the MIS solution will need to ensure administration and access management including: (i) authentication to ensure secure access to the MIS; (ii) authorizations to guarantee users’ entitlements for accessing the resource implemented through role matrix access control; (iii) audit and reporting to provide tools to monitor access management events and changes to data objects, such as user activities, access violations, authentication events, authorization events and changes to database, the audit must be on both the system level, and directly on the database level (tables and records).

The MIS will need to be developed in a flexible way (not hard coded) to allow adaptation of operations and functions, for instance by giving the option for other nationally owned cash transfer programmes, with potentially different targeting or payment modalities, to use the MIS.

The MIS will need to accommodate potential changes in the design parameters. Specifically:

a.           The benefit calculation formula must be easily modifiable to enable rapid vertical scaling-up of benefits. A different benefit calculation formula may be considered, e.g., one that makes household benefit level a function of household composition, special vulnerabilities, and/or location (which often determines the cost of living).

b.           Eligibility criteria must be fully modifiable as needed by users with the requisite permissions

c.           Sharing of data and interoperability with other programs should be well supported.

The system should allow the ministry to rapidly respond to shocks, both in terms of the appropriate operational procedures and MIS design. All business processes should be examined to ensure they support shock-responsiveness.

As such, the company is expected to perform the following tasks:

1)      Project planning: carry out all activities related to initial preparatory planning An inception report will be produced by the firm and shared with UNICEF and the MoSD for input before finalization.

The following activities should be carried out:

(i)                  Define the methodology for undertaking the scope of work;

(ii)                Propose ICT software technologies that will be used to develop the platform database and interfaces as well as proposed cloud or hardware infrastructure and connectivity;

(iii)               Detail delivery timeframes, key milestones, meetings and inputs from UNICEF, MoSD and other partners needed to undertake the work, including planned missions to Anguilla;

(iv)               Raise any risks, issues, concerns and mitigation measures foreseen in delivery of the work;

(v)                 Provide a training plan specifying how key stakeholders within the government including MoSD and also at country level will be strengthened throughout the consultancy. 

2)       Systems assessment: Involves conducting a local assessment and stakeholder consultations to determine institutional and operational requirements for a system feasible for the context in Anguilla. During this process, the consulting firm will review system requirements for the MIS developed under a separate contract. 

3)      Development of TOR and technical specifications for the procurement of MIS cloud infrastructure or hardware and support MoSD in the procurement process and installation of MIS software on the provided infrastructure.

4)      Development of the software: Based on the System Requirements Specification (SRS), development of the software will need be done in a way it involves the national IT human resources, transfers and strengthens national capacities and should be tested. The MIS should cover the key functionalities of the cash transfer delivery chain. Further, in developing the MIS, the Consultant should ensure that arrangements for future maintenance of the system, potentially through a local software development company are made.

A User Experience Testing (UET) plan should be developed to allow for an iterative approach where the software is field tested (as much as possible) before submission for sign-off. 

A User Acceptance Test (UAT) should be conducted to validate that the company fulfilled all the requirements. 

5)      Piloting of the MIS including the business processes and using lessons learnt to strenghthen the MIS and the business processes during the technical support period. 

6)      Development of a MIS user manual to accurately and completely document the functions of the MIS is produced. 

7)      Training of MoSD and other relevant government staff on the MIS processes and use of the MIS platform. 

8)      Provision of follow-up troubleshooting/ technical support 6-months past the delivery of the system. This support will be performed remotely and will not involve any major changes to the system. 

Link to the Annual Work Plan:

This project relates to output 3.1 of the Annual Work Plan (AWP) which is, “Social protection institutions are strengthened to design and deliver inclusive and effective programmes and systems”, as well as activity 3.1.7. Improved and Integrated Social Protection Data Management and Administrative Systems.

Scope of work and Methodology:

The technical consulting firm is expected to refine the provided software requirements specification, develop the software with the different modules of the Management Information System (MIS) and to support the administration of the business processes, and its pilot testing. 

The firm will work under the leadership of the Ministry of Social Development, and with support of UNICEF and the technical social protection consultant to help solve potential development issues and ensure it meets the desired outcomes.

A key aspect of this assignment will include strengthening local capacity. Hence, the contractor will be expected to work collaboratively with the Government in cases where it will be necessary to refine business processes for social assistance programmes, as well as capturing, and documenting / refining necessary requirements for the successful implementation of the MIS. This should also extend to the use of local resources where possible including either subcontracting or incorporation of local software developers, project managers, and other resources.

The institutional contractor is expected to develop the MIS including the key modules mentioned below and to support the incorporation of business processes, into pilot testing:

1.           Outreach and Registration Module: This will be used to register households. Options for integration with tools such as Kobo /RapidPro, etc. utilized by other social protection services/programme providers, and other field data collection tools should be considered for synchronization with the MIS in addition to standard data formats such as Excel, and CSV. There will be a requirement to also develop an interface for online data management & capture, tools for cleaning, deduplication, and approval of record batches must be provided in this module.

2.           Programme Enrollment Module: This module will have functionality to create / edit / retire / archive programmes, describe their scope, duration, budgetary constraints, and payment frequency / modalities. Beneficiaries should be enrolled in one or more programmes via the use of the targeting module. This module encapsulates a given social protection intervention and associated beneficiaries.

3.           Targeting, Eligibility and Selection Module: This module will be used to apply targeting methodologies to the digital population existing in the MIS. The targeting criteria will be defined independently for each programme with exclusionary or inclusionary rules to account for beneficiaries who may meet multiple criteria or programme rules that prohibit multiple enrollments. This module should also allow for manual targeting to support shock responsive social programming in emergency contexts using appropriate workflows to authorize “out of band” programmes or make individuals or households eligible to ensure seamless targeting from various programmes in the MIS.

4.           Payments: This module will be used for payroll generation (based on payment cycles, pre-payroll checks for exceptions, funds request / approvals to allow preparation of payroll processing and sharing with Payment Service Providers (PSPs) / Financial Service Providers (FSPs). The system should allow payment disbursements via various modalities (cheque, bank card, cash, generic payment lists for digital currency etc.) via providers using standard secure methodologies.  

5.           Reporting: this module will be used to generate reports for management, research, and policy development on the status of social protection in Anguilla, it will include information on the number of programs across sectors that are active, number of beneficiaries in each (adjusting for beneficiaries in multiple programmes), monthly cost/investment per program, along other relevant metrics on payments, verification of delivery etc. This module should also include an easy-to-use generic report builder for custom reporting using standard structured query language (SQL). This module should also provide key statistics dashboards covering primary indicators on beneficiaries, Social Protection Board/FSP/PSPs for decision makers, regular monthly reports available in app / via email, GeoAnalytics Maps etc.

6.           Reconciliation & Payment verification: This module will provide verification processes to independently determine if beneficiaries have received the correct disbursed amounts.  It should provide multiple modalities for verification including manual (screen), and batch automated (using csv/text files). Consideration should also be given for future enhancements and the possibility of utilizing API integrations for verification.

8            Case Management / Grievance Management (Beneficiary Data Management): This module will provide the framework for managing change requests that relate to beneficiaries of the program. Those change request include beneficiaries becoming ineligible for the program removal, change of address of beneficiaries, deaths and births which require changes, or change of payments details, changes to head of household/executor, etc. This module will also be used to capture feedback / complaints, have a workflow for resolution and incorporate SMS capabilities to send alerts, reminders, and feedback to beneficiaries on the status of their case / query.  

10.         System Administration and Security: This module will be used for defining user access rights and privileges, access security control, ensure segregation of roles and responsibilities in the National MIS, maintaining system transaction logs and audit trail, email, SMS configurations to send alerts, reminders, and other system parameter settings. System Backup and Recovery functionality developed to enable daily system backup and recovery functionalities. A documented backup and recovery procedure must be made available with training for admin users. This module will also provide access to the system’s read-only access and security logs. These logs should be of audit quality, meet legal data retention requirements and document all actions committed by users of the system, reports read or generated, programmes etc. created and configuration changes.

13.         Linkages, Referrals and interoperability: This module is proposed to explore linkages, referrals, and tracking of beneficiaries for complementary social services. It should allow configuration of API connectivity with existing Government systems namely:

• Anguilla Social Security Board
• Treasury (Smart Stream)
• Judicial (Child Maintenance)
• Health Authority of Anguilla (Evident)
• Inland Revenue (Multi Tax Solution/ MTS)
• Education (Education Management Information System & E-learning platform)

Requirements 

The software must be developed using the following requirements and design principles:   

Software Requirements:

1. Scalability and Performance - the system should be able to handle a large volume of data and users efficiently, ensuring smooth performance even during peak usage times.
2. Security:
   1. Strong authentication and authorization mechanisms to ensure only authorized personnel can access sensitive data.
   2. Encryption of data both during transmission and storage to prevent unauthorized access or data breaches.
   3. Data Integration and Interoperability - the system should be able to integrate data from various sources and formats, ensuring compatibility and seamless data exchange between different social protection programs and agencies.
   4. Data Accuracy and Validation:
      1. Implement data validation rules and checks to ensure accurate and reliable data entry.
      2. Provide mechanisms for data cleansing and error correction.
      3. Reporting and Analytics - robust reporting and analytics capabilities to generate insights from the collected data, aiding in policy-making and decision support.
      4. User-Friendly Interface - intuitive and user-friendly interface to accommodate users with varying levels of technical expertise.
      5. Audit Trails and Logging - Maintain detailed audit trails and logs to track system activities and changes made to the data.
      6. Backup and Disaster Recovery - regular data backups and a well-defined disaster recovery plan to prevent data loss in case of system failures or disasters.
      7. Compliance and Legal Considerations:
         1. Ensure compliance with relevant data protection laws and regulations.
         2. Address any legal and ethical considerations regarding data collection, storage, and usage.
         3. User Training and Support - provide comprehensive training materials and support to users to ensure effective system utilization.

Design Principles:

1. Modularity and Componentization - design the system as a set of modular components that can be developed, tested, and maintained independently, promoting reusability and scalability.
2. Standardization and Consistency -maintain consistent design patterns, data formats, and coding standards throughout the system.
3. Interoperability - ensure the system can seamlessly exchange data with external systems through well-defined APIs and data formats.
4. Flexibility and Adaptability - design the system to accommodate future changes and updates in social protection programs, policies, and technological advancements.
5. User-Centered Design - involve end-users in the design process to create a system that meets their needs and is easy to use.
6. Data Privacy and Security by Design - embed security and privacy considerations into the system's architecture and design from the outset.
7. Feedback Mechanisms - incorporate mechanisms for user feedback and continuous improvement of the system's features and functionality.
8. Sustainability and Maintenance - design the system with a clear plan for ongoing maintenance, updates, and support.
9. Scalability and Performance Optimization - architect the system to handle increasing data volumes and user loads by optimizing performance and resource usage.
10. Risk Management - identify and mitigate potential risks associated with data integrity, security breaches, and system failures.
11. Collaboration and Communication - foster collaboration among different agencies and stakeholders involved in social protection programs through effective communication channels within the system. 

Hardware / infrastructure principles:

1. Hybrid hosting – the systems should be equally capably of being run on bare metal or cloud infrastructure
2. Redundancy – Final system design should allow for automatic failover in the event of any critical failure.
3. Compliance and certification – the application infrastructure must comply with relevant data protection and security standards & best practices.