‘Solomon Islands Tourism for Inclusive Development (SI-TIDE)’
Enhanced Integrated Framework - National Implementation Unit (EIF-NIU)
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade
Terms of Reference: Tier 2 /05/05
Position: National Consultant (IT Consultant to develop e-commerce opportunity to promote handicraft online).
Project Title: ‘Solomon Islands Tourism for Inclusive Development (SI-TIDE)’
Duration: 3 Months
Duty station: Honiara, Solomon Islands and home based
BACKGROUND:
The EIF National Implementation Unit (NIU) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade is implementing EIF programme in Solomon Islands. EIF is a multi-donor programme, which supports LDCs to be more active players in the global trading system by helping them tackle supply-side constraints to trade. A project entitled ‘Solomon Islands Tourism for Inclusive Development (SI-TIDE)’ approved by the EIF Board in January 2014 is currently in implementation. The SI-TIDE project is designed to contribute to achieving the overall goal of SIG’s National Development Strategy (2011-20) – ‘build better lives for all Solomon Islanders through targeted interventions’. To do so, the project will systematically intervene in the areas of policy/legislations related to tourism sector; promote Solomon Islands as a distinct visitor’s destination in the Pacific Region and strengthen the linkages of tourism sector with the auxiliary sectors like agriculture and handicraft in a way that help create additional livelihood opportunities for the people.
The specific objectives however are to strengthen policy environment and it implementation mechanism, promote/market country’s tourism industry through various means in targeted markets, and strengthen linkages of tourism industry with auxiliary industries in a way that help create complementary livelihood opportunities in the associated sectors like agriculture and handicraft. In doing so, the project aims to assist higher economic growth, increased employment and the distribution of the benefits of development by achieving following three Results/Outcomes:
(i) Tourism Policy /Strategy/Action Plans Formulated/updated and capacity building of selected tourism institutions, including capacities of the beneficiary communities1.
(ii) Increased number of visitors, which ultimately translate into increased number of employment opportunities in the tourism sector of the country, and
(iii) Strengthened linkages of tourism industry with auxiliary industries (Agriculture, Handicraft, etc), in order to create complementary livelihood opportunities in the associated sectors.
1 The baseline survey should asses the priority trainings and capacity needs of those communities critical to a successful implementation of the project.
With this implementation, many activities are designed and to be implemented to achieve the project goal/aim. One of the key activities under the project is to ‘develop an-commerce opportunity to promote handicrafts online’. Therefore, the NIU seeks services of a national consultant in order to accomplish these activities.
SCOPE OF WORK and RESPONSIBILITIES:
The Solomon Islands has a thriving handicraft sector that has the potential to contribute to the sustainable livelihood of the local people through tourism. However, one of the problems is the lack of promotion of these handicrafts. SI Museum has a handicraft shop which has been operating for many years and also it is the body under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism which has strong links with the handicraft vendors, SI Artists Association. SI Museum has e-commerce in mind and grateful if such support can help it to organize and promoting local handicrafts and other local artists products through e-commerce.
This project therefore involves the development of an e-commerce which will allow the local handicraft products to be promoted online. The work will include adopting a suitable model to analyse directions for profit creation, trust enhancement, risk mitigation, and effective promotion of handicraft products and services on line.
The national Consultant will work under the direct guidance/supervision of the Director, Department of Tourism; He/she shall work closely with the Project Coordinator and EIF NIU Coordinator. The consultant will undertake the following main activities as well as carry out other action deemed necessary to complete and delivered the required outputs:
i. Assess the state of the IT infrastructure in the SI and its potential impact in terms of cost, access and efficiency on the online handicraft.
ii. Formulate a strategy to develop an effective e-commerce for the handicraft industry, especially for local handicraft vendors to promote and deliver their products to the customers;
iii. Undertake a wide range of consultations with stakeholders; including Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau, private sector stakeholders ( e.g. handicraft producers and vendors;)
iv. Establishing the needs of users, both buyers and sellers, and monitoring their access and security;
v. Monitoring performance and managing parameters to provide fast query responses to front-end users;
vi. Mapping out the conceptual design for a planned database (or a website/web browser) in outline;
vii. Considering both back-end organisation of data and front-end accessibility for end-users;
viii. Perform other related tasks as assigned by the Director of Tourism, NIU Coordinator and the SI-TIDE Project Coordinator.
EXPECTED OUTPUTS:
A framework of an online handicraft marketing portal, with following main features/contents:
i. The e-commerce website will be administered by the Solomon Islands National Museum handicraft shop, and it (Museum handicraft shop) becomes the e-commerce portal to local handicrafts and arts suppliers and their products.
ii. The Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau will have the e-commerce website inbuilt to its website to market and promote the products.
iii. Contents of the website to have; Home, catalogue of the handicraft and artists products, Photo gallery, suppliers’ profiles and contact details and shopping cart (including description of products, price range etc) and customers/buyers review mechanism.
iv. The e-commerce must have security mechanism which is in accordance to the national e-commerce policy or regulation.
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
At least Bachelor’s Degree (Preferably Postgraduate) in information technology and web designing or relevant field;
At least five (5) Years work Experience with recognized IT organization(s) and projects related fields;
Good Interpersonal Skills and Result Oriented;
Good Computer Skills (Microsoft Office, Content management etc.);
Good understanding of challenges and opportunities related to e-commerce/IT in the Pacific islands countries would be an advantage.
LANGUAGES:
- Excellent Command over English both Written and Spoken;
- Excellent Command over Pidgin both Written and Spoken.
PAYMENT ARRANGEMENT:
Contract payments will be done in three phases;
- Twenty five percent (25%) upon signing of the Memorandum of Understanding/Contract;
- Twenty five percent (25%) upon the presentation of e-commerce website skin to SIVB and its acceptance by SIVB;
- Final payment Fifty percent (50 %) upon the launch of the e-commerce.