DT Global Inc. is implementing the United States Agency for International Development/Office of Transition Initiatives (USAID/OTI)-funded Transition to New Sudan (TNS) Program, which supports the consolidation of Sudan’s democratic transformation through the following objectives: 

1. Enabling the government to demonstrate progress in implementing key transition processes;
2. Reinforcing civic engagement required to implement key transition processes; and, 
3. Assisting in the expansion of independent media that serves as a platform to implement key transition processes.

To contribute to these objectives, DT Global is recruiting a Database and Website Architect Consultant to support the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in the development of a pilot Family Support initiative.

The government of Sudan is working to put Sudan on a path to sustainable, equitable, and broad-based peace and prosperity.  A key element of this program is a shift from an economy focused on short-term consumption to one that focused on investment in people and productive capacity.  Ordinary people are the foundation of Sudan’s revolution and will always be the foundation of its economic and social achievements.

No sustainable improvements in human capital and productive capacity are possible, however, in the presence of policy distortions that result from economic mismanagement of the Sudanese economy by the past regime, including multiple exchange rates, the deterioration of the Sudanese pound, chronic budget deficits, significant misallocation of public resources, and chronic inflation that exceeded 65% in early 2020.  Chronic inflation undermines the wages of the poor and middle class, increases inequality and economic uncertainty that limits investment in productive capacity.

The government is focused economic reform, including fossil fuel subsidies that are a primary cause of inflation and exchange rate depreciation. Any such reforms will impact household budgets as a one-time passthrough of fuel prices on goods and public transport costs. 

Building on the international experience with successful reform, and mindful of Sudan’s longer-term strategic interests, the Government is designing the Sudan Family Support Program (SFSP). This cash transfer program is designed to mitigate the impact of reform on Sudanese, demonstrate the values of the government and its capability. It will provide a strong pillar for sustainable peace in conflict affected regions by forming part of a transition to sustainable livelihood. 

The cash transfer program is intended to be digital, based on the National ID number of citizens, grouped into families.  Digital wallets will be established for the head of each family.  On a monthly basis a cash transfer will be sent, the size of which will depend on the size of the family.  It will primarily be delivered as a digital payment to mobile phones.  The business processes and information flows must be secure, auditable, and efficient.

The program will be pilot tested in the May-July timeframe, and a national rollout will depend on the results of the pilot tests, cost estimates, and other factors.

Objective

The objective of the consulting services is support for the design, construction, installation, and testing of database management systems and websites for the proposed Sudan Family Support Program working with partners and resources of the program.

Achieving the objective above will require the Consultant to be responsible for the following tasks:

• Work with the project leadership and stakeholders to develop an in-depth understanding of the program’s business processes and data management requirements of the project and design an appropriate solution including database architecture, supporting network, hardware and software requirements;
• Support the procurement, installation and performance of database servers and applications and ensure the effective functioning of the database to support the management of the Sudan Family Support Program;
• Work with the Project Lead and any service providers and partners to develop and implement data governance processes, a security framework and access control for internal and external information/data sharing;
• Ensure that data validation processes, data quality control standards, testing strategy and test plans for data services are applied;

• Develop data processes for data modeling, mining and production;
• Collaborate with IT team members across the participating Ministries on project goals;
• Work with application DBA and modelers to construct data stores;
• Perform analysis of system data to identify patterns, exceptions and erroneous data;
• Document definitions for all new data constructs and document the enhancements in a standard document;
• Design websites for communication with the public, as well as potential beneficiaries;
• Be available for on-call support as needed.

In carrying out these functions, the Consultant will receive guidance from experts and specialists of the World Bank and / or World Food Program.

Reporting

1. The Consultant will report to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.  Until such time as the Commission and Digital Transformation Agency is established to lead the program, the Consultant will report to Nadir Satti and Magdi M. Amin, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. For administrative and contractual matters, the Consultant will report to DT Global as the contracting authority.

2. The Consultant will provide an inception reporting within two weeks of starting the assignment.  The inception report will contain a first draft strategy and action plan.

Terms and Conditions

1. The assignment will be funded through August 31 with the possibility to extend.

2. All materials developed in the course of the project and program will be the ownership of the Government of Sudan and will be considered confidential, not to be shared without the permission of the Government.

3. The assignment may be extended, terminated or modified should the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning determine that it is necessary, with a minimum notice period to the consultant of three weeks.

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or a related technical field with a minimum of 5 years relevant experience
• Minimum 2+ years’ experience with schema design and dimensional data modeling
• Minimum 2+ years’ experience in building enterprise data warehouses or operational data
• stores for large scale operations
• Experience with custom ETL design, implementation and maintenance, with expertise in error handling, performance tuning
• Experience with Cloud Technologies
• Experience working with Oracle and SQL Server
• Experience in the integration of Power BI, Tableau or Microsoft Analysis Services
• Experience with Agile development methodology
• Excellent organizational skills, time management, teamwork and able to operate collaboratively across organizational boundaries.
• Bi-lingual in Arabic and English.