Scoping of Document Management System for MEHE

In 2013, the Government of Lebanon opened its public education system to cater for the enormous numbers of refugee students. In 2017/2018, non-Lebanese students outnumbered Lebanese students in the public education system. The responsibility for educating all these students resides with the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) who, alongside a range of donors, launched the Reaching All Children with Education II (RACE II) programme in 2016.

The World Bank (WB) and Government of Lebanon (GoL), especially the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE), designed Support to RACE II (S2R2) to deliver on significant parts of RACE2 as the strategy relates to the formal education sector. S2R2 is designed to complement other work developed to support RACE II, such as activities planned and implemented with UNICEF, UNHCR and UNESCO.

DFID Lebanon’s contribution to RACE II includes £86.6 million to the multi-donor trust fund as well as the provision of a world class technical assistance team to MEHE. In March 2018, a three-year technical assistance project was awarded to Oxford Policy Management, which will expand the TA facility to serve additional MEHE priority areas to achieve the objectives of RACE II through MEHE’s Support to RACE II (S2R2) programme. The TA team will support the Government of Lebanon to deliver the immediate objectives of the S2R2 programme while building the capacity, systems and processes which will underpin a medium-term sector development strategy.

Under the scope of OPMTA which aims to strengthen MEHE systems and processes, one area has been identified as a priority which is the need for a documentation and the archiving system. The existing archive includes voluminous official documents and records, some of which are ten of years old. Currently, the documents are either archived as soft copies or hard copies depending on the department. The need for this system has arisen because a lot of the valuable documents are difficult to access due to the lack of a centralised document management system.

The Consultancy will focus on the DGE and the Common Directorates.

Level of effort

1. Objectives and deliverables

Role: Short-term, fast response scoping of the existing system. The role is expected to start in January 2019 covering the below components in depth.

Rationale: MEHE currently has a large number of documents and records which are difficult to access, identify the recent versions, and identify the access protocols. Moreover, there is no existing electronic workflow for MEHE documents and processes.

Objectives:

• Identify the different existing documentation systems
• Develop a document workflow map visualising the input and output departments
• Develop a standard guide for organising and sorting files
• Provide a report which gives costed options of how MEHEs documentation system can be modernized
• Develop the specifications of the workflow software and the compatibility with other software in MEHE
• Develop a TOR based on the findings for the selection of a vendor.

Approach and Deliverables: The following is an indicative scope of the scoping required which focuses on the below key areas, the provided work should be aligned with International standards for the Design & Implementation of DMS.

1. Develop Documentation & Digitization Standards

• Understand MEHE documents flow
• Identify the existing documentation systems in different departments
• Develop documents workflow map
• Identify where procedures can be simplified to improve effectiveness
• Check the technical infrastructure to MEHE and the suitability of hosting the recommended DMS
• Develop recommendations to manage both the physical and digital documents under the new system
• Recommend procedure for converting documents into electronic format including the specifications of the workflow software and the compatibility with other software in MEHE

2. Develop Document Classification Scheme

The classification scheme is key in the identification of documents and facilitating search. In general the documents should be identified using and not limited to the following categories:

• Institution Type (e.g. Ministres, Embases, international organisations, etc.).
• Document/File Type
• Document/File  name
• Document/File  Date
• Issuing department
• Document/File Number

3. Develop the system’s criteria

• Develop the criteria for procuring a suitable Document Management System
• Identify DMS vendors and develop vendors’ matrix which includes competencies, previous projects, etc…

It is understood that this scoping exercise will be in the context of the existing Legal framework and norms of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

2. Indicative timeline and workplan

The work is to be completed by May 30, 2019

Identify the existing documentation systems in different departments: 30 days 

Develop the documents workflow maps: 20 days 

Develop Document Classification Scheme: 5 days 

Develop the specifications of the workflow software: 5 days 

Develop the criteria for procuring a suitable Document Management System: 2 days 

Final Report and presentation: 3 days 

Total : 65 days 

3. Approach and skills transfer plan

WORKING RELATIONSHIP:

The Consultant will work in close coordination with the UNDP/ICT Team and build on work that they have already started.

The Team Leader OPM-TA is responsible for day to day management.

STATION:

This task will be conducted by a small team of external consultants working on a short-term basis and utilising their specialist skills in this area. The selected consultant will conduct interviews with directors and end users to understand the business processes and the existing documentation systems. All the necessary introductions to MEHE staff, access to MEHE IT functions and interviews with IT users will be granted by the DG for General Education.

This assignment is a specific assignment which doesn’t foresee transfer of skills for civil servants, however, the selected company which will develop the recommended product will ensure this aspect.

PROFILE AND SKILLS:

The team of consultants/organisation should demonstrate that the members have the following:

• At least Master's degree in Computer Science or any relevant field
• Certification in Business Analysis or equivalent experience
• At least five years of experience in the design, development, installation and implementation of modern IT supported documentation and archiving systems for large organizations
• Similar professional experience in development of documentation and archiving  procedures and manuals for public institutions
• Expertise across all components listed above in addition to DMS development and installation
• Fluency in English and Arabic is necessary, French is a plus