Terms of Reference for the Tech Vendor for Oky Nepal

Terms of Reference for the Tech Vendor for Oky Nepal

Background

Oky is a tool to support adolescent girls to manage their period with normalcy and confidence, through evidence-based information on menstrual health and hygiene and individual period cycle tracking. An app that was originally developed by UNICEF East Asia Pacific Office, Oky enables girls to take control and plan for their periods and their lives.

Oky helps girls to learn about menstruation in fun ways and distinguish myths from facts and promotes positive attitudes towards menstruation. Oky’s aim is to transform stress and shame into empowerment. It provides girls with accessible, relevant information about menstruation, as well as a period-tracking tool to help girls get to know their own bodies. The app is designed to be fun and engaging to counteract often negative feelings girls have around their periods.

Oky is currently live as an English global app (on Android and iOS) and is live as local versions in Mongolia, Indonesia and Mexico with Kenya and India launching in early 2022. Each country version is managed by an implementing partner, who holds the franchise license for that country, and who will develop the local version from the open source code (shared with them upon signing the franchise license agreement), and provide support and maintenance for their country version of Oky.

The franchise partner for Oky Nepal is NFCC.

NFCC is now seeking the services of a tech vendor to develop, build and maintain Oky in Nepal.

For more information on Oky, visit the global website: https://okyapp.info/

1. The deliverables for a tech vendor include but will not be limited to:

• Create a new GitHub repository with a copy of the source code, using the master codebase provided by the Oky core team.
• Modify the code to add in Nepali language.
• Create new avatars and themes for Oky Nepal app in EPS and PNG format.
• Animate the avatars and save them in a JSON-based animation file format called Lottie. 
• Write the code to develop any new or additional features for the Oky Nepal app.
• Set up and deploy the content management system (CMS) for the app using the source code.
• Set up the app analytics on Firebase.
• Set up the hosting environment for the app, CMS and database (eg set up a Kubernetes cluster for the app and CMS, and a database on Digital Ocean, Cloud Azure or something similar). 
• *Ensure that Oky Nepal adheres to the Oky privacy and data security principles, and complies with global Oky data governance mechanisms.
• Set up and manage security certificates for the domain.
• Run extensive internal testing and Quality Assurance (QA), and work with the NFCC team to release test versions for them to give feedback prior to going live. 
• Support the NFCC team in the tech components for user testing (for example, ensuring they have the right tech for the sessions, setting up a system to be able to analyze user interactions in compliance with the privacy mentioned above in bullet nine*.
• Set up and manage the Google Play Store account / Apple Store account and oversee deployment of the app when it goes live.
• Provide ongoing (two years) maintenance and support for the app, CMS and database once the app is live (e.g. 2 days a month). This includes monthly checks to ensure everything is working as intended.
• When a new app/CMS feature has been released for the global Oky code, merge that piece of code so that feature is available for users in Nepal (if desired by NFCC).
• Support NFCC in fulfilling data analytics requests as needed, if requested by the global Oky core team as part of the franchise license agreement.

Note: The vendor will provide the above-mentioned deliverables within 100 working days’ time period starting with effective from the date of MoU signing except the support, maintenance, and hosting annually, which will be continued for a further two years’ time period from the MoU signing and may be subject to change on the development and progress of the application.

2. The technical skills that are expected from the tech vendor includes but will not be limited to: 

• Experience in creating and deploying apps written in React Native. In particular, they need solid expertise working with React Native animations.
• Track record of using Kubernetes and Docker which will be used for the backend.
• Experience setting up a PostgreSQL database on a server and setting up its remote connection from the Kubernetes nodes.
• Solid experience using cloud service providers such as AWS, Azure or Digital Ocean to host projects on a server.
• Experience in backend development using Node.js under the express framework.
• Experience in frontend development using Typescript. 
• Understanding of a Javascript Monorepo, as the CMS, API and mobile app are all in a single code repository.
• Experience in designing apps for Android and/or iOS and iterating on the designs after user feedback. (Optional).

Note: Tech vendors will need a Mac with an Intel chip to run the code. It is advisable the Mac has at least 16GB of memory.

3. The tech vendor should have the minimum team composition of the following team members:

• One app developer with 2-3 years’ experience (minimum) using React Native.
• One full stack developer, or 1 backend and 1 frontend developer with 3-5 years’ experience using Typescript, Kubernetes, Docker,and PostSQL databases.
• A UI/UX designer with experience in creating illustrations and animations, especially with JSON-based animations called Lottie. 
• The team members should be able to read and write English and Nepali language and should be based in Nepal. 

Interested candidates that meets the above-mentioned criteria are requested to submit their proposal with budget and required documents (company registration document, Tax clearance papers, VAT and PAN numbers) within 7th February, 2022.

*For further detail contact us at:

NFCC

Gusingal, Sanepa, Lalitpur

01-5904789 / 5904790 / 9849362342

info@nfcc.org.np / nfcc@mos.com.np