The Palestinian Authority faces a number of pressing priorities in the reform of its criminal justice sector. These include, amongst others, delays in the trial process, poor coordination between criminal justice agencies and the lack of reliable data to facilitate policy making. The civil prison administration, in particular, faces multiple challenges in relation to both improving infrastructure and developing the skills of its staff. In 1998, the powers of the Minister of the Interior and his responsibility for the General Administration of Reform and Rehabilitation Centres (GARRC) were delegated to the Chief of Police. Accordingly, there is no separate prison administration and prisons are currently run by an organizational unit within the Palestinian Civil Police (PCP). The Ministry of Interior intends to establish a civilian directorate to oversee the prison administration and provide leadership for overall reform efforts. In order to support this development, technical assistance and training needs to be provided to civilian staff in the Ministry of Interior (MoI) to ensure they require the necessary skills and planning to engage effectively in this task. Reform of the prison system under the Palestinian Authority (PA) therefore requires a multifaceted approach in which programmes of assistance are implemented with a focus on achieving sustainable reform across the criminal justice sector more broadly. As a result, UNODC has designed a program aimed at strengthening the management, operation and oversight of civil prisons administered by the Palestinian Authority. |
One of the program’s components relates to supporting GARRC in the creation of an electronic system for maintaining prisoner files. The presence of complete, accurate and accessible prisoner files is not only a pre-requisite for effective prison management and strategic planning, but also an essential tool for ensuring that the human rights of prisoners are respected and upheld.
Therefore, the overall purpose of the assignment is for the incumbents to develop the main components of a pilot electronic prisoner records system, and to pilot the same in at least one reform and rehabilitation center by the end of the assignment. As such, it will form a first important step towards the ultimate objective of a tailor-made, unified, and inter-connected IT system for prisoner data management in all civil prisons and GARRC Headquarters.
More specifically, and following close consultations with GARRC, PCP and other stakeholders, the three incumbents will be seconded to / based in the IT Department of the PCP (ITD-PCP), working under the direct supervision of the Chief of the Department. This approach takes into account the current lack of IT development capacity in GARRC as well as the comprehensive requirement analysis on the development of a prison management software system that was conducted by ITD-PCP. The daily supervision by ITD-PCP will be complemented by a secondary reporting line from the Chief of ITD-PCP to UNODC, including both the External Systems Unit/IT Section/UNODC HQ and the UNODC Criminal Justice Coordinator in the Project Office Jerusalem (in close conjunction with GARRC). A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to be drafted and signed between the MoI and UNODC, will outline the details to that effect, including specific timelines, deliverables and reporting modalities.
Under the direct supervision of the Chief of ITD-PCP, who will report to the UNODC Criminal Justice Coordinator in Jerusalem and the External Systems Unit/IT Section/UNODC HQ in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) referred to above, the Information Systems Development Specialists (Application Developers) will be responsible for the following duties:
- Design and implement system modules using C#.NET and Visual Studio 2005;
- Test and debug developed modules and scripts;
- Document the developed components and share with other team members;
- Update the development databases, tracking tools and timelines as appropriate;
- Prepare status reports on progress made and participate in the preparation of the team overall status report preparation;
- Develop reusable components for use within several systems and across different projects and teams;
- Participate in testing and evaluating new tools and technologies and making recommendations on the adaptation of such tools to the immediate supervisor;
- Participate in training users on developed systems and in preparing user documentation;
- Support systems implementation and maintenance.
The above will be based on and guided by, inter alia, the prison management software requirement analysis conducted by ITD-PCP, expert advice from the IT Section / UNODC HQ, as well as the substantive provisions in the UNODC Handbook on Prisoner File Management.
Deliverables of the contract are as follows:
- At least four (4) main modules of a pilot electronic prisoner data records system developed and fully functional – as defined in the MoU;
- Modules successfully piloted in at least one (1) reform and rehabilitation center;
- PCP, GARRC and UNODC regularly and extensively briefed about progress made.
Indicators to evaluate the consultant’s performance:
- Quality of the IT product as assessed by UNODC, including by the External Systems Unit/IT Section/UNODC HQ, the Project Office in East Jerusalem, and the Chief of the IT Department within PCP;
- Suitability of the developed IT product to GARRC’s needs, as indicated by positive feedback in GARRC during the pilot phase;
- Timely submission of detailed and high-quality progress reports (monthly) and a final status report.
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Education
First degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or equivalent degree
Certification in C#.NET technologies would be an asset.
Experience
A minimum of five years of relevant and progressively responsible technical experience in software development is required.
Experience in the following is required:
- developing medium to large scale systems using client/server architecture based on Visual Studio .NET using C#
- developing multi-tier systems based on Visual Studio C#.NET
Experience in the following is considered an asset:
- Technical documentation writing for the full systems development cycle including end user documentation
- Documenting business processes and translating them into Software Requirements Specifications (SRS)
- Web development (asp.net); Experience in MY SQL db, PHP, and HTML, knowledge of LINUX OS (apache ,shell ,VIM)
- XML data processing
- System development and maintenance in an Intelligence or Law Enforcement Agency
Language
Fluency in oral and written English and Arabic is required.
" UNDP/PAPP is an equal opportunity employer; applications from men and women will be considered equally " |
