Notice for Expressions of Interest for SL-Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystem Map; online tool development.  

The Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) sits in the Office of the President and executes its functions through the Office of the Chief Minister. DSTI is led by The Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) of the Government of Sierra Leone who also serves as an Advisor to the President of Sierra Leone.

Our Vision:

DSTI’s vision is to use science, technology and innovation to support the Government of Sierra Leone in delivering the Medium-Term National Plan effectively and efficiently; and to help transform Sierra Leone into an innovation and entrepreneurship nation.

Introduction and context

Project Title

Sierra Leone Technology Ecosystem Mapping – to understand the entrepreneurial and digital innovation landscape “Towards a digital Sierra Leone”.

Sierra Leone too is facing an upsurge of new tech opportunities. Rapid mobile phone and network penetration across the country are opening the door to new services, making it easier than ever for people to use digital tools in their everyday lives.

However, to ensure the growth of these businesses and attract financing and other business-related support, there needs to be a better understanding of how these tech entrepreneurs form ecosystems, what are the internal dynamics of these ecosystems, how they work, what makes them grow and achieve sustainability, how they connect with the local economy to result in productivity and employment, and why some ecosystems are more effective than others at growing and developing.

Collected data should identify gaps in the tech ecosystems and provide a basis for policy action to address these gaps and support the growth and sustainability of the ecosystem. Understanding and identifying these gaps will allow Sierra Leone to develop more targeted ST&I policies, unleash new economic opportunities, better direct investment, and support research and development.

Goals for developing the Ecosystem Map (Tool)

The overall objective of the Ecosystem map is to increase access to accurate, reliable, and action-ready data for citizens, the private sector, NGOs, and GoSL so that the role (s) and performance of each player can be tracked and recognized by the Government to inform policy and decision making. This objective has been drawn down to:

1. Reduce the strain in accessing accurate and reliable entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem data for Sierra Leone by entrepreneurs, investors, government, and private sector.
2. Increase trust between the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem players such as investors, incubators/accelerators, entrepreneurs, etc.
3. Increase the collection and analyses of data, and the tracking of the performance of players within the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem of Sierra Leone.

Business Requirements for the Ecosystem Map

These are the requirements that must be considered when designing and developing the Ecosystem Map to ensure that the benefits and outcomes of the Map can be measured and communicated in a realistic manner.

1. The ecosystem web application must be designed and developed to meet the regulations and policies that support the initiation, design and development, and growth of the tech innovation ecosystem in Sierra Leone
2. The ecosystem web application must be designed and developed so that users feel empowered with accurate and reliable data and that the time spent by users on researching or looking for such data is drastically reduced.
3. The system must be very intuitive and easy to use so that a large number of varied user groups can easily navigate and understand the data on the platform (we can conduct user studies to measure this)
4. The application must be designed and developed with the sole objective of adding value to the work of entrepreneurs and investors so that the platform will be attractive to such users.

Ecosystem Platform Description:

1. Solution (Outcome):

The proposed solution is a responsive and interactive web application with the following primary features:

1.  A frontend application that displays indicators (Country Level, Regional, Sector-specific, etc) about the ecosystem Sierra Leone
2. A backend system that allows for the creation and management of user accounts for various user types
3. An analytic system that allows for the inputting of data, performs analytics on the data and displays results to various users as per predefined criteria.

  B. Ecosystem Engagements:

DSTI and partners have embarked on preliminary work including national stakeholder engagements:

1.  Identified data types.
2.  User Personas created
3. Data collection strategy
4. Recruited researchers and consultants for report writing and roll out strategy
5.  Finally, we have developed a diaspora engagement plan- all of the above will feed into the platform development work.

The following services are needed of qualified and capable companies to offer design and development;

Request for Proposals.
a)	Support the completion of the Ecosystem platform specification. This involves;  b.     Review and analyze existing system requirements and define clear and measurable system requirements  c.      Prioritize requirements based on user needs and develop a system specification documentation
b)	Develop design assets and create designs for the various components of the Ecosystem Platform
c)	Design and develop an architecture framework for the Ecosystem Platform informed by the requirements agreed upon
d)	Write source code for the Backend and Frontend components of the Ecosystem platform
e)	Develop and execute a well-documented test plan to ensure that Ecosystem Platform works as expected
f)	Design and develop user manuals for both administrative users and product end users
g)	Design and develop clear and concise technical documentation for the Ecosystem platform
Hosting, maintenance and renewal.
h)	Develop a comprehensive proposal for the maintenance and sustainability of the tool. This proposal shall include handing over the source code to DSTI with clear documentation.

a) – g) will be awarded via competitive RFP process.

h) will be led by DSTI/SMEDA.

C.      Criteria

The Directorate of Science Technology and Innovation is currently accepting Expressions of Interest from qualified and capable companies to offer design and development of the online application. Interested companies must submit the following documents via email only to proposals@dsti.gov.sl

1.              Expression of Interest Letter

2.              Detailed Company Profile

3.              Valid Sierra Leone Business Registration Certificate

4.              Certificate of GST Registration (if applicable)

5.              Certificate of National Revenue Authority Tax Clearance Certificate

6.              CVs of Project Manager and Lead Developers

All submissions should be made by Friday the 19^th of February 2021. Shortlisted applicants will be contacted by Friday the 22^nd of February 2021..