Tasks to be performed by the contractor

The contractor is responsible for providing the following services:

I.   Work Package 1: Ensure the intended functionality of the new openIMIS release using an expanded and improved version of the current testing methodology.

1. Expand current test cases to ensure all features of openIMIS releases are functionally tested and comprehensible (e.g., for a health institution).

2. Organize testcases to create and present various workflows that appropriately showcase functionalities and flexibility of the openIMIS solutions.

3. Plan, organize, and conduct tests according to the established (and updates, if required) testing plan to verify functionality before the release and report testing results.

4. Conduct a check on the existence/completeness of documentation for each of the new released functionalities in openIMIS. In coordination with the coordination desk agree on and develop limited, additional documentation to fill gasps.

5. Increase and improve current openIMIS demo server dataset to appropriately showcase all functionality.

II.   Work Package 2: Provide and share expert knowledge on functionalities and implementation experiences openIMIS to the openIMIS community and various stakeholders including the Toumai French speaking community.

1. Contribute content to the openIMIS wiki based on implementation experiences of openIMIS in English and French, through the Implementers Committee and Toumai.

2. Refine and manage a suitable format for a regular and continued Toumai community.

3. Facilitate discussions and provide expert views on feature requests, questions, bug reports that are reported from the openIMIS service desk and ensure their proper documentation.

4. Conduct webinars for the (wider) community and for the Toumai community of practice on upcoming selected topics (on demand).

5. Participate actively in various community calls (eg. Implementers’ committee, monthly Bhela, Gumzo etc.) and community meetings.

6. Participate at relevant (international) forums (virtual and/or in-person) and support in the organization / preparation of side-events & workshops during such events.

III.  Work Package 3: Develop and provide knowledge material for all openIMIS implementation in countries and design a suitable format and process for sharing and saving this knowledge.

1. Maintain and improve standard terminology dictionary/glossary of openIMIS (on openIMIS wiki – in both English and French).

2. Develop user-focused documentation for selected workflows/functions/features in openIMIS and publish this on relevant repositories (on openIMIS wiki – in both English and French).

3. Provide knowledge material for all openIMIS implementation in text format (on openIMIS wiki – in both English and French). Status-updates and in-depth information of implementations are gathered through interviews.

4. Develop and provide a suitable knowledge-sharing and - management format for current and future openIMIS implementers (in both English and French)

5. Conduct detailed, tailored, virtual demonstrations of openIMIS functionalities to potential implementers and users (in both English and French)

 Deliverables

Certain milestones, as laid out in the table below, are to be achieved during the contract term:

Period of assignment: from October 2024 until July 2026.

 Other specific requirements

a)    General Conduct

The here tendered service package falls under the outcome 2: The openIMIS software is further developed with new functionalities, and in-line with security standards.

The staff members seconded by the Firm of Consultants must cooperate closely with the GIZ project officer who is responsible to BMZ for the German and Swiss contributions to the openIMIS Initiative and the programme officer appointed for this contract. All activities of the Firm of Consultants have to be done in line with and on the basis of ongoing activities of the openIMIS Initiative to achieve all programme outputs (see chapter 1.IV above).

Ongoing activities that must be taken into account and built upon during this assignment are:

1. activities of the openIMIS Initiative geared towards community building and regional support structures. This activity is supplemented by additional contracts for regional openIMIS hubs.

2. a commission on transitioning the openIMIS architecture into a modular design in an open source development framework.

3. a co-funded pilot project on the further transformation and enhancement of openIMIS co-ordinated by the Digital Square platform (Notice D).

4. activities of the openIMIS Initiative geared towards implementation support for new scheme operators.

Developments that may lead to difficulties in a later project phase should be identified as quickly as possible. Furthermore, in view of the focus on the results described above, results monitoring is crucially important. An efficient monitoring and evaluation system must therefore be proposed and set up that allows all entities of the openIMIS governance structure, the Firm of Consultants and the GIZ Global Programme Social Protection Innovation and Learning to monitor project progress. Progress reports are submitted quarterly based on a format which will be agreed upon during the inception. Regular feedback sessions may be convened by the GIZ Global Programme Social Protection Innovation and Learning depending on the progress of the assigned tasks. The Firm of Consultants is expected to respond to changes flexibly, especially if the project is in danger of straying from outputs mentioned in Chapter 1.

b)    Previous Results in the Maintenance and Support of openIMIS

The openIMIS Initiative together with other development partners has previously supported the maintenance and support of the openIMIS product. The results include among others:

• A harmonised master version was created from the country specific adaptations of the openIMIS software package and partially migrated to a modular architecture using open source technologies and implementing international interoperability standards. It is available in a public code repository and updated regularly with recent code contributions. ( https://github.com/openimis )

• A regular release cycle according to a defined change management process was established and successfully applied to three software releases.

• A technical roadmap was developed as a living and constantly updated technical document based on a series of workshops with different stakeholders and ongoing technical strategy discussions. (Product Roadmap )

• Community platforms were set up as resource repositories and communication channels for the openIMIS community (compare chapter 1.III). A regularly maintained helpdesk was set up and established.

c)    Adherence to Strategic Principles and International Standards

The openIMIS Initiative is committed to operate according to international development principles that are endorsed by the supporting GDC and SDC and correspond to the guiding principles of GIZ. The Firm of Consultants is especially expected to comply to

• the Principles for Digital Development ( https://digitalprinciples.org/ )

• the Digital Investment Principles ( Digital Investment Principles )

As one direct consequence, the development towards the new modular architecture of openIMIS is oriented at standards set by

• the Business Process Framework for National Health Insurance Information Systems elaborated through the Joint Learning Network (JLN)

• the digital health architecture of the Open Health Information Exchange (OpenHIE) community of practice.

• the interoperability specification for Fast Health Interoperability Resources (FHIR) by the Health Level Seven International Organisation (HL7) 

The Firm of Consultants is expected to align with the ambitions of the openIMIS Initiative to further harmonise openIMIS with those standards in terms of terminology, workflows and interoperability.

d)    Integration into the existing openIMIS structures

The openIMIS initiative builds upon an existing software for health insurance management that is being used by insurance organisations in several countries already. Continuous support for smooth operations of those legacy implementations is key to this commission. Opening up functionalities to cover further social protection schemes even beyond the health domain is envisioned. Besides simply operating openIMIS, these local organisations also support the openIMIS Initiative with own code developments, which need to be integrated into the core system on a regular basis.

The existing repositories, communication channels and community platforms that were established by the openIMIS Initiative shall be used. Specifically, these are

• openIMIS code repositories ( https://github.com/openimis )

• openIMIS issue tracker ( https://openimis.atlassian.net)

• openIMIS documentation server ( https://openimis.readthedocs.io )

• openIMIS wiki ( openIMIS )

• openIMIS translation platform ( https://localize.com )

Within the openIMIS governance structure regular exchange meetings are foreseen for different stakeholders, some of which are also relevant for the Firm of Consultants. In the context of this commission, the Firm of Consultants is currently especially expected to take part in the weekly calls of the Developers Committee and the monthly review calls but might be invited for additional events.

e)    Co-operation with partners of the openIMIS Initiative

In order to build a sustainable community of practice, the openIMIS Initiative is co-operating with various international partners and sub-contracting other consultants. The Firm of Consultants is expected to work together with these partners in a co-operative and friendly way, respecting and supporting the work of others and disclosing relevant information where necessary. Apart from the consultants that work on the ongoing activities mentioned in chapter 2.I.a and those who work on short term consultancies, the openIMIS initiative currently co-operates closely with other players such as the OpenHIE community and other open source software projects in the health sector. Finally, it can be expected that free implementers and developers who are interested in the project want to associate and contribute to the project. The openIMIS Initiative has a special interest to nourish this kind of relations through a welcoming community culture of trust.

f)     Open source policy

Being an Open Source project itself, the openIMIS initiative strongly supports the use of Open Source Software in the given context. The Firm of Consultants must be willing to use Open Source Software where possible and at the same time accept that the openIMIS Initiative might release any code that is being produced in the project under an Open Source Software license (GNU Affero General Public License, Version 3). For non-software products such as documentation or training materials, a Creative Commons license will be applied (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License). The Firm of Consultants is expected to avail software and non-software products in a timely manner to the openIMIS Initiative in source versions that can be further maintained with Open Source tools without loss of product quality.

g)    Data protection

In the course of the commission, the Firm of Consultants might be exposed to data on health issues and financial transactions of individuals. The Firm of Consultants is expected to treat any personal information of individuals according to the highest applicable data confidentiality standards. At the same time, the Firm of Consultants is expected to contribute to the security of individual data by applying adequate quality standards.

h)    Branding

The Firm of Consultants is expected to comply to the corporate identity guidelines of the openIMIS Initiative and GIZ where appropriate. This applies especially to the use of logos, colour schemes and fonts. Existing templates for presentations or training materials have to be used.