INVITATION FOR BIDS (IFB)-Development of Ethiopian Apiculture Management Information System

1. Background

Ethiopia, renowned for its diverse agro-ecological zones and abundant floral resources, has immense potential in the apiculture sector. With a long-standing tradition of beekeeping, the country produces some of the world’s finest honey varieties, making apiculture a vital contributor to rural livelihoods, nutrition, biodiversity, and economic development. Despite this significant advantage, the sector remains underdeveloped, primarily due to challenges such as reliance on traditional practices, limited access to modern technologies, weak market linkages, and the absence of a comprehensive and structured Apiculture Management Information System (APMIS).

Currently, the lack of reliable, timely, and disaggregated data severely hampers sector-wide planning, monitoring, and evaluation. This gap also limits the ability of policymakers, private stakeholders, and development partners to implement evidence-based interventions. Moreover, the absence of a traceability and registration mechanism restricts access to international markets and financial services.

Recognizing these gaps, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), in collaboration with the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology, aims to design and implement centralized APMIS. The goal is to streamline the collection, management, analysis, and reporting of data related to apiculture production, practices, bee health, honey marketing, and policy development across all administrative levels. This initiative aligns with national efforts, including the Yelemat Terufat initiative and the Apiculture Resources Development and Protection Directive No. 1028/2024, the Digital Agriculture Roadmap (2025-2032) which call for registration and structured data management of apiculture resources of the country.

The Mass Youth Employment in Apiculture (MaYEA) program, supported by the Mastercard Foundation and implemented by ICIPE and its partners, further emphasizes the need for a robust sector-wide MIS. Building on the success of the MOYESH program’s digital Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (M&EL) platform, the APMIS will serve as a critical tool for transforming Ethiopia’s apiculture sector into a data-driven, competitive, and sustainable industry.

The TOR outlines the key responsibilities, implementation details, deliverables, and expectations for qualified individual consultants to develop the Ethiopian Apiculture MIS in collaboration with icipe and MoA ICT unit.

2. Objectives

2.1 General objective 

The overall objective of this assignment is to design and implement Ethiopian apiculture management information system that will be used to document, track progress, and visualize data and information in Ethiopian apiculture sector. The consultants are expected to develop APMIS that will cover the following aspects. 

2.2 Specific objective

Specific objectives include:

1. Sector performance and progress data for planning, decision making, promotion, etc. (clearly present progress against target, inform progresses and deviation from target)

2. Sector resource registration and mapping (capture available bee colonies, bee forage, etc. in the country)

3. Hive identification using applicable unique ID system that can be used for identification of traceability of honey in the country. 

4. Information dissemination for (policy makers, private sectors, NGOs, etc.)

   3. Technical specifications 

• Follow agile development methodology.
• Flexibility to add new feature and components. 
• Utilize open-source tools for development to enhance flexibility and sustainability.
• Ensure compliance with international standards such as ISO certification for data security and interoperability.
• Consider an on-premises deployment model to support local data sovereignty and operational control.
• Engage expertise from various domains, including system developers, data analysts, and leadership professionals.
• Implement security best practices, including SSL certification and multi-level access privileges.
• Support both web-based interface and as well as mobile application. 
• Support online-offline data collection mechanism 
• Support API integration 
• Reporting, data Visualization and Analytics features. 

3.1 Key tasks and Scope of Work

The consultant will undertake the following activities:

The scope of work for the development of APMIS covers the design, prototyping, development, testing, piloting and rollout of the MIS including conceptualization to operationalization. The candidates are expected to plan for the required activities to design, customize, deploy, and operationalize the system, ensuring it supports efficient beekeeping data management, sharing and analysis. The APMIS should cover: 

• Data collection and aggregation platform

• Data storage and aggregation platform

• Cover the entire administrative tiers of Ethiopia from Kebele to Federal level

Accept different levels of users with different roles and responsibilities (data collectors, approval, viewing and sharing). 

4. Expected Outcomes

4.1 Deliverables

[1]  A one-year technical support period is mandatory, covering bug fixes, system updates, and user assistance

5. Methodology

The APMIS development will follow accepted best practices and standards in database development and implementation. It is suggested that the candidates propose the most pragmatic database development system (platforms, programming language, running interfaces, etc. that is easy to scale up and implement). The APMIS will be developed in close collaboration with the MoA ICT unit and integrated into existing databases and MIS systems such as AgMIS2. The following technological considerations should be considered. 

• Follow agile development methodology.
• Flexibility to add new feature and components. 
• Utilize open-source tools for development to enhance flexibility and sustainability.
• Ensure compliance with international standards such as ISO certification for data security and interoperability.
• Consider an on-premises deployment model to support local data sovereignty and operational control.
• Engage expertise from various domains, including system developers, data analysts, and leadership professionals.
• Implement security best practices, including SSL certification and multi-level access privileges.
• Support both web-based interface and as well as mobile application. 
• Support online-offline data collection mechanism 
• Support API integration 
• Reporting, data Visualization and Analytics features. 

The potential consultants welcome to propose their own methodology that they think best fits the needs mentioned in this ToR.

6. Timeframe

The duration of the assignment is 6 months distributed over the period July 1 to December 31, 2025. The tentative timeline for each deliverable are as follows. 

[2]A one-year technical support period is mandatory, covering bug fixes, system updates, and user assistance. 

Qualifications and experiences

This call for proposals invites only qualified and experienced individual consultants and developers based in Addis Ababa Ethiopia. The candidates are expected to have the following qualifications. 

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Information System or a related discipline – or equivalent qualification.
• At least eight years of hands-on experience in software development, database development, programming, or similar technical roles.
• Have proven track records of developing the national MIS system for agriculture or other sectors in developing countries/
• Practical working experience in developing MIS system for the ministries in developing countries such as DHIS2, EMIS, CommCare and AGMIS is mandatory.
• Have experience working with development partners and public systems particularly in the agriculture sector
• Have programmed or used suitable programming languages such as Java Scripts, SQL, Python and related programming languages and tools 
• Familiar with agriculture and apiculture sector data and context in Ethiopia.
• Proficiency in Developing Data Management System Platform in ASP.NET, PostgreSQL is desired. 
• Experience in preparing dashboards and interoperable system.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and Amharic

How To Apply

Application Procedure and Requirements

Interested applicants with the required qualifications and experience outlined above can submit technical and financial proposals separately to icipe Ethiopia before the deadlineat the below address. The financial proposal should include professional fees with a clear indication of the proposed daily rates and level of effort. Other costs such as transport, daily subsistence allowance during fieldwork, accommodation, etc. will be covered by icipe based on icipe policies.   

Shortlisted applicants may be required to submit sample previous work and participate in competency-based interviews. Only qualified individual consultants are invited to apply for this position.

The application should include a technical and financial proposal with the following contents. 

Technical proposal (maximum 10 pages, excluding annexes)

• Demonstrated experience in handling the assignment. 

• Understanding of the assignment 

• methods of design and approaches

• Curriculum vitae as annex indicating most recent relevant experiences

Financial proposal (1 page) that indicates:

• Daily rate in USD and total days allocated for the professional fee. 

• Total quotation in USD

• Payment will be paid in Ethiopian Birr based on applicable rates

Individual consultants will be evaluated using the following criteria. 

Proposed approach and methods of assessment                           40%

Competencies and track record                                                      30%

Financial proposal                                                                           30%         

Candidates that scored below 70% in technical proposals will not be considered for financial proposal evaluation. Applicants should submit their applications individually. icipe will contact only short-listed applicants.

Successful candidates will be required to work with team of developers recruited with same call and icipe IT experts. Three individual consultants are required for this position.

Submission deadline

Applicants must submit their application details via emails to icipe-ethiopia@icipe.org in PDF format by 31st May 2025. Lately submitted applications will not be considered for evaluation.

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