This meeting that is being organised by the ECOWAS Commission and scheduled to hold on the 31st August , 1st and 2nd September 2010 at the Hotel NGOR DIARAMA in Dakar (Senegal), seeks “greater involvement of the research community in the formulation of ECOWAS programmes, notably the ECOWAS Community Development Programme (CDP) and Regional Research Policy”. The meeting shall bring together about sixty representatives from the universities and research centres, members of research networks and resource persons from the 15 ECOWAS Member States.

Dolly and Laayla are friends since secondary school days. Laayla has the habit of snatching her friends’ boyfriends; she did it to a handful of them. Her philosophy is: “I am beautiful and appealing, I cannot stop their boyfriends falling for me; if they cannot keep their lovers to themselves they should have themselves to blame not me. “Laayla became lonely as all friends abandoned her except Dolly who defy the others and continue to hang out with Laayla “The ‘Jiit’ (Scorpion) will not spare her; she is waiting for the right opportunity to strike!” Are the friends right or wrong?” Read to find out.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
and
Ministry of Information and Communication Infrastructure

Consultancy Announcement

Job title: Consultancy for the Design & Implementation of E-Government Data Center Duration: 1 month
Application Deadline: Friday 3rd September 2010
Terms of Reference
As the lead agency of the e-Government programme in the country, the Ministry of Information and Communication Infrastructure (MOICI) implemented several initiatives including the e-Readiness Assessment for the Government Sector, Development of ICT4D Implementation Plans, Government E-Mail System, Design and Development of Government Web Portal project including the Ministries Website. At present, the Government Web Portal and the Ministries’ website as well as the government e-Mail system are manage by MOICI and hosted by GAMTEL’s Server.
The Government under the leadership of MOICI has secured funding from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the establishment of a government data centre to support the e-Government strategy. The data centre will serve as the central data processing center networking all government computer systems with the aim of sharing resources and information. UNDP under the ‘Support to the National E-Government Strategy Project”, have assisted government in the procurement of basic hardware (such as: servers, routers, switches, peripherals) and software (such Windows Server 2003, MS Share Point, MS Exchange, etc.) other materials needed for the establishment of e-Government Data Center as well as upgrading of MOICI’s Local Area Network (LAN).
The consultancy is aim to oversee the installation and configuration of the data centre in accordance with industry best standards and practices, to support network traffic, authentication and authorization. The platform will facilitate the connectivity between government Ministries and institutions. The proposed data centre will have the scalability to support future government communication initiatives including data, voice and video.
II. Duties and Responsibilities:
1. Study and evaluate the e-Government Data Center environment including the computing environment of the Ministries and other government agencies that will be interconnected to it.
2. Design a network topology/architecture and present it to the Project Steering Committee for approval
3. Install and configure servers including network operating systems, some application packages and basic network services but not limited to, such as: DHCP Server, DNS Server, File Server, E-Mail Server, Web Server and Back-up Server
4. Install routers, firewalls, switches, etc, to meet the best standards and security requirements
5. Conduct test runs and documentation.
6. Conduct actual hands-on training to e-Gov data center technical staff
7. Submit necessary documentations to MOICI before the end of the contract.
8. Provide technical support during warranty period of six (6) months.
III. Expected Outputs:
The following outputs will be produced by the expert:
1. Install and configure a scable forest and domain controllers to support government institutions and departments.
2. Install and configure secure DNS environment to support the government infrastructure.
3. Install and configure virtual private network from the various institutions to the data centre to facilitate secure communication using the WAN links.
4. Install and Configure software and hardware firewall including security policies to ensuring secured communication between the nodes and ensure data integrity.
5. Network topology and architectural design and schema.
6. Documentations and report
7. Actual hands-on training for e-Government Data Center technical staff
IV. Qualifications:
- A local registered IT Company with vast computer networking experience including LAN, WAN, VPN and Network Security
- At least two (3) similar projects successfully completed will be an advantage.
- Sufficient technical staff to support the project within its warranty period
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY:
The Project Steering Committee will be directly responsible for the supervision and coordination of the Contractor. It will ensure that all the outputs required from the Contractor are timely and efficiently delivered with satisfactory quality.
SUBMISSION OF APPLICATION
Interested contractors shall submit one original copy of the proposal, together with two duplicate copies of the original. Decisions on award of the contract will be taken based on the written proposal. In the event of any discrepancy between the original and the duplicate copies thereof, the information contained in the original will be accepted valid and shall prevail over any statement contained in the duplicate copies. The proposal shall contain a one-page cover letter explaining their interest and capacity to undertake the study. They should also provide a concept paper on the requirements/outputs identified above including their company profile. Submission of the requested information shall be made to UNDP Country Office through the following email address: registry.gm@undp.org
Or to the postal address given below:
Submission of applications
Applications should be submitted to:
The Resident Representative
UNDP The Gambia
5, Kofi Annan Street
P.O. Box 553
Cape Point, Banjul
Or through email: registry.gm@undp.org, indicating “Consultancy for the Design & Implementation of E-Government Data Center”” in the subject field.
The closing date for applications is Friday 3rd September 2010. Any applications received after this date will not be given consideration. Only short-listed candidates whose applications respond to the above criteria will be contacted for an interview. - o –

INVITATION TO TENDER

The UNDP Office in The Gambia located at 5 Kofi Annan Street, Cape invites competent firms with solid experience to submit their proposal for the Formulation of a Proposal on E-Government of The Gambia.

TENDER DOCUMENTS
Proposal documents are available from the UNDP offices from Tuesday, 31st August 2010.

PRE-BID SUBMISSION MEETING
For further details of the task to enhance the quality of the offers including design specifications, etc, UNDP office invites offerors for a pre-bid submission meeting at the Ministry of Information and Communication Infrastructure on Tuesday, 31st August 2010 at 10.30 a.m.
Please contact Mr. Edgardo Villena on telephone (+220) 7487096 for further details of the meeting.

CLOSING DATE
The closing date for the submission of proposals is on Monday, 13th September 2010 at 12 noon.

Proposals must be submitted to:
UNDP Office
5 Kofi Annan Street
Cape Point, Bakau
REF: FORMULATION OF A PROJECT PROPOSAL
ON E-GOVERNMENT OF THE GAMBIA
For Attention: Resident Representative

No late submissions will be accepted

Enquiries and contact information
The Gambia
Ms. Binta Sanneh or Ms. Sainabou Jaye on (+220) 4494762

Vacancy Announcement

Job title: Project Driver
Contract Type: Service Contract
Location: Basse (URR) / Mansakonko (LRR)
Duration: 1 year (renewable)
Note: Limited to Gambian Nationals Only
Application Deadline: Tuesday 14th September 2010

Terms of Reference
Background
The Government of The Gambia formulated the Second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP II) in 2006 for implementation during 2007 to 2011. The overarching objective of the strategy is to enhance equitable economic growth for poverty reduction and attainment of the MDGs. The PRSP II is one of the building blocks towards the realization of Vision 2020 and serves as the main blue print for a well coordinated and integrated planning framework that embraces all the development priorities of the Government of The Gambia. The PRSP II focuses on five development objectives namely:
i. To create an enabling environment for economic growth and poverty reduction;
ii. To enhance the productive capacity of the poor;
iii. To improve access and quality of the social services;
iv. To strengthen decentralization and participatory development and
v. To integrate crosscutting issues such as gender, environment, HIV-AIDS and Population etc into all development endeavors.
Three years have gone into the implementation of the PRSP II and all assessments point to the weaknesses in the capacity to deliver the enshrined priority programs, projects and activities. This has led to diverse innovations aimed at enhancing delivery capabilities particularly in the public sector and sub-national levels. In this vein, the National Volunteer Services Centre (NVSC) was conceived as a strategy to mobilize additional capacity to deliver priority activities of the PRSP through a harnessing of volunteerism.
In The Gambia, volunteerism continues to be an essential tool for the attainment of major development goals and targets. As a result, the NVSC will facilitate and promote citizens’ participation in the attainment of the development goals set in the MDGs, PRSP and Vision 2020 of the Gambia. “The outputs of the project among others are:
i) formulation of a legal and regulatory framework on volunteerism and the use of volunteers;
ii) volunteer organizations are enabled to become reliable partners in the implementation of national development programmes;
iii) a national volunteers services centre is established;
iv) volunteers and volunteer associations are mobilized for the realization of the national medium-term development strategy (PRSP) and the MDGs;
v) the national volunteer coordination team is operationalised and a full scale nation-wide project document developed.
One of the key activities of the project relates to establishment of the National Volunteers Service Centre that will be operated by a team of personnel. The Drivers being recruited now will form part of the team that will operationalise the NVSC in The Gambia.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the Regional Officer, the incumbent will perform the following tasks:
• Drive the Project vehicle for the transportation of authorized personnel, and delivery and collection of mail, documents and other items;
• Ensure follow-up of maintenance schedule of the assigned vehicle and advising the responsible officer to take appropriate action;
• Take responsibility for the daily maintenance of the assigned vehicle, check oil, water, battery, breaks, tyres, etc and perform minor repairs;
• Ensure that the vehicle is kept clean before and after usage;
• Maintain the vehicle log sheet;
• Observe the Highway Code and UNDP Safety Requirements when driving;
• Ensure the right steps as required by rules and regulations are followed in the unlikely event of an accident;
• Perform any other related duties assigned.

Required Skills and Experience
ü Completion of secondary school education
ü Valid Driver’s License
ü A minimum of five years driving experience.
ü Experience driving and maintaining 4WD vehicles.
ü Experience in maintaining vehicle log sheets.
ü Good geographical knowledge of the provinces.
ü Ability to speak at least two major local languages

Submission of applications
Interested candidates should send a one-page cover letter explaining your interest and suitability for this position as well as an updated CV to the UNDP Country Office:
The Resident Representative
UNDP The Gambia
5, Kofi Annan Street
P.O. Box 553
Cape Point, Banjul
Or through email: registry.gm@undp.org, indicating “Project Driver” in the subject field.
Applicants residing in LRR and URR will be given priority. Please indicate clearly your choice of location in your application.
The closing date for applications is Tuesday 14th September 2010. Any applications received after this date will not be given consideration. Only short-listed candidates whose applications respond to the above criteria will be contacted for an interview.

Foroyaa has maintained that African countries cannot break away from the past until they create an environment which will enable all citizens of a Nation to take part in a debate on how to build a new Nation entirely different from the past, irrespective of party affiliation. This should then be followed by a free and fair election where the enlightened people would be free from all inducement and intimidation and would be fully prepared to make an informed choice of who to give their consent to manage the affairs of a country.

Foroyaa received a letter from Maudo Amadou Jallow, the Regional Disaster Management Coordinator for the Upper River Region which aimed to react to our publication of a Press Conference convened by the Member of the National Assembly for Wuli West. The letter started as follows:

By Fabakary B. Ceesay and Mamadou Dem
Some residents and compound owners from Old Yundum have visited the Foroyaa offices to express their concerns for their health. According to them pollution being caused by a Chinese factory situated in their village is hazardous to their health. The concerned residents explained that the factory has been polluting their environment for almost a year now.

By Musa Barrow and Ousman Sillah
Baaba Sillah, a Gambian Writer and Literary/Social Critic on Saturday, 28 August, 2010, launched two books entitled Daabali Gi and Pencum Taakusaan at the Paradise Suits Hotel Conference Centre.

“More significantly, studies have shown that breastfeeding improves physical and mental development in children,” says UNICEF’s communication specialist Sally Sadie Singhateh at the forum on Breastfeeding with the private sector in commemoration of World Breastfeeding week at Paradise Suites Hotel on the 26th August 2010.