EWMI in partnership with the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) and MISA are implementing the Partnerships for Justice (P4J) Programme in Zimbabwe. This programme is aimed at improving delivery of Justice to the public through increasing the transparency, accountability and efficiency of Justice Sector Institutions (JSIs). The programme is being implemented under three objectives as follows;

• Objective 1: Promote systematic and sustained monitoring of targeted justice sector institutions
• Objective 2: Increase citizen participation in the justice system
• Objective 3: Enhance open and accessible justice

Under Objective 1, P4J will monitor targeted JSIs relevant to the five thematic areas of the project: anti-corruption, commercial law, labour law, family law and human rights (including election law disputes). The project will also carry out user surveys at selected courts, to generate data about the quality of experiences of justice seekers. The monitoring data and court user survey data will inform the project’s evidence-based advocacy initiatives, which will also be supported by Justice Advocacy Grants. To promote accountability in the judiciary P4J will develop qualitative performance measurements for judges and seek to highlight the performance of exceptional judges through a series of annual awards.

Under Objective 2, P4J will increase citizen participation in the justice system by expanding and regionalizing existing stakeholder dialogue platforms, convening such platforms in each of the ten provinces.P4J will actively seek to promote implementation of reform initiatives emerging from the above platforms, and will award Justice for All (J4A) grants (including in-kind awards) for this purpose. The P4J team will also promote public awareness about JSIs and how citizens can engage with them through a series of innovative activities, including regionalize community rights initiatives and advocacy dialogues, creative video skits, e-bulletins, and community radio campaigns. MISA will also build the capacity of journalists to cover the justice sector.

Under Objective 3, P4J will promote open and accessible justice by building public capacity to use transparency tools, in particular the Freedom of Information Law.P4J will also work to make public the degree to which JSIs are implementing their own expressed goals and achieving their stated benchmarks.P4J will conduct Data Transparency Assessments of targeted JSIs to review how much performance data they currently made public and recommend data dissemination enhancements.

The end goal is to increase the efficiency and fairness of the justice system.

Under Objective 1, the programme seeks to build the capacity of civil society organizations to monitor user experiences as monitoring of courts and other JSIs will help gather data that will be used to advocate for an effective and efficient justice delivery system thus helping to protect the rights of litigants. Monitoring will cover the five key subject areas of the project namely.

• Anti – Corruption.
• Family Law.
• Labor Law.
• Commercial Law.
• Human Rights/ Criminal Law.

The LRF will make use of three main approaches to court monitoring; systemic/procedural, thematic and ad hoc. The monitoring will include establishing the reasons for the disposition time of the cases monitored, identifying patterns in court proceedings and observing proper process and procedure is being upheld. This will in turn feed into advocacy initiatives to address identified problems, be they legislative gaps, training needs or information gaps among litigants. LRF will also monitor selected Labour Court judgments to see the extent to which they are justified and consistent with Zimbabwean law as well as international labour conventions ratified by Zimbabwe. LRF will partner with worker’s movements and target specific cases in collaboration with associations such as Zimbabwe Banks and Allied Workers Union and the Zimbabwe Teachers Association. The types of cases that will be monitored include unfair labour practices such as non-payment or underpayment of wages and salaries and sexual harassment cases. To date the LRF together with EWMI has managed to develop the various checklists to be used for the court monitoring. The Senior and Junior Lawyers have also been trained on court monitoring. A refresher training on labour, civil law, criminal law and bail proceedings has also been undertaken to prepare the court monitors for this activity. The monitoring will be done by LRF lawyers and paralegals resident in the various districts. LRF therefore seeks the services of a consultant to: Develop a data management system that will be used by court monitors to input the information gathered from the court monitoring exercise to ensure safety and security of data gathered and uploaded in the system.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop a data management system that will be used by court monitors to input the information gathered from the court monitoring exercise.
• Train the court monitors on the use of the data management system.
• To ensure safety and security of data gathered and uploaded in the system.
• Continuously monitor the functioning of the data management system so as to input new information from emerging trends.
• Recommend the type of gadgets/tablets/phones to be acquired that are in sync with the data management system that will be used to gather information at the courts.

Features to be considered in the design and development of the Information System:

Taking into consideration the needs of the P4J court monitoring project, the Information system must enable users to collect, store and manage data in the formats requires as well as deliver information as needed on suitable platforms to the users as required. The following features should be considered by the consultant in design the system;

Centralization of information:

• Information-management system centralizes the information, so it is not duplicated in different places or in different formats.

Information Must Be Manageable:

• By hierarchy, users should be able to approve or deny changes to files as well as the creation of new documents. Data should be backed up so that if a file is deleted or compromised, it can be restored. Data access should also be restricted so that only those who need it are able to use it.

Information Must Be Accessible:

• Information may be required to be accessible off-site, as well as on tablets and smartphones. This could be achieved by making the information accessible over a secure web server and through a mobile app as monitors need to access some files off site using tablets or smart phones.

Information infrastructure should follow the institutional arrangements within the P4J project:

• The Information system should facilitate communication and information sharing throughout the P4J structures. The specific hierarchies, workflows, team structures, reporting relationships and information flows on court monitoring within the P4J project will be replicated with the Information system. The information infrastructure must align with the flow of information in such a way that those who need information have ready access to it and those who do not need it are not distracted by it, while also enabling individual-contributor roles, and collaborative teams to work through the system.

Rights and Permissions:

• As set out in the institutional arrangements under the P4J project, data security and permissions set out in the cooperative agreement of the project, these will apply and define who has access to which information and who does not. The consultant should ensure that information infrastructure is aligned with data security policies to ensure that sensitive data can only be accessed by those with permission and that access can be tracked to pinpoint the source of fraud, theft or intrusion.

Deliverables:

• A data management system that is line with the requirements of the court monitoring project developed by LRF.
• Training of court monitors on the use of the data management system.
• Recommendation on the appropriate gadgets to acquire that are compatible with the data management system developed.
• Continuous management of the data system to keep abreast with emerging court monitoring developments.

Quality of Work:

• The consultant shall ensure the highest standards of work and timely deliverables at every stage of this assignment.

Qualifications and Experience

• An eligible consultant/ consultancy firm should meet the following criteria:
• Compliance with legal requirements of registration with relevant authorities such as ZIMRA.
• Experience of over 10 years in carrying out similar assignments with a proven track record of developing such information management systems.
• At least 3 References for similar assignments performed within the period 2019-2023.
• The Consultant/Consultancy firm and staff must be independent of LRF and its associates and affirm their independence in the Consultancy Agreement.
• Provide Consultancy Methodology, Proposed Work-plan, and financial outlay of the work to be undertaken as well as the Curriculum Vitae for the consultancy team.

NB Any actual or potential conflict of interest in taking up this role should be highlighted.

Supervision

The consultant/consulting company shall undertake the assignment under the supervision of the Executive Director/ Programmes Manager/ Project Officer. At key stages of the assignment, he/ she shall give updates on the development of the information management system. It is also expected that the Consultant will work closely with the Project Officer and the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer. These Officers shall ensure the relevant background information and documents are made available to the consultant.

Other

• Arnold Zikhali Biography & Profile | Age & Date of Birth, Education, Career, Marital Status, Controversies & Aspirations

How to Apply

Interested candidates should submit their technical and financial proposals, CVs and academic certificates of consultants and documents showing previous services (satisfactory performance of work) of similar nature, referees via email to: p4jo@lrf.co.zw and copy lpd@lrf.co.zw, lrfnd@lrf.co.zw Consultant”.

NB: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Deadline: 22 June 2023