YES Kenya and YIPE Terms of Reference (TOR) for Design of Website and Content Management accessible via net and mobile platforms

The Youth Entrepreneurship & Sustainability (YES Kenya) Network and the Youth Interactive Portal for Enterprise (YIPE) have embarked on a joint project aimed at Promoting the Culture of Entrepreneurship in Kenya.

To meet the challenge of achieving this ambitious project, the services of a skilled contractor is required to design a dynamic website and content management system and translate that onto a mobile platform that will meet YES Kenya and YIPE needs.

Expected end-results

Front end:

• Creation of an eye-catching, easy to navigate website and mobile portal, that is robust and searchable, whilst offering several interactive features to the users.
• The website should be accessible to low-bandwidth users and should not require downloading of any specific fonts or programme for complete user experience. The mobile platform should be accessible to low-end devices.

Back end:

• Creation of a robust and intuitive customized Content Management System based on project requirements. The CMS should allow YES Kenya and YIPE to manage and update the website easily through sub-administrators who are not expected to have any special technical knowledge.
• YES Kenya and YIPE should be able to update all the pages and sections remotely but securely through the online CMS without requiring any external HTML editor or downloading of software.
• The website (net and mobile) should be database-driven / modular so that it can handle all the existing information and be able to handle new documents that would get uploaded on it on a daily basis.
• The website should be able to integrate multimedia

Overall:

• The website should be secure and bug-free.
• The data should be held in a secure environment. It should be possible to regularly back-up the entire database and restore all the data in case of any errors.
• The website should conform to major web-standards so that the website and its content can easily be indexed by major search engines and is accessible by different browsers.

Requirements

The requirements although not exclusive, will include:

• Proven track record of use in web and mobile development. Applicants will have to provide a minimum of three (3) links and references for sites they have developed in the last two (2) years.

Applications

Your application should include, but is not limited to:

• A capability statement.
• Your CV – maximum of 2 pages
• A list of at least three (3) web and mobile site links and references. The references should be organisations/ individuals that have contracted the applicant within the last 2 years.

Please submit electronic applications by Friday November 26^th 2010 to info@yipekenya.org with the subject heading Application for web and mobile development assignment.

Youth entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply.

About YES Kenya

Youth Entrepreneurship & Sustainability(YES Kenya) Network is a national youth multi-stakeholder network involved in promoting youth entrepreneurship and employment in Kenya and committed to the global call of creating sustainable livelihoods for Youth. For more information, visit www.yeskenya.org/new

About the Youth Interactive Portal for Enterprise (YIPE)

The Youth Interactive Portal for Enterprise (YIPE) is a new media social enterprise that provides free business information and resources to Kenyan youth entrepreneurs. For more information, visit www.yipekenya.org, and follow @yipeorg on Twitter.

Corruption rears its ugly head in 2 days among 3 entrepreneurs, during Global Entrepreneurship Week

By Fiona Mati

On the week that marks Global Entrepreneurship, I haven’t even gotten half way and yet I have met three entrepreneurs (one social) who told me about the impact corruption has on their lives.

The first is at the aspiring stage. He just finished a business plan to sell liquor on the outskirts of Nairobi. His reason for consulting me was not just to take a look at the plan and let him know if he could proceed. The plan was great: projections, cash flows, inventories … but missing were what are commonly called indirect costs.

The aspiring entrepreneur wanted to know where he would put the cost for “protection” that was to be paid to the police as well as the local gang. He asked, does that go under miscellaneous costs?

The next day I met two other entrepreneurs. The first a social entrepreneur with a brilliant concept has been at the contract signing stage for a grant from an NGO. In his case, though the boss at the overseas headquarters has said that the project should commence, the local officers seem to have problems preparing the final documents so the grant can be disbursed. The weary social entrepreneur asked: do you think they want a bribe?

The final entrepreneur I met has been in business for two years, and is making money. When I asked him how easy it was to secure contracts with his large business clients, he didn’t even waste a second in responding that you have to be friendly with the person in charge of procurement, then not only do you get local purchase orders, but you also get paid without the headache of having to chase for the money long after the invoice due date has passed.

And indeed these three entrepreneurs show that corruption and cronyism are the shadowy elephants in the room that need to be addressed. Most times the assumption is that corruption is prevalent in the public sector. But it can be just as rampant in the private and third sectors. Youth entrepreneurs by their very essence of being young and not as connected socially and financially are vulnerable to unfair business practices against them. This means that they too often like the last entrepreneur frequently engage in bribery and it eventually becomes just another operational cost, though not inserted as glaringly into the audited accounts of their enterprises.

The loss they face in terms of business is also shared amongst the larger corporations with corrupt procurement officers. They wind up paying heftier prices though they probably never learn about it. In the case of the NGO sector, the loss is probably even more fatal in terms of projects that could save lives never taking off because of corrupt fund managers.

Food for thought during this third Global Entrepreneurship week whose theme this year is “dismantling barriers”.

Fiona Mati is the founder of the Youth Interactive Portal for Enterprise a social enterprise that provides free information and resources to youth entrepreneurs in East Africa. For more information, visit www.yipekenya.org, and follow @yipeorg on Twitter.

Business of the living or the dead?

A fascinating article by Kofi Akosah-Sarpong titled ‘Archbishop Palmer-Buckle’s “Funeral Oration”’, published in The African Executive this week describes the growing custom among Ghanaians of spending vast amounts of money on funerals. In fact according to Akosah-Sarpong, these ‘bling’ laden funerals often leave the living in debt.

However what we found more intriguing is that the funeral business has also spurred on various related enterprises. Akosah-Sarpong writes:

“Kweku Akosah, one of the leading funeral services proprietors in Ghana, owns the Owners Funeral Services. Owners Funeral Services, driven by Ghanaians sheer obsession with the dead has grown so much that it has branches in most parts of Ghana. Akosah employs over 100 people with varied professionals – wailers, criers, dancers, praise-singers, decorators of the dead, coffin makers, musicians, tailors and seamstresses, promoters, food makers and servers among others.”

In fact death has become so commoditised in Ghana that funeral service owners like Kweku Akosah also offer further incentives to use their services such as financing.

All this in a country where the living still struggle day to day for basic living needs such as food, shelter and education.

Has death been commoditised in your country?