Job Description
Terms of Reference: Virtual Mall for Sanjeev Group
Introduction
Vithu Hub has been over two decades strengthening women and youth networks for advocacy and social change, promoting inclusion and social cohesion through strategies that promote participatory democracy in order to enhance rights and economic and social justice and equitable development.
This assignment is undertaken with the support of the Strengthening Social Cohesion and Peace in Sri Lanka (SCOPE) programme, which started operations on 1 March 2022 and is co-funded by the European Union and Germany Federal Office.
SCOPE’s Overall Objective is to contribute to an inclusive, peaceful and prosperous society in Sri Lanka. SCOPE’s Specific Objective is to advance social cohesion in Sri Lanka. The program operates nationwide and cooperates with diverse stakeholders from government, civil society, and the private sector.
This assignment is related to the objective of promoting inclusive economic access and digital market access for rural and vulnerable women entrepreneurs based on the Sanjeev model by Vithu.
The contractor is expected to design and implement a functioning website (LANGUAGES), that supports a virtual mall for the Sanjeev group under the purview of Vithu. The website should be able to easily host a range of products and enable pre-order and client exchange for the entrepreneurs.
Context
Women heads of households (WHHs) in the Northern Province face multiple challenges in inclusion and access, due to lack of resources, employment and market access. The business sector for these women is limited, and the government has not been supportive of their efforts. The aim of this initiative is to support women in order to support their families; this initiative would offer a viable and sustainable solution for them.
Despite these efforts in Jaffna, huge challenges persist in the Northern and Eastern Province. Even with available goods, they struggle to negotiate standard prices with middlemen due to their inability to find markets, thus losing out on their competitive advantage to secure good prices for their products. This initiative seeks to empower women through a model of a digital market place. The applications of this model will be shared with the stakeholders in the community.
It is valuable to capture niche spaces of the digital market with women’s stories and narratives together with their products that are authentic, traditional and grassroots.
Assignment Description
To this end, this initiative supported by SCOPE seeks to strengthen a social enterprise to address some of the challenges mentioned above. The initiative would be modeled on the Vithu Sanjeev project in Jaffna and follow a social enterprise model.
The consultant is expected to carry out this assignment in an inclusive and participatory manner, with the outputs being detailed discussions with stakeholders and Vithu. They are expected to conduct extensive dialogue with women entrepreneurs to design a people centered marketplace.
This assignment aims to design and develop a user friendly, inclusive digital marketplace to empower rural women entrepreneurs by enabling them to showcase and sell products through a pre-order-based platform or connected to pre-order through social media handles, servile to seasonal product cycles.
The platform will:
- Highlight women’s narratives visually appealingly showcasing style and include regional product lists and descriptions
- Allow customers to place preorders requests through web and whatsapp and make orders based on availability of products that all can be operated by the women in simple forms and processes.
- Include language (Tamil, English and Sinhala) support and easy navigation and use of icons and buttons for the website and to facilitate women’s understanding.
- Offer secure payment models that transfers following order confirmation through
- Website accessibility features
Deliverables:
- UX wireframe or design mockups for prior approval by Vithu
- Develop a website that is user friendly and accessible for women in the Jaffna district level
- Provide a detailed report on the design process and recommendations for strengthening the initiative
- Provide a final report on the project with recommendations for future sustainability
Technical Proposal
Previous Work and company profile
- Demonstrate previous and implementation plan
- Inclusion measures
- Preliminary plan keeping Jaffna Sanjeev in mind for the proposed concept for easy handling and convenience for women for sustainability. Understanding of Jaffna Sanjeev would be advantageous for this.
- SEO integration is advantageous
Previous work should include
Websites/web platforms of similar nature. Expressly specify in the references which aspects were covered by the team/company
Costing proposal
Provide for time allocation for:
- Minimum 2 Experts- Number of days (you will need days of their availability for discussions and briefing) for the website layout, interfaces and back end development
- Output: design and execute a web platform that will act as the virtual mall for Sanjeev Jaffna for supporting rural women and which is cost effective and user friendly for them to navigate
- Cover costs for Content writing: minimum 300 stories/products
Experience
1.1 Expert 1: Lead UX/UI Designer & Frontend Developer
1.1.1 General Qualifications
- Company/ment must have demonstrated ability to design accessible interfaces for low-literacy and low-tech users.
- Minimum 2 years’ experience in UX/UI for digital development, preferably with e-commerce or digital storytelling platforms or web platforms of similar purpose-oriented or community involved.
1.2 Experience in the Region / Knowledge of the Country
- Prior experience in South Asia, preferably Northern Sri Lanka or post-conflict rural regions.
- Familiarity with working in community-based, women-focused digital projects.
1.3 Language Skills
- Fluency in Tamil and English is mandatory.
1.2 Expert 2: Backend Developer & Systems Integrator
1.2.1 General Qualifications
- Company/ment: At least 5 years of experience in backend development and secure payment systems integration.
- Experience with open-source e-commerce frameworks (e.g., WooCommerce, Laravel, Shopify alternatives).
1.2.2 Experience in the Region / Knowledge of the Country
- Strong preference for developers who have worked in rural tech infrastructure or low-bandwidth solutions in Sri Lanka or similar settings.
1.2.3 Language Skills
- Proficiency in English; ability to provide technical support in Tamil for Vithu and community women exchanges.
Submission
Please email your application to [email protected] (Subject line: Application for Virtual Mall for Sanjeev Group Consultant) before 18th June 2025.
Technical proposals should include past experiences and concept for Jaffna Sanjeev.
Confidential proposals will be treated as much as possible and additional options/proposed solutions will be included in the final cost.
Plan for the time period from 20th June 2025 to 31st July 2025
NO LATE APPLICATIONS WILL BE CONSIDERED
