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The Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future (O3) Programme aims to support adolescents and young people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in achieving positive health, education, and gender equality outcomes. This program strives to contribute to a sustained reduction in new HIV infections, early and unintended pregnancies, gender-based violence, and child marriage. Learners’ physical, psychological, and emotional development is also impacted by gender-based violence (GBV), particularly in schools. 

The UNESCO ROSA in partnership with Zimbabwe's Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) developed a WhatsApp-based educational application, Dzidzo Paden|Imfundwe’ndlini in 2022. It is a WhatsApp automated chatbot that distributes premium academic resources to learners who have limited access to the internet but have access to WhatsApp. The chatbot distributes curriculum-aligned academic resources (notes, past exam papers and marking schemes) for all subjects at all levels. Along with academic materials; the App also shares material to encourage SRHR awareness among teachers and learners through age-appropriate information about SRHR.

How does the Dzidzo Paden|Imfundwe’ndlini chatbot work?

A chatbot user follows the steps below:

• Contact Saving: The user saves the chatbot's phone number in their contacts list.
• Initiation: The user starts the conversation by sending "hi" to the chatbot number.
• Navigation: The chatbot responds with a menu or options. The user selects choices by sending numbers or keywords to navigate through: - Learning level (e.g., primary, secondary); Subject (e.g., math, science); Topic (e.g., algebra, biology); Resource type (e.g., notes, practice questions)
• Resource Delivery: Once the user has made all selections, the chatbot sends the requested learning material as a downloadable (e.g., PDF, image, video).
• Conclusion: After the user downloads the material, the chat session ends. The user can start a new session anytime by sending "hi" again.

Adding new features to the Dzidzo Paden|Imfundwe’ndlini chatbot

Integrating interactivity and AI into the Dzidzo Paden|Imfundwe’ndlini chatbot transforms it from a basic information provider into a dynamic, personalized learning companion. This advancement allows for real-time engagement, tailored content delivery, and intelligent responses to complex queries, aligning with modern educational theories that emphasize active learning and immediate feedback. AI-driven features such as contextual recommendations, and natural language processing significantly enhance the learning experience, potentially improving user retention and learning outcomes. By leveraging these capabilities, the bot evolves into a sophisticated learning platform that can revolutionize access to education, making it more engaging, effective, and accessible to diverse learners. 

The new features to be added are separate learning pathways for Students, Teachers and Parents - The current bot architecture provides for one learning pathway. Separate learning pathways for Students, Teachers and Parents are recommended as described below.

Features in the new pathways:

Students:

For students, the journey begins with selecting their learning level. They can then:

• Access learning material (notes, exam papers and mark schemes)
• Access a Learner Helpline for general support (Address book leading to recommended health and well-being service providers)
• Chat with a Counsellor Bot for personal and health guidance (the bot will be trained to provide basic counselling service and link students to the helpline should they require specialized services.
• Interact with a Tutor Bot for academic assistance (Bot will be tuned to guide students to answers rather than give students the answers directly).
• Access Online Safety Materials for guidance on how to stay safe online.

Teachers:

Via their pathway teachers can:

• Access Curriculum Materials, (e.g Teacher's Guides, Syllabus etc)
• Be guided to an AI Lesson Planner (A tool for making lesson preparation more efficient)
• Access material to understand and manage learner well being (i.e UNESCO resources on Connect with Respect)
• Access to Online Safety Materials for guiding students on how to stay safe online

Parents:

Parents will be able to

• Access resources for Parent-Child Communication
• Access resources on Online Safety for young people

The revamped chatbot should offer a streamlined, user-friendly experience with simple menus for easy navigation, catering to students, teachers, and parents. The flow of commands from starting the chat to its end will be shortened for efficiency, and emojis are used throughout to make the bot more engaging, especially for younger users.

The consultant will complete the following activities:

Design: 
User-friendly interface compatible with WhatsApp.
Integration of all provided educational content/resources (to be provided).

Development:
Programming the chatbot's logic based on the required new features.

Testing:
Conducting functional and usability tests.
Ensuring reliability and performance under various user loads.

Deployment:
Relaunching the chatbot on WhatsApp.

Support & Maintenance:
Develop easy to use analytics portal
Offering post-launch support for bug fixes and performance issues.

• Inception meeting report and workplan
• Fully functional revamped WhatsApp chatbot.
• Fully functional analytics portal.
• Maintenance plan and schedule.

It is estimated that the consultancy takes about one and a half months (6 weeks) to completion starting on 10 March 2025. This duration may be reviewed based on initial proposals and inputs from the selected consultant.

Educational Background:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, Educational Technology, or a related field.
• Certifications in chatbot development technologies (e.g., Dialogflow, Microsoft Bot Framework) will be an added advantage.

Experience:

• Minimum 4 years in software development, with at least 2 years specifically in chatbot or conversational AI development.
• Proficient in programming languages like Python, JavaScript, or Java, commonly used in chatbot frameworks.
• Hands-on experience with APIs, especially WhatsApp Business API.
• Proven track record of developing at least 2 educational or learning management system projects, where chatbots or conversational interfaces were implemented.
• Experience in integrating and managing content from various sources into a chatbot environment.