EXPRESSION OF INTEREST: DIGITAL SAVINGS GROUP MANAGEMENT PLATFORM FOR SAVING FOR TRANSFORMATION

**TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR)**

**Assignment Tittle: Digital Savings Group Management Platform for Saving for Transformation (S4T) groups**

1. **Background**

World Vision Somalia is implementing the Savings for Transformation (S4T) approach to strengthen financial inclusion, savings mobilization, and economic resilience among vulnerable households, women, and youth. Through S4T, community members organize into savings groups, mobilize savings, access internal lending mechanisms, and strengthen financial literacy and economic participation.

Currently, savings group records and transactions are managed manually, creating challenges related to data quality, transparency, reporting efficiency, auditability, and real-time performance monitoring.

To improve operational effectiveness and strengthen programme management, World Vision seeks to identify and deploy an existing digital savings group management solution that aligns with S4T operational requirements and has been successfully implemented in similar contexts.

**2. Purpose of the Assignment**

The purpose of this assignment is to identify, configure, deploy, and support an existing digital platform for management of S4T savings groups.

World Vision is not seeking development of a new application. The selected service provider shall propose an existing, operational, and tested solution with demonstrated experience supporting savings groups, Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA), community finance groups, microfinance initiatives, or similar target populations.

The solution should strengthen record management, financial tracking, reporting, transparency, and programme monitoring while remaining practical for low-connectivity environments.

**3. Objectives**

The assignment aims to:

- Digitize savings group operations and records and reduce reliance on paper-based recordkeeping.
- Improve transparency and accountability of savings, loan, and other group transactions.
- Enable timely, accurate, and accessible operational and programme reporting.
- Strengthen programme monitoring and decision-making through dashboards, analytics, and performance information.
- Improve accessibility, security, integrity, and controlled access to programme data.
- Strengthen auditability and compliance of savings group activities.
- Provide a sustainable digital solution with appropriate technical support, maintenance, upgrades, and data portability.

**4. Scope of Assignment**

- The selected provider will be responsible for supplying, configuring, deploying, rolling out, and supporting an existing digital savings group management platform. The provider will be expected to work closely with World Vision Somalia to assess the fit of the proposed platform against S4T operational requirements, identify any gaps, configure the solution, conduct user acceptance testing, train relevant users, support rollout, and provide post-deployment technical support.
- The proposed solution should require limited configuration or customization rather than full software development. Any proposed customization must be clearly described, justified, and agreed with World Vision before implementation. The provider shall demonstrate how the platform can be rapidly deployed and maintained over the required implementation period and beyond.

**4.1 Existing Solution/platform Requirements**

- The proposed solution must be an existing, proven, and fully operational platform that has been successfully implemented or is currently in use by organizations managing savings groups, VSLAs, community finance, microfinance, or comparable financial inclusion programmes.
- The provider should demonstrate relevant experience working with women, youth, rural communities, vulnerable populations, or similar target groups.
- The solution should require limited configuration and customization rather than full software development and should be capable of being deployed within a practical implementation timeframe.
- The proposed platform must be available for demonstration during the technical evaluation, including demonstration of core functionality, reporting, user access, security, and offline or low-connectivity capabilities where applicable.
- The provider shall provide relevant case studies, client references, or other evidence of previous successful implementations.
- The provider shall demonstrate its capacity to provide long-term technical support, maintenance, system updates, troubleshooting, and upgrades.

**4.2 Functional Requirements**

**4.2.1 Savings Group Management**

The platform shall support comprehensive savings group administration and management, including:

- Registration and management of savings groups;
- Assignment of unique group identification numbers;
- Registration of group profiles and leadership structures;
- Designation and management of three (3) Group Administrators per group;
- Member registration, onboarding, and profile management;
- Group invitations Through mobile numbers;
- Membership acceptance and onboarding through SMS, USSD, mobile application, or web portal;
- Maintenance of group records and membership history.

**4.2.2 Savings Contributions**

The platform shall support the management of member savings and group financial contributions, including:

- Daily, weekly, monthly, and configurable contribution schedules;
- Recording and tracking of savings contributions;
- Maintenance of individual member transaction records;
- Automated reminders for pending or overdue contributions;
- Real-time visibility of individual savings balances;
- Real-time visibility of overall group balances;

**4.2.3 Loan Management**

The platform shall provide end-to-end loan management functionality, including:

- Submission of loan applications by group members;
- Configurable loan approval workflows;
- Loan approval by designated Group Administrators;
- Recording and tracking of loan disbursements;
- Tracking and monitoring of loan repayment and schedules reminders;
- Tracking of outstanding and overdue loans;

**4.2.4 Transparency and Member Access**

The platform shall promote transparency and accountability by providing members with access to:

- Group savings balances;
- Individual savings records and transaction history;
- Contribution summaries and account statements;
- Details of active and outstanding loans;
- Transaction confirmations and reports;

**4.2.5 Access Channels**

To ensure accessibility for all users, the platform shall support multiple access channels, including:

- Mobile application;
- Web-based access;
- USSD functionality;
- SMS alerts, reminders, and notifications;
- Secure user authentication across all channels;
- Offline functionality and data synchronization capabilities.
- The platform shall function effectively in low-connectivity and remote operating environments

**5. User Roles and Permissions**

**5.1 Group Members**

The platform shall enable Group Members to:

- Make savings contributions;
- Request and loans;
- View individual balances;
- Monitor loan repayments and outstanding balances;
- Access transaction history;
- Receive transaction confirmations and notifications;

**5.2 Group Administrators**

The platform shall enable Group Administrators to:

- Manage group membership, including member registration and approval;
- Review and approve loan requests;
- Monitor savings contributions and loan activities;
- Access group financial reports;
- Monitor group balances and financial transactions;

**5.3 World Vision Users**

The platform shall provide World Vision users with:

- Monitoring and reporting access;
- Access to real-time dashboards;
- Group performance monitoring capabilities;

**6. Security, Data Protection and Compliance**

The provider shall implement:

**Authentication and Security**

- Secure user authentication;
- Role-based access control;
- Activity audit logs.

**Data Protection**

- Encryption of data at rest and in transit;
- Secure data storage practices;
- Controll