The Sentinel Project (SP) is a registered charity dedicated to assisting communities threatened by mass atrocities worldwide through direct cooperation with the people in harm’s way and the innovative use of technology. SP seeks to learn from how crimes against humanity unfolded in the past and are unfolding in the present to find ways to prevent and mitigate them in the future. The SP team consists of people with expertise on a range of topics, including localized early warning, hate speech monitoring, countering harmful rumours and misinformation, and the use of geospatial imagery to support the prevention and mitigation of violence. SP has worked in countries including Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and Myanmar. We are currently focused on expanding our conflict early warning work into Burkina Faso and Benin.
The Sentinel Project is seeking proposals from qualified individual software developers, small teams, and companies to design and develop software for a conflict early warning system that supports the collection, analysis, visualization, and reporting of conflict-related data, enabling teams and communities to make guided, informed decisions before and during periods of violence.
The end goal is to deploy a secure, user-friendly, web-based conflict early warning platform that supports the collection, analysis, visualization, and reporting of conflict-related data. This platform will enable analysts to monitor risk indicators, identify emerging patterns, visualize trends, and generate actionable alerts so that leaders, stakeholders, and communities can make informed, guided decisions before and during periods of violence.
The platform will integrate and synthesize data from multiple sources (including field reports, open-source intelligence, media monitoring, government statistics, and partner organizations), generate visual analytics, and support collaborative analysis among our team.
Tech Stack: (User interface, application logic, data storage, infrastructure, and hosting)
Scope: Build from scratch with some database integration and UI/UX design
Timeline: 3 months with extended time for testing and troubleshooting
Deliverables: Custom software, user interface, troubleshooting/maintenance
Centralize the collection and management of conflict early warning data
Monitor conflict early warning indicators in near real time
Identify patterns among events across time and space
Generate alerts when predefined thresholds are exceeded
Visualize data through graphs and geographic mapping tools
Develop interactive visualizations that reveal patterns, trends, and anomalies to support evidence-based risk assessments at the local level
Easily share information with broader networks in order to build situational awareness amongst communities
Produce easy-to-read analytical reports so that information can be shared efficiently and effectively with various community leaders, other organizations, governmental officials, and other key stakeholders across conflict-prone zones (South Sudan, Kenya, Benin)
At a high level, the developer will undertake the following tasks in order to achieve the project goals:
Developing a web application as per the agreed-upon scope of work, which will describe the software requirements
Setting up the necessary workflow tools and structures to facilitate platform development, such as repositories, timelines, task tracking charts, test and production environments, and deployment pipelines
Developing the UX interface in a collaborative process with the SP team in order to ensure that the software has a high degree of usability for a wide range of users, including those with only basic computer skills
Testing and optimizing the web application, including from a UX perspective:
- Ensuring that all issues raised by the client during the testing phase are resolved
- Ensuring that all issues raised by the client after the launch are resolved (the duration of the post-launch support period is to be determined)
Attending meetings with the SP team as required
Sharing regular updates with the SP team on progress made
Providing training on how to use and maintain the platform after implementation
User Management, including role-based access controls for Sentinel Project staff or partner staff who will use the software in the field (for example, staff in northern Benin)
Two user types: Administrative user and analyst
Role-based rights
- Administrative user: ability to create new accounts, control over access to all accounts; ability to enter and edit data, ability to create visualizations and data exports
- Analyst: Ability to enter and edit data, ability to create visualizations and data exports
Secure authentication and authorization
User activity logging
An interactive dashboard for users to fill out event submissions
Bulk data upload functionality (CSV, Excel, JSON) for early warning indicators, contact manager, actor profiles, and terrain information
API integration capabilities
Data validation and quality control workflows
Historical data storage and retrieval (ability to edit, delete, and restore event entries)
Create and manage event submissions tagged with conflict early warning indicators, which could include, for example:
- Protests and demonstrations
- Armed group activity
- Mass displacement
- Increases in commodity prices
- Service delivery disruptions, such as closures of roads
- An increase in hate speech or misinformation
Define indicator categories (socio-economic, political, etc.) and risk levels (high risk, medium risk, low risk)
Assign geographic locations and timestamping of event submissions
Configure the weighting and scoring mechanisms of event submissions
The system is meant to track early warning signs of conflict. It is important for us to easily identify sudden or unusual spikes in the frequency of violence. At a minimum, on a graph, users should be able to see a graph that displays:
X-axis (horizontal): Time (hours, days, weeks)
Y-axis (vertical): The value being measured (e.g., events)
Each data entry (event) should be a separate dot on the graph
We will need trend analysis tools for viewing event submissions in different formats
- The graph should be able to visualize different locations
- Users should be able to switch between locations or see multiple lines at once to compare locations
- Users should be able to overlay events on a single graph or filter by location, date range, and indicator category, and other possible filters
A timeline slider to see how things change over time/time-series graphs made up of event submissions; display historical and current trends (ability to zoom in or zoom out)
The possibility of viewing visualizations based on categories, risk levels, and other weightings of events
Pattern recognition and anomaly detection are built into the graphs for easy visualization
Users should be able to export charts, graphics, and data sets of the events
The system can produce Word, CSV, PDF, and Excel export data and visualizations
Encryption in transit and at rest
Secure API architecture
Audit logging
Data backup and recovery procedures
Compliance with Canadian privacy and security standards
Vulnerability testing and remediation
Be cloud hosted or deployable within the organization’s infrastructure
Support current web browsers
Be responsive on desktop and tablet devices
Support scalable data storage
Accommodate future integration with machine learning and predictive analytics tools
Maintain high availability and performance standards
Interactive geographic map with administrative boundaries (Google Maps API)
Conflict event mapping with risk hotspot visualization
Geographic filtering
Integration with GIS data sources
Project work plan
Requirements specification document
System architecture document
UI/UX design
Fully functional platform
APIs and integration documentation
Testing, including:
- Unit testing
- Integration testing
- User acceptance testing
- Security testing
- Performance testing
Security assessment report
User manual and training material (if necessary)
Source code repository and documentation; deployment and maintenance documentation
Five (5) or more years of professional software development experience and experience with responsive web design, version control systems (especially Git), SQL databases, Google APIs, and open-source projects
Proficiency in web development with strong knowledge of Python, SQL, HTML, and CSS
Proficient in front-end development with HTML5/CSS and JavaScript experience, asynchronous request handling, and API operation
Professional experience with React
Experience in data management systems, dashboards, GIS integration, mobile data collection, and secure web applications is desirable
Experience with digital security protocols (Identity & Access Management (IAM); encryption, application and network safety, etc.)
Strong written and spoken English language skills
The technical proposal should include, at a minimum:
Proposed methodology, including a plan for training and knowledge transfer
A technical architecture plan that includes a written narrative describing the project
Security approach
Key personnel (could be one person), including relevant experience, roles, and responsibilities
Detailed budget, cost breakdown by elements, licensing, hosting, and maintenance costs
As well as:
Cover letter
Resume
Portfolio (including 3 comparable projects)
Submission deadline is 30 June 2026, with proposals sent to joinus@thesentinelproject.org