The Team
Within the World Vision partnership, our cross-functional LMMS team work with the various business units responsible for chronic and other emergency responses that require robust system-tools for the management of commodities, food and cash. The Service Delivery team supports clients that wish to implement these solutions in their day-to-day conditional and unconditional aid programs. The team also works with other implementing partners outside of World Vision who wish to make use of the last mile solutions in their varied field deployments contexts. (The lofty ideal of using the LMMS system as a humanitarian tool across agencies is our ultimate goal! Why re-invent, when you can reuse?), and in fact we have trained and exposed a significant number of aid agencies to the software already.
The LMMS team gathers systems requirements, studies business processes, develops software, and provides extensive trainings and also delivers technical support to the implementing field teams on readying the system for deployment, using the systems, applying upgrades and trouble shooting.
All product development is run by a global team with a presence in North America, Africa and Asia. Technical support (trainings and end-user help) and contract administration is managed now by various Service Delivery Teams for both external agencies (based in Haiti) and by WV’s FMPG team (based in Johannesburg and Nairobi).
Product Development Unit
Team Leader, Applied Technology & Product Development,
World Vision International
Jay Narhan
Jay Narhan is the team leader for applied technology and product development, under the Global Collaboration & Innovation (GC&I) Group of World Vision International.
Previously he worked with World Vision Canada (WVC) (2006 – 2013), where he designed and managed a number of important portfolios on behalf of WVC for the benefit of the wider WV Partnership. These included the design and implementation of HEA Capacity Building projects in India and Indonesia, following the 2004 Tsunami. He has facilitated partnership arrangements with the private sector to further the organization’s capacity to respond to disasters and support long-term development efforts. Over the last five years, Jay has also been responsible for the design, development and deployment of innovative mobile technology solutions in humanitarian programming. He provided direction and oversight for the creation, prototyping and scaling of LMMS, which has culminated in the system being selected as a standard tool for food and cash programming within WVI.
After successful testing and prototyping by WVC and FPMG, the LMMS Product Development functions have transitioned to the Global Center. Jay continues to lead the product development efforts and helps guide the use of emerging technologies for humanitarian application/data management within World Vision. He draws on many years of leadership and management experience garnered from the Information Technology and the non-profit sectors.
Jay has a Master’s degree from Queen’s University in Canada and has advanced studies in Computer Science and International Management.
Jay is now based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
View Jay Narhan’s profileSenior Application Developer, World Vision International
Benny Law
Benny Law works as the Senior Application Developer for the LMMS Product Development unit, under the Global Collaboration and Innovation (GC&I) Group of World Vision.
Prior to this, he worked as the Senior Java Developer with WV Canada’s IT Division (since September 2005). Benny was part of the Web application development team responsible for the development and maintenance of WVC’s public-facing and internal Web applications. He first became involved with LMMS during its pilot phase in 2008 and was eventually seconded to the LMMS Product Development team full time under the International & Canadian Program Division. Benny’s work was instrumental in creating LMMS, which was also recognized by a Computerworld award in 2012.
Benny holds a master’s degree in computer science from The University of Western Ontario and has over 23 years of experience in software development. Before joining World Vision, he has worked as an IT consultant for many years in a broad range of industries and technology platforms and has delivered successful projects for several major Canadian companies. He is passionate about delivering the best software solution with the highest quality to meet real business needs.
Benny is based in Mississauga, Ontario and reports to Jay Narhan, team leader for LMMS Product Development.
Quality Assurance & DB Analyst, World Vision International
Richard Lankas
Richard Lankas is the Quality Assurance and Database Analyst for the LMMS Product Development unit under Global Collaboration & Innovation (GC&I) Group.
Richard first became involved with LMMS during its pilot phase in 2008 as an intern under FPMG. His responsibilities have grown over the last five years and as the senior technical support specialist, Richard was overseeing junior technical staff while also supporting broader field deployment of LMMS in countries including Kenya, Mali and Haiti. Following the Haiti earthquake, Richard led the LMMS field deployments for 9 months through training of local IT staff and supporting LMMS field users. His experience and professionalism enabled him to serve as FPMG’s acting manager for learning and innovation in 2011.
Richard’s role continues to grow to encompass more technical components with applied technologies under GC&I. He will be working on LMMS database management system and will be critical in the quality assurances processes to ensure the very best in our humanitarian software solutions for the partnership.
Richard holds an undergraduate degree in Information Technology from Jomo Kenyatta University.
He is based in Nairobi, Kenya and reports to Jay Narhan, team leader for the LMMS Product Development.
Service Delivery Team
Service Delivery Manager, World Vision International
Keith Chibafa
Prior to joining World Vision in early 2010, Keith spent over 12 years in the private sector, assuming roles that included Chief Technical Officer and Head of Professional Services.
Keith has extensive Project and Strategic Management experience, as well as a technical understanding of Banking, Payment and Mobile systems. He has had the privilege of working in many different countries and contexts and thus can easily adapt in a multi-cultural environment.
As Project Manager for the Haiti LMMS deployment, Keith is responsible for leading all field-based operations including set up, management, monitoring and reporting of field based activities to ensure project success. In this leadership role, he has had to work with local partners and stakeholders to ensure wider scale deployment of LMMS. Since project inception in March 2010 to May 2011, LMMS in Haiti has registered over 100,000 beneficiaries and has distributed to over 30,000 households (dated as of May 2011). In addition to his role as Project Manager, Keith will be taking on additional responsibilities associated with the LMMS Global Service Delivery function.
Keith has a Masters degree in Business Leadership from the University of South Africa and an Honors degree in Computer Science.
Keith enjoys travel and is a keen sport and outdoor enthusiast.
Field Technical Support Officer, FPMG, World Vision International
Paul Mwirichia
Paul joined World Vision in September 2010 and desires to work in the Humanitarian sector for many years to come.
He holds a BSc. Information Technology (JKUAT) among other IT end-user certifications. He has over 7 years of experience in Systems Administration, Servers, Hardware & Software troubleshooting, Networking, web development and training.
Previously Paul worked with Nairobi Institute of Technology as Systems & Network Administrator and later worked with the East African Tea Trade Association (they run the second largest tea auction in the world) where he was in charge of Business Process Re-engineering, specifically in modernizing the auction process towards E-auction.
Though new in the humanitarian world, he is catching up quite fast and so far has been able to organize a successful LMMS end user training for the Voi IPA in Kenya, and has supported an LMMS deployment in Uganda. He is based in Nairobi, Kenya.
World Vision managers that have worked to communicate and endorse changes in the way business is done include the following business sponsors.
Business Sponsor
Otto Farkas
Otto is the Senior Advisor, Innovation and Partnering, Global Collaboration and Innovation, World Vision International. He brings over fifteen years in the international development and humanitarian field. His experience includes leadership, program management, research, technical consultation, and training. In addition to overseeing the organization’s response to humanitarian emergencies, Otto also provides leadership to innovative multi-sector partnering and strategic program resource development initiatives for World Vision Canada. Currently he is facilitating a number of collaborative initiatives between public, private and civil–society organizations in emerging economies, involving multinational corporations, as well as promoting innovation through information technology (IT) solutions in humanitarian service delivery.
Otto has actively participated in the ALNAP research on Innovation in International Humanitarian Action, including a Case Study that documents one of the initiatives he has championed. He is particularly interested in innovation management in large not-for-profit organizations, and recognized for promoting practical solutions and approaches to achieving innovative change in humanitarian action.
Otto has a Master of Arts degree in the Social Sciences from the Eötvös Lorand University of Budapest in Hungary. He is accredited by the Partnership Brokers Accreditation Scheme (PBAS) through the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the International Business Leader Forum (IBLF) in the UK. He also lectures at the Business School of Humber College in Toronto in International Development.
In addition to the team listed above, the following individuals have provided (some continue to provide) invaluable assistance to the team.
Program Development Adviser, World Vision International
Junus David
Junus has been instrumental in supporting product revisions of LMMS and providing input into various module designs. His extensive experience in Cash Transfer programming has helped the team in understanding the particular requirements of this type of intervention.
Junus David is the Program Development Advisor for Food Programming Management Group (FPMG) of World Vision International. One of his critical roles is to support the development of food assistance program in Asia Pacific and Middle East Eastern Europe regions. Junus is also the thought-leader for cash based programming for World Vision. Junus has been in various roles in his past 13 years with WV. He also engaged in supporting major emergency responses from his desk, but directly involved in the 2004 Tsunami response in Aceh, 2010 earthquake response in Haiti and 2010 flood response in Pakistan. He lived and worked in Indonesia, East Timor, Azerbaijan, Australia and Lesotho (Southern Africa).
Junus holds a bachelor degree in Information Management (Indonesia) and International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance (Switzerland). Prior to WV, he worked with a consulting firm in Jakarta at the ISO 9000 certification consultancy unit. Junus is currently based in Bangkok, Thailand.
Support, World Vision Canada
Paula Quinlan
Paula Quinlan’s career with World Vision began in 2007 along with her involvement in Last Mile Mobile Solutions primarily in the capacity of procurement/logistical support and project administration on a part-time basis. In 2010 Paula travelled to Haiti as a member of the Deployment and Training Team implementing LMMS into response programming.
Currently her role with LMMS is full-time and involves a wide-range of activities but still focused on the overall administration of this project, drawing on over 10 years of diversified professional experience in administration and coordination.
Trackbacks & Pingbacks