Paradigm Initiative (PIN), a social enterprise advocating for digital rights in Africa, launched a new website in 2015 to ensure accessibility to all materials related to the work of the organization. The new platform has been , providing key information to the digital rights and inclusion community, partners and stakeholders across the world. Today, Paradigm Initiative is seeking a company to redesign and rebrand its website on a secure open source platform; ensure the migration of the site to a new server with an assured service level as set out in an SLA, as well as web site maintenance and search engine optimization. The primary users of the site will be members of Paradigm Initiative, civil society, partners, donors and the general public.

 OBJECTIVE 

Paradigm Initiative is inviting proposals from reputable and qualified companies with a track record of success in designing and producing digital solutions to develop new templates for the current website and subdomains. The templates will provide a new look-and-feel to the web and will unlock the potential functionalities of the current software while displaying the content in a more organized, attractive and user-friendly manner.

 DELIVERABLES

• The Paradigm initiative website presents a new visual look and its functionalities are enhanced to provide a better experience to users.
• Develop a user manual and deliver a webinar for the support staff and system administrators to perform content upload, system maintenance and administration.
• Support and maintenance: Administrative and technical support, quality control for a period of 6 months.
• Source code handover: Full source code including all developed libraries shall be handed over to Paradigm Initiative.

Deliverables clause

 Once a company is selected, the contract may be amended with time and materials to capture new specific developments on the site upon request of the Paradigm Initiative communication and technical team.

WORK SETTING

 The work setting for the assignment will include different aspects:

Timing and duration of the assignment

 The duration of the contract will be 3 months and the expected starting date will be sometime end of September 2020. The development of the website will be ready in two-months’ time starting from the date of signing the contract. The user manual, webinar and the maintenance of the new webpages will be done from the third month of the contract.

 Briefing/debriefing arrangements

A first meeting/conference call will be scheduled for the Paradigm Initiative team to brief the firm on the background information to develop each of the requested deliverables.

 Reporting relationships and identification of responsibility for assessment of the services/outputs

The company will work in close consultation and under the supervision of the communications and technical team leads. They will follow up the design process answering questions related to the documents. The communications and technical team leads in close consultation with the leadership team will assess the services and outputs of the firm.

 Support provided

 Paradigm initiative will grant access to the current website code and content including WordPress administration console, all documents and pages, plugins, themes and additional files.

WORK PLAN

 Deliverables

 All new developments listed in this section will be built in the current Paradigm initiative site operated in WordPress.

 New look and feel

• Following Paradigm Initiative branding guidelines, design a new look-and-feel for the Paradigm Initiative site capturing the different functionalities outlined in this TOR. The company will develop a graphic concept and the visual language of the new templates.

• Ensure a consistent visual language on the new site by introducing fixed styles in templates ensuring consistency in fonts, formatting, icons, images, layout techniques.

• The new look and feel should be adapted to homepage, sections, subsections, and the following components of the site: Press release template, Blogspots webpage template, publications webpage template, registration webpage template, Webinar webpage template, project pages

• Standard page elements including header, footer, tabs, persistent navigation, contact us, email and page print options should be included in the new templates.

• The new templates should guarantee that most recent content on the site is captured automatically in the homepage in an organized way following specific categories, tags or other custom taxonomies.
• All section and subsection web pages should incorporate functionalities to guarantee the latest information on that section and subsection is displayed.
• The current sections and subsections of the site should be adapted using the new templates. These sections include around 54 pages and 350 publications.

• Adapt the database of the Paradigm initiative site to include new categories to display the information in an organic way.

 New subsections

• Based on the agreed templates, develop an ebook session that allows reading of reports with animation (example of page here ), but not limited to the structure, functionalities and features defined in these terms of reference.
• Based on the agreed templates, develop a modern event subsite for #DRIF, but not limited to the structure, functionalities and features defined in these terms of reference.
• Based on the agreed templates,  develop a modern  interactive website for a digital Rights Toolkit
• The new subsections web pages should incorporate functionalities to guarantee the latest information on that subsection is displayed.

Functionalities to include in the new templates

 The following features will be guaranteed through the new templates outlined in sections 1 &2:

• Add feed links;
• Responsive design; 
• Social sharing features – including twitter share by text selection and twitter feed by handle and hashtag.
• Multiple page styles and custom post types;
• Language options (French & English) feature in resources and guidance templates;
• Search function by news, type of publication, author, type of resource, events, etc.
• Search resources by free text;
• Interactive map;
• Signup for latest news;

Knowledge transfer

Develop a user manual and deliver a webinar for the support staff and system administrators to perform content upload, system maintenance and administration.

Support and maintenance

Support and maintenance: Administrative and technical support, quality control for a period of 6 months;

Source code handover

Full source code including all developed libraries shall be handed over to Paradigm Initiative.

Tasks

 The successful company will participate in a debriefing session with the Communications and technical team to understand the overall project and expectations. Based on the debriefing session and this ToR, the company will develop a design concept for the site. The vendor will share a maximum of three proposals with the Paradigm Initiative team.

• The company will adjust concepts based on feedback and comments from the Paradigm Initiative team. 
• The vendor will develop the visual concept and language for the site adapting it to the different components outlined in the section “deliverables” and adjusting it based on feedback and comments from the Paradigm Initiative team.
• To create responsive CSS and graphic design elements and to integrate or adapt existing CSS and graphic design and make it responsive.
• Development of web sections and content upload.
• Integration and final approval by Paradigm Initiative.
• Test site before going live.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

 Vendor should demonstrate and provide examples of previous experience in the performance of similar services as follows: 

• Be a reputable firm with at least 7 years of prior experience designing visually appealing and navigation friendly web sites;
• Familiarity and relevant experience in using different Content Management Systems (CMS), particularly WordPress;
• Have a broad knowledge of current web development technologies and design tools in the field, and new software and other web programming languages and programs including use of HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML, XSLT, Java; php, etc.
• Have excellent knowledge of recent trends in graphic design, web sites, including online video publishing, and social media networking;
• Demonstrate the ability to create innovative and visually appealing design; 
• Key professional staff qualifications and competence needed for the assignment:

Lead developer:

The lead developer is responsible for the overall development process and assures that all code contributed is in line with coding standards. The lead developer has extensive experience (at least 5 years) in programming and CMS development, including versioning of which at least two years are specific to WordPress CMS. The lead developer is an expert in the below scripting and coding languages and standards: PHP, AJAX, Java Script, HTML5, CSS. The lead developer is an expert in the use and configuration of the below applications: WordPress CMS, MySQL Database, Apache  web server, Experience with other related applications is an advantage.The lead developer is an expert in the use and configuration of the below products and techniques: Search engine optimization, Google Webmaster tools, Google developer tools, Mobile device adaptation.

 Junior developer:

The junior developer supports the lead developer with the overall development process. The junior developer has at least 3 years of work experience in programming and CMS development, of which at least one year is specific to WordPress CMS.

 Graphic designer:

The vendor will have a team of graphic designers with prior experience on designing websites with a solid portfolio of at least 5 years of experience.

PAYMENT SCHEDULE AND TIMELINE

Deliverables	Deadline
The Paradigm Initiative website presents a new visual look and its functionalities are enhanced to provide a better experience to users*	1 Nov 2020
New sections are developed and integrated in the Paradigm Initiative site*	1 Nov 2020
Develop a user manual and deliver a webinar for the support staff and system administrators to perform content upload, system maintenance and administration.	15  Nov 2020
Support and maintenance: Administrative and technical support, quality control for a period of 6 months; Source code handover.  Full source code including all developed libraries shall be handed over to Paradigm Initiative.	15 Dec 2020

* All templates should have the functionalities outlined in deliverables section (3).

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED IN THE PROPOSAL

 If you have the required qualifications and are interested in this contract, please submit: 

• A proposal describing the previous work done in this area;
• A portfolio of previous work of websites with similar functionalities developed in WordPress;
• CVs of the lead developer, junior developer, graphical integrator, graphic designer in charge of this project to be included in the proposal;
• A financial proposal to address the work.
• The lump-sum fee which you propose for the consultancy should indicate the breakdown of all costs. This fee should be inclusive of ALL considerations.

EVALUATION AND SELECTION PROCESS

Submissions will be evaluated in consideration of the following evaluation criteria:

Evaluation Criteria – Total 100 points 

• The work presented throughout the firm portfolio will be evaluated to assess the quality of the company’s work [30 points];
• Experience and qualifications of the team proposed to deliver the work by the company. This part of the evaluation will be based in the CVs of the individuals comprising the team that need to be share by the firm in their proposal [20 points];
• Experience in developing sites in WordPress CMS [30 points];
• Timeline to deliver the objectives of the assignment based on the deadlines provided in this document [10];
• Experience working in the development sector producing high quality outputs [10 points];
• In order to qualify for further consideration, the company must accomplish a minimum score of 70 percent in the technical offer. The financial offer will account for a maximum of 30 points.

RFP SUBMISSION PROCEDURE 

Please submit proposals and portfolio information to rfp@paradigmhq.org by midnight on September 10, 2020. Any questions regarding this RFP should be directed to the above eMail address.

For more information about PIN, visit https://wwww.paradigmhq.org.

Appendix

Websites in the same industry 

Main Websites for organisations 

• https://privacyinternational.org/
• https://www.accessnow.org/
• https://www.apc.org/
• https://webfoundation.org/
• https://www.opentech.fund/

Event Websites 

• https://www.rightscon.org/

Ebook/Research websites 

• https://a4ai.org/affordability-report/report/2019/