Expression of Interest (EOI)

Improve the UI implementation for several government IT content management frameworks.

Reference Number:83441599

1.  Background

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federally owned international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. GIZ has worked in Rwanda for over 30 years. The primary objectives between the Government of Rwanda and the Federal Republic of Germany are poverty reduction and promoting sustainable development. To achieve these objectives, GIZ Rwanda is active in the sectors of Decentralization and Good Governance, Economic Development and Employment Promotion, Energy, and ICT (Information and Communications Technology).    

The GIZ Rwanda Digital Cluster and the Digital Transformation Center Rwanda 

The Digital transformation and Digital Economy Cluster of GIZ Rwanda is a Rwandan-German initiative to develop impact-driven digital solutions at regional and continental levels in Africa. Therefore, it not only provides advisory services and training for government institutions and local tech companies but also a modern space to boost creativity and collaboration. 

The activities, themes, topics and implementation projects of the cluster are dedicated to delivering impact-driven digital solutions, developing the capacities of the local innovation ecosystem, and replicating and scaling up digital solutions at the regional and continental levels. The implementation of innovation in Rwanda with ICT across several sectors is in collaboration with the Ministry of ICT’s implementing agency, the Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA). The Digital transformation and Digital Economy Cluster of GIZ Rwanda supports both the public and the private sectors in transferring knowledge and skills and developing organizational, structural, and technological capacities. 

The Digital transformation and Digital Economy Cluster of GIZ Rwanda is now organized in various topics called Verticals for orientation, and proper collaboration with partners and the Rwandan ICT ecosystem and these verticals. Some of these verticals are listed below:

Public sector Innovation 

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The Public sector innovation vertical is where the government, civil society and private sector all intersect to work together in developing digital solutions and innovation around the challenges experience in the public sector. In this vertical, the demand is set through a series of collaborations from the government, mainly from the Chief Digital Officers of every sector, The Rwanda Information Society Authority RISA and the Ministry of ICT and Innovation and many other implementing agencies to work together. The solutions developed under the Public Sector innovation vertical revolve around digitization, change management, ICT building blocks, UN Sustainable Development Goals, Smart cities, and efficient delivery of Government services. 

Digital Inclusion & Literacy 

The Digital Cluster is actively involved in capacity-building and digital literacy, targeting people in rural areas, women and people with disabilities, ICT professionals, tech startups and employees of political partner agencies. The Digital Inclusion and Literacy vertical works together with several civil society organizations, The Ministry of ICT and Rwanda Information Society Authority RISA to implement joint programs that bridge the skills gap for both public servants and citizens to create an environment conducive to digital transformation and adoption of digital skills for economic development and improved livelihoods.  

Startup Ecosystem Support 

The Digital Cluster supports young entrepreneurs and startups through incubator and accelerator programs to build and expand their businesses. These programs provide access to mentorship, funding, and resources to help young entrepreneurs overcome the challenges of starting a business. By fostering collaboration and innovation, these initiatives are helping to create a thriving ecosystem for young entrepreneurs to succeed in today's competitive marketplace. 

Artificial Intelligence Hub (AI Hub) and data 

Most of the digitalization efforts, both private and public, rely on data and insights into that data. The AI hub vertical works around Improving access to training data and AI technologies for local open innovation, strengthening local technical know-how on AI in Rwanda, Develop Policy Frameworks Ready for AI - Ethical AI, Data Protection and Privacy, and one of the biggest topics in AI under the AI hub is Machine translation. 

2.  Context

In the recent national ICT strategy, Smart Rwanda Master Plan envisages the Government's Digital Transformation. The Governance Sector was among seven key sectors that were chosen to be at the forefront of this transformation for better and smarter service delivery to citizens.

As part of the building blocks “Business Intelligence” and “Content Management Solution” the Government of Rwanda has implemented frameworks based on TYPO3 and CKAN which serve to publish gov.rw as well as affiliated web sites under one unified design.

In addition, Rwanda is committed to improve web accessibility for these web sites by following international standards like WCAG.

To leave no one behind, digital inclusion and literacy initiatives need to pay special attention to the inclusion of marginalized groups, especially people with disabilities. People with visual impairments often use assistive technologies, such as screen readers, to get access to websites and services. Unfortunately, websites and applications remain often inaccessible. This may be due to a lack of awareness and capacities by web developers and content creators. Without accessible websites, any training for people with disabilities will not reach its full potential if trainees face barriers using screen readers or other assistive technologies.

Especially websites operated by the Government of Rwanda and essential public services for citizens should be accessible to all. In a previous exercise conducted by The Cluster, several government websites were assessed towards web accessibility through manual and automated testing. The manual testing was conducted using assistive technologies by visually impaired testers from Seeing Hands. A final report with recommendations to include the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) was shared with all website owners.

As part of the ongoing effort to support digitalization in Rwanda, GIZ seeks proposals from qualified firms to provide services for UI adjustments and support for the gov.rw framework to improve design as well as web accessibility. The proposed services should be designed to align with Rwanda's current and future needs and priorities, with a specific focus on enhancing the delivery of services to citizens and improving feedback.

The contractor shall create a consortium together with an organization supporting and empowering people with disabilities in Rwanda, especially people with visual impairments to strengthen this community. Furthermore, the consultant should provide backend support by TYPO3 association and CKAN developers.

3. Tasks to be performed by the contractor.

The contractor is responsible for providing the following services:

• Short term websites for GoR (like TAS 2023, HANGA etc.)

  • Create Wireframe

  • Implementation of web UI based on wireframe.

  • Adoption of GoR branding style guidelines.

  • Using the Typo3 gov.rw architecture.

  • Adopt web accessibility.

• rw extension

  • Implement further templates.

  • Add web accessibility features to gov.rw template.

• Implement further institutions on gov.rw.

  • Analysis of existing content

  • Map to gov.rw template

  • Extend template in case necessary.

• Further requests on technology support and DevOps on gov.rw

  • Upgrade the outdated version TYPO3 10.4 to a current version.

  • Upgrade used extensions which were not upgraded to TYPO3 11, support to migrate the content from those extension to new compatible extension available.

  • Search feature to be improved to work with current database size.

  • Setup monitoring for the infrastructure

• Improve web accessibility for further institutions, e.g., RRA, MIFOTRA

  • Analyze existing web UI or use the result of “website accessibility check of GoR websites.

  • Define improvements activities.

  • Implement improvements.

• Irembo support

  • Consultancy on web accessibility

  • End user tests

• Adopt style guides to other frameworks, e.g., CKAN.

  • Implement CSS and JavaScript functionality to align other GoR frameworks to GoR style guide.

• Wordpress Support

  • Analysis and implementation of necessary updates and technical corrections on Wordpress websites

• Capacity building

  • Training on typo3 features and implementation.

  • Training on implementing Security features for Typo3 environment.

  • Guidance in speed up TYPO3 Performance.

  • Training on other UI frameworks like CKAN and/or Wordpress.

The project uses an agile approach for task assignments. Specific tasks will be assigned during sprint and iteration planning activities.

Period of assignment: from 1.7.2023 until 31.8.2025.

4.  Concept

In the tender, the tenderer is required to show how the objectives defined in Chapter 2 (Tasks to be performed) are to be achieved, if applicable under consideration of further method-related requirements (technical-methodological concept). In addition, the tenderer must describe the project management system for service provision.

Note: The numbers in parentheses correspond to the lines of the technical assessment grid.

Project language is English.

Technical-methodological concept

Strategy (1.1): The tenderer is required to consider the tasks to be performed with reference to the objectives of the services put out to tender (see Chapter 1 Context) (1.1.1). Following this, the tenderer presents and justifies the explicit strategy with which it intends to provide the services for which it is responsible (see Chapter 2 Tasks to be performed) (1.1.2).

The tenderer is required to present the actors relevant for the services for which it is responsible and describe the cooperation (1.2) with them.

The tenderer is required to describe its contribution to knowledge management for the partner (1.5.1) and GIZ and to promote scaling-up effects (1.5.2) under learning and innovation.

Project management of the contractor (1.6)

The tenderer is required to explain its approach for coordination with the GIZ project. In particular, the project management requirements specified in Chapter 2 (Tasks to be performed by the contractor) must be explained in detail.

5.  Personnel concept

The tenderer is required to provide personnel who are suited to filling the positions described, based on their CVs (see Chapter 7), the range of tasks involved and the required qualifications.

The below specified qualifications represent the requirements to reach the maximum number of points in the technical assessment.

Team leader & UXUI Expert

Tasks of the team leader & UX/UI expert

• Overall responsibility for the advisory packages of the contractor (quality and deadlines)

• Coordinating and ensuring communication with GIZ, partners and others involved in the project.

• Personnel management, identifying the need for short-term assignments within the available budget, as well as planning and steering assignments and supporting local and international short-term experts.

• Regular reporting in accordance with deadlines

• In addition, tasks based on the general scope stated in section 2 (the specific tasks will be defined depending on the requirements of each individual project)

Qualifications of the team leader & UX/UI expert

•  Education/training (2.1.1): University qualification (Bachelor or equivalent) in computer science, engineering or relevant field

• General professional experience (2.1.3): 5 years of professional experience in the IT sector

• Specific professional experience (2.1.4): 3 years in the development of UI frontend solutions based on TYPO3

• Leadership experience (2.1.5): 2 years of coaching experience in a company

• Regional experience (2.1.6): 2 years of experience in projects in Africa (region), of which 1 year in projects in Rwanda (country)

• Other (2.1.8): Profound knowledge and experience in the fields of UX design

Expert 1: & UX/UI expert & DevOps

Tasks of key expert 1 UX/UI expert & DevOps

• tasks based on the general scope stated in section 2 (the specific tasks will be defined depending on the requirements of each individual project)

Qualifications of key expert 1 & DevOps

• Education/training (2.2.1): University qualification (Bachelor or equivalent) in computer science, engineering or relevant field

• General professional experience (2.2.3): 5 years of professional experience in the IT sector

• Specific professional experience (2.2.4): 3 years in the development of UI frontend solutions based on TYPO3 and Wordpress

• Regional experience (2.2.6): 2 years of experience in projects in Africa (region), of which 1 year in projects in Rwanda (country)

• Other (2.2.8): Profound knowledge and experience in the fields of UX design, DevOps and CKAN

Expert 2: Associate Tester Web Accessibility

Tasks of Associate Tester Web Accessibility

• tasks based on the general scope stated in section 2 (the specific tasks will be defined depending on the requirements of each individual project)

Qualifications of Associate Tester Web Accessibility

• General professional experience (2.3.3): first experience in manually testing websites using assistive technologies.

• Specific professional experience (2.3.4): Knowledge of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Soft skills of team members

In addition to their specialist qualifications, the following qualifications are required of team members:

• Team skills

• Initiative

• Communication skills

• Socio-cultural skills

• Efficient, partner- and client-focused working methods

• Interdisciplinary thinking

Short-term expert pool with minimum 1, maximum 4 members

For the technical assessment, an average of the qualifications of all specified members of the expert pool is calculated. Please send a CV for each pool member (see below Chapter 7 Requirements on the format of the bid) for the assessment.

Tasks of the short-term expert pool

• tasks based on the general scope stated in section 2 (the specific tasks will be defined depending on the requirements of each individual project)

Qualifications of the short-term expert pool

• Education/training (2.7.1): University qualification (Bachelor or equivalent) in computer science, engineering or relevant field

• General professional experience (2.7.3): 10 years of professional experience in the IT sector

• Specific professional experience (2.7.4): 5 years in the development of UI frontend solutions based on TYPO3, CKAN, Wordpress, UX design, IT architecture or DevOps

• Other (2.7.7): 2 years of coaching experience in a company

The tenderer must provide a clear overview of all proposed short-term experts and their individual qualifications.

6.  Costing requirements

Assignment of personnel and travel expenses

Per-diem and overnight accommodation allowances are reimbursed as a lump sum up to the maximum amounts permissible under tax law for each country as set out in the country table in the circular from the German Federal Ministry of Finance on travel expense remuneration (downloadable at https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de).

Accommodation costs which exceed this up to a reasonable amount and the cost of flights and other main forms of transport can be reimbursed against evidence.

All business travel must be agreed in advance by the officer responsible for the project.

Specification of inputs

7.  Requirements on the format of the tender

The structure of the tender must correspond to the structure of the ToRs. In particular, the detailed structure of the concept (Chapter 3) should be organised in accordance with the positively weighted criteria in the assessment grid (not with zero). The tender must be legible (font size 11 or larger) and clearly formulated. It must be drawn up in english (language).

The complete tender must not exceed 10 pages (excluding CVs). If one of the maximum page lengths is exceeded, the content appearing after the cut-off point will not be included in the assessment. External content (e.g., links to websites) will also not be considered. 

The CVs of the personnel proposed in accordance with Chapter 4 of the ToRs must be submitted using the format specified in the terms and conditions for application. The CVs shall not exceed 4 pages each. They must clearly show the position and job the proposed person held in the reference project and for how long. 

Please calculate your financial tender based exactly on the parameters specified in Chapter 5 Quantitative requirements. The contractor is not contractually entitled to use up the days, trips, workshops or budgets in full. The number of days, trips and workshops and the budgets will be contractually agreed as maximum limits. The specifications for pricing are defined in the price schedule. 

Submission of offer: The Expression of Interest should contain the following:

Technical Proposal:

• A cover letter expressing your interest in this assignment.

• Technical proposal with a brief description of why you would be considered as the most suitable for the assignment, relevant expertise, and a detailed, clear methodology, on your approach to completing the assignment.

• CVs of experts proposed.

• Company registration certificate (RDB) in case of a company

• VAT registration certificate

• Latest tax clearance certificate

• Proof of successful completion of related assignments. 

Financial Proposal: indicates the all-inclusive total contract price, supported by a breakdown of all costs. The costs must be in RWF and VAT

Please deposit your Expression of Interest in two copies in 2 separated envelops until latest 29^th June 2023 at 4:00PM, at the front desk of GIZ Office Rwanda / KN 41 St. / Nr.17, Kiyovu, P.O. Box 59, Kigali. You must write on each Envelop the following:

• 1^st envelop: “83441599-Technical offer” including (1 original and 1 copy)

• 2^nd envelop: “83441599- Financial offer” including (1 original and 1 copy)

GIZ reserves all rights.

List of abbreviations

CMS                    Content Management Solution

GovStack            GovStack Initiative Rwanda

GoR                     Government of Rwanda

ICT                      Information and Communication Technology

IT                         Information Technology

MINICT               Ministry of ICT and Innovation, Rwanda

RISA                    Rwanda Information Society Authority

SDGs                  Sustainable Development Goals

ToRs                    Terms of Reference

UI                         User Interface

WCAG                 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines