ToR: SEforALL Website – Design and Development Services

Background

Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) is an International Non-Governmental Organization operating a world-wide multi-stakeholder platform focused on the delivery of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7). Launched as a UN initiative in 2011 by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, SEforALL is widely acknowledged for its achievement in raising global awareness of the world's sustainable energy challenges, ensuring they were included in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. 

Now an independent international organization, SEforALL is directed by its CEO as it works toward the achievement of SDG7. The organization also supports the work of the CEO in her additional roles of Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Sustainable Energy for All and as co-chair of UN-Energy. These roles include advising the UN Secretary-General and his staff on issues relating to sustainable energy and the implementation of SDG7 and supporting the coordination of sustainable energy issues in the United Nations system.

The SEforALL website www.seforall.org has been in existence since 2012 with revamps in 2014 and 2017. It underwent a major relaunch in 2019. The relaunch included revising the overall website structure, developing new content types and templates, and refreshing the visual design, with a the most recent site refresh in 2021.

Project goals

SEforALL would like to carry out a visual design and navigation experience refresh and that aligns with its strategic direction.
A launch of a new business strategy is underway and with it a more dynamic and cutting edge site is needed with an engaging narrative and visualization approach. Enhancing the user experience and interface is the primary aim as well as improving search engine optimization and supporting back end implementation.

• Providing more explicit messaging to indicate, upfront, who we are and what we do
• Restructuring of the front page
• Creation of dynamic narrative based digital reporting such as an annual report with reusable components
• SEO improvements
• Add more images and rich content
• UI widgets
• Dynamic animated vertical or horizontal scrolling
• Inner page templates/layouts
• Enhanced navigation components
• Header/footer element designed for branding across SEforALL sites/microsites portfolio
• Testimonial component

Deliverables

Timeline

Projected start date: Q2 2023
Projected end date: Q3 2023

Location

Work is expected to be completed remotely. If any travel is foreseen during contracting, travel costs should be added in advance to the bid/proposal.

Reporting

During the assignment, the consultants will report to the SEforALL Director of Communications for the work undertaken within the TOR outlined here.

Company minimum qualifications

Consultants/Contractors should meet the following requirements:

• The Contractor must have demonstrated at least five years of expertise in art direction, graphic design, theming and UX design.
• The Contractor must have personnel with a high-level English proficiency and excellent interpersonal skills, able to work flexible, responsive and accurate.
• The contractor must have personnel with advanced graphic design experience, especially in Adobe Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop), and expertise in developing Drupal templates, providing Drupal support, code audit, release planning, module updates and security; SEO audit is an advantage.
• Companies must have experience with Pantheon or Acquia and managed cloud hosting.
• Companies must offer a bug tracker platform for maintenance and support, SLAs for continuous maintenance and support.
• Companies must have experience working with international organizations such as the United Nations, World Bank, or other similar development organizations.
• Companies must have operations in Europe or be willing to operate within an overlap of a minimum of 4 hours between 9:00 to 17:30 (CET)

Staff requirements

• Art director, Screen designer/s (or equivalent)
• A minimum of five years of experience designing websites around social, development and/or environment topics.
• Advanced graphic design experience, especially in Adobe Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop)
• High-level English proficiency and excellent interpersonal skills, able to work flexible, responsive and accurate

Drupal developer/s

• Strong knowledge of Drupal programming and theming (the ability to write high-quality code using Drupal best practice)
• Min. 7 years of Drupal CMS, including Drupal 8 and Drupal 9; views, templates and module development; Drupal WebOps using GIT branches; SASS, Gulp makefile and configuration profile management; PHP and MySQL/MariaDB experience.
• Highly proficient in current specifications and working experience in: HTML, XML, Twig, DOM, Javascript, CSS, jQuery, responsive techniques and frameworks.
• Twitter API/Integration/Customization experience
• Experience with Google tags manager and SEO an advantage
• Experience with CDN and caching an advantage
• Experience with One trust cookie an advantage
• High-level proficiency in the English language and excellent interpersonal skills, able to work flexible, responsive and accurate

Project manager

• Strong project management skills and at least three years’ experience in creative management
• Experience working for NGOs and/or international organizations an asset
• High-level English proficiency and excellent interpersonal skills, able to work flexible, responsive and accurate
• For all requirements above, Contractors are requested to provide confirmation and/or examples of experience in past projects/assignments.

Bidding Process 

Proposals can also be submitted as a single entity and consortium. General instructions to bidders are attached as Annex I 

Technical and Financial proposal are meant to be submitted as separate documents.  Proposals must include the following (in either PDF or PPT format):  

Technical Proposal 

• For firms: brief background about your organization and the year it was founded. 
• Experience in carrying out similar work including relevant skills, qualifications, knowledge and results including the scale and number of projects for each requirement mentioned above.  
• Your understanding of the assignment and a work approach/methodology including any proposed changes to the scope of work. 
• Timing of activities, and a work plan of the main and sub activities to be carried out. 
• Three (3) relevant organizational/client references from the last five years 
• CVs of key personnel  

Financial Proposal, outlining the costs associated with carrying out the scope of work, including: 

• Personnel (name / position / daily rate / estimated level of effort - # days)
• Support and maintenance – daily rate
• Other costs 
• All costs must be in USD and inclusive of all taxes  

Evaluation, Conflict of Interest, and Terms of Payment 

• Bidders are requested to disclose and explain any potential conflicts of interest.  
• Terms of payment at SEforALL follow a deliverable based framework. The breakdown of the milestones-payments will be communicated to the selected firm. 
• The evaluation of proposals will be based on a 70 – 30 split for technical proposal and financial proposal, respectively. Details of the evaluation criteria are attached as Annex II. 
   

How to Apply and Deadline 

Please submit your proposal to procurement@seforall.org by 04 April 2023 at 17:00 PM Central European Time. In case of questions or queries contact SEforALL at procurement@seforall.org   

Annex I – General Instructions to Bidders 

General 

Scope of Bid 

1 Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) issues these Bidding Documents for the consultancy services as specified in the Terms of Reference (TOR).  

2 SEforALL invites bidders to submit bids for all services required.  

Elegible Bidders 

3. Bidders must meet the staff requirements outlined under the section “Staff Requirements”
4. Bidders shall provide such evidence of their continued eligibility satisfactory to SEforALL, as SEforALL shall reasonably request. 

Contents of Bidding Documents 

Sections of Bidding Documents 

4. The Bidding Documents refer to all documents provided to the interested bidders to facilitate them in the preparation of their bids. 
5. SEforALL is not responsible for the completeness of the Bidding Documents and any addenda if they were not obtained directly from SEforALL. 
6. The bidder is expected to examine all instructions, terms, and specifications in the Bidding Documents. Failure to furnish all information or documentation required by the Bidding Documents may result in the rejection of the bid. 

Amendment of Bidding Documents 

7. At any time prior to the deadline for submission of bids, SEforALL may amend the Bidding Documents by issuing an addendum.
8. Any addendum issued shall be part of the Bidding Documents and shall be communicated in writing on SEforALL procurement’s webpage. 
9. To give prospective bidders reasonable time in which to take an addendum into account in preparing their bids, SEforALL may, at its sole discretion, extend the deadline for the submission of bids. 

Clarification/ Question on Bidding Documents 

10. Bidders may contact SEforALL at procurement@seforall.org in case of any questions and/or queries.  

Preparation of Bids 

Cost of Bidding 

11. The bidder shall bear all costs associated with the preparation and submission of its bid, and SEforALL shall not be responsible or liable for those costs, regardless of the conduct or outcome of the bidding process. 

Language of Bid 

12. The bid, as well as all correspondence and documents relating to the bid exchanged by the bidder and SEforALL, shall be written in English. 

Contents of Bid 

13. The bid should include at a minimum a technical and a financial proposal, in addition to any necessary supporting documents.  

 Currencies of Bid 

       15.  The bidder shall quote all prices in U.S. Dollars. 

Bid Prices 

       16 Bids shall present prices as a single quote. (i.e., budget) Bidders are encouraged to provide a budget breakdown for each item. Bidders are also instructed to share a quote inclusive of all and any taxes, and delineate the applicable tax rate. 

Submission of Bids 

1.17 Bids should be submitted to SEforALL in electronic format (PDF file) via e-mail to procurement@seforall.org Hand-written submissions are not eligible. 

Deadline for Submission of Bids 

1.18 The deadline for submissions of bids is 17:00 PM CET time, 04 April 2023 as mentioned in the TOR above 

1.19 SEforALL may, at its sole discretion, extend the deadline for the submission of bids, in which case all rights and obligations of SEforALL and bidders previously subject to the deadline shall thereafter be subject to the deadline as extended. 

1.20 Any bid submitted after the deadline will automatically be rejected unless otherwise noted by SEforALL. 

Evaluation and Comparison of Bids 

Confidentiality 

1.21 Any effort by a bidder to influence SEforALL in the examination, evaluation and comparison of the bids or contract award decisions may result in the rejection of its bid. 

Clarification of Bids 

1.22 To assist in the examination, evaluation, and comparison of the bids, SEforALL may, at its discretion, ask any bidder for a clarification of their bid. 

Preliminary Examination of Bids 

1.23 SEforALL may examine the bids to confirm that all documents and technical documentation requested have been provided, and to determine the completeness of each document submitted. If any of the requested documents or information is missing, SEforALL may reject the bid.  

Evaluation and Comparison of Bids 

1.24 SEforALL shall evaluate each bid that has been determined, up to this stage of the evaluation, to be complete. 

1.25 SEforALL reserves the right to evaluate bids with the possible assistance of external assessors.  

SEforALL’s Right to Accept Any Bid, and to Reject Any or All Bids 

1.27 SEforALL reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, and to annul the bidding process and 

reject all bids at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to bidders. 

Award of Contract 

Award Criteria 

1.28 SEforALL shall award a contract to the bidder whose offer has been determined to have the highest score, provided further that the bidder passes SEforALL Eligibility Criteria. SEforALL will award one contract to a single bidder or consortium

SEforALL’s Right to Vary Quantities at Time of Award 

1.29 At the time the contract is awarded, SEforALL reserves the right to change the Scope of Work originally specified in the Terms of Reference 

Contract 

1.30 The contract will be a fixed price contract denominated in U.S. Dollars

1.31 Terms of payment at SEforALL follow a deliverable-based framework. The breakdown of the milestones-payments will be communicated to the selected firm.