Prequalification of Consultants (Agencies/Individuals) Tech and Digital Agency, Software Engineer and UX Designer

Request for Proposal

Prequalification of Consultants (Agencies/Individuals)

Tech and Digital Agency, Software Engineer and UX Designer

March 2023

Who We Are

Girl Effect is an international non-profit that builds media that girls want, trust and need. From chatbots to chat shows, TV dramas to tech, our content helps adolescent girls in Africa and Asia make choices and changes in their lives. We create safe spaces for girls, sharing facts and answering questions about health, nutrition, education, and relationships, empowering girls with the skills to negotiate and redefine what they are told is possible “for a girl”.

Our reach is 50 million and counting. And we’re using technology to reach girls at scale so every girl can choose to be in control of her body, her health, her learning and her livelihood.

Because when a girl unlocks her power to make different choices that change her life, it inspires others to do so too. She starts a ripple effect that impacts her family, community, and country.

That’s the Girl Effect.

Background

For over a decade, we have been building technology that aims to create a safer and more accessible world for women and girls, using the insights and experiences girls share with us.

As technology evolves and girls’ habits change, we continuously strive to adapt and improve the platforms, processes, and infrastructure that underpin everything we do.

What we are looking for

We are at an exciting stage of our tech development: growing our internal tech team, developing relationships with our tech vendors and delivering a range of impactful and dynamic projects for girls at the forefront of the tech-for-good space.

To help us deliver our varied tech portfolio, we are looking to partner with small consultancies, agencies and/or individuals who are interested in working with us as consultants on short-term tech projects when we have a specific opportunity that requires additional technical (software engineering and UX) expertise and/or a level of experience not currently available within our teams.

We will draw on the support of these consultants to complete both short-term ongoing and/or new projects, delivered in close partnership with Girl Effect’s Technology Team and our tech partners.

We do not expect one applicant to fulfill all our criteria, but welcome applications from individuals/consultancies/agencies who can help us understand how their experience, knowledge and skills could enable us to progress our tech roadmaps and our thinking.

In return, we can offer you the opportunity to join our tech roster for one year and play a crucial role in creating a better world for girls.

Consultants must be available from April 2023 and able to jump onto projects with a lead time of at most four weeks.

What we value

• Alignment with our mission and commitment to empowering adolescent girls
• An understanding of and (ideally lived) experience in the countries we work in
• Empathy, curiosity and excellent communication skills
• The ability to really listen to our needs and drive to strive for the best tech solution
• A supportive mindset to help our teams and partners develop their skills and knowledge
• Openness and honesty about where we could improve
• Self-starter partners who can manage their workload

The Scope

As a consulting software engineer, you will:

• Work in a cross-functional, global team environment to help explore and solve the complex problems girls face through lo-fi and hi-fi tech.
• Help our internal teams in the design, development, coding, testing and debugging of our girl-centred Django applications and our chatbots.
• Engage in sprints focussed on (e.g.) building new features, tackling technical debt and code restructuring.

Experience

• Front-end, back-end or full-stack engineering experience
• Excellent Django and Python web development skills and familiarity with Wagtail
• Knowledge of Git version control and expertise in git and branch management
• Experience and knowledge of DevOps environments, cloud platforms such as AWS, pipelines and tooling and release management best practices
• Experience working with Agile and Scrum methodologies
• Experience writing clear documentation
• Further education in a Computer Science related discipline
• Ability to quickly understand existing codebases
• Previous contributions to open-source projects

As a consulting UX Designer, you will:

• Work alongside our UX Lead and internal teams to play a key role in creating and implementing user-focussed solutions that enhance girls’ lives
• Deliver design wireframes, prototypes, user journeys for internal and external stakeholders
• Leverage a range of inputs, including interaction, brand principles, analytics, customer feedback, usability testing, technology and organisational requirements to develop informed solutions.
• Conduct testing

Experience

• At least five years of work experience executing and/or leading user experience deliverables (with a portfolio showing outputs, techniques, processes, tools and breadth of knowledge)
• Design execution bringing solutions for responsive web and mobile apps to life
• Experience working with distributed teams (and technological tools that allow for such work)
• Excellent facilitation, presentation communication and interpersonal skills and expertise in running workshops with participants who are remote (including the requisite facilitation techniques and tools)
• A strong awareness of service, product and interaction design
• Willingness to adapt, be flexible and improvise as the situation requires

As a consulting Tech and Digital Agency, you will:

• Provide digital delivery and or/technical project management support to our internal teams
• Track deliverables, deadlines, progress and results
• Analyse results to improve processes, evolve workflows and address issues

Experience

• A track record of successfully delivering complex technology projects in high-tech environments, ideally within global organisations
• Strong project management and coaching skills, with experience in Agile and Scrum
• Experience using Jira (or similar SDLC workflow management tools)
• Ability to build relationships with a range of technical and non-technical stakeholders

Specific Instructions

• All Consultants will need to register using this Link.
  
• Applicants will be informed, in due course, regarding the result of the evaluation of their applications. Only prequalified firms under this process will be invited to bid for the projects at a later stage.
• Any false statement(s) by the Applicant will result in disqualification at any stage of the process.
• All applications shall be prepared in the English language. Information in any other language GE reserves the right for disqualification in case of non-compliance with the above requirement.
• The Applicants must respond to all questions on the link and provide complete and verifiable information with complete supporting data as advised in this document. Any failure to provide essential information or references may result in the disqualification of the Applicant.
• Clarifications (if required by GE) may be asked by email to suppliers@girleffect.org .

Expected Commitment

GE will sign an IDIQ/framework contract (Master Service Agreement) with successful consultants and work will be assigned on an as-needed/ad-hoc basis.

Intended Timeframe:

• Request for Proposal published: 20th March 2023
• Deadline for responses: 20th April 2023

Reporting

The consultant will report to the Director of Technology and Girl Effect’s Tech Partners.

Proposal Submission

• Consultant Profile (max 3-5 pages)
• Detailed CV
• Detailed reference list indicating the scope and magnitude of similar assignments carried out
• Demonstrate possession of qualifications and experience required
• Financial Proposal
• The consultant shall provide a daily rate for carrying out the assignment
• The consultant may also propose additional pricing options or modalities for consideration. We would welcome a discounted amount based on a frequent engagement with the consultant
• The price must be quoted in US Dollars (USD)
• All applicable taxes should be quoted separately
• If the financial proposal does not mention taxes, GE shall assume that these are inclusive

Eligibility

Eligibility requirements to register on the GE Consultant Database. The Individual or Firm shall not be on any of the following:

• World Bank designation list: https://www.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/procurement/debarred-firms
  
• Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List maintained by the U.S. Treasury onhttps://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov;
• Active exclusion on System for Award Management (SAM) (gov);
• Blacklisted by any government or multilateral banks such as the World Bank and African Development Bank;
• The Individual or Firm confirms that it has never been involved/convicted of fraud and/or corruption in its past dealings.

Prequalification Evaluation Criteria

The criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are listed below:

• Technical Evaluation
• Organizational Capacity: Company/Individual profile, Client portfolio and company accreditations
• *Experience of the firm:*** Experience working with development agencies, with specific experience in the Global South, more specifically around Kenya, South Africa, India, Rwanda, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania and Ethiopia
• Past performance: Provide details of at least three similar assignments carried out in the past and reference letters detailing work done, and the contact details of three client references. Strong knowledge and demonstrated experience in their field
• Key personnel: Detailed CV. Qualification and experience of the key staff in carrying out similar assignments.
• Financial Proposal: Value for Money

NB:

Only technical proposals that score above 75% shall be considered for financial evaluation

Technical weight shall be evaluated out of 70%, and Financial proposals shall be evaluated out of 30%

In their proposal, the bidder must demonstrate an understanding of the requirements described in the RFP and demonstrate how the bidder will meet the requirements of the evaluation criteria.

Please note that Girl Effect is not liable for any cost incurred during the award/contract preparation, submission, or negotiation of the award/contract. All submitted documentation and/or materials shall become and remain the property of Girl Effect.

VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for 90 days from the date of bid closure.

Tax

Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position with regards to provisions of their local jurisdiction tax legislation when developing their proposals.

Safeguarding

You may be required to undertake safeguarding checks. Shortlisted consultants will be assessed on our organisational values at the interview stage. The successful consultant will be expected to adhere to our safeguarding policy. We encourage you to read and understand our safeguarding policy, the executive summary of which can be found Here. We have zero tolerance for all forms of violence against children, beneficiaries and staff.

Disclaimer

GE reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party. GE shall inform ONLY successful applicant(s). The process of negotiation and signing of the contract with the successful applicant(s) will follow.

Equal Opportunities

Girl Effect is committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

We are committed to building an organization that is increasingly representative of, and works extensively with, the communities that we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to procuring consultancy service organizations and individuals with diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds. 

How to apply 

Please register using this Link and submit proposals, as outlined above, tosuppliers@girleffect.org by 20th April, 5:00 pm EAT latest. Please clearly mark your email with the subject ‘’Tech Consultant Database”’