TORs for Design and Development of the Pan African Parliament Website

1. Background
The Pan African Parliament was established as an organ the African Union (AU) in order to ensure the full participation of African peoples in the development and economic integration of the continent. The first Parliament was inaugurated on 18 March 2004 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and its headquarters is in Midrand, South Africa.

The ultimate aim of the Pan African Parliament shall be to evolve into an institution with full legislative powers, whose members are elected by universal adult suffrage. The new protocol granting these powers has been adopted by the AU and is currently under ratification by member states. However, until such a time that the new protocol comes into force, the Pan African Parliament shall have consultative and advisory powers within the AU.

The objectives of the Pan African Parliament is to:

• Facilitate the effective implementation of the policies and objectives of the OAU/AEC and ultimately the African Union.
  Promote the principle of human rights and democracy in Africa.
• Encourage good governance, transparency and accountability in Member States.
• Familiarize the peoples of Africa with the objectives and policies aimed at integrating the African Continent within the framework of the establishment of the African Union.
• Promote peace, security and stability.
• Contribute to a more prosperous future for the peoples of Africa by promoting collective self-reliance and economic recovery.
• Facilitate cooperation and development in Africa.
• Strengthen continental solidarity and build a sense of common destiny among the peoples of Africa.
• Facilitate cooperation among Regional Economic Communities and their Parliamentary fora.
• The website will act as a tool to raise awareness of and to promote the “Pan African Parliament in order to support its visibility in the continent. It will also be used as a tool for communication and collaboration between the stakeholders and the PAP Secretariat for the sharing of expertise, knowledge and resources to strengthen the network of Parliament, Parliamentarians and information to the public.

2. Task

The Pan African Parliament seeks a Consultant or Firm with relevant expertise and experience to design and construct a comprehensive website that offers a visible web presence for the Continental Parliament and offers functionality to its stakeholders.

3. Scope of service

• Assess the current PAP website structure and contents for ease of accessibility, quality of contents, user-friendliness, ease of maintenance/update, information retrieval, etc.
• Access National Parliaments websites for reference, applying the advantages of layout design, navigation, usability & etc. to the redesign & implementation.
• Make proposal for design of the website based on the African Union (AU) and PAP guidelines and/or the African Union Commission website guidelines for Management’s review and approval.
• Design the website structure, taking into account the requirements from the PAP: Clear catalogs & folders for data & page storage, attractive site & page layout, easy to use, update and maintain, flexible navigation & search function; counting function for web pages visited, etc.
• Gather informative contents for the web presence (text, documents, pictures, key speeches, etc.) from the PAP Media and Communications Office.
• Convert any document into text/html and properly format images for implementation in the Website.
• Make recommendations for backup/restore plan.
• Train to PAP Information Technology and the Media and Communications Staff on website maintenance and content update.
• Produce a Website Manager’s Handbook.
• Design and hosted with security as a priority.
• Support the Website hosting service for 2018, 2019 and 2020 by the African Union Commission.
• Warranty and Service level agreement for 2018, 2019 and 2020.
• Make recommendations for software, hardware, and other back-end applications related to Web development.

4. User Groups/Audiences

The intended users of the website include, but are not limited to, the following
– The General Public
– PAP Parliamentarians
– National Parliaments
– Journalists
– Academia
– Embassies
– Students
– Civil Society
– PAP Staff
– Governments

3. Basic structure of the PAP Website

3.1 The website is expected to cater for four language versions.. Namely; English, French, Portuguese & Arabic

3.2 The following is the expected basic but not conclusive structure of the PAP website in each language:

(i) Home page
(ii) Static pages: 20-30
(iii)Dynamic Pages: 4

News channel: 1 and updates per year: 150
Jobs channel: 1 and updates per year: 50
Publication channel: 1 and updates per year: 50
Procurement channel: 1 and updates per year: 50
Estimate growth rate of storage space: 300-350MB per year (in single language)

(iv) Functions:
Subscribe email
In site search
Analytics
Photo and Video gallery
Automatic homepage recovery
(v) Content Management System(CMS) with remote administration

4. Objectives/expected results

Design and establish the new PAP website to match request from PAP Secretariat. The service provider / Vendor / Agency will be required to create for the PAP (design, develop, test and implement) a web platform within the designated timeline which meets the following criteria:

• Interactive, appealing, highly usable and responsive web design: Web Designs are very subjective, we expect the hired company to show-case their best elements in delivering suitable intranet design options.
• The design and solution must be easy to use Average site load-time should be reasonable
• Search engine friendly and implementation of Search Engine Optimization.
• Able to render appropriately on a wide variety of different browsers and screen sizes.
• Be Secure: The design should adhere to security best practices, for example: passwords should not be stored in plain-text, all form data should be validated, all user input should be sanitized, user interactions and activities should be logged etc.
• Design and final solution should adhere to accessibility and compliance requirements (as defined by the project team): The Web solution should be designed to ensure that everyone, including users who have difficulty seeing, hearing, and making precise movements, can use them.
• Public and Registered Users (Members’) only Areas
• Site news/Trending now content blocks: The web solution will provide content/screenareas containing:
• PAP Calendar of Events
• Upcoming events
• Latest news/News Site
• Reputable SSL certificate for encryption.
• User Registration and Administration: The solution should allow users to complete an appropriate user registration process. No limit on the number of users that can register.
• Administrators should be able to review user registration/profile details, change user
• Privacy Settings Administration: Members should be able to configure how much of their profile information is shared with different users/user groups.
• Content Management: The solution should allow authorized project staff (or appointed personnel) to edit and update the website including the ability to create, remove, edit and publish content.
• Site Statistics/Management Reports: The solution should provide authorized users with a number of relevant reports, for example user registration, site usage, key interests/topics being discussed within the collaborative spaces and other relevant statistical data.
• Calendar, Events, Reminders, calendar integration: Specific authorized users should have the ability to create and administer events and event details. Other users should be able to search for and find events based on specific criteria. Members should be able to receive notifications and reminders of scheduled events and reminders of upcoming events.
• Social Network Integration:
• Mass Email/Messaging: The system should provide a feature to allow authorized content administrators (or other authorized administrators) to contact all or group/community members. This feature may be used to facilitate the dissemination of newsletters.
• Email Notifications:
• Document Management System (DMS): Document upload (any file format) with Description – Who uploaded – Date of upload – File Format etc., creation of new relevant page (if required),
• Images should be uploaded with the appropriate meta-data including mandatory keywords / tags / fields for internal Search Indexing.
• Spam Control: The solution should provide an automated challenge system that reduces the number of spam comments/posts that either need moderation or slip through filtering mechanisms.
• Search: The solution should provide users with the ability to search for and locate content based on keywords and key phrases. Search should not be limited to articles, pages or other forms of content-administrator created posts but should also include user-generated content found within the community areas.
• The solution must be able to accommodate the inclusion of transcripts/narrations for video content. Transcripts/Narration may be available in multiple languages. (Video could be uploaded on other websites, with streaming option on Intranet)
• Content Moderation Mechanism: Users/Members who have been granted relevant access rights should be allowed to flag, and moderate other members’ comments/posts.
• Public Users and Members Electronic Document Catalogue: Users should be allowed to search for, view and/or download articles and documents.
• Users should also be able to assign star ratings on articles, videos and other informational content.

5. Duration/Timeframe

It is expected to be completed within 60 working days

6. Qualifications/selection criteria

• Contractor must be a legal entity registered in any African country
• Contractor must be a reputable company with prior rich experience in the field
• Proven and solid knowledge and experience in providing similar service to international organizations
• Ability to provide user training and all documents in English, French, Portuguese and Arabic languages
• Solid knowledge on website security and website hosting service
• The Vendor should provide a proposal that includes a brief implementation plan
• The vendor should provide the quotation that includes information below:
• Website design and setup
• Website hosting for 2018,2019 and 2020
• Related software license and SSL Certificates
• Quotation of maintenance service, with a two and a half year Service Level Agreement.

7. Supervision & Contact

Supervision and contact for the consultant / firm will be primarily carried out by the Project Team led by the Media and Communication Unit. The final draft will be presented to Management and the final product will be approved by the PAP Management.

8. Proposal Structure

Proposals should be structured as follows and provide complete details as indicated:
1. Company Profile (e.g Board of Directors, Office location(s); key staff to be involved in website and their relevant experience etc.)
2. Understanding of the Scope of Work;
3. Proposed Methodology / Approach and detailed Timeline with Deliverables;
4. Proposed Technology (with justification); please highlight the pros & cons of the technology proposed;
5. Team Strength (who will work on this project);
6. Detailed Cost Break-up
7. Details of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy and training of Project Personnel in how to go about creating and managing content; Analytics and website monitoring report capabilities;
8. Detailed security breach mitigations;
9. Sample(s) of similar work-done (please list active web addresses)
10. Hosting Service (if you provide such services) (optional).
11. Links to good examples of work already completed by the consultant
Once a contract has been signed, within 21 working days, a mock-up of the proposed website should be presented to the Project Team.

9. Submission of Bids
Bids should be submitted in a sealed envelope marked or labelled: The PAP WEBSITE to the address below, not later than the date and time given below. Bids received after the deadline will be rejected.

Deadline: 05 December 2018 at 1200Hrs local time.

The Procurement Office
Pan African Parliament
19 Richards’ Drive
Gallagher Estate
Private Bag X16
Midrand 1685
Johannesburg
Republic of South Africa
Email address: [email protected]