(Offre en anglais) the American Bar Association lance un appel à consultation “Development of a Database and Information Management System on Violence Against Women in Tunisia” عودة إلى الفرص

Purpose : 

This request for proposal (RFP) provides to those interested in submitting proposals (“Bidders”) sufficient information to enable them to prepare and submit proposals for the Rule of Law Initiative Tunisia consideration on behalf of the American Bar Association.

Issuing Department :

The Rule of Law Initiative Tunisia has issued this RFP on behalf of the American Bar Association. The point of contact in the ABA for the RFP shall be, the issuing employee for this RFP, Naureen Haque haque@abaroli.org and Amel Arfaoui, amel.arfaoui@abaroli.org.

Program Deliverables :

In coordination with the ABA ROLI, the Contractor will develop and design  a software for an information management system (IMS), a secure cloud based platform to collect and manage and process data on violence against women in Tunisia. The Contractor will develop the software in coordination with the ABA ROLI and its partners.

Type of Contract :

The contract must comply with the ABA Contract Policy and will be reviewed by the ABA’s General Counsel’s Office. ABA entities do not have separate legal standing to enter into oral or written contracts in their own names. All contracts are entered into on behalf of the American Bar Association. The issuing department, in its sole discretion, may undertake negotiations with Bidders whose proposal, in the judgement of the issuing department, show them to be qualified, responsible and capable of performing the project or providing the goods. Only staff members authorized by the ABA Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer have authority to execute contractual agreements on behalf of the ABA.

 The issuing employee reserves the right, in their sole and complete discretion, to reject any proposal received as a result of this RFP.

Incurring of Costs :

The ABA is not liable for any costs the Bidder incurs in preparation and submission of its proposal, in participating in the RFP process or in anticipation of the award of the contract.

Questions and Answers :

If a Bidder has any questions regarding this RFP, the Bidder must submit the questions by email to the issuing employee named in Section 1.2 of the RFP. If the Bidder has questions, they must be submitted via email no later than the date indicated on the Bid Timetable. The Bidder shall not attempt to contact the issuing employee by any other means. All questions and all answers will be provided to all Bidders by the deadline date indicated on the Bid Timetable.

Response Date :

To be considered for selection, electronic submission must arrive to the issuing employee on the date specified in the Bid Timetable.

To be considered, Bidders should submit a complete response to this RFP, using the format provided in Section 2.0, providing an electronic copy in PDF format to the issuing employee. The Bidder shall make no other distribution of its proposal to any other Bidder or ABA employee or ABA consultant. An official authorized to bind the Bidder to its provisions must sign the proposal in Appendix A. For this RFP, the proposal must remain valid until a contract is fully executed. If the issuing employee selects the Bidder’s proposal for award, the contents of the selected Bidder’s proposal will become, except to the extent the contents are changed through Best and Final Offers or negotiations, contractual obligations.

Discussions for Clarification :

Bidders may be required to make an oral or written clarification to their proposals to the issuing employee to ensure thorough mutual understanding and Bidder responsiveness to the solicitation requirements. The issuing employee will initiate requests for clarification.

Prime Contractor Responsibilities :

The contract will require the selected Bidder to assume responsibility for all services offered in its proposal whether it produces them itself or by subcontract. The issuing employee will consider the selected Bidder to be the sole point of contact with regard to contractual matters.

Proposal Contents :

Bidders should not label proposal submissions as confidential or proprietary. The issuing employee will hold all proposals in confidence and will not reveal or discuss any proposal with competitors for the contract, unless disclosure is required:

Under the provisions of any State or United States statute or regulation; or

By rule or order of any court of competent jurisdiction.

All material submitted with the proposal becomes the property of the ABA and may be returned only at the issuing employee’s option. The issuing employee, in its sole discretion, may include any person other than competing Bidders on its proposal evaluation committee. The issuing employee has the right to use any or all ideas presented in any proposal regardless of whether the proposal becomes part of a contract.

Best and Final Offers :

The issuing employee reserves the right to conduct discussions with Bidders for obtaining “best and final offers.” To obtain best and final offers from Bidders, the issuing department may do one or more of the following: enter into pre-selection negotiations; schedule oral presentations; and request revised proposals.

Term of Contract :

The term of the contract will commence on the Effective Date and will end on 31 December 2019. The Effective Date will be 1 July 2019 or the date of countersignature, whichever is later. The selected Bidder shall not start the performance of any work prior to the effective date of the contract and the ABA shall not be liable to pay the selected Bidder for any service or work performed or expenses incurred before the effective date of the contract. The contract is not considered approved until the terms have been reviewed and approved by the Office of General Counsel. An “American Bar Association Office of General Counsel” approval seal will appear on the contract with the signature of the attorney approving the terms of the contract.

Use of Electronic Versions of this RFP :

This RFP is being made available by electronic means. If a Bidder electronically accepts the RFP, the Bidder acknowledges and accepts full responsibility to ensure that no changes are made to the RFP.

Proposal Requirements

Statement of the Services :

Briefly state your understanding of the services required by the RFP. Include a high-level management summary of how your company will effectively satisfy the services required, and how it has the capacity to do so nationwide.

Proposed Approach :

Describe your approach in detail for accomplishing the work as specified in Section 3.0 of this document, including an implementation timeline, risks and mitigation measures, reporting and monitoring tools. Add management structure and qualifications two key personnels.

Price Submittal :

Bidders must not include any assumptions in their price submittals. If the Bidder includes assumptions in its price submittal, the issuing employee may reject the proposal. All prices must be included so that the total spending required by the ABA is clearly defined.

Add at least 3 letters of recommendations for relevant software development projects, including from international organizations. Provide official registration, audit statements, and tax payment forms for the company, and any other documents establishing the eligibility and qualification of the Bidder.

Specifications and Work Statement :

 Objective :

To develop a an information management system (IMS), to collect, manage, process data on violence against women in Tunisia. This system shall be be a secure, neutral and trusted cloud-based platform or solution that will encompass data input interface based on victim intake questionnaires and forms, a wide resource library for service providers, information and contacts about service providers that can support victims, through a collaborative platform that facilitates coordination between partners with a clear dashboard that monitors progress and reporting.

Background :

The Organic Law no. 58 on elimination of violence against women includes under Article 40 the establishment of a National Observatory on violence against women under the supervision of the Ministry of Women Affairs (MFFE). One of the missions of the observatory is to identify cases of violence against women based on reports and information received and document various forms of violence in a special database. Further, Article 41 instructs MFFE to receive reports and statements on violence against women from all relevant ministries and public bodies and refer them to the national observatory on violence against women. Thus, under the law MFFE has the mandate and requirement, through the national observatory, to collect, identify and document cases of violence against women in a secure and trusted solution cloud database.

Activities and Approach:

• Contractor will develop, design and install a comprehensive data management software system to collect, manage and process information about violence against women in Tunisia.
• In cooperation with ABA ROLI and its partners, including MFFE and civil society organizations, Contractor will inform the design and functioning of the information management system to collect data on: occurrence of violence, type of violence with callers have faced, demographics of callers, data regarding victim needs, and services hotline staff provided or referred victims to. Technical specifications may be modified or expanded depending on discussions with ABA ROLI and its partners.
• The platform may include: an interface for data input based on victim intake questionnaires and forms; a dashboard with a resource library and materials to enhance the ability of service providers to address victim needs and queries; information about and contact details for local and national service providers that can support victims; and input forms to support collection of data regarding services received by victims and the status of victims after they leave shelters.
• Platform should include user friendly front end that addresses the need of users – which shall be determined during a program kick off meeting.
• Ability for multiple organizations to input data and access their own information as well as select information entered by other organizations
• Ability for data input to be completed offline with data later being uploaded to the cloud and synced with other systems utilizing IMS
• Ability for newly entered data to not overwrite all previously entered data (allowing potential for retroactive/historical looks)
• Ability to enter data across operating systems and devices (i.e. both desktop &
• mobile-friendly); please be sure to describe the hardware and software necessary to access the data system.
• Ability to query out all data points stored within the system on an ad hoc basis for all data entered since inception of system .
• Ability to export results of reports and specified data reports to .csv/Excel/.pdf
• Ability to view specific organization/asssociation’s data and generate reports for each association, as desired. Please note how much control the software will allow over form/report design, layout, and formatting
• Ability to update reports instantly after data is entered
• Ability to customize system and association-level reports and for associations inputting data to also develop customized reports to include custom/specific data elements
• Ability to control and adjust program, staff, and individuals’ access rights to entering and viewing data and reports. Proposal should note ability to reset passwords and usernames for program providers and how access rights are controlled.
• Ability to bulk import and integrate data from/with other data systems;
• Data and reports generated via the platform should be compatible with existing platforms (such as the current online system being utilized by the Violence Against Women Hotline (or Green Line) staff
• Regular audits of data quality to ensure appropriate recording and connections.
• System is customizable and has the ability to be updated over time
• Robust data protection capabilities
• Provide ongoing technical support
• Describe the data hosting options available for the proposed solution, including whether the primary software would be hosted on the vendor’s servers, servers co-hosted with vendors, the vendors own servers, or some other third party. Describe power source redundancy, system back-up, and disaster recovery plans for each option.
• Ability to provide upfront, ongoing and custom training
• Ability of adminstrators to upload materials to the resource library and for users to download materials in the resource library.
• Users should be able to submit documents to be uploaded to resource library upon approval of adminsitrators.

The vendor’s proposed approach to accomplishing the above scope of work must be clearly detailed in the Response to this RFP.

Organizational Capacity Statement :

Contractor should describe its organizational capacity to carry out the work in this RFP. This should include a detailed description of the capacity to manage finances, past audit and tax statements, experiences in conducting similar projects with international organizations and on human rights related database systems.

Budget:

Contractor must provide a line-item budget for all activities under this program. The budget should include the following major cost-categories: (1) Management Fees; (2) Design Fees, (3) Quotes for Production Costs; and (4) Other Costs, if any. A budget template is provided below, and bidders are requested to detail costs in the attached making minimum level of adjustments required. The maximum amount payable under this contract will be 90,000 (ninety thousand TND). Please also provide bank account and details on payment receipt.

Supporting official registration documents : 

including company’s licence and official registration certificate, as well audit statement and latest tax payment forms.

Sample of Previous Work:

Bidders should provide ABA ROLI samples of relevant previous work developed by the vendor, including design software, database and information management systems.

References:

Contractor must provide three (3) reference letters attesting to the success of previous related work.