Consultancy: Solution Architect — Conceptualization of a National Biodiversity Knowledge Sharing Platform (Tunisia)-WWF - Opportunités

1. WHO WE ARE

WWF is a leading international non-governmental organization for nature conservation, operating in over 100 countries and supported by more than 5 million donors. Its mission is to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by reconciling biodiversity conservation, the sustainability of natural resources, and the fight against climate change.

WWF North Africa (WWF NA), based in Tunis, develops and implements projects aimed at promoting the sustainable management of natural resources, strengthening the resilience of local communities, and contributing to the climate and environmental commitments of the Mediterranean region.

2. PROJECT CONTEXT AND JUSTIFICATION

WWF North Africa is launching the present call for consultancy to recruit a Solution Architect responsible for conceptualizing a national biodiversity knowledge sharing platform for Tunisia — a platform enabling the centralization, visualization and analysis of biodiversity data at national scale, and giving visibility to community-led conservation. The assignment is carried out within the framework of the People Powering Biodiversity (PPB) project.

The PPB project aims to preserve forest landscapes and their biodiversity in the Kroumirie–Mogods region (northern Tunisia) through a Communities-Led Conservation (CLC) approach. The project recognizes local communities as the primary stewards of these resources and constitutes an integrated programme combining capacity building with an innovative financing mechanism.

Implementation covers the Kroumirie–Mogods region, spanning the delegations of Ghardimaou, Oued Mliz, Jendouba Nord, Fernana, Ain Draham and Tabarka in the Governorate of Jendouba; the delegation of Nefza in the Governorate of Beja; and the delegation of Sejnene in the Governorate of Bizerte.

The problem to be addressed. Biodiversity data in Tunisia is produced by a wide range of actors — public institutions, research centres, universities, civil society organizations, development projects and, increasingly, local communities themselves — but remains fragmented, unevenly documented, difficult to access and rarely reusable. As a consequence, existing data is under-exploited for decision-making; the preparation of national reports to multilateral environmental agreements is costly and repetitive; and data generated by communities and field practitioners often remains invisible at national level.

The platform is conceived as a response to this fragmentation: not a static repository, but a living, continuously fed and openly consultable national infrastructure that connects existing data sources, makes them intelligible and useful to different categories of users, and gives visibility and value to community-led conservation.

This assignment concerns the conceptualization and architecture of the platform, not its development. The consultant’s mandate is to produce the strategic, functional and technical blueprint on the basis of which WWF NA and its partners will be able to commission, build, govern and sustain the platform.

3. OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

3.1 Overall objective

To design a national platform enabling the centralization, visualization and analysis of biodiversity data at national scale, while embedding and giving visibility to community-led and inclusive conservation.

3.2 Specific objectives

SO1 — Valorization of existing data. Design the platform so that biodiversity data already produced in Tunisia can be identified, aggregated, structured and exploited according to specific thematic domains (to be defined during the assignment, potentially including species and habitats, protected and conserved areas, forest landscapes, threats and pressures, ecosystem services, and socio-economic and governance dimensions of conservation).

SO2 — Support to national reporting. Design the platform so that it can feed Tunisia’s national reporting obligations and commitments — including but not limited to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD national reports, NBSAP and the indicators of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework), Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the UNFCCC, and other relevant regional and international frameworks — by generating reusable, traceable and standards-compliant outputs.

SO3 — Integration of data collection tools. Design the platform’s interoperability so that it can ingest data from field-level and third-party data collection tools and databases, including tools already in use or planned within WWF and partner programmes (e.g. DART and comparable field data collection and reporting solutions), and connect to relevant international data infrastructures.

4. TARGET USERS AND ACCESS LOGIC

The platform is intended to serve four broad categories of users, each with a differentiated level of access ranging from data entry and editing rights to consultation only:

User category	Indicative examples	Indicative access level
Public institutions related to biodiversity	Ministries and agencies in charge of environment, agriculture and forests, youth and sports, and social affairs, and their technical bodies	Data contribution, validation and editing; full analytical access
Research institutions	Universities, national research institutes, research centres	Data contribution and editing within defined scopes; full analytical access
Civil society organizations	National and local NGOs, community-based organizations, local conservation groups	Data contribution (with validation workflow); analytical access
General public	Citizens, media, students, private sector, donors	Consultation and visualization; download of open datasets;

Defining the definitive role and permission matrix — including validation workflows, data ownership, attribution, and the treatment of sensitive data — forms part of this assignment (see Section 6.3).

5. KEY DESIGN DECISIONS TO BE DETERMINED BY THE CONSULTANT

The following strategic choices are integral to the assignment. The consultant is expected to determine and justify each of them, on the basis of the diagnostic work, benchmarking and stakeholder consultation set out in Section 6, and to present the reasoning and the alternatives considered in the corresponding deliverables.

Data scope. Determine which types of data the platform should hold and at what level of granularity, and which data should be hosted directly, federated or harvested from source systems, or simply catalogued and referenced.

Role of artificial intelligence. Assess whether and how AI should be used — for analytical functions (e.g. trend detection, data quality control, species identification support, gap analysis), for assisting the drafting and generation of reports and summaries, or not at all at this stage — and substantiate the recommendation with the associated costs, risks, data-protection implications and capacity requirements.

Institutional anchoring and sustainability. Recommend which institution should host, own and operate the platform, under what governance arrangement, and with what financing model beyond the project's lifetime.

Treatment of sensitive data. Define how the platform should handle data whose disclosure could create risk — notably precise locations of threatened, endemic or commercially exploited species, and data relating to identifiable individuals or communities.

Community data sovereignty. Establish how data generated by local communities can be integrated in a way that recognizes their rights, ensures consent and attribution, and returns value to them.

Build strategy. Recommend whether the platform should be built on an existing open-source solution, adapted from an existing national or international platform, or developed bespoke.

6. SCOPE OF WORK

The consultant will carry out the following tasks. The methodology is indicative and may be refined in the technical proposal.

6.1 Inception, diagnosis and needs assessment

Review project documents, national strategies and reporting obligations, and relevant regional and international initiatives.
Map the biodiversity data ecosystem in Tunisia: producers, holders and users of data; existing databases, platforms, portals and information systems; formats, standards, licences and quality; institutional mandates; and the existing legal and regulatory framework on data and open data.
Conduct consultations (interviews, focus groups and/or a workshop) with the four user categories, including fieldwork in the Kroumirie–Mogods region to capture the needs and constraints of local communities and field actors.
Benchmark comparable platforms — national biodiversity information systems and observatories, regional Mediterranean initiatives, and international infrastructures (e.g. the CBD Clearing-House Mechanism, GBIF, Protected Planet, IPBES data products) — and draw operational lessons.
Produce a structured needs and use-case analysis, differentiated by user category.

6.2 Functional design

Define the platform’s value proposition, scope and boundaries, including what it will explicitly not do.
Specify functional requirements, organized by module and prioritized, potentially covering: data ingestion and submission; validation and quality control workflows; metadata catalogue and search; geospatial visualization and mapping; dashboards and indicators; analytics; report generation; open data access and APIs; user and role management; community and knowledge-sharing features.
Specify non-functional requirements: performance, scalability, availability, security, multilingual support (Arabic, French, English), accessibility, low-bandwidth and mobile usability, and offline data collection.
Produce wireframes / low- to medium-fidelity mockups for the principal user journeys, and a proposed information architecture.
Specify the indicator framework and the mapping between platform data and the reporting requirements identified under SO2.

6.3 Data and governance architecture

Define the data model and the applicable metadata and exchange standards (e.g. Darwin Core, EML, ABCD, OGC services, INSPIRE-inspired geospatial standards, GBIF IPT), justifying each choice.
Define the interoperability architecture: APIs, harvesting mechanisms, connectors to field data collection tools (SO3), and integration with international infrastructures.
Propose a data governance framework: role and permission matrix; data validation and curation workflows; data ownership, licensing and citation rules; a data sensitivity policy covering the generalization or restriction of sensitive records; personal data protection in line with Tunisian legislation and WWF policy; and provisions for community data sovereignty, consent and attribution.
Propose the institutional governance model: steering arrangements, hosting institution, roles and responsibilities of contributing institutions, and formalization instruments (e.g. data-sharing agreements, MoUs).

6.4 Technical architecture and implementation roadmap

Present a comparative options analysis for the build strategy (open-source adaptation vs. bespoke development vs. hybrid), with a clear, justified recommendation.
Specify the recommended technical architecture: components, technology stack, hosting options (including national hosting considerations), security architecture, backup and continuity.
Deliver a substantiated assessment of the use of AI, addressing the question raised in Section 5, with recommended use cases, exclusions, costs, risks and safeguards.
Produce a phased implementation roadmap with a recommended MVP scope, an indicative cost estimate for development, hosting, maintenance and content curation over at least five years, and a capacity-building plan for the institutions and users concerned.
Identify risks and mitigation measures, and define success indicators for the platform.
Produce the technical annexes required to launch procurement of the development phase (indicative terms of reference / technical specifications for the developer).

6.5 Validation

Present and discuss intermediate findings with WWF NA and, as agreed, with the project’s institutional partners.
Facilitate a validation workshop in Tunis presenting the final concept, and integrate the resulting feedback into the final deliverables.

7. DELIVERABLES

All deliverables are to be submitted, in editable formats, and are subject to written approval by WWF NA.

#	Deliverable	Indicative timing
D1	Inception report: refined methodology, work plan, consultation plan, stakeholder list, and the agenda for resolving the open questions in Section 5	1 Week after signature
D2	Diagnostic and needs assessment report: data ecosystem mapping, benchmark, consultation findings, use cases by user category	2 weeks
D3	Functional specification: value proposition, prioritized functional and non-functional requirements, information architecture, wireframes, indicator and reporting framework	3weeks
D4	Data and governance framework: data model, standards, interoperability architecture, permission matrix, data sensitivity and sovereignty policy, institutional governance model	5 weeks
D5	Technical architecture, AI assessment and implementation roadmap, including costed plan, risk analysis, capacity-building plan and draft technical specifications for the development phase	6 weeks
D6	Final concept document consolidating D2–D5, with an executive summary suitable for institutional and donor audiences; presentation pack; validation workshop report	8 weeks

8. CONSULTANT PROFILE

8.1 Required

Advanced degree (Master’s or equivalent) in information systems, computer science, data science, geomatics, environmental information management, or a related field.
Minimum 7 years of professional experience in the design and architecture of information systems or data platforms, including demonstrated experience as a solution architect on at least two comparable assignments.
Demonstrated experience designing data platforms in the environmental, biodiversity, natural resources or geospatial domain.
Proven command of data modelling, interoperability standards and API design; working knowledge of geospatial data and web-mapping technologies.
Demonstrated experience in requirements elicitation and multi-stakeholder consultation, including with public institutions.
Excellent analytical and writing skills; proven ability to produce decision-ready documentation for non-technical audiences.
Language: fluency in French and Arabic; strong professional English.

8.2 Desirable

Familiarity with biodiversity data standards and infrastructures (Darwin Core, GBIF, CBD Clearing-House Mechanism) and with multilateral environmental agreement reporting.
Experience in Tunisia or North Africa, and knowledge of the national institutional landscape for environment and data.
Experience in data governance, open data policy and data protection.
Experience designing systems used by community-level or low-connectivity users.
Practical experience assessing or deploying AI/ML components in data platforms.

A team may apply, provided the combination of profiles covers the full range of required competencies and a lead Solution Architect is clearly identified.

9. DURATION, SUPERVISION AND WORKING ARRANGEMENTS

The assignment is expected to require approximately 21 working days over a period of 2 months from the date of contract signature. The consultant will work in close collaboration with WWF NA Team.

The consultant is responsible for their own equipment and working arrangements.

10. APPLICATION DOSSIER

Interested study bureaus and consultancy firms must submit a complete dossier including:

A. Administrative dossier

Copy of the National Register of Enterprises certificate (Registre National des Entreprises — RNE).
Copy of the tax identification number (matricule fiscale).
Copy of the bank identity statement (identité bancaire).
Presentation of the establishment and of its relevant areas of expertise.
Detailed references for similar projects, including context, beneficiaries and results achieved.
Certifications or accreditations relevant to each profile, where applicable.

B. Technical offer

A note setting out the understanding of the assignment and the proposed methodology for covering all required activities.
A detailed work plan with a calendar of activities and deliverables for each phase.
CVs of the key experts, specifying their experience relevant to each role and the allocation of days per profile.
Three (3) references for previous assignments or comparable contracts, with results obtained and contact details.
The bidder’s initial position on the key design decisions listed in Section 5.

C. Financial offer

Total cost of the assignment, covering the services of all experts for the entire assignment.
Breakdown of professional fees per profile and of any costs related to the production of the deliverables and to coordination with WWF NA and stakeholders (travel, logistics, organization of workshops and consultations).
Bidders must attach the price schedule (cadre de prix) duly completed and signed, in accordance with the template provided in annex.

The financial offer shall be expressed in TND, all taxes included (TTC), and shall be submitted as a separate file from the technical offer.

11. SELECTION PROCEDURE

Selection will be made on the basis of a combination of technical (70%) and financial (30%) criteria. Only offers meeting the minimum technical requirements will be considered for financial evaluation.

11.1 Technical criteria (100 points)

Criterion	Points
Experience of the bureau	30
Experience in biodiversity, environmental or geospatial data	10
Similar references (design or architecture of data platforms)	20
Proposed team	40
Team leader (Solution Architect)	10
Key experts	30
Methodology	30
Understanding of the assignment	15
Work plan	15
TOTAL	100

Only bidders scoring ≥ 70/100 in the technical evaluation will be retained for the opening of the financial offer.

11.2 Financial criteria (100 points)

The offer must include all costs related to the assignment for the experts and the necessary logistics, expressed in TND TTC, including travel and workshops. The lowest compliant offer receives 100 points; other offers are scored in inverse proportion:

Financial score = 100 × (lowest compliant offer / offer evaluated)

11.3 Overall evaluation

Total Score (TS) = 0.7 × Technical score + 0.3 × Financial score

The selected service provider will be the one presenting the best overall TS.

WWF NA reserves the right not to select any service provider if the offers do not meet expectations or in the event of budgetary constraints.

12. PAYMENT MODALITIES

Payment will be made in four (4) instalments, conditional upon the validation of the corresponding milestones and the submission of the related invoices, after approval by WWF NA.

Instalment	Percentage	Payment condition
1st instalment	10 %	Upon signature of the contract
2nd instalment	30 %	Upon validation of the deliverables of Phase 1 (Start-up and framing) and Phase 2 (Diagnosis and needs assessment), comprising Deliverable 1 (Inception report) and Deliverable 2 (Diagnostic and needs assessment report)
3rd instalment	30 %	Upon validation of the deliverables of Phase 3 (Consultation and functional design) and Phase 4 (Data and governance architecture), comprising Deliverable 3 (Functional specification) and Deliverable 4 (Data and governance framework)
4th instalment	30 %	Upon validation of the deliverables of Phase 5 (Technical architecture and implementation roadmap) and Phase 6 (Validation and capacity transfer), comprising Deliverable 5 (Technical architecture and implementation roadmap), Deliverable 6 (Technical specifications for the development phase) and Deliverable 7 (Final consolidated report)

13. ALLOCATED BUDGET

The budget for the present assignment should covers:

The professional fees of the experts.
All costs necessary for carrying out the assignment, including travel and the organization of workshops and meetings with WWF NA and local stakeholders.
The production of all expected deliverables.

The service provider must provide a detailed budget in its financial offer, specifying the distribution of costs between the different profiles and any logistical costs.

14. SUBMISSION MODALITIES

Candidates (study bureaus and consultancy firms) must submit a complete dossier in PDF format to the following email address: procurment@wwfna.org

Deadline for receipt: 18/11/2026, 23:59.
Subject of the email: « Call for proposals — Conceptualization of a national biodiversity knowledge sharing platform, PPB project [reference] ».
Requests for clarification must be addressed in writing to the same email address before the deadline, with the subject « Request for clarification — Call for proposals, biodiversity knowledge sharing platform ».

Incomplete dossiers or dossiers sent after the deadline will not be taken into consideration.

15. GENERAL CONDITIONS

Intellectual property. All deliverables, data, designs and documentation produced under this assignment remain the exclusive property of WWF NA, which reserves the right to use, adapt, reproduce and publish them. Any third-party or open-source component recommended by the service provider must be accompanied by its licensing terms.
Confidentiality. The service provider shall treat all information obtained in the course of the assignment as confidential and shall not disclose or use it for any other purpose without prior written authorization.
Data protection. The service provider shall comply with Tunisian legislation on the protection of personal data and with WWF’s data protection and information security policies.
Policies and safeguards. The service provider shall adhere to WWF’s Code of Conduct and to its policies on Environmental and Social Safeguards, Safeguarding, Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti-Fraud, Anti-Bribery and Corruption, and Conflict of Interest. Consultations with local communities shall respect the principle of free, prior and informed consent.
Conflict of interest. Bidders must disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest, including any interest in the subsequent development phase of the platform. [Specify whether participation in this assignment excludes the service provider from bidding for the development contract.]
Visibility. No publication or public communication relating to the assignment may be made without the prior written authorization of WWF NA. Donor visibility requirements shall be respected in all deliverables.

Consultancy: Solution Architect — Conceptualization of a National Biodiversity Knowledge Sharing Platform (Tunisia)-WWF

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