Interactive Parliament Observatory Website Development

Legal Agenda is seeking to commission a team to conduct Web Development services for its new Parliament Observatory Website. The “Web Development Services” are intended to cover software design development services, including analysis of requirements, design, development, testing and project management. As part of the assignment the team will also be required to provide a 2-year maintenance agreement. Expected Budget is around 50,000 USD.

The parliamentary observatory website aims to act as a main watchdog hub of the Lebanese parliament. It will publish both quantitative and qualitative data on the work of the Lebanese parliament, its members, its legislative process, and the legal texts being discussed. It will provide information on the activity of Individual Members of Parliament, Political Blocs, Parties, Parliamentary Commissions, General Assembly, and the Parliament Bureau and report on their legislative, representative, and control activity. It will also provide information and commentaries on the draft laws being discussed or passed.

The platform will include a document and workflow management system which allows content creators to capture the full legislative process, from the submission of a draft law or a law proposal to the parliament to tracking the various discussions about it in parliamentary commission meetings, tracking its amendments, and its passing or dropping by the general assembly.

The website will allow different users, such as regular citizens interested to hold their representative accountable as well as researchers and civil society organizations to be updated on the work of the parliament to enable them to evaluate it and engage with it. It will allow Legal Agenda’s research team to track the work of the parliament and continuously develop reports on it.

The website’s language will be Arabic with some sections available in English.

2. Expected List of Sections and Features

Main Sections

  • A primer/explainer/FAQ section giving information on the workings of the parliament: Role of MP, Role of Parliament Commission, Role of General Assembly, Legislative Process: how to submit a law, etc.
  • Each MP will have a profile page, which contains both static personal details as well as dynamic info related to the MPs activity in the parliament (e.g. legislative activity, attendance to parliamentary meetings, social media feed, etc.)
  • Each Parliamentary commission will have its page, which contains a list of its members, its meetings, the draft laws it is discussing, its calendar, its reports, etc.
  • Each General Assembly meeting will have a page, detailing its agenda and the decisions
  • Each draft law will have its page, including its full text and a downloadable version, who proposed it, its status in the legislative process, its different versions, in which meetings it was discussed, commentaries about it, as well as various tags and fields. A special section on budget and financial legislation may be needed.
  • Advanced Search functionality (listings of draft laws, resolutions, and other parliamentary documents, of MPs profiles, of committees, and an ability to search by key words, and to filter by various fields)
  • Statistics section showing dynamic information and interactive visualizations related to parliament activities and laws
  • Legal Agenda’s Commentaries, Studies, and Articles
  • News and press statements
  • A calendar page, showing all events related to the parliament activity
  • About us and Contact forms
  • Get involved section (e.g. ability to initiate petitions, polls, add events, subscribe to notifications and newsletters)

Users of the website

The following user roles, at least, are to be created:

  • Public Users should be able to access most of the website’s functionalities, search for, view and/or download reports and documents.
  • Subscribers to the website may select their interests and get customized newsletters or information alert about the parliament’s activity.
  • The admin user has managerial control over the website and access all the website’s functionalities, may add/modify pages, access new users, etc.
  • The content creator has ability to regularly (at a daily/weekly rate) input data into the content management system.
  • The analyst has access to the database (potentially through an API) to carry advanced statistics queries and create new visualizations and charts, and export data.
  • The contributor is allowed to add commentaries, launch petitions, and polls

 

UX and UI requirements

  • Responsive Design and high compatibility with mobile viewing
  • Application of accessibility and usability best practices to facilitate that people with disabilities access the website
  • Compliance with Legal Agenda’s provided brand guidelines
  • Well Planned Information Architecture and effective navigation

Other requirements

  • The website design and architecture should allow regular improvements on look and features.
  • Cross-platform compatibility
  • Implementation of digital security best practices (e.g. SSL Certificate, appropriate http headers, etc.)
  • The hosting setup should be secure, provide regular backups, and provide a website that is fast. Legal Agenda is to hold the admin account and billing for the hosting services.
  • SEO optimization
  • Analytics integration

 

Scope and specifications

Main responsibilities

  • Analysis of Legal Agenda’s requirements and transform them into technical specifications
  • Design of the website wireframe and site map based on user experience best practices
  • Development of front-end and back-end systems including content management system/database development tasks. Content Management System (CMS) that can effectively manage large amounts of data and an array of file types including embedded video, audio, photo albums, HTML, PDF, and similar.
  • Migration of the Legal Agenda’s available database to the new content management system
  • Development of both full-text and filter-based search functionality for the entire website. Users should be able to refine a search after the initial results have been viewed.
  • Account creation functionality for different roles (e.g. Admin, content creator, content analyst, email subscriber).
  • Automated notification of content (e.g. an alerting service RSS or other appropriate technologies which will enable the website to feed users with information that is frequently updated)
  • Integrate a newsletter subscription system where stakeholders can subscribe for a newsletter system where they can receive regular updates about the parliament’s activity.
  • The website should integrate well with social media platforms such as YouTube; Twitter; Facebook; Instagram; WhatsApp, and other so that its content is highly shareable on these platforms.
  • Provide the ability to launch online Polls (linked to draft laws in particular)
  • Provide training manual for content editors/ authors.
  • Implement Domain Name Registration
  • Provide a Hosting plan for 2 years
  • Design a private policy statement to be implemented on the website.

 

Duration of the consultancy

  • Phase 1, website with initial features goes live by March 2022
  • Phase 2, remaining features and website improvements are launched by September 2022.
  • Hosting and maintenance are to be implemented for 2 years

 

Qualifications

  • At least 5 years of proven experience developing similar interactive websites in Arabic and websites for large non‐profit organizations using modern technologies.
  • Experience in developing websites for monitoring public institutions is preferred. Having worked with a parliament is a big plus.
  • Ability to work collaboratively and efficiently with project staff and partners to achieve website goals
  • Reliance on open source technologies is highly preferred

 

Eligibility

  • All teams meeting the qualifications will be considered.

 

Recruitment process

This term of reference will follow a 2-stage selection process as below:

  • Stage 1: Applicants interested in applying are requested to submit an expression of interest (EoI) which indicates to what extent the firm complies with the set of organizational requirements and criteria detailed in this ToR.

The selection committee will shortlist qualified applications who will move to stage 2.

  •  Stage 2: Only shortlisted applicants will be invited to an initial interview in which more detailed specifications will be shared, and upon which the applicant will be requested to submit both their technical and financial proposal.

 

Shortlisting Criteria

  • Relevance of Experience to the field concerned (20)
  • Team expertise and general track record developing modern websites (15)
  • Qualifications, Skills, and diversity of programming languages and framework of key personnel assigned to the project (10)
  • Project Management Methodology (10)

Shortlisted teams are to earn a minimum of 30 (out of 55 maximum).

How to apply

Please send the application to [email protected].

The Expression of Interest application should include

  • Profile describing the team’s fields of expertise, licenses, accreditations, certifications
  • Portfolio of similar projects (include contract scope, contract value, contract duration)
  • Technology stack covered by the team, with an emphasis on open source technologies and libraries (for front end, back end, content management)
  • A profile of key personnel and team structure
  • A description of project management methodology
  • Email addresses and phone contacts for 2 references

 

منتهية الصلاحية
آخر مدة للتقديم
الأحد, 29. أغسطس 2021
نوع الدعوة
دعوة لتقديم الاستشارات
قطاع(ات) التدخل:
المناصرة والتوعية, الاتصالات والإعلام, التنسيق وإدارة المعلومات, الحكم الرشيد والشفافية, القانون والشؤون القانونية, العلوم والتكنولوجيا
Remuneration range:
> 6000 (USD)
Duration of Contract:
2 years