Call for Offers related to the Hosting and Maintenance of 4 'Marsad' Websites

1. Introduction of DCAF

Initiated by Switzerland, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) is an international organisation dedicated to promoting good governance of the justice and security sector. It promotes the development of efficient security forces that are properly controlled and overseen by executive and legislative authorities and fully accountable to citizens and their elected leaders.

In support of its long-term assistance programme to MENA justice and security sector reform, DCAF maintains two offices in Tunis, an office in Ramallah, Palestine, and an office in Beirut, Lebanon. DCAF provides its partners with comparative and policy advice and research, promotes inclusive approaches and processes to SSR and offers various capacity building programmes.

1. Project overview

To address existing information gaps and wrong perceptions related to the security and justice sectors in the MENA region, DCAF has for several years been running four websites under the name of “Marsad” (Arabic: “Observatory”). These sites provide daily and extensive information about the security and justice sectors and their main actors in Egypt (Marsad Egypt https://marsad-egypt.info/en/), Libya (Marsad Libya https://www.marsad.ly/), the Palestinian Territories (Marsad Palestine https://www.marsad.ps/) and Tunisia (Marsad Tunisia https://www.observatoire-securite.tn/). Based on the number of visits to these sites, as well as informal feedback received from users, these observatories may be considered hugely popular. The various observatories all fulfil the function of providing extensive information about security sector reform and governance in each of the four countries to a wide audience, by providing a wide variety of brief publications of many different aspects of SSR.

DCAF is now in the process of renewing the provision of hosting and securing these 4 websites, as well as of providing maintenance necessary services. DCAF’s own staff is in charge of selecting, uploading and updating all the material that is published in the 4 websites. Therefore, DCAF is launching this process to select an IT service provider for the required services highlighted here.

As part of the selection process, DCAF asks the applicants to submit offers for hosting, maintenance, and security management for a minimum duration of 1 year.

1. Selection criteria and required qualifications

In its proposal, the bidder is to indicate fulfilment of the following selection criteria. The Contractor must display sufficient experience in successfully maintaining platforms of comparable dimensions to ensure continuity and quality of the service. The proposal must contain a detailed budget calculation, listing the estimated price of each component and/or service to be provided, with full details of units and unit costs.

The Contractor will be selected based on:

• Demonstrated expertise and experience of a sufficient number of staff: The proposal shall mention reference projects and outline the number and qualification of the project team.
• Proposed hosting solutions and their efficiency/sustainability:
• Proposed Security management and its reliability
• System Specifications: A complete system specifications to emphasize all key features of the proposed solution

The Contractor shall appoint a support team who:

• Is proficient in Wordpress website development, with at least 2-year track record of working with Wordpress.
• Responds promptly to requests (within 24 hours);
• Is fluent in English and French, with excellent communication and writing skills. Arabic is a strong and distinctive asset.
• Takes initiative and is proactive in finding solutions to existing problems.

1. Tasks

The contract will be focused especially on the following tasks and scope of work expected from the service provider:

Maintenance and security management:

1. Maintain the websites’ Content Management and Authorization Systems (CMSs) as well as ensure the compatibility of modules and plug-ins, and the websites’ compatibility with system and browser updates.
2. Guarantee 24/7 websites and server monitoring.
3. Maintenance of hosting server and related services for all websites. This includes: performance tuning, security updates, site tuning and caching, server hardening, server tuning, tuning and maintenance of firewall, offsite backups of the websites, security and antispam solutions.

Technical support:

1. Technical support: fixing errors and issues related to the websites’ application software, its modules, and plug-ins.
2. Provide documentation and support for functionality and administration of the websites and hosting.
3. Ensure a service-level agreement with the third-party company contracted for the hosting solution that ensures servers’ optimal operation (such as Mailchimp for newsletter management).
4. Provide support for the integration of the Marsad websites with their social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter), and troubleshoot any connection issues.
5. Design and fine-tune Wordpress plugins to maintain the functioning of the Marsad websites, and to accommodate future developments of the project.
6. Risk management methodology: The contractor shall maintain high transparency towards DCAF of potential threats to the project plan, and inform DCAF of any risks whether procedural or technical, along with a mitigation plan for each risk.
7. Ensure adequate timelines for addressing issues: one week for normal issues, 24 hours for major issues, and 8 hours for critical issues.

1. Timeframe and procedures

Companies are asked to submit a full tender referencing the items above and specifically outlining fulfilment of the criteria, tasks and deliverables set out in sections III-IV by 8 March 2019. Please include a draft work plan, and a budget calculation with a summary of costs per component and unit.

Contracts for provision of services will be signed with a 3 month trial period from the date of signature.

The following timeline applies to this procedure

Call for offers officially announced

28 February

Deadline for receiving offers

11 March

Final selection of company

25 March

Project start (upon signature of the contract)

1 April

1. Modalities

The payment modalities will be outlined in the contract to be signed by DCAF and the selected company. The contract is subject to DCAF’s terms of business, especially its commitment to non-corruption, transparency and accountability. Payment shall be made based on:

• The number of ‘maintenance’ hours needed to fulfil the mandate for a determined period of time (monthly, quarterly, annually);
• A fixed amount for websites’ transfer;
• A fixed amount for hosting management for a determined period of time (monthly, quarterly, annually);
• A fixed amount for security management for a determined period of time (monthly, quarterly, annually);