RFQ FY23 168 – Full Stack Developer for the Equality Accelerator

1. Background Information on Plan International

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected. Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 85 years, and are now active in more than 75 countries.

Read more about Plan International’s Global Strategy: Girls Standing Strong at https://plan-international.org/strategy

About the commissioning office

Provide a brief introduction to the commissioning office, covering: (3-4 sentences)

• Their background and size in the country if appropriate; and
• Their strategy and priority areas.

2. Background/Context

The Equality Accelerator project launched in March 2019 with the goal of harnessing technology and Girl-Centred Design to improve access to funding and non-financial support for young and girl activists working towards gender equality. Following ideation and design sprints with young activists, the project moved forward with a pilot in Brazil and Guatemala, and a minimum viable product (MVP) was launched in October 2020 with the following functionalities:

1. A searchable database of funding opportunities;
2. A repository of tools and resources;
3. A community of peers where activists can search groups by location and support offered and contact these groups through social media;
4. A flexible fund mechanism with application, voting and reporting capacity all taking place over the website.

In 2021, the project was scaled to Germany, West and Central Africa, and was adapted for global funding opportunities. The flexible fund mechanism was adapted so that it can support simultaneous funding opportunities across five languages, allows for closed applications and voting, and can be manually managed from the back-end.

The MVP has a login feature and is live in English, French, Arabic, Portuguese and Spanish. The website was built in NextJS and the CMS on the Laravel Nova dashboard. It is hosted on Vercel/Zeit and interacts with Google Analytics, Bugsnag and Ipapi. The website can be seen here: https://eacolectiva.org/en

The team is looking for a full stack developer (preferably an individual but will consider small teams) to provide ongoing maintenance support over 1 year period, from June 2023-May 2024, with possibility of extension. The developer would also be available to support the implementation of new features on an as-needed basis.

See below for the specific competencies for each role. Individuals who meet either of the profiles above are welcome to submit a proposal. Individuals with experience in both the front-end and back-end systems are also encouraged to apply. We also invite applications from agencies with a team of developers. While design skills are not specifically requested in this ToR, they may be useful in the design and the development of new functionalities as needed, should you have designers on your team.

Beyond the technical requirements described above, we are also looking for the following experience and skills:

• Experience working on digital products for children and adolescents preferred
• Experience working on digital products or services for people living in fragile or crises contexts with weak tech infrastructures preferred
• English fluency required

Women, trans, intersex and gender non-conforming candidates as well as those who identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Colour (BIPOC) and those living with a disability are strongly encouraged to apply.

3. Description & Objectives

Purpose

This consultancy has two main areas of work over the period of June 2023 to May 2024:

1. Maintenance of the Equality Accelerator website. This will include the following:
   • Software/third party patches
   • Content or bug fixing
   • Small fixes to the website based on user feedback (2hr-4hrs)
   • Technical advice and support
2. Product enhancements based on prioritisation and consultations with users
   • Once these features/functionalities have been identified, we will request a quote from the consultant for this area of work
   • There is no minimum amount that will be allocated to this area of work, this will largely depend on user research and project priorities

Users

The users of Equality Accelerator are gender equality activists between the ages of 14-24, principally from Latin America and West and Central Africa. Many users have low access to internet, or high costs associated with using the internet. They may be using the website in a language that is not their mother tongue, they may have limited digital literacy. Equality Accelerator is specifically designed to include the excluded. Our users should be at the center of all decisions that we make about the website.

4. Deliverables and Timeline

Key Deliverables

• Perform maintenance of the Equality Accelerator website including:
  • Software/third party patches
  • Content or bug fixing
• Develop new features in both the content management system (CMS) and the frontend
• Lead technical planning, estimation and progress of tasks
• Provide technical input on the design of new features
• Provide testing coverage for the implementation of new features (prototyping)
• Provide technical advice to the Product Owner on scaling the product to new contexts

This contract will be from June 2023-May 2024. Specific support will be requested on an ongoing basis and approved by both parties before moving ahead, we estimate the workload will be between 15 and 25 hours a month. Major product enhancements will be agreed well in advance and a work plan with key deliverables will be drawn up if necessary.

Please note that this will be a non-exclusive contract.

5. Budget

Pricing will be agreed prior to the commencement of specific and subject to pre-agreed rates which will be outlined in the Service Agreement. . For ongoing maintenance work, payment will take place monthly, 30 days following the delivery of a correctly rendered invoice. For major product enhancements, deliverable and a payment schedule will be agreed ahead of time, subject to Plan’s payment terms.

The Developer will need to provide their own equipment as well as the necessary software and licenses for the contract.

6. Expected qualifications of the Consultant

The front-end developer should have a minimum of five years’ experience in website development with significant experience with Typescript (the website is built in NextJS).

The back-end developer is expected to have a minimum of four years’ experience with PHP and two 2 years’ experience with Laravel (in particular Envoyer and Laravel Forge). Experience with AWS a plus.

Beyond the technical requirements described above, we are also looking for the following experience and skills:

• Experience working on digital products for children and adolescents preferred
• Experience working on digital products or services for people living in fragile or crises contexts with weak tech infrastructures preferred
• English fluency required

Women, trans, intersex and gender non-conforming candidates as well as those who identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Colour (BIPOC) and those living with a disability are strongly encouraged to apply.

Women owned business and companies actively engaged or advancing gender equality and women empowerment in the workplace are especially encouraged to apply

7. Contact

For specific questions regarding this RFQ please contact [email protected]

8. List of documents to be submitted with the RFQ

Please send in the following documents with your application:

• Your CV or company profile including company details detailing your proficiency in the relevant programming languages and software
• Examples of previous work with similar organisation in the development and humanitarian sector
• Proposed methodology
• 1-2 references
• Hourly or daily rate in GBP (if based in the UK) or USD/Euro if based outside the UK.

All consultants/suppliers are required to agree and adhere to Plan International’s Non-Staff Code of Conduct (Annex), Plan’s Terms of Business and all relevant Plan policies.

9. Submission of offers

Please send your application to Plan International [email protected] by 20th June 2023

referencing “RFQ FY23 168 Full Stack Developer for the Equality Accelerator Developer” in the subject line and including support documents as outlined.

10. Evaluation of offers

Shortlisted suppliers may be invited to discuss their proposals in more detail at Plan’s discretion.

Plan International, at its sole discretion, will select the successful RFQ.

Plan international shall be free to:

• Accept the whole, or part only, of any submission
• Accept none of the proposals
• Republish this Request for Quotations

Plan International reserves the right to keep confidential the circumstances that have been considered for the selection of the offers.

Part of the evaluation process may include a presentation from the supplier.

Women-owned businesses and companies actively engaged or advancing gender equality and women empowerment in the workplace are especially encouraged to apply

Value for money is very important to Plan International, as every additional £ saved is money that we can use on our humanitarian and development work throughout the world.

Plan Internationalmay award multiple contracts and all contracts will be non-exclusive.

11. Evaluation Criteria

Criteria: Technical Proposal (65%)

Bidders must demonstrate:

Required Skills

Specific Experience of the Consultant(s) relevant to the assignment. (20%)

Adequacy of the proposed methodology to the ToR (25%)

Consultant(s) qualification & Competence (20%)

Criteria: Financial Proposal (30%)

Pricing: Detailed fees

• Fixed pricing
• Economically advantageous for the organisation

Criteria: Gender Responsive (5%)

Gender Sensitive Practices and Policies

As part of our ongoing Gender Responsive Procurement Initiatives, Bidders will be allocated 5% of the overall score if they meet one or more of the following:

• If headed up by a woman
• If supplier is a women-owned business: A legal entity in any field that is more than 51% owned, managed, and controlled by one or more women.
• If the % of women in management positions is over 35%
• If % of women workers is 55% or above
• If robust gender equality initiatives are in place and active. E.g. WEPs signed, gender equality procurement policy, any additional gender-sensitive program implemented.

12. Contract & Payment terms

Please note that, if successful, Plan International’s standard terms of payment are 30 days after the end of the month of receipt of invoice, or after acceptance of the Goods/Services/Works, if later.

13. IR35 Requirements – Only applicable for UK based or connections to the UK Consultants

As of April 2021, all Global Hub UK-based contractors (Consultant/personal service company/agency/intermediary) employing “people” in their chain to deliver serves to Plan International must follow a strict process of IR35 determination.

Plan Limited will conduct a CES tool on all relevant shortlisted proposers as outlined above to determine whether they fall inside or outside IR35.

14. Plan International’s Ethical & Environmental Statement

The supplier should establish environmental standards and good practices that follow the principles of ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems, and in particular to ensure compliance with environmental legislation (if applicable_

15. Clarifications

The onus is on the invited individual/companies to ensure that its offer is complete and meets Plan International’s requirements. Failure to comply may lead to the offer being rejected. Please therefore ensure that you read this document carefully and answer fully all questions asked.

If you have any queries in relation to your submission, or to any requirements of this RFQ, please email: [email protected]

Thank you for your proposal

How to apply

Please send your application to Plan International [email protected] by 20th June 2023 referencing “RFQ FY23 168 Full Stack Developer for the Equality Accelerator Developer” in the subject line and including support documents as outlined.