enpact e.V. wishes to enter into a service contract. The general objective of this tender is to develop a comprehensive handbook and training programme that focuses on creating and evaluating the accessibility of online solutions in Egypt in alignment with international standards.
The handbook aims to empower developers, designers, entrepreneurs, company owners and evaluators to ensure that their online solutions are accessible to all users, including those with disabilities, and to foster an inclusive user-centric approach to development.
Deliverables
- Develop a comprehensive handbook that focuses on creating and evaluating the accessibility of online solutions in alignment with international standards, such as EN 301 549 and particularly the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) amongst others.
- Develop and execute a Training of Trainers (ToT) program for representatives of entities working/supporting persons with disabilities (PwDs) on the content of the curated handbook.
The tenderer is expected to have a substantial experience in the area of developing and evaluating accessible online solutions demonstrating adherence to WCAG guidelines and other relevant standards with a focus on the following:
- Experience in developing accessible handbooks and manuals
- Experience in developing and implementing ToT programs
- Experience in human centered design and disability-inclusive design thinking approaches
- A strong network of relevant stakeholders with the knowledge, tools, use cases, and networks necessary to design and implement universally accessible online solutions
Due to the fact that the objectives of this tender require very diverse networks and fields of expertise, the contracting authority is presenting it in the form of four Work Packages, which are described in detail in the Call for Tenders document.
Geographic Scope
Potential tenderers may be agencies, companies, freelancers, etc. which are located and registered in any location. Due to the specific focus of this call for tenders, Egypt-based tenderers are preferred. As described in the respective work packages, traveling in the field will be required by the tenderer in line with safety guidelines and travel restrictions imposed due to the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.
Starting Date for the Contract and Duration
It is expected that the service contract will be signed by 20 March 2024 and run until the end of February 2025.
The contract shall enter into force on the date on which it is signed by the last contracting party. The duration of the tasks and deliverables shall not exceed 28 February 2025. The execution of the deliverables shall not start before the contract has been signed or before the specific date specified in the contract.
Financial Offer
The financial offer must include all costs related to the development and the iteration of the handbook. This includes travel costs to Cairo when relevant, designing of the handbook based on branding guidelines to be provided, and any other additional costs foreseen for implementing the work packages and the deliverables. However, costs for the Training of Trainers, including training venue, catering, and local transportation for the trainers, would be covered by enpact.
The financial offer for this award must include net prices excluding VAT. Upon conclusion of the contract with the contracting party that is awarded the contract, it will be determined, depending on the contracting party’s country of domicile, whether enpact or the contracting party is responsible for paying VAT and which tax rate is to be applied. Only if the payment of VAT by the contractual partner is agreed upon will this value also become part of the payment plan.
Click here to download the tender for the full deliverables, eligibility criteria and process.
Offers are accepted until Friday, March 15 at 09:00 AM (Berlin Time – CEST) and should be submitted by e-mail to es@enpact.org & rb@enpact.org with the subject line: ‘Offer for tender [46D-1223-422] – Company Name’.
Info Session
An info session regarding the open tender took place on Monday, the 11th of March, at 2:00 PM CET (3:00 PM Cairo Time).
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
All received questions and answers will be made public on enpact website to ensure equal availability of information to all interested applicants.
Question 1: The deadline for the submission of the tender quotes Wednesday, 14th of March, 9am. However, the 14th of March is a Thursday. Can I correctly assume that the deadline therefore is Thursday morning, 14th of March, 9am?
There was a typographical error in the tender regarding the deadline. Please note the deadline has been extended to Friday, the 15th of March, at 9:00 AM CEST.
Question 2: Could you please confirm that the work will be delivered remotely? We are UK-based and carry out all our delivery remotely.
The majority of the work can be conducted remotely, with the exception of the delivery of Work package Two and Work Package Three, in particular. The delivery of the training sessions/workshops that are expected to take place in Cairo, Egypt, at a specific date that would be aligned later on with the awarded entity based on the timeline of the program.
Question 3: Could you provide more detailed information on the target audience for the Accessibility Handbook beyond just “end users and relevant stakeholders”? How are you recruiting them and what criteria would you be using? How much time do you anticipate the stakeholders can give throughout the development process, and what would their expected roles be? For example, can we expect them to take part in providing feedback being a part of discovery/research to understand their needs?
The handbook aims to provide the knowledge base that enables organizations, developers and designers to make online employment solutions more accessible to Persons with Disabilities. The relevant stakeholders are persons with disabilities (persons with visual, hearing, mobility and/or cognitive impairments), entrepreneurs who are currently developing their accessible online solutions, accessibility experts with knowledge on WCAG, W3C guidelines, and relevant international standards for accessibility of online solutions, representatives from NGOs and advocacy groups that are working with persons with disabilities, and corporates with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program focus on persons with disabilities.
A focus group of relevant stakeholders will be involved in identifying the needs regarding accessibility of online employment solutions to persons with disabilities, their involvement will be through 1-on-1 interviews, general periodical meetings, filling out surveys and giving feedback on the first edition of the launched handbook.
Question 4: What does success look like in terms of training mentors? Do you foresee any general barriers or cultural barriers to training mentors?
The ToT (Training of trainers) component aims to empower master and junior trainers to deliver the knowledge, skills, and tools showcased in the handbook to their communities. We don’t foresee any general or cultural barriers; mentoring as a structured practice is not a new concept in Egypt. However, with the focus group of Stakeholders, we will need to build awareness of the ToT program benefits and how it can further empower the different entities to become improve the accessibility of their online solutions for persons with disabilities.
Question 5: Are there any KPIs you would use for assessing the impact and effectiveness of the training guide?
Quantitative and qualitative evaluation will be conducted by those who intend to use the handbook (Work package 1). The evaluation criteria and KPIs will be defined according to the methodologies and tools showcased in the handbook. When it comes to the training toolkit, it is intended to complement the training experience of the ToT Master and Junior trainers.
Question 6: What cultural considerations to your knowledge should we be aware of in the creation of an accessibility handbook?
We anticipate that developing accessibility that is also relevant for Arabic content can be an additional challenge. No specific cultural considerations can be envisioned.
Question 7: Could you please provide more details on the budget breakdown for each work package?
In accordance with the procurement process’ rules and regulations, we are unable to provide a more detailed budget breakdown for each work package. Evaluation of the financial offers will be conducted after the conclusion of the tendering process,; the exact evaluation process is expanded on in the Tender Document.
Question 8: Is there room to extend the deadline for the submission of the proposal?
In accordance with the procurement process’ rules and regulations, we are required to close the currently open tender at the expected deadline and conduct a thorough assessment of all received offers. If sufficient quality is not reached in the received offers, we would then re-open the tender to allow for more offers to be received.
