TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR HOSTING & REDESIGNING HABITAT FOR HUMANITY UGANDA’s WEBSITE.

Habitat for Humanity Uganda seeks a consultant or firm with relevant expertise to design and construct a comprehensive website that offers a visible web presence for the HFHU’s programs and offers functionality to its members. The Terms of Reference (TOR) serve as a request for proposals from firms/companies interested in providing these services.

  1.  INTRODUCTION

Habitat for Humanity Uganda (HFHU) is an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) whose efforts are geared towards contributing to the elimination of poverty housing in the world.

Habitat for humanity Uganda currently implements 4 strategic programs: The Vulnerable Group Housing Program, Housing Micro Finance Program, Market Systems Development Program, and Urbanization Program.

Since its founding in 1982, HFHU has Built, Rehabilitated, Repaired, or Improved more than 40,000 housing units in Uganda, to provide simple, decent, and affordable shelter for over 240,000 individuals. 

  1.  SUMMARY OF TASKS                                                                                                                                                

(a) Approved website design including inner pages within 4 weeks after signing the contract;

(b) Wireframe of the complete website within at least 1 week after the approval of the design;

(c)Programming/development of the website to be completed within 30 days after approval of the wireframe;

(d) Migration of the content from the old website as per the format shared by HFHU to be completed within 2 weeks after the conclusion of the programing phase;

(e) Beta release/testing phase on the vendor’s server for four working days;

(f) Website to be migrated and configured on the production server

(g) Maintenance thereafter till December 2023.

(h) The domain name is available with HFHU.

(i) Provide warranty and technical support services for at least 6 months where all services should be free to the consultant.

  1. Training

The service provider will provide a training session for the administrators of the website on the processes of adding, editing, and deleting website content including audio-visuals.

  1. Documentation

The service provider will provide Habitat for Humanity with the relevant user soft copy and hard copy manuals for the website. The manuals should include administrative functions, and statistic modules, describe all functionalities of CMS and explain in detail the processes of adding content, editing content and deleting content with step-by-step guidelines and appropriate images for each process.

 The system documentation should detail specifics of web server configuration and any other operating system configuration/considerations required to accommodate the websites and CMS

  1. KEY DELIVERABLES                                                                                                                                                

 The hired company / Vendor / Agency will be required to create (design, develop, test and implement) a web platform within the designated timeline that meets the following criteria:

  1. DESIGN
  2. Provide an aesthetically and visually appealing highly usable and responsive website design that is easy to maintain and update, and compatible with PCs, MAC, mobiles, and tablets
  3. Content Management: The solution should allow authorized project staff (or appointed personnel) to edit and update the website including the ability to create, remove, edit and publish content
  4.  Ensure that the website is compliant with W3C 2.0 level AA to enable people with visual and audio impairment to access the website
  5.  Create 6 templates to share information related to events, publications, pictures, blogs, and video streaming.
  6. Site news/Trending now content blocks: The web solution will provide content/screen areas containing: Calendar, Upcoming events, Latest news/Site news Trending topics
  • Create sections to manage and publish the searchable research material, event reports, publications, photo gallery, video gallery, recent updates
  • Develop a video player for the HFHU website and ensure the upload and streaming of the videos by HFH.
  • Create detailed event-based data entry/registration modules to provide a web-based interface for forthcoming initiatives with a login feature for registered members.
  1. Web development agency is expected to configure the website on the server which is approved and hired by HFHU.
  2. Provide the documentation stating the configuration, customization of the CMS with the training manual (with snapshots) for updating each section/page of the website

B. WEBSITE HOSTING

The hired web development agency will liaise with the vendor providing hosting services with the following:

  1. Zero downtime assurance for the server
  2. In case of any technical faults that occur on the HFHU website, ensure that the vendor will recover the website from the backup taken within 4 hours of the fault reported/identified.
  3. Daily Automated backup will be taken for disaster recovery
  4. Unlimited space on the server will be provided
  5. Unlimited data transfer will be provided
  6.  Dedicated IP address for the website
  7. If HFHU decides to migrate the website to any other server company, the agency will undertake responsibility for performing the migration
  8. Average site load-time should be reasonable

C. WEBSITE ONGOING UPDATE/MAINTENANCE/AFTERCARE

The hired web development agency will

  1. provide authorized users Site Statistics/Management Reports with several relevant reports, for example, user registration, site usage, key interests/topics
  2. ensure that the website can provide Social Network Integration:
  3.  Being discussed within the collaborative spaces and other relevant statistical data.
  4. To work to guarantee SEO through 10 -15 keywords provided by HFHU including site analysis, competitive analysis, site content optimization, HTML code optimization, submission to credible search engines, link exchange, and web ranking report.
  5. Check for broken hyperlinks on the site. The service provider should verify regularly that the site is up and running will revert to back up whenever necessary post informing HFHU staff
  6. Be required to undergo a security audit by an authorized agency. The certificate should be made available to the HFHU team. The vendor is requested to hire an SSL certificate and appropriate access control for the HFHU website.
  7. will ensure that the site infrastructure is patched with the latest security patches and updates in case of Open Source,
  8. Take all reasonable and necessary measures to ensure the integrity of the content against malware and/or hacking activities.
  9. Maintain a file backup with a database of the website through the duration of the contract. The backup needs to be done every week.
  10. The website backup, code, and source files will be delivered in full to the client at the end of every quarter.
  11. Any web design, animation, etc., carried out will be shared in high resolution / PSD format / editable files with HFHU staff.
  12. Provide onsite support and training of appointed HFHU Staff for both the administrator interface as well as basic maintenance of the site architecture and design along with uploads/ postings etc. of content to the website.
  13. During the maintenance phase, the hired web development agency will provide monthly detailed reports of the website’s performance regarding SEO and website traffic.
  14. Provide a dedicated nodal officer for HFHU to address website-related queries as well as content updates, particularly for urgent matters
  15. Calendar, Events, Reminders, calendar integration: Specific authorized users should have the ability to create and administer events and event details. Other users should be able to search for and find events based on specific criteria. Members should be able to receive notifications that an event has been scheduled and reminders of upcoming events.
  16. Document Management System (DMS): Document/ Video/audio upload (any file format) with Description – Who uploaded – Date of upload – File Format etc., creation of new relevant page (if required), Mouse Over description on File Name (compatible to major OS and Browser) image uploaded should be uploaded with the appropriate meta-data including mandatory keywords/tags/fields (will be decided later) – for internal Search Indexing.

  1. Documents to be submitted at the time of proposal
  2. Reference of last 5 website projects completed or ongoing with contact details: email id, mobile number, organization/institute/company, and designation;
  3. Background information about the company/individual, other development projects handled and CVs of the key personnel who will be engaged in this assignment;
  4. A portfolio containing previously designed website collaterals/other relevant design-related information which will help us understand the agency’s aesthetics and design sensibilities
  5. A section explaining the organization’s competence and experience in handling similar assignments;
  6. Proposed strategy/methodology, work plan, timeline, and budget for the assignment;
  7. Detailed budget for design and development and content update of HFHU website
  • Detailed budget for yearly maintaining HFHU website and
  • Detailed budget for hosting (with break up) the HFHU website for one year

  1. TIME SCHEDULE/DURATION

The entire work should be completed within 30 days after the award of the contract. The time schedules for completing the activity have been specified.

  1. OWNERSHIP

The contents of the portal will not be altered, updated, or deleted without prior permission from the client.

The agency shall not use the domain for any advertisements and personal use without the prior permission of the client. The portal will be under the direct supervision of the Executive Director through the Communications Specialist and IT Officer.

9. DELIVERABLES

1. A Fully functional website

2. User guide/ Operational Guide 

3. Detail System manual

4. Other Related software.

5. Up-to-date portfolio and work samples

6. User codes and all required codes

  1.  TERMS OF PAYMENT

Payment shall be effected as follows:

30% Deposit to be paid by cheque upon agreement, thereafter another 50% will be PAID when the website is fully functional and 20% after the warrant period.

Payment shall be by cheque as per the HFHU’s financial guidelines and regulations.

The consultant is liable to pay 5% Withholding Taxes as stipulated in the tax law of Uganda,

  1. CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT OF PROPOSALS

Agencies are required to submit technical and financial proposals separately. Agencies scoring the highest cumulative score in Technical and Financial evaluations will be awarded the contract.

Technical and Financial evaluation will carry 70% and 30% weightage, respectively.

Technical proposals will be evaluated as per the criteria given below:

1. Expertise in the Firm [30 marks]

2. Methodology, Its Appropriateness to the Condition and Timeliness of the Implementation Plan [20marks]

3. Qualification of Key Personnel proposed for the assignment [20marks]

The financial proposal will be opened to only those agencies, which score 70% or above in the technical evaluation.

  1. The proposals must be submitted by email to

Chairperson,

Procurement Committee,

Habitat for Humanity Uganda 

P.O Box 9873 Kampala

Plot 91 Kira road Kamwokya, Kampala.

Telephone: +256414501457/ +256392760802

Fax: +256 414 501 458

Email: procurement@hfhuganda.org and Copy noffice@hfhuganda.org

Deadline:

All proposals are expected to be submitted by ___25th May 2022 at 16:00hrs local time to the above-mentioned email address.

Conditions:

1. Habitat for Humanity Uganda reserves the right to accept any proposals or reject all proposals.

2. Technical review will precede the financial

3. All forms of canvassing will lead to the automatic cancellation of the proposal in question