Terms of Reference: Web Design

Introduction

About the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) Coalition:

The Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) is a coalition of over 50 organizations working on women’s rights in 27 countries in Africa.

SOAWR was formed in 2004, with the principal objective of advocating for the adoption, ratification, domestication and implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol). The SOAWR campaign over the next five years seeks to ensure that the Maputo Protocol remains a central policy instrument for the pursuit of women’s rights in Africa by accelerating ratification in countries where this has not been done, and pursuing domestication, implementation and accountability in countries where ratification has occurred.

 

Background

In 2019, the SOAWR Coalition embarked on a representative, consultative, member-driven process of developing its Strategic Plan 2020-2024 (the Strategic Plan). The Strategic Plan seeks to consolidate on the gains made over the past year, secure greater domestication and implementation of the Maputo Protocol in addition to ensuring a stronger coalition on women’s rights advocates in the continent.

To sustain calls aimed at urging African Union Member States to honor their commitments and obligations under the Maputo Protocol, while at the same time driving an active movement of SOAWR Coalition members, visible and effective communication and advocacy interventions need to be adopted. These will not only illustrate the need for the Coalition members to work together but will also demonstrate the importance of advancing women’s and girls’ rights across Africa as a whole.

It is for this reason that the SOAWR Coalition seeks to develop a website through which members will provide regular updates on activities geared towards supporting the domestication and implementation of the Maputo Protocol in their respective countries and to sustain public conversations on women’s and girls’ rights in Africa.

This website will serve as an online resource where updates on the Maputo Protocol and on the progress made in safeguarding women’s and girls’ rights in Africa will be shared on a regular basis, as part of the efforts geared towards enhancing SOAWR’s communication. The website will also provide a platform for the Coalition members to network and share their experiences.

Make Every Woman Count (MEWC), on behalf of the SOAWR Coalition therefore seeks to recruit a consultant or firm to develop a new website for the Coalition. We anticipate that the website will be modern, user-friendly, interactive and responsive to the needs of its members and other users.

Deliverables

• Make a presentation of design ideas
• Produce a sitemap that meets identified audience needs
• Produce sample page layouts, known as ‘wireframing’
• Receive feedback about draft sites and make any necessary adjustments
• Design the physical imagery, graphics and animations of new website. Secure the existing site during the transition to the new platform; preservation of all current website content and functionality;
• Migrate the web site to a new CMS (e.g. Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla) and implement new features that add value;
• Optimize the site for low bandwidth users;
• Implement a “blog” function with integrated social media such as Twitter and Facebook;
• Browser compatibility. The site must be compatible with the current versions of the following browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Chrome);
• Add a comprehensive search functionality to the website, allowing people to explore content by country, region, issue as defined in the draft site map ;
• Implement SEO analysis;
• create interactive graphs to the platform

Timeline

• Initial designs and wireframes: mid December 2020
• Website build/development: end of December 2020
• Content upload/bug testing/final tweaks: January 2021
• Website launch: February 2021

Required Skills and Experience

• Proven work experience as a web design, preferably in the international development sector;
• Demonstrate graphic design skills with a strong portfolio
• Strong experience in developing in well-known and widely used open source platforms, such as Drupal, Joomla, WordPress;
• Have a broad knowledge of current web development technologies and design tools in the field, and new software and other web programming languages and programs including use of HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML, XSLT, Macromedia Flash, Java;
• Have excellent knowledge of recent trends in graphic design, web sites, including online video publishing, and social media networking;
• Demonstrate the ability to create innovative and visually appealing design;
• Knowledge of Google analytics and Search Engine Optimization.

How to apply

The consultant should email a detailed proposal outlining their approach, with a budget and timeline, samples of relevant work and CV/credentials to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 29th November 2020. Please indicate the subject of your email as “Web Design Consultant”