RFP-KEN-016649: Consultancy on Climate Change Knowledge and Information Sharing Hub – DRC

Who is the Danish Refugee Council

Founded in 1956, the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a leading international NGO and one of the few with a specific expertise in forced displacement. Active in 40 countries with 9,000 employees and supported by 7,500 volunteers, DRC protects, advocates, and builds sustainable futures for refugees and other displacement affected people and communities. DRC works during displacement at all stages: In the acute crisis, in displacement, when settling and integrating in a new place, or upon return. DRC provides protection and life-saving humanitarian assistance; supports displaced persons in becoming self-reliant and included into hosting societies; and works with civil society and responsible authorities to promote protection of rights and peaceful coexistence.

DRC has been operational in Kenya since 2005 and is one of the United Nations Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) largest Implementing Partners in the refugee response. DRC is present in Garissa (Dadaab & Garissa), Turkana (Kakuma, Kalobeyei & Lodwar), Nairobi and Mandera counties

Purpose of the consultancy

The Danish Refugee Council based in Kenya seeks proposals from a consultancy firm to develop an online climate change information and knowledge-sharing platform for Turkana, Mandera and Garissa counties, exploring opportunities to utilize digital technologies in the information sharing on better climate adaptation, to promote climate resilience sensitization.

Background

Climate risks pose serious threats to Kenya’s sustainable development goals. With the largest economy in East Africa and a population of 54 million, Kenya serves as the region’s financial, trade, and communications hub. The country’s economy is largely dependent on rain-fed agriculture and tourism, each susceptible to climate variability and change and extreme weather events. Kenya’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) notes that successive climate change impacts result in socio-economic losses estimated at 3-4 per cent of Gross Domestic Product annually and impede development efforts. Even though Kenya contributes less than 0.1 per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually, it has policies and measures to pursue a low-carbon and resilient development pathway to realize its Vision 2030 to transform Kenya into a newly industrializing, middle-income country. Furthermore, Kenya submitted an updated, more ambitious NDC on December 24, 2020, with a commitment to abate greenhouse gases by 32 per cent by 2030 relative to the business-as-usual scenario and in line with its sustainable development agenda and national circumstances.

Kenya is a leader in addressing climate change and was one of the first countries in Africa to enact a comprehensive law and policy to guide national and subnational climate action. The Climate Change Act and the National Climate Change Policy Framework provide guidance for low-carbon and climate-resilient development. Kenya’s priorities as articulated through these, and other, instruments include adaptation, afforestation and reforestation, climate-smart agriculture, geothermal and clean energy development, energy efficiency, and drought management. These priorities are operationalized through a number of sector-specific policies and strategies.

Northern Kenya is an arid region inhabited by nomadic pastoralists and characterized by a fragile ecosystem – ravaged by the effects of climate change and susceptible to insecurity due to regional ethnic and political inter-play within the Kenya-Uganda-Sudan, Ethiopia-Somalia borderlands. The region is also drought-prone, a situation that has depleted livestock, water and pasture. These conditions create an increased need for mobility and better climate adaptation in this field for the survival of pastoralist livelihoods. Pasture and water scarcity continue to be a key driving force for most inter-communal conflicts – more so along the often insecure and porous border regions. DRC experience in the region suggests that the most effective way of providing support to the pastoralists in the prevailing situation is through the promotion of peaceful co-existence among and within the communities and protecting the communities’ assets, saving lives, building community resilience, addressing vulnerabilities and create awareness on better climate adaptations. Thus, DRC through the Resilience Peace and stability project (RPSP) project is responding to the affected communities by spearheading conflict prevention initiatives through a variety of peace and conflict mitigation initiatives and promotion of sustainable livelihoods for women and youth, community-based natural resource management and better climate adaptation for increased productivity.

DRC’s program is designed to serve as a bridge between humanitarian assistance and longer-term recovery and development strategies by identifying entry points to assistance for households at different vulnerability stages: addressing basic needs and reducing reliance on negative coping strategies for extremely vulnerable households, and job creation and income generation for vulnerable households for sustainable livelihoods.

DRC’s Kenya HDP sector climate adaptation approaches to address the root causes of conflict is one priority identified for peaceful coexistence and longer-term development which has the potential to create a safe space for development and provide sustainable income opportunities for conflict and climate change-affected populations in Turkana, Mandera and Garissa counties.

The objective of the consultancy

In response to the emerging climate crisis and to improve resilience within the context of climate-induced migration, conflicts and displacement, DRC intends to explore opportunities to make use of digital technologies in better climate adaptation awareness for promoting climate resilience.

For this purpose, DRC will support the development of a climate change information and knowledge sharing platform for Turkana, Mandera and Garissa counties separately.

The consultant will be required to;

1. Design and develop a climate change knowledge management and information platform targeting key information services, communities and capacities to support Turkana, Mandera and Garissa counties to adequately respond to climate change challenges, based on national best practices, taking into account national circumstances, leveraging existing knowledge resources and capacities and integrating external sources of knowledge and information ;

Scope of Work and Methodology

The Consultant will be required to prepare a detailed methodology and work plan indicating how

the objectives of the project will be achieved within the agreed-upon set time, and the support required from DRC. Below is a list of the expected deliverables;

• Web design and development – Develop a mobile-first responsive dynamic website. The website must be visually appealing, load fast and score well on all core web vitals;
• WebCMS – The website must be powered by a secure best-of-breed content management system. The editorial workflow must be seamless with a simple create, read, update and write (CRUD) process;
• Clone and customize the source code to cater for the 3 requirements of the 3 counties (Garissa, Mandera and Turkana);
• Measurement – Clear measurement KPIs must be integrated and shared with the administrators using Google Studio. The following KPIs are key; Website usage, Content Engagement such number of documents downloaded, time on site and other key website metrics;
• The website must reflect the appropriate look and feel of DRC and respective counties with appropriate logos, fonts, colors, and other design elements (to be provided);
• Project management – The consultant must share an inception report containing a work plan, wireframes, Security and Content Architecture;
• Web security – All the plugins, API integration and website must be secured. Penetration testing must be performed before hosting. The design of the website should adhere to security best practices;
• The website should integrate related social media accounts – Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter;
• Develop a user manual based on the changes made on the website and deliver a briefing session for relevant staff and web administrators.
• Support and maintenance: Administrative and technical support, and quality control for 3 months.
• Source code handover: Full source code including all developed libraries shall be handed over to DRC.
• Offline use – use PWA and other such capabilities to push notifications and allow for offline web-browsing

Deliverables

The Consultant will submit the following deliverables as mentioned below:

Information gathering

• Sourcing and compiling all relevant information required to undertake this consultancy. Includes meetings with relevant stakeholders.
• Provide DRC with detailed web hosting requirements for purchase and configuration in readiness for the hosting.

10 days

Website Development

• Web design and development – Develop a mobile-first responsive dynamic website. The website must be visually appealing, load fast and score well on all core web vitals;
• WebCMS – The website must be powered by a secure best-of-breed content management system. The editorial workflow must be seamless with a simple create, read, update and write (CRUD) process;
• Measurement – Clear measurement KPIs must be integrated and shared with the administrators using Google Studio. The following KPIs are key; Website usage, Content Engagement such number of documents downloaded, time on site and other key website metrics;
• The website must reflect the appropriate look and feel of DRC and respective counties with appropriate logos, fonts, colors, and other design elements (to be provided);
• Project management – The consultant must share an inception report containing a work plan, wireframes, Security and Content Architecture;
• Web security – All the plugins, API integration and website must be secured. Penetration testing must be performed before hosting. The design of the website should adhere to security best practices;
• Clone and customize the source code to cater for the 3 requirements of the 3 counties (Garissa, Mandera and Turkana);

30 days

Training and documentation

• Develop a user manual and deliver training to the support staff and system administrators to perform the content upload, system maintenance and administration.

10 days

Search Engine Optimization and site analysis

• Ensure search engine optimization. The SEO work will include, keyword research & analysis, site analysis, competitive analysis, site content optimization, html code optimization, search engine submission (free search engines), link exchange, and web ranking report.
• Monitor the server logs to see the most popular pages and downloads and generate regular reports.

A subset of website development

Support and Maintenance

• Assist with content updates when the changes that have to be made are not possible from the CMS user interface.
• Maintain full backup of the website throughout the contract. The backup, code and source files will be delivered in full to DRC on the closing of the contract.
• Have an automated testing system that checks for broken hyperlinks on the site.
• Verify regularly that the site is up and running, and will revert to the backup whenever necessary.

60 days

Handover

• Full source code including all developed libraries shall be handed over to DRC IT.

10 days

The Consultant will provide the documentation by email.

Duration, timeline, and payment

The total expected duration to complete the assignment will be no more than __120____ working days.

Proposed Composition of Team

The consultancy firm is expected to list the CVs of staff in the proposal with their tasks and responsibilities to complete the deliveries as per the TOR, however, DRC expects the platform developer team to include the following members:

• Front-end developer
• Back-end developer
• Project manager
• Copywriter

Eligibility, qualification, and experience required

The successful candidate(s) must be able to work independently to deliver the required outputs, working with a variety of internal and external stakeholders. Qualifications will include:

• Be a reputable firm with at least 5 years of prior experience designing visually appealing and navigation-friendly websites;
• Team qualification:

Project manager – Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Project Management or related field, at least 5 years of experience managing similar projects.

Front-end developer, back-end developer and copywriter – Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or related field with at least 3 years of experience.

• Familiarity and relevant experience in using different Content Management Systems (CMS), PHP frameworks like Laravel, Code Igniter etc.
• Demonstrate a good understanding in the current Knowledge management platforms;
• Experience in designing attractive and appealing mobile first designs;
• Knowledge in developing progressive web-aps and offline platforms;
• Have excellent knowledge of recent trends in graphic design, websites, including interactive maps, and social media networking;
• Demonstrate the ability to create innovative and visually appealing designs;

Technical supervision

The selected consultant will work under the supervision of:

DRC Kenya HDP manager Mr. Raphael Locham.

Location and support

The Consultancy will take place Nairobi. The Consultant will provide her/his own computer and mobile telephone, data analysis platforms, and other essentials required for the accomplishment of the deliverables.

Travel

This consultancy doesn’t require any travel to the field so DRC or the consultant will not require these expenses or any other logistics related to field visits

Please find complete bidding documents in the following link: RFP-KEN-016649 – Consultancy on Climate change knowledge and information sharing hub