The Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) is a non-profit women's advocacy group founded by Ethiopian women lawyers. It began its work in 1996 after being registered in 1995. It has been re-registered as a charitable organization by the Charities and Societies Agency in 2010 as per the Charities and Societies Proclamation, and yet again re-reregister in 2019. EWLA has a vision to see a country where women are equal to men. EWLA’s mission is promoting the economic, political, social and legal rights of women and to that end assist them to secure full protection of their rights under the Constitution of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and other international human rights conventions.

Given the growing demand for access to EWLA activities, it is increasingly important that EWLA to acquire an adequate website platform.

The objective of this consultancy is to create a new and modern interface on the internet that will act as an effective communication education and public awareness tool for EWLA.

DELIVERABLES

• Design the EWLA website with a new visual look and enhanced functionalities to provide a better experience to users;
• Develop a user manual and train the EWLA team to perform content upload, system maintenance and administration;
• Provide administrative and technical support and quality control for a period of 6 months; and
• Provide Website domain name and Hosting Service
• Provide Email Service
• Hand over full source code including all developed libraries to the EWLA.

WORK SETTING

• The work setting for the assignment will include different aspects:

Timing and duration of the assignment

• The duration of the contract will be two months. The website development will be completed in two months’ time starting from the date of signing the contract. The user manual development and training of the EWLA team will be done during the two month of the contract.

Briefing/debriefing arrangements

• Meetings will be scheduled with the EWLA team to brief the vendor on the necessary background information to develop each of the requested deliverables.

Reporting

• The company will work in close consultation and under the supervision of a task team of the EWLA, comprising the IT expert. They will follow up the design process and report to the EWLA management.

WORK PLAN

1.   Technical specifications

Following the EWLA guidelines, the winning company is expected to design a new website capturing the following functionalities:

• Home: Landing page will include a slideshow banner of a number of images from EWLA, latest news, events.
• About: Introduction and background information on the EWLA, with tabs to accessing publications and various resources in PDF as well as the source files, and search function.
• Get Involved: Donations, Partnerships and Concessions, Vacancies, Contact.
• Links to important national and international partners’ websites, relevant social media mediums, such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc., and other appropriate related sites as required.
• A powerful and smart internal search engine that present results in a user-friendly and structured way and strong meta-tags for search engine optimization.
• Membership platform
• Resource Center and Media Center
• Multi-lingual that supports Amharic and English language
• Update functions for regular maintenance.
• Tracking counter to enable staff to track and assess the number of visitors to the website and also determine which sections of the website are popular.
• E-mail – should be able to create and accommodate email server on EWLA domain
• Provide Training
• Service level agreement (SLA) should be indicated

1.   Knowledge Transfer

• Develop a user manual and train the EWLA to perform content upload, system maintenance and administration.

2.   Support and Maintenance

• Administrative and technical support and quality control for a period of 6 months and a one-year additional warranty period if the website needs maintenance.

3.   Source Code Handover

• Full source code including all developed libraries shall be handed over to the EWLA.

Process

• The successful company will participate in briefing sessions with the EWLA to understand the overall project and expectations;
• Based on the briefing session and this ToR, the company shall develop a layout design concept for the site.
• The company shall adjust the concept based on feedback and comments from the EWLA;
• The vendor shall develop the visual concept and language for the site adapting it to the different components outlined in the section ‘technical specifications’ and adjusting it based on feedback and comments from the EWLA;
• Development of web sections and content upload;
• Final approval by the EWLA; and
• Test the site before the website goes live.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE  

Vendor should demonstrate and provide examples of previous experience in the performance of similar services as follows:

• Be a reputable firm with at least 3 years of prior demonstrable experience designing visually appealing and navigation friendly websites;
• Familiarity and relevant experience in using different Content Management Systems (CMS);
• 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, websites, including online video publishing and social media networking;
• Demonstrate the ability to create innovative and visually appealing design.

Key professional staff qualifications and competence needed for the assignment:

Lead developer: The lead developer is responsible for the overall development process and assures that all code contributed is in line with coding standards. The lead developer has extensive experience (at least four years) in programming and CMS development.

The lead developer is an expert in the following scripting and coding languages and standards: PHP, AJAX, Java Script, HTML (including version 5), CSS (including version 3). The lead developer is an expert in the use and configuration of the below applications: Word Press CMS, MySQL Database and Apache web server. Experience with other related applications is an advantage.

The lead developer is an expert in the use and configuration of the below products and techniques: Search engine optimization, Google Webmaster tools, Google developer tools, Mobile device adaptation.

Graphic designer: The vendor will have a team of graphic designers with prior experience on designing websites with a solid portfolio of at least 5 years of experience.

Graphical integrator: The graphical integrator supports the development team with the integration of graphic design and CSS elements. The graphical integrator has at least four years of experience with the CMS integration of responsive CSS and graphic design. The graphical integrator is an expert in the below scripting and coding languages and standards: HTML (including version 5), CSS (including version 3), PHP, Java Script (including JQuery).

TIMELINE

1. Submit an inception report
2. Finalize front-end development
3. Finalize back-end development
4. Develop a user manual and train the Association
5. Handover full source codes to the EWLA
6. Provide 6 months service after website has become operational