Overview

Westminster Foundation for Democracy (“WFD”) is the UK public body dedicated to supporting democracy around the world. Operating internationally, WFD works with parliaments, political parties, and civil society groups as well as on elections to help make political systems fairer, more inclusive and more accountable.

We are a problem-solving, practitioner-led organisation that offers: 

• High quality and impactful regional and country programmes that directly support the full spectrum of institutions in political systems to develop inclusive political processes, more accountable political systems, protection of rights and freedoms, and more pluralistic societies.
• Specialist analysis, research, and advice to inform UK policy makers on a range of democratic governance issues through our Centre of Expertise; and 
• International elections observation on behalf of the UK. 

Aim of this Invitation to Tender 

WFD is issuing this Invitation to Tender (“ITT”) to a range of potential suppliers of services and would welcome a bid from your organisation.

WFD is looking to establish a framework and panel consisting of one or more supplier for each of the followings lots: 

• Lot 1 – Expertise in Political Economy Analysis and approaches
• Lot 2 – Expertise in Media Freedom and Media Development
• Lot 3 – Expertise in Rule of Law and Justice Sector Reform 

Bid submission

All bids should be submitted by 11.59pm on Sunday 3 November 2024 in writing, must comply with the requirements of this ITT, and must include the information requested in the Bid Requirements below. 

The bid should be sent electronically to: procurement@wfd.org 

The same email address should be used for any questions related to this ITT. 

By submitting a bid, you agree to comply with WFD’s general terms and conditions for tendering and key policies and WFD’s Code of Conduct.

Detailed specification

Objective

Delivered in partnership with the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), WFD has been engaged as the primary partner to deliver the Democratic Governance Centre of Expertise (CoE) alongside FCDO’s Development and Open Societies Directorate.  The purpose of the Centre is to help the FCDO network and connect FCDO posts with expertise to better navigate and respond to democratic governance issues, challenges, and developments by serving as an authoritative source of expertise and insight, drawing on WFD’s accumulated knowledge and evidence, and on input from our networks of partners and collaborators.

WFD delivers most of its expertise either in-house or through its continuously expanding Roster of Experts. However, as and when appropriate, WFD may elect to put out specific calls for experts and/or Invitations to Tender. 

Due to the nature of the Centre’s work, dealing often with extremely time-sensitive enquiries on specific / niche issues, WFD wishes to establish a panel of specialist suppliers to provide technical services from time to time to support WFD’s delivery of the Democratic Governance Centre of Expertise in the event that expertise cannot be identified / secured internally or through WFD’s Expert Roster. 

The requirements for services may arise as part of WFD’s regional or country democracy support programmes, and as part of its international or Parliamentary engagement work but are expected principally to arise under the Centre of Expertise on which basis this ITT has been designed upon. 

The panel will operate under and in accordance with a framework agreement, with each assignment agreed and called-off under an order contract. 

Scope of work and deliverables

WFD is seeking one or more specialist suppliers for each of the following lots: 

Lot 1 – Expertise in Political Economy Analysis/es, assessments and approaches 

We require the services of the supplier(s) to: 

• Support the Centre of Expertise in responding to FCDO Posts’ enquiries for/on political economy / context and sectoral analyses. This may include, but is not exhaustive, the following: 
  • Conduct timely and responsive political economy / context and sectoral analyses, in line with FCDO’s Guidance on Understanding political economy analysis and thinking and working politically, and/or other methodological approaches, tools and frameworks, as and when appropriate.
  • Provide specialist technical advice and assistance on conducting political economy / context and sectoral analyses. This may include analyses of selected democratic governance issues, specific sectors and/or broader PEAs of countries / contexts in order to identify and understand the political settlement and the main existing / emerging challenges and opportunities. Analyses and any accompanying recommendations / conclusions (as required) should be well-grounded to support Posts in applying and implementing these recommendations in their work. 
  • Review / evaluate and/or quality assure the methodology and design of programmes.

Lot 2 – Expertise in Media Freedom and Media Development 

We require the services of the supplier(s) to: 

• Support the Centre of Expertise in responding to FCDO Posts’ enquiries on and/or related to media freedom and media development. This may include, but is not exhaustive, the following:  
  • Conduct timely and responsive country assessments of the media landscape and/or a media development. 
  • Provide impartial and impactful technical advice and recommendations to promote / support media freedom and media development.
  • Review and/or quality assure the design and/or development of media freedom and media development programmes / initiatives / activities. 

Lot 3 – Expertise in Rule of Law and Justice Sector Reform 

We require the services of the supplier(s) to: 

• Support the Centre of Expertise in responding to FCDO Posts’ enquiries on and/or related to the rule of law, constitutional law and / or justice sector reform. This may include, but is not exhaustive, the following:
  • Conduct timely and responsive country assessments / analyses of the legislative landscape and/or specific bills, legislation, or Constitutions as they may relate to a specific topic/issue of interest.
  • Provide impartial and impactful technical advice and recommendations as they relate to the rule of law, constitutional law and/or justice sector reform. 
  • Review and/or quality assure the design and/or development of rule of law and justice sector reform focused/related programmes / initiatives / activities. 

Timeline

The panel framework is expected to be established on or before 1 December 2024 and will expire on 31 March 2026. Assignments may be commissioned under order contracts agreed with the supplier(s) from time to time during the term of the framework. The value of assignments will depend on the enquiries and identified response options. However, WFD expects the average number of days for a single enquiry / assignment to be between 10 and 20 days. Please note, WFD cannot guarantee work under the framework agreement, or that enquiries will not be less than or exceed the indicated average number of days.

Reporting

The supplier(s) will report to WFD at an interval(s) usually to be agreed upon as part of the order contract.

Working arrangements

The services are expected to be delivered remotely or in-person. Travel will be determined on a case-by-case basis in consultation between WFD, FCDO and Post. Where travel is determined as required by WFD to deliver the services, the supplier(s) will prepare a budget as part of the order contract for WFD approval. Where relevant, approved expenses should be broken down and detailed in invoices alongside experts’ fees / daily rates. 

Payments

The supplier(s) will be expected, as part of the bid, to confirm a daily rate for the provision of the services throughout the term of the framework. The fee for each assignment will be agreed as part of the relevant order contract.  

Minimum experience and expertise

Generally, the supplier(s) will be expected to demonstrate the relevant credibility, including case studies and references related to their professional experience, and credentials, including relevant qualifications, to deliver high-quality services under lot 1, lot 2, and/or lot 3.

In particular, the supplier(s) will: 

• demonstrate extensive knowledge of the expertise of the relevant lot;
• demonstrate a depth of either in-house or access to technical knowledge and expertise on different topics / areas within the relevant lot;
• demonstrate experience producing quality written documents and resources e.g. reports, research, policy briefs, etc on topics / subject matter within the relevant lot;
• demonstrate effective facilitation skills, including in relation to complex and/or sensitive themes or topics; 
• demonstrate working expertise of how adults learn and a significant track record in accommodating adult learning tendencies and creating engaging products;
• demonstrate substantial expertise of working in / on development contexts including Fragile and Conflict Sensitive (FCAS) contexts and/or across different geographic regions; 
• demonstrate experience working with/for/on FCDO programmes;
• have working professional fluency in English;
• have access to working professional fluency in other languages particularly French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian.

Bid process

Timescale

Below is the proposed timescale for the tendering process. Please note the dates are indicative and subject to change. 

Bid requirements

In general, the bid should include the following:

1. Organisational profile
2. Proposed solution and how it meets the specification 
3. Financial proposal 
4. References 
5. Confirmation of compliance with General Terms and Conditions of Tendering

Organisational profile 

• Company profile, including brief history and financial overview
• Case studies/credentials demonstrating relevant experience and skills profile 
• Names and brief biographies of key staff 

WFD is particularly keen to receive bids from organisations which are – or are working towards becoming – living wage employers and that have a broadly representative and balanced Board from gender and ethnicity perspectives. 

Proposed solution

• Clear explanation as to the proposed approach to meeting the specification set out in this ITT. 
• Detailed project plan, including timelines, assumptions and dependencies, resourcing and risks. 

Financial proposal

• Full breakdown of costings, including the proposed daily rate, for the proposed solution in sterling
• Separate accounting of VAT and/or any other applicable tax, duty, or charge. 
• Detailing of any discount applied in view of WFD’s not-for-profit status. 

References

• The bid should include details of two references relating to similar goods/services provided in the last three years. Please note – referees will only be contacted once Preferred Bidder status is assigned.

Confirmation of acceptance of General Terms and Conditions of Tendering

• By submitting a bid, all bidders will be deemed to have accepted the WFD Terms and Conditions of Tendering and confirmed their compliance. 

All bidders should also note the following: 

• all bids should be submitted in English; 
• all bids should be submitted in electronic form only;
• this ITT and the response may be incorporated in whole or in part into the final contract;
• only information provided in response to questions set out in this documentation will be taken into consideration for the purposes of evaluating the ITT;
• bids which are poorly organised or poorly written, such that evaluation and comparison with other submissions is notably difficult, may exclude the bidder from further consideration; and
• any bids which do not fully comply with the requirements of this ITT may be disregarded at the absolute discretion of WFD. 

Evaluation criteria

WFD does not provide a mathematical formula by which bids will be weighted evaluated, but the procurement committee will usually consider the following criteria, among others in the evaluation of all responses: 

• Quality of bid document 
• Service offer and solution fit to specification 
• Quality, capacity, and track-record of bidders based on references
• Value for money and pricing factors
• Professional profile, track record, and references
• Relevant experience, including case studies

WFD will score each criterion using the following table:

Tender queries

Any questions related to this tender should be sent to procurement@wfd.org .

Equal information

Should any supplier raise a question that is of general interest, WFD reserves the right to circulate both question and answer to other respondents, either via WFD’s website or by email. In this event, anonymity will be maintained.

Annual reports

Please provide a link or copy of your company’s latest audited annual accounts with the bid.

Other information

If the potential supplier believes that there is additional information that has not been requested in the ITT but is relevant to your bid, please include that information as a separate attachment and explain its relevance to this ITT.

Below are answers to common questions from suppliers.