Expression of Interest (EOI) Provision of training and implementation support for Irembo staff to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
Reference Number: 83433585
Background
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federally owned international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. The GIZ Office in Kigali covers GIZ’s portfolio in Rwanda and Burundi. GIZ Rwanda/Burundi implements projects on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Union and other commissioning authorities in the following priority areas: Sustainable Economic Development, Good Governance, Climate and Energy, Digitalization, Extractive Governance and Peace and Security in the Great Lakes Region.
General information

1. Brief information on the project
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a German, federally owned international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. GIZ has been working in Rwanda for more than 40 years. The primary objectives agreed between the Government of Rwanda and the Federal Republic of Germany are poverty reduction and promotion of sustainable development. To achieve these objectives, GIZ is active in the areas of Good Governance; Training and Sustainable Growth for Decent Jobs; Climate, Energy and Environment; as well as Digitalization and Digital Economy.
The GIZ project "Digital Solutions for Sustainable Development" (DSSD) has a mandate to support the Government of Rwanda in its efforts to enhance digital transformation and contribute to the National Transformation Strategy (NST1) and the Vision 2050. In order to achieve that, the Digital Transformation Center Rwanda was established to create an innovation hub for the development of digital solutions with a strong focus on solving social challenges and strengthening capacities of partners and the local community. Moreover, the project focuses on digital inclusion of vulnerable groups as well as on capacitating private and public players to implement digital transformation projects.

Similar Jobs in Rwanda
Learn more about The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) jobs in Rwanda

2. Context
In order to leave no one behind, digital inclusion and literacy initiatives need to pay special attention to the inclusion of marginalized groups, especially people with disabilities. People with visual impairments often use assistive technologies, such as screen readers, to get access to websites and services. Unfortunately, websites and applications remain often inaccessible. This may be due to a lack of awareness and capacities by web developers and content creators. Without accessible websites, any training for people with disabilities will not reach its full potential, if trainees face barriers using screen readers or other assistive technologies.
Especially websites operated by the Government of Rwanda and essential public services for citizens should be accessible to all. In a previous exercise conducted by DSSD, six government websites were assessed towards web accessibility through manual and automated testing. The manual testing was conducted using assistive technologies by visually impaired testers from Seeing Hands. A final report with recommendations to include the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) was shared with all website owners.
One of the websites that were assessed included the IremboGov platform. To further support Irembo in incorporating WCAG into their IremboGov platform, DSSD is searching for a contractor to create awareness and capacitate Irembo staff on WCAG which contributes to the digital inclusion of people with disabilities (DSSD Output 2). This shall be achieved through a holistic approach which combines capacity-building for Irembo’s software developers, coaching and enabling of engineering leads during sprints as well as end-user testing support.
The planned contract period is from 1 April 2023 to 30 September 2023. The place of assignment for the entire contract period is Kigali, Rwanda.
The aim of this assignment is to ensure that IremboGov complies to WCAG from the get-go, while enabling Irembo as a role model in Rwanda for implementing Web Accessibility as a default. Therefore, the contractor shall provide the following work/service:
Facilitate training for Irembo’s software engineers on WCAG
• The contractor is expected to organize and conduct a training session (up to 5 days) for Irembo staff (particularly developers and testers) to create awareness and capacities to implement web accessibility standards into the IremboGov platform.
• The aim is to enable the Irembo team to embrace and institutionalize web accessibility best practices into IremboGov’s design, development and test processes.
• The contractor shall implement this training for at least 15 Irembo staff members and create learning resources to facilitate institutional learning like handbooks or online resources.

Enable Lead Engineers
• Lead Engineers play a crucial role in ensuring web accessibility, especially when completing new features during a sprint, especially during peer reviews. Therefore, the contractor shall accompany the lead engineers for up to 5 sprints and provide guidance on WCAG during the peer code reviews.
• The idea is to institutionalize this process and make web accessibility part of the standard processes during sprints. The contractor shall therefore advise on documentation and process integration.
Support End-user testing
• To ensure that features of the IremboGov platform comply with the WCAG, the contractor shall support the Irembo team also during the testing phase. The support will include both automated and manual testing. The manual testing shall be conducted by testers using assistive technologies. For that purpose, the contractor shall create a consortium together with an organization supporting and empowering people with disabilities in Rwanda, especially people with visual impairments to strengthen this community.
• The testing support will be provided during the implementation of up to 5 sprints and once a working prototype or early version of the platform is assembled.
Tender requirements

Qualifications of proposed staff
Web Accessibility Expert and Team Lead (1 Expert)
Tasks:
• Overall project steering to assign experts and fulfil deliverables
• Facilitate Training to Irembo’s software engineers on web content accessibility guidelines
• Create and share learning resources on web accessibility and make available to Irembo
• Enable Irembo’s Lead Engineers to include web accessibility standards into their sprint
• Provide recommendations on including web accessibility standards into Irembo’s standard procedures
• Advocate the importance of the accessible IremboGov platform to Irembo staff and stakeholders
General qualifications:
• Education: Master’s degree in computer engineering, Information Technology or similar
• Language skills: business fluency in English
• Professional experience: 10 years’ experience in Web Development, Software Engineering or similar
• Specific experience: Worked on at least 3 projects related to Web Accessibility
• Specific experience: 7 years’ experience working in agile environments and/or SCRUM
• Other: Certifications as SCRUM Master AND Certification for Web Accessibility recognized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Lead Tester (1 Expert)
Tasks:
• Facilitate the manual and automated testing of the IremboGov platform during the sprints regarding Web Accessibility
• Oversee and manage the software testers from the consortium
• Ensure quality during testing and when documenting errors
• Provide recommendations for changes to be made to make the IremboGov platform, more accessible
General qualifications
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, Information Technology or similar
• Language skills: business fluency in English
• Professional experience: 5 years’ experience in software and website testing
• Specific experience: Knowledge of automative testing tools for WCAG, manual testing tools such as assistive technologies
• Specific experience: 5 years’ experience of testing documentation
• Other: Certification for Web Accessibility expert recognized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) or member of National Union of People with Disability Organizations in Rwanda (NUDOR)
Software Testers (2 Experts)
Tasks:
• Conduct manual and automated tests regarding web accessibility on the IremboGov platform using assistive technologies
• Document errors and provide recommendations for changes
General qualifications
• Language skills: business fluency in English
• Professional experience: first experience in manually testing websites using assistive technologies
• Specific experience: Knowledge of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
Specification of inputs
Fee days Number of experts Number of days per expert Comments
Web Accessibility Expert and Team Lead 1 30
Lead Tester 1 10
Associate Tester for Accessibility (Consortium) 2 10
Calculate your financial bid exactly in line with the quantitative requirements of the specification of inputs above. There is no contractual right to use up the full days/travel or workshops or budgets. The number of days/travel/workshops and the budgets will be contractually agreed as maximum amounts. The regulations on pricing are contained in the price schedule.
Caveat: The assessment grid & Self-declaration of eligibility for the award (Complete the form & submit it with proposals) are attached to this EOI

B. Submission of offer: The Expression of Interest should contain the following:
• Technical Proposal:
o A cover letter expressing your interest in this assignment
o Technical proposal with a brief description of why you would be considered as the most suitable for the assignment, relevant expertise, and a detailed, clear methodology, on how will be your approach to complete the assignment
o CVs of the expert proposed
o Company registration certificate (RDB)
o VAT registration certificate
o Latest tax clearance certificate
o Proof of successful completion of related assignments.
• Financial Proposal: indicates the all-inclusive total contract price, supported by a breakdown of all costs. The costs must be in RWF and VAT
Please submit electronically your EoI (technical & Financial offer) in 2 separated emails and should be in PDF files to this email ONLY: RW_Quotation@giz.de until latest 22nd March 2023
Please you must write on each email subject this sentence: 83433585 Technical/financial offer, without this sentence, your offer may not be considered
Hard copies are not allowed this time
GIZ reserves all rights
Attachment