Provision of Local Consultancy Services Improving Electoral Practices in the Republic of Moldova, Phase II

• Country: Moldova
• Summary: Provision of Local Consultancy Services Improving Electoral Practices in the Republic of Moldova, Phase II
• MDT Ref No: 53008875
• Deadline: 17 May 2021
• Financier: Other Funding Agencies
• Purchaser Ownership: Government
• Tender Value: Refer Document
• Notice Type: Tender
• Document Ref. No.: 2021/AO/19
• Purchaser's Detail:
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• Description:
• Tenders are invited for Provision of Local Consultancy Services Improving Electoral Practices in the Republic of Moldova, Phase II Lot 1. Capacity building of electoral stakeholders (training consultancy services) • Conduct training needs assessment/mapping and development of reports/recommendations. • Develop training courses and hand-outs of the seminars, webinars, workshops on misuse of administrative resources in electoral periods, hate speech in electoral period, political party financing, electoral dispute resolution, media coverage of electoral topics, etc., including to be uploaded on E-learning platform of the Training Centre. • Deliver trainings and exchange of good practices for electoral stakeholders, including but without limiting to: members of electoral management bodies, judiciary, representatives of political parties, other targeted audiences, inclusive in co-operation with international consultants. • Support the international consultants with background information, documents, etc. on the Moldovan context of specific electoralrelated topics. • Provision of other deliverables related to the above and as requested by the Council of Europe. 10 Lot 2. Inclusive electoral participation: women, the youth, national minorities etc (consultancy services) • Develop and assist in conducting of public awareness campaigns, focused on social media, aimed at increasing and improving the participation in the electoral process of targeted electoral categories; • Conduct assessments/studies mapping obstacles and conditions and develop reports/recommendations for the improvement of involvement by the CEC of the youth, civil society, representatives of political parties, media; • Conduct workshops/seminars/conferences to mainstream gender equality, combating sexism and intersectionality perspectives in electoral processes, including within partner institutions. • Provision of other deliverables as related to the above and as requested by the Council of Europe. Lot 3. Electoral legislation and jurisprudence (consultancy services) • Carry out analyses of recommendations, proposals and opinions issued by the different electoral observation missions, as well as the Venice Commission's opinions on the improvement of the electoral legislation and electoral practices, including on political financing in the Republic of Moldova. • Draft, in co-operation with international consultants if required, policy documents and/or legal proposals, normative acts (on alternative voting mechanisms, citizen observation methodologies, appeal procedure, other election-related aspects), expert opinions, recommendations, etc. on relevant aspects related to the theme of the lot. • Participate in and contribute to conferences, round tables, working groups, consultation meetings, webinars and other relevant events with national stakeholders, including moderating/facilitating discussions and delivering presentations. • Provision of other deliverables as related to the above and as requested by the Council of Europe. Lot 4. Voting technologies and digitalisation (IT development consultancy services) • Design, develop and test online platforms and tools, including web application interface, database architecture, etc. for the electoral management bodies. • Re-engineer or design and develop new electronic functionalities and capabilities of the existing online tools. • Digitalise existing electoral and/or voting procedures/modules, including of the State Automated Information System “Elections”. • Provision of other deliverables as related to the above and as requested by the Council of Europe. The Project will continue the previous efforts undertaken in 2018-2020 in supporting the electoral stakeholders to further improve the electoral practices in the Republic of Moldova, in line with international standards and government-s commitment to organize free and fair elections. Also, the Project is planning to focus on support to the Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs), assisting them in implementing their Strategic Plans for 2020-2023, on improving the EMBs- skills and knowledge which will result in aligning the electoral legal framework with the CoE election standards. The Project will focus on the following actions: 1. Strengthening the capacities of CEC, CCET and Central Electoral Commission of the ATU Gagauzia; 2. Enhancing women and the youth participation in the electoral processes; 3. Combating misuse of administrative resources during elections, and strengthening the electoral legislation and jurisprudence; 4. Developing a methodology regarding citizens monitoring of electoral processes by domestic observers; 5. Increasing access to the electoral process through new voting technologies using digitalisation where applicable. The main project target groups are Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Moldova, the Centre for Continuous Electoral Training, Central Electoral Commission of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, domestic observers, women and young voters; parliamentary parties representatives, media/journalists, administrative judges. The Council of Europe is looking for up to 10 Providers per Lot 1, up to 8 Providers per Lot 2, up to 8 per Lot 3 and up to 8 Providers per Lot 4 (provided enough tenders meet the criteria indicated below) in order to support the implementation of the project with a particular expertise in one or more of the following themes as they are described in Lots below. This Contract is currently estimated to cover up to 40 activities, to be held by 28 February 2023. This estimate is for information only and shall not constitute any sort of contractual commitment on the part of the Council of Europe. The Contract may potentially represent a higher or lower number of activities, depending on the evolving needs of the Organisation. For information purposes only, the total budget of the project amounts to 400.000€ and the total amount of the object of present tender should in principle not exceed 89.250,00€ tax exclusive for the pool of 34 providers for the whole duration of the Framework Contract. This information does not constitute any sort of contractual commitment or obligation on the part of the Council of Europe. Tenderers are invited to indicate their unit fees, by completing the table of fees, as attached in Section A of the Act of Engagement. These fees are final and not subject to review. Tenders proposing fees above the exclusion level indicated in the Table of fees will be entirely and automatically excluded from the tender procedure. The Council will indicate on each Order Form the global fee corresponding to each deliverable, calculated on the basis of the daily fees, as agreed by this Contract. Eligibility criteria for Lots 1 to 3 • University degree in Law, Political Science, Social science, Public administration, International Relations, Communication; • At least 4 years of professional experience at national level (in the Republic of Moldova) in the areas related to the fields of expertise as described within the specific Lots, under the scope of the contract above; • Strong command of the Romanian and Russian languages (level C1 or C2 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) and at least independent user of the English and/or French language skills (B1 and B2). Under lot 4: • Criterion 1: Quality of the offer (80%), including: - Relevance of the experience of the tenderer in the field of information technology, including design and development of web-platforms, electronic services, applications and other online tools (70%); - Consultancy or other relevant work experience in the area of elections (10%). • Criterion 2: Financial offer (20%). The Council reserves the right to hold interviews with eligible tenderers.
• Documents:

 Tender Notice