Final Evaluation

DANCHURCHAID Iinvites candidates to submit a proposal for Final evaluation

Dear Sir/Madam,

The Service is required for Final Evaluation. Please find enclosed the following documents which constitute the Request for Proposal:

A – Instructions

B – Draft Contract including annexes

Annex 1: Terms of Reference

Annex 2: Proposal Submission Form (to be completed by the Candidate)

Annex 3: General Terms and Conditions for Service Contracts – Ver3 2020

Annex 4: Code of Conduct for Contractors

If this document is a PDF format, upon request, a complete copy of the above documents can be forwarded in a WORD format for electronic completion. It is forbidden to make alterations to the text.

We would be grateful if you inform us by email of your intention to submit a proposal.

A. Instructions

In submitting a proposal, the Candidate accepts in full and without restriction the special and general conditions including annexes governing this Contract as the sole basis of this procedure, whatever his own conditions of services may be, which the Candidate hereby waives. The Candidates are expected to examine carefully and comply with all instructions, forms, contract provisions and specifications contained in this Request for Proposal.

1. Scope of services

The Services required by the Contracting Authority are described in the Terms of Reference in Annex 1.

The Candidate shall offer the totality of the Services described in the Terms of Reference. Candidates offering only part of the required Services will be rejected.

1. Cost of proposal

The Candidate shall bear all costs associated with the preparation and submission of his proposal and the Contracting Authority is not responsible or liable for these costs, regardless of the conduct or outcome of the process.

1. Eligibility and qualification requirements

Candidates are not eligible to participate in this procedure if they are in one of the situations listed in article 33 of the General Terms and Conditions for Service Contracts – Ver3 2020.

Candidates shall in the Proposal Submission Form attest that they meet the above eligibility criteria. If required by the Contracting Authority, the Candidate whose proposal is accepted shall further provide evidence satisfactory to the Contracting Authority of its eligibility.

As a rule, the timely arrival of a proposal with the Contracting Authority is the Candidate’s responsibility. Irrespective of the reason, proposals arriving after the deadline for the submission of proposals, will be considered late and thus rejected.

Candidates are also requested to certify that they comply with the Code of Conduct for Contractors.

1. Exclusion from award of contracts

Contracts may not be awarded to Candidates who, during this procedure:

1. are subject to conflict of interest
2. are guilty of misrepresentation in supplying the information required by the Contracting Authority as a condition of participation in the Contract procedure or fail to supply this information
3. Documents comprising the Request for Proposal

The Candidate shall complete and submit the following documents with this proposal:

1. Proposal Submission Form (Annex 2) duly completed and signed by the Candidate
2. CV. highlighting the Candidate’s experience in the specific field of the Services and his/her specific experience in the country/region where the Services are to be performed.

The proposal and all correspondence and documents related to the Request for Proposal exchanged by the Candidate and the Contracting Authority must be written in the language of the procedure, which is English.

1. Financial proposal

The Financial Proposal shall be presented as an amount in USD in the Proposal Submission Form in Annex 2. The remuneration of the Candidate under the Contract shall be determined as follows:

Global price: The Candidate shall indicate in his/her proposal his/her proposed global remuneration for the performance of the Services. The Candidate shall be deemed to have satisfied himself as to the sufficiency of his/her proposed global remuneration, to cover both his/her fee rate, including overhead, profit, all his/her obligations, sick leave, overtime and holiday pay, taxes, social charges, etc. and all expenses (such as transport, accommodation, food, office, etc.) to be incurred for the performance of the Contract. The proposed global remuneration shall cover all obligations of the successful Candidate under the Contract (without depending on actual time spent on the assignment) and all matters and things necessary for the proper execution and completion of the Services and the remedying of any deficiencies therein.

VAT and/or any sales tax applicable to the purchase of services shall be indicated separately in the proposal.

1. Validity

Proposals shall remain valid and open for acceptance for 120 days after the closing date.

1. Submission of proposals and closing date

Proposals must be received at the address mentioned on the front page by email not later than the closing date and time specified on the front page.

1. Evaluation of Proposals

The evaluation method will be the quality and cost-based selection. A two-stage procedure shall be utilised in evaluating the Proposals; a technical evaluation and a financial evaluation.

Proposals will be ranked according to their combined technical (St) and financial (Sf) scores using the weights of 70% for the Technical Proposal; and 30% for the offered price. Each proposal’s overall score shall therefore be: St X 70% + Sf X 30%.

Technical evaluation

For the evaluation of the technical proposals, the Contracting Authority shall take the below criteria and weights into consideration.

The Contracting Authority reserves the right to discard offers below a technical score of 80 points.

Interviews

The Contracting Authority reserves the right to call to interview the Candidates having submitted proposals determined to be substantially responsive.

Financial evaluation

Each proposal shall be given a financial score. The lowest Financial Proposal (Fm) will be given a financial score (Sf) of 100 points. The formula for determining the financial scores shall be the following:

Sf = 100 x Fm/F, in which

Sf is the financial score

Fm is the lowest price and

F is the price of the proposal under evaluation

Negotiations

The Contracting Authority reserves the right to contact the Candidates having submitted proposals determined to be substantially and technically responsive, to propose a negotiation of the terms of such proposals. Negotiations will not entail any substantial deviation to the terms and conditions of the Request for Proposal, but shall have the purpose of obtaining from the Candidates better conditions in terms of technical quality, implementation periods, payment conditions, etc.

Negotiations may however have the purpose of reducing the scope of the services or revising other terms of the Contract to reduce the proposed remuneration when the proposed remunerations exceed the available budget.

A.12. Award criteria

The Contracting Authority will award the Contract to the Candidate whose proposal has been determined to be substantially responsive to the documents of the Request for Proposal and which has obtained the highest overall score.

1. Signature and entry into force of the Contract

Prior to the expiration of the period of the validity of the proposal, the Contracting Authority will inform the successful Candidate in writing that its proposal has been accepted and inform the unsuccessful Candidates in writing about the result of the evaluation process.

Within 5 days of receipt of the Contract, not yet signed by the Contracting Authority, the successful Candidate must sign and date the Contract and return it to the Contracting Authority.On signing the Contract, the successful Candidate will become the Contractor, and the Contract will enter into force once signed by the Contracting Authority.

If the successful Candidate fails to sign and return the Contract within the days stipulated, the Contracting Authority may consider the acceptance of the proposal to be cancelled without prejudice to the Contracting Authority’s right to claim compensation or pursue any other remedy in respect of such failure, and the successful Candidate will have no claim whatsoever on the Contracting Authority.

1. Cancellation for convenience

The Contracting Authority may for its own convenience and without charge or liability cancel the procedure at any stage.

Annex 1: Terms of reference

• Background information:

DanChurchAid’s and Norwegian Church Aid’s (DCA/NCA) Joint Country Program for Palestine (JCP) is implemented in a context of protracted crisis and long-term Israeli occupation that caused serious violations of human rights against Palestinians. Rights violations in the West Bank include physical and psychological abuse, restrictions on movement, limitations on access to water and electricity, confiscation of land, home demolitions, and destruction of agricultural fields among many others. In Gaza, there is a sharp deterioration in the humanitarian, human rights, security, and political situation caused by the siege and several rounds of military operations in the Gaza strip. The West Bank and the Gaza strip have been politically divided since 2007 and no elections have taken place for 16 years. This affects the livelihood opportunities and the Palestinian publics ability to participate in the decision-making processes that affects their lives.

In 2016, DCA and NCA merged their respective long-standing programmes in Palestine into a Joint Country Program (JCP) guided by the vision that: “Palestinians should enjoy equality, self-determination, democracy, as well as access to justice and accountability in accordance with International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law”. The JCP’s aim is to contribute towards this vision through four themes of work: Active Citizenship, Economic Empowerment, Humanitarian Assistance, and International Advocacy.

For more information about DCA, please refer to our homepage http://www.danchurchaid.org

• Project funding sources: Danida

Implementing agency and partner(s): 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of social media.

Project duration: 01/01/2023- 31/12/2024

Description of project: The project focuses on addressing the increased prevalence of online hate speech, particularly in Arabic and Hebrew, through the development of an innovative hate speech lexicon and automated tool. Using advanced machine learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, the project will identify and categorize harmful content on social media. It will not only provide real-time analytical reports on hate speech but also contribute to future research and advocacy efforts. This initiative offers a pioneer solution to combat online hate speech while promoting safer digital spaces for vulnerable groups.

The overall objective of the project: To improve the monitoring and reporting of hate speech related to the Palestinian and Israeli context online as well as the wider MENA region, with the aim of safeguarding digital rights to safely access the internet and run effective digital campaigns.

Specific objectives:

1. Development of Hate Speech Lexicon in Arabic and Hebrew: Under this objective, 7amleh will develop a Hate Speech Lexicon that can identify and explain inflammatory language on social media while offering alternative words and phrases that can be used to combat the spread of hate speech in both Arabic and Hebrew​
2. Automate Tool: 7amleh will build pipelines to automate Tweets scraping and predictions and test model’s performance (recall, precision, f1 score).

Outcome: The tool is used to monitor hate speech on social media platforms, and it contributes to improve policy recommendations, and protection of human rights.

Outputs:
1. Arabic and Hebrew lexicon established and used to monitor contextualised hate speech in Arabic and Hebrew.

2. Improved advocacy and policy recommendations.

3. Use of the AI tool in various sectors and disciplines.

Target area: Social media platforms- in Arabic and Hebrew.

• contract purpose and Expected results

Purpose:

The purpose of the final evaluation report is:

1. To assess the project effectiveness and impact: The purpose of the contract is to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the project’s effectiveness in meeting its objectives, particularly in the development and application of the Hate Speech Lexicon and the automated tool.

2. To provide insights and recommendations: The evaluation will identify key strengths, challenges, and areas for improvement in the project’s implementation.

Results to be achieved by the Contractor:

1. Comprehensive evaluation of project alignment with rights-based approaches: The contractor is expected to assess how well the project integrates a rights-based approach, focusing on the extent to which it addresses the needs and priorities of the intended rights-holders. This includes evaluating the project’s relevance, ensuring that it aligns with the rights and needs of the target groups within the Palestinian, Israeli, and MENA contexts.

2. Assessment of project contribution to DCA’s goals: The contractor will evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the project in achieving its primary objectives. This will involve measuring the extent to which the project has contributed to the DCA’s goals and the degree to which intended results and target populations have been reached.

3. Analysis of impact, sustainability, and long-term benefits: The contractor will assess the project’s positive and negative impacts, its sustainability, and the likelihood of continued benefits post-completion, including evaluating local ownership and long-term viability.

Stakeholder Participation

The Consultant/consultancy firm must ensure that a wide range of stakeholders participate in the survey as respondents. These will include:

• Youth that fit the target profile of the project.
• The implementing partner’s staff/board, DCA/NCA staff.
• Stakeholders with specific knowledge about International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and UNGP adherence, among others Brussels-based advocates and local IHL resource persons.
• Scope of the Services

The final evaluation will be conducted from November 2024 to December 20, 2024, and will include:

1. Document review to analyze the relevance of the innovation project, and review progress reports.

2. Collect data, through conducting interviews with the implementing partner, direct check to the tool and its data online, and then analyze the data.

3. Lead a debriefing session with DCA/NCA staff, partners, and stakeholders to discuss findings and recommendations.

The final evaluation will be carried out by the consultant/firm supported by the implementing partner staff, and DCA/NCA per the division of roles and responsibilities below:

• Roles and responsibilities of the consultant/firm:

1. Create the methodology, tools, and a timeline for the final evaluation, including clear steps on how data will be collected, analyzed, and reported. The methodology should specify how the evaluation will address key evaluation criteria (Effectiveness, Efficiency, Relevance, Impact, and Sustainability).
2. Share the proposed methodology and data collection tools with DCA/NCA-and the implementing partner for feedback and approval before implementation.
3. Implement the evaluation plan, which includes conducting interviews with key stakeholders.
4. Analyze the data using appropriate statistical and qualitative methods and assess the tool’s performance by checking the F1 score to ensure its effectiveness in meeting the evaluation objectives.
5. Present preliminary findings to DCA/NCA-and the implementing partner to allow for feedback and validation before finalizing the report.
6. Prepare the evaluation report detailing key findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
7. Provide DCA/NCA-and the implementing partner with copies of all raw data, analysis, and documentation related to the evaluation.
8. The evaluator should copy the DCA in all correspondence with the partner.

• Roles and responsibilities of the implementing partner:

1. To link the consultant/firm with pertinent stakeholders.
2. To review the report of the consultant/firm and provide feedback.

• Roles and responsibilities of DCA/NCA:

1. To provide the consultant with the documentation pack: project document, logical framework, progress reports, DCA’s rights-based approaches, etc.
2. To review the evaluation tools and methodology.
3. To ensure that the report meets the required quality standards.
4. To provide feedback on the report and to approve.
5. To provide the evaluator with contact information of partner and stakeholders (the evaluator is responsible to arrange directly with them).

• timing, logistics and facilities

The timeframe allocated to the final evaluation process and finalizing of the report is a maximum of 10 working days. The final evaluation process should be in the period between 23 November 2024 – 12 December 2024.

Technical and financial proposals should be submitted no later than 2:00 pm Jerusalem time on 31 October 2024, at the following email: [email protected].

Important notes:

• This opportunity is open locally and internationally.
• The consultant/firm will work remotely and is required to conduct interviews and meetings.
• All documents and information exchanged between the Contracting Authority and potential external evaluation candidates is to be kept strictly confidential and is not to be disclosed.
• reporting
• Submit methodology, tools, and a timeline for the final evaluation, according to the timeframe above, after getting the approval on the offer. Signing the contract may come at a later stage.
• The report shall include an introduction, background, methodology, key findings, analysis, conclusions, and recommendations. It may also contain lessons learned, next steps, and annexes for supporting data or documents
• The final report will be submitted to the implementing partner and DCA/NCA. The report will not be considered final until approved by DCA/NCA.
• The report should consist of 15 to 20 pages.
• All reports and communications will be in English.
• QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

Required qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in IT or Software Development, with a strong understanding of statistical methods and their application in evaluating digital platforms or websites.
• Proven expertise in conducting evaluations, particularly for innovative and tech projects, as well as cross-cutting issues such as the Rights-Based Approach.
• Expertise in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and language models.
• Strong technical background to effectively evaluate the tool.
• Experience in crawling content from social media platforms.
• Proven team leading and report writing skills

Preferred qualifications:

• Proven evaluation skills such as indicator development, sampling, participatory evaluation methodology, appreciative enquiry methods, focus group interviews, etc.
• Experience with faith-based organisations in general and DCA in particular is an asset.

How to apply

DCA

Contact person: Nadine Bannourah

Tel: 0546193310

Email: [email protected]

kindly contact us ti get the full RFP / TOR document.