Logo Design, Development of Branding Guidelines and Web Page for SADC Ramsar Regional Initiative At International Union for Conservation of Nature

Request for Proposals (RfP)

Logo Design, Development of Branding Guidelines and Web Page for SADC Ramsar Regional Initiative

IUCN ESARO, South Africa Country Office, SADC TFCA Financing Facility

RfP Reference: IUCN-2024-10-Px

Welcome to this Procurement by IUCN. You are hereby invited to submit a Proposal. Please read the information and instructions carefully because non-compliance with the instructions may result in disqualification of your Proposal from this Procurement.

1. REQUIREMENTS

   1. A detailed description of the services and/or goods to be provided can be found in Attachment 1.

2. CONTACT DETAILS

   1. During the course of this procurement, i.e. from the publication of this RfP to the award of a contract, you may not discuss this procurement with any IUCN employee or representative other than the following contact. You must address all correspondence and questions to the contact, including your proposal.

IUCN Contact: IUCN Contact: tenders.sa@iucn.org

1. PROCUREMENT TIMETABLE

   1. This timetable is indicative and may be changed by IUCN at any time. If IUCN decides that changes to any of the deadlines are necessary, we will publish this on our website and contact you directly if you have indicated your interest in this procurement (see Section 3.2).

DATE

ACTIVITY

08 October 2024

Publication of the Request for Proposals

12 October 2024

Deadline for expressions of interest

21 October 2024

Deadline for submission of Proposals to IUCN (“Submission Deadline”)

08 November 2024

Planned date for contract award

09 November 2024

Expected contract start date

15 January 2024

Refined and selected designs (Logo, Branding, and Website) based on feedback from member states and partners. Includes presentation to member states.

28 February 2025

Submission of final logo and branding guidelines

5 March 2025

Training on the use of the branding guidelines, Web manual etc

1. Please email the IUCN contact to confirm whether or not you are intending to submit a proposal by the deadline stated below.

2. COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL

   1. Your Proposal must consist of the following three documents:

• Signed Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2)

• Technical Proposal (see Section 4.4 below)

• Financial Proposal (see Section 4.5 below)

Proposals must be prepared in English.

1. Your Proposal must be submitted by email to the IUCN Contact (see Section 2). The subject heading of the email shall be [IUCN-24-10- SARRI– bidder name]. The bidder name is the name of the company/organization on whose behalf you are submitting the proposal, or your surname if you are bidding as a self-employed consultant. Your proposal must be submitted in PDF format. You may submit multiple emails suitably annotated, e.g. Email 1 of 3, if the attached files are too large to suit a single email transmission. You may not submit your Proposal by uploading it to a file-sharing tool.

   IMPORTANT: Submitted documents must be password-protected so that they cannot be opened and read before the submission deadline. Please use the same password for all submitted documents. After the deadline has passed and within 12 hours, please send the password to the IUCN Contact. This will ensure a secure bid submission and opening process. Please DO NOT email the password before the deadline for Proposal submission.

   1. Eligibility

   2. Technical Proposal

   [Donor-imposed eligibility criteria, e.g. the European Commission’s Nationality Rule and Rule of Origin]

   The technical proposal must address each of the criteria stated below explicitly and separately, quoting the relevant criteria reference number (left-hand column).

   Proposals in any other format will significantly increase the time it takes to evaluate, and such Proposals may therefore be rejected at IUCN’s discretion.

   Where CVs are requested, these must be of the individuals who will actually carry out the work specified. The individuals you put forward may only be substituted with IUCN’s approval.

   IUCN will evaluate technical proposals with regards to each of the following criteria and their relative importance:

Description

Information to provide

Relative weight

1

Understanding of the scope of work

A detailed proposed approach and methodology for the development of the rationale, logo and website.

30%

2

Demonstrated experience and expertise in similar assignments

Portfolios, reports, websites

35%

3

Personnel assigned

CV, biography, relevant qualifications

35%

TOTAL

100%

1. Financial Proposal

   1. The financial proposal must be a fixed and firm price for the provision of the goods/services stated in the RfP in their entirety.

      1. Prices include all costs

      2. Applicable Goods and Services Taxes

      3. Currency of proposed rates and prices

      4. Breakdown of rates and prices

      Submitted rates and prices are deemed to include all costs, insurances, taxes (except VAT, see below), fees, expenses, liabilities, obligations, risks, and other things necessary for the performance of the Terms of Reference or Specification of Requirements. IUCN will not accept charges beyond those clearly stated in the Financial Proposal. This includes applicable withholding taxes and similar. It is your responsibility to determine whether such taxes apply to your organization and to include them in your financial offer.

      Proposal rates and prices shall be exclusive of Value Added Tax.

      All rates and prices submitted by Proposers shall be in [USD currency].

      For information only, the price needs to be broken down as follows:

Description

Quantity

Unit Price

Total Price

1

2

3

4

5

6

TOTAL

1. Additional information not requested by IUCN should not be included in your Proposal and will not be taken into account in the evaluation.

   1. Your proposal must remain valid and capable of acceptance by IUCN for a period of 90 calendar days following the submission deadline.

   2. Withdrawals and Changes

   You may freely withdraw or change your proposal at any time prior to the submission deadline by written notice to the IUCN Contact. However, in order to reduce the risk of fraud, no changes or withdrawals will be accepted after the submission deadline.

2. EVALUATION of PROPOSALS

   1. Completeness

   2. Technical Evaluation

      1. Scoring Method

   IUCN will first check your proposal for completeness. Incomplete proposals will not be considered further.

Your proposal will be assigned a score from 0 to 10 for each of the technical evaluation criteria, such that ‘0’ is low and ‘10’ is high.

1. Minimum Quality Thresholds

Proposals that receive a score of ‘0’ for any of the criteria will not be considered further.

1. Technical Score

Your score for each technical evaluation criterion will be multiplied with the respective relative weight (see Section 4.4) and these weighted scores added together to give your proposal’s overall technical score.

1. Financial Evaluation and Financial Scores

   The financial evaluation will be based upon the full total price you submit. Your financial proposal will receive a score calculated by dividing the lowest financial proposal that has passed the minimum quality thresholds (see Section 5.2.2) by the total price of your financial proposal.

   Thus, for example, if your financial proposal is for a total of CHF 100 and the lowest financial proposal is CHF 80, you will receive a financial score of 80/100 = 80%

   1. Total Score

   Your proposal’s total score will be calculated as the weighted sum of your technical score and your financial score.

   The relative weights will be:

   Technical: 70%

   Financial: 30%

   Thus, for example, if your technical score is 83% and your financial score is 77%, you will receive a total score of 83 * 70% + 77 * 30% = 58.1% + 23.1% = 81.2%.

Subject to the requirements in Sections 4 and 7, IUCN will award the contract to the bidder whose proposal achieves the highest total score.

1. Explanation of procurement procedure

   1. IUCN is using the Invitation Procedure for this procurement. This means that only invited bidders may submit a proposal. IUCN typically invites from four to six bidders to submit a proposal.

   2. You are welcome to ask questions or seek clarification regarding this procurement. Please email the IUCN Contact (see Section 2), taking note of the deadline for submission of questions in Section 3.1.

   3. All proposals must be received by the submission deadline in Section 3.1 above. Late proposals will not be considered. All proposals received by the submission deadline will be evaluated by a team of two or more evaluators in accordance with the evaluation criteria stated in in this RfP. No other criteria will be used to evaluate proposals. The contract will be awarded to the bidder whose proposal received the highest Total Score. IUCN does, however, reserve the right to cancel the procurement and not award a contract at all.

   4. IUCN will contact the bidder with the highest-scoring proposal to finalise the contract. We will contact unsuccessful bidders after the contract has been awarded and provide detailed feedback. The timetable in Section 3.1 gives an estimate of when we expect to have completed the contract award, but this date may change depending on how long the evaluation of proposals takes.

2. Conditions for participation in this procurement

   1. To participate in this procurement, you are required to submit a proposal, which fully complies with the instructions in this RfP and the Attachments.

      1. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted a complete and fully compliant proposal.

      2. Any incomplete or incorrectly completed proposal submission may be deemed non-compliant, and as a result you may be unable to proceed further in the procurement process.

      3. IUCN will query any obvious clerical errors in your proposal and may, at IUCN’s sole discretion, allow you to correct these, but only if doing so could not be perceived as giving you an unfair advantage.

   2. In order to participate in this procurement, you must meet the following conditions:

• Free of conflicts of interest
• Registered on the relevant professional or trade register of the country in which you are established (or resident, if self-employed)
• In full compliance with your obligations relating to payment of social security contributions and of all applicable taxes
• Not been convicted of failing to comply with environmental regulatory requirements or other legal requirements relating to sustainability and environmental protection
• Not bankrupt or being wound up
• Never been guilty of an offence concerning your professional conduct
• Not involved in fraud, corruption, a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorism, or any other illegal activity.

  1. You must complete and sign the Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2)

  2. If you are participating in this procurement as a member of a joint venture, or are using sub-contractors, submit a separate Declaration of Undertaking for each member of the joint venture and sub-contractor, and be clear in your proposal which parts of the goods/services are provided by each partner or sub-contractor.

  3. Each bidder shall submit only one proposal, either individually or as a partner in a joint venture. In case of joint venture, one company shall not be allowed to participate in two different joint ventures in the same procurement nor shall a company be allowed to submit a proposal both on its behalf and as part of a joint venture for the same procurement. A bidder who submits or participates in more than one proposal (other than as a subcontractor or in cases of alternatives that have been permitted or requested) shall cause all the proposals with the bidder’s participation to be disqualified.

  4. By taking part in this procurement, you accept the conditions set out in this RfP, including the following:

• It is unacceptable to give or offer any gift or consideration to an employee or other representative of IUCN as a reward or inducement in relation to the awarding of a contract. Such action will give IUCN the right to exclude you from this and any future procurements, and to terminate any contract that may have been signed with you.
• Any attempt to obtain information from an employee or other representative of IUCN concerning another bidder will result in disqualification.
• Any price fixing or collusion with other bidders in relation to this procurement shall give IUCN the right to exclude you and any other involved bidder(s) from this and any future procurements and may constitute a criminal offence.

1. Confidentiality and data protection

   1. IUCN follows the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The information you submit to IUCN as part of this procurement will be treated as confidential and shared only as required to evaluate your proposal in line with the procedure explained in this RfP, and for the maintenance of a clear audit trail. For audit purposes, IUCN is required to retain your proposal in its entirety for 10 years after the end of the resulting contract and make this available to internal and external auditors and donors as and when requested.

   2. In the Declaration of Undertaking (Attachment 2) you need to give IUCN express permission to use the information you submit in this way, including personal data that forms part of your proposal. Where you include personal data of your employees (e.g. CVs) in your proposal, you need to have written permission from those individuals to share this information with IUCN, and for IUCN to use this information as indicated in 8.1. Without these permissions, IUCN will not be able to consider your proposal.

2. Complaints procedure

If you have a complaint or concern regarding the propriety of how a competitive process is or has been executed, then please contact procurement@iucn.org. Such complaints or concerns will be treated as confidential and are not considered in breach of the above restrictions on communication (Section 2.1).

1. Contract

The contract will be based on IUCN’s template in Attachment 3, the terms of which are not negotiable. They may, however, be amended by IUCN to reflect particular requirements from the donor funding this particular procurement.

1. About IUCN

IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organizations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organizations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together.

Headquartered in Switzerland, IUCN Secretariat comprises around 1,000 staff with offices in more than 50 countries.

Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,300 Member organizations and some 10,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards.

IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples organizations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development.

Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems and improve people’s well-being.

www.iucn.org

https://twitter.com/IUCN/

1. ATTACHMENTS

Attachment 1 Specification of Requirements / Terms of Reference

Attachment 2 Declaration of Undertaking (select 2a for companies or 2b for self-employed as applicable)

Terms of Reference for IUCN Consultancy

Title: Logo Design, Development of Branding Guidelines and Web Page for SADC Ramsar Regional Initiative

Objective of the Consultancy

This consultancy has the following objective(s):

1. The service required entails the development of the SARRI Rationale, logo, Branding guidelines and a web page.

Background

Project Reference: RAMSAR

Donor reference:

About IUCN

IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together.

Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,400 Member organisations and around 15,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards.

IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples organisations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development.

Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems and improve people’s well-being.

www.iucn.org

https://twitter.com/IUCN/

About the Project

The Convention on Wetlands, commonly known as the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty that promotes the conservation and sustainable utilisation of wetlands at national and regional levels. Under the auspices of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Ramsar Regional Initiatives (RRIs) are intended as operational means to provide effective support for an improved implementation of the objectives of the Convention and its Strategic Plan. The Ramsar Regional Initiatives promote cooperation and capacity building related to wetlands in specific regions or ecosystems.

Recognizing the importance of wetlands in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, in October 2019, the SADC Ministers responsible for Environment, Natural Resources and Tourism submitted a proposal to establish a Southern African Ramsar Regional Initiative (SARRI) with the assistance of IUCN to the Ramsar Convention Secretariat at Standing Committee 9 and in November 2022, at the 14th meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Wetlands, the proposal to establish the SARRI, was adopted.

COP14 furthermore adopted a set of operational guidelines for RRIs, allowing them to ensure their long-term effectiveness. These guidelines noted that RRIs would require, amongst others, their own governance and advisory mechanisms in order to provide leadership, coordination, guidance and accountability; their own identity, which specifies their independence, their status and role; as well as strategic plans which set forth long- and short-term implementation priorities and financial mechanisms.

Following on from the COP14 endorsement of the SARRI, several meetings were held between SARRI member states to discuss the process that would be followed to operationalize the initiative. As a first step towards the establishment of the SARRI, a task force was established, consisting of Lesotho, Zambia, Madagascar, Botswana and South Africa and a workplan for 2023 was developed. The SARRI workplan outlined a number of activities that would be required to ensure that the SARRI is effectively executed and governed, this included the creation of a visual identity for the SARRI.

Description of the Assignment

The service required entails the development of the SARRI Rationale, logo, Branding guidelines and a web page.

Duration of the Assignment

From 16 October 2024 to 28 February 2025

Deliverables and Activities

The consultant will provide the following deliverables and carry out the following activities:

Deliverable/Activity

Description

Deadline

1st submission of the 3 mockup designs:

Logo

rationale

Branding guidelines

Brand toolkit

Website mockups

Deliverables for SARRI Rationale, Logo and Branding guidelines:

• A rationale document explaining the conceptual basis for the logo design. The document should provide a synthesis of the RRI’s positioning and essence, its objectives, and its added value. It should propose key words and sentences to define and present it to partners and relevant stakeholders. Additionally, it should reflect the values embodied by the SARRI and communicate what the logo represents. A document on the rational for the SARRI.
• 3 Mock up designs of the SARRI Logo to be presented to the Member States
• A distinctive, professional logo in various formats (JPEG, PNG, SVG, EPS) suitable for print, digital use, and scalability.
• A brand toolkit that includes visual templates for social media, official documents, and presentations.

Deliverables for Webpage development

• Website design mock-ups and wireframes.
• Fully functional and responsive webpage.
• A user guide/manual for managing and updating the website.
• A training session for SARRI task force and secretariate on content management.
• Ongoing support for 3 years

8 December 2024

2nd Submission

Refined and selected designs (Logo, Branding, and Website) based on feedback from member states and partners. Includes presentation to member states

15 January 2024

Final Submission:

Final approved designs from member states,including:
– Fully functional and responsive website
– Training session for the SARRI task force on content management

28 February 2025

Payment Schedule

The Timetable below summarises the chronological order of deliverables and indicates milestones at which IUCN will pay the Consultant.

Deliverable

Milestone payment

8 December 2024

20%

15 January 2024

30%

28 February 2025

50%

Skills and Experience

The consultant must have the following skills, education and experience as a minimum:

This is an open and competitive process for all qualified freelance graphic designers and reputable design firms. Proposals will be evaluated, and an award made to the most responsible, responsive proposer submitting the proposal most advantageous to SARRI. The designer(s) should at least have the following skills

• Branding:
  • Proven experience in creating a rationale and key messaging
  • Proven experience in creating branding guidelines, and templates for common communication materials to ensure consistent use of the logo and brand identity across all communication materials.
• Webpage
  • Proven experience in designing and developing professional websites.
  • Strong knowledge of web development technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.) and CMS platforms (WordPress, Drupal, etc.).
  • Experience in integrating SEO strategies and best practices.
• Stakeholder Consultation:
  • Excellent communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively
  • Engage with member states to ensure the that the Rationale, logo and branding align with the Initiative’s vision and target audience.
  • Incorporate feedback from SARRI taskforce, partners, and key stakeholders throughout the design process.

Supervision and coordination

The consultant will report to and work under the supervision of Programme Officer.