RFP Key Dates

• Last day to submit questions: 02 May 2025
• Deadline for Proposals: 9 May 2025
• Expected contract signature: 15 May 2025
• Expected provision of support services IT from: 15 May 2025 until 31 March 2027
• Deliverable: Upgrade and support of an e-learning platform in English and German for highly skilled professionals from Nigeria and EU employers in the STEM sector.

The Opportunity

Seefar Foundation vzw is implementing a project with the aim to establish a mutually beneficial, sustainable partnership between Nigeria and Ireland/Germany to foster Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) talent development and mobility. This initiative will pilot a skilled migration model that aligns private sector needs with talent profiles, familiarising STEM graduates with EU employment opportunities.

In order to achieve its aim, the project will engage beneficiaries remotely through an online platform. This platform will provide e-learning courses on career coaching and life in Europe for skilled Nigerian STEM professionals, and courses on labour migration and ethical recruitment for EU employers as well as generate monitoring data.

This RFP is issued by Seefar Foundation vzw, referred to below as “the Buyer” or “we” or “us”, for the provision of IT Support Services for activities within the aforementioned project. To be successful in reaching, engaging and accurately monitoring the target audience, we require support with:

• Enhance the user experience and simplify course navigation
• Improve responsiveness and mobile usability
• Introduce gamification features to increase engagement
• Deploy the platform to Android mobile apps
• Provide ongoing development and maintenance support, including custom Moodle coding where required.

Scope of Work

Bidders must propose a comprehensive development plan, including stages for design, development, testing, pilot deployment, and final rollout.

Mobile App Deployment

• Deploy our LMS as an Android app based on the current Moodle instance
• Ensure feature parity with the desktop version
• Allow for push notifications and in-app progress tracking
• The mobile app should provide an option for users to access course materials offline, making the feature optional based on user preferences.
• The mobile app must be compatible with Android devices running version 8.0 (Oreo) and above, ensuring broad accessibility for users.
• The mobile app must also be optimised for tablet devices, ensuring proper display and functionality on larger screens.

UX/UI Improvements

• Redesign the learner dashboard and navigation menu post-login to reduce complexity
• Consolidate navigation to avoid redundant clicks and simplify the user journey
• Apply a mobile-first responsive design framework
• Improve the course overview section for easier access to in-progress and completed courses
• Allow for the creation of links to specific courses
• Improve the dashboard for overview of courses aligned with different user profiles.
• Browser Compatibility: ensure that the solution works equally well with all popular browsers including Chrome, Firefox and Safari etc.

Content Updates and Platform Language

• Upload and configure 16 new modules on the platform, ensuring consistency with existing course structures
• Add German as one of the languages available on the platform
  • Seefar will provide the translations when needed
• Support adding the German translation of up to 5 modules

Gamification Features

We aim to drive engagement through gamified elements. The platform should include:

• Points system: Users earn points for completing activities, logging in daily, or engaging with course materials
• Progress badges: Visual achievements for course milestones (e.g., first module completed, 100% score on a quiz)
• Level system: Learners “level up” based on accumulated points or course completions
• Leaderboards: Optional feature to encourage friendly competition (anonymous or cohort-based options)
• Certificates: Automated generation and issuing of certificates upon course completion, with customisable templates with ability to download it.

Note: If such features are not natively supported in Moodle or through plugins, we expect the selected provider to develop or integrate them with custom code or external APIs.

Integrations

• Integration with third-party tools such as H5P (for interactive content), Google Drive, and YouTube
• Personalization of Google Play Console to display the necessary metrics related to app performance
• Mailchimp platform integration (Mailchimp)
• Provide detailed API documentation for all integrations, ensuring ease of use for future development and maintenance.

Admin and Reporting Enhancements

• Improved admin dashboard to easily track user progress, engagement, and performance
• Notifications and alerts for incomplete modules, new courses, or user inactivity.
• Provide training sessions for our staff, covering platform management, content updates, and administrative tools.

Hosting and Monitoring

• The platform must meet a 99.9% uptime SLA. The winning bidder is responsible for server monitoring and immediate resolution of downtime issues.
• performance monitoring to track server uptime, user activity, and system health, ensuring high availability and reliability.
• The platform must be capable of supporting a projected user base of 1000 users simultaneously, with scalability for future growth.
• The winning bidder will be responsible for assessing the current hosting setup and configuration to ensure scalability.

Security and Data protection

• The platform must adhere to industry-standard security measures, including GDPR compliance for handling user data.

Support and maintenance

• Assign a contact person / account manager to be responsible during the support and maintenance period of this contract.
• The winning bidder is expected to provide a support plan covering maintenance, bug fixes, and updates to Moodle plugins after launch.
• Applying the latest fixes, patches and required upgrades to the platform during the support and maintenance period (if required) while ensuring system’s integrity, reliability, conformity and normal operation for all system features including the content.

The service provider is expected to offer guidance on the most efficient and appropriate method for delivering the final products to a non technical team. Kindly be advised that no revisions to the financial proposal will be permitted at a later stage.

Deliverables

The Buyer wishes to appoint a service provider that can deliver a range of services throughout the project life-cycle. The primary responsibilities are to lead the following :

• A functional, mobile and tablet-responsive LMS with enhanced UX/UI
• Android application
• Gamification module integrated or custom-built
• 16 modules uploaded to Moodle under the newly designed system
• Improvements for the current platform including UX/UI and the needed integrations
• Final documentation covering source code, system architecture, and user/admin manuals
• A maintenance and support plan

Eligibility

To be eligible for consideration, you must:

1. Have technical expertise and proven track record with regards to:
   • Proven experience working with Moodle, including custom development and plugin integration
   • Strong UI/UX design capabilities, particularly for education platforms aimed at users with low digital literacy
   • Capacity to propose and implement gamification features (e.g., badges, points, leaderboards, certificates)
   • Demonstrated ability to deploy and manage Android applications
   • Experience scaling digital platforms to support increased user engagement and operational efficiency
   • Knowledge of digital transformation and innovation within the humanitarian or development sectors
2. Cross-cutting Capabilities
   • Understanding of IT and digital technologies relevant to the humanitarian and development sectors
   • Familiarity with digital solutions in humanitarian assistance, particularly in relation to:
     1. E-learning platforms
     2. Infrastructure to support hosting, data protection, and long-term platform maintenance
3. Project Management and Governance
   • Well-established digital project management procedures, including supervisory and quality assurance systems
   • Risk management systems in place to anticipate and mitigate technical, operational, and reputational risks
   • Fluency in English and a demonstrated record of responsive, clear communication with international clients.
4. The bidder must provide details of their team, including roles (e.g., developers, designers, project managers) and CVs highlighting relevant expertise.

Evaluation Criteria

Seefar will evaluate responses on value for money as follows:

• Evidence of the capability, experience and infrastructure to deliver the services outlined above
• Relevance and quality of services offered
• Demonstrable track record in the successful engagement of the target audience through digital platforms utilising online advertising strategies
• Evidence of delivering impactful, remote soft-skills training that demonstrably improves the livelihood outcomes of migrant populations
• Financial offer

Scoring Criteria

1. Thematic Expertise & Track Record – 22

• Experience with Moodle, including custom development – 10
• Experience developing e-learning platforms for multilingual and global audiences – 4
• Experience with mobile app deployment (Android) linked to Moodle – 4
• Experience implementing gamification in LMS platforms – 2
• Stuff and CV’s – 2

2. Cross-Cutting Capabilities – 8

• Strong UI/UX design, especially for users with low digital literacy – 4
• Understanding of digital learning in humanitarian or migration sectors – 4

3. Cost (Financial Offer) – 14

• Value for money – 10
• Realistic and clearly structured financial proposal – 4

4. Project Management Capacity – 17

• Clear procedures and supervisory systems – 4
• Risk management approach – 3
• Communication practices and responsiveness – 2
• Capacity to manage integrated projects (content, tech, mobile, multilingual) – 4
• Provide detailed implementation plan – 4

5. Technical Infrastructure & Delivery – 9

• Ability to support long-term maintenance and hosting – 3
• Experience integrating third-party tools (H5P, Google, YouTube, analytics….) – 5
• Capacity to upload new modules and configure multilingual versions (e.g., German) – 1

Total Score – 70

Contract

A standard Services Agreement will be executed between Seefar Foundation and the selected supplier. Prices and payments will be in EUR.

Seefar reserves the right to award any proposals, to reject any and all proposals in whole or in part, and to waive any informality or technical defects if, in Seefar’s sole judgement, the best interests of Seefar will be served. Seefar assumes no responsibility or liability for costs incurred by suppliers in preparing a response to this RFP.

Payments will be milestone-based, distributed as follows: 20% upfront, 30% upon deployment, and 30% post-launch and acceptance, 20% at the end of support period.

Questions

Questions on this RFP can be emailed to tenders@seefarfoundation.org with the subject line “Project Delivery Services RFP question”. We will attempt to answer within one business day.

How to Apply:

You will need to submit a Service Provision Offer outlining the technical offer (including the timeline for delivery) and financial offer by completing this Google form hereby 9th May 2025.

Communication Protocol: A designated primary point of contact will manage communication between Seefar and the winning bidder’s point of contact. Progress reports are expected biweekly, with escalation procedures in place for issue resolution.