1. Introduction
Pact is an international development nonprofit that works on the ground in nearly 40 countries to end poverty and marginalization. We partner with local organizations, businesses, and governments to build lasting solutions for thriving, resilient communities. Our vision is a world where everyone owns their future. Pact has worked in Ukraine since 2006 in the areas of governance, capacity development, and health. Building on a decade of experience, we address key challenges facing civil society organizations in Ukraine.
This Consultant request (CR) is a part of the Activity to Enhance Non-Governmental Actors and Grassroots Engagement (ENGAGE). The purpose of ENGAGE is to increase citizen awareness of and engagement in civic activities at the national, subnational, and local level.
The issue of digital security has long been a matter of importance within the civil society sector in Ukraine. However, this concern has taken on even greater significance with the start of a full-scale Russian invasion. Recent findings from the Digital Security Lab reveal a dramatic increase in cyber-attacks targeting civil society organizations, with a notable shift in the nature of these attacks compared to pre-February 2022 incidents. Specifically, there has been a rise in attempts to compromise digital security in online platforms and social media channels. Digital security assessment of CSOs conducted by ENGAGE shows that ENGAGE’s partners also have suffered from attempts at breaches of cyber- and digital security both before and after the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
The goal of this CR is to hire a Ukrainian consultant to develop a comprehensive curriculum outline for the digital security training program for ENGAGE CSO partners and conduct all the educational activities.
2. Scope of Work
The Ukrainian civil society sector holds a pivotal role in driving Eurointegration and actively contributes to the promotion of democracy, human rights, and social justice. Therefore, supporting their digital infrastructure is essential to increase their ongoing efforts in implementing reforms in Ukraine and effectively countering Russian aggression.
To enhance the digital safety of partner CSOs, Pact/ENGAGE plans to design and implement a curriculum on digital security tailored to the specific needs, practices, policies, and challenges identified during an in-house digital security assessment of partner CSOs. By leveraging existing expertise and knowledge, Pact/ENGAGE aims to equip CSOs with the necessary skills and resources to fortify their digital defenses and ensure the continuity of their essential work.
Expected Results:
- CSOs organizational capacity in the area of digital security improved;
- CSOs understand the strategic and systemic economic and social aspects of digital security risk;
- CSOs and activists raised their knowledge on personal digital security, as well as effective organizational policies, digital security aspects of working with social media packages, and digital citizen engagement tools.
Purpose: to equip ENGAGE partner CSOs with the knowledge and skills to ensure their digital security on personal and organizational level.
Objectives:
- To increase level of digital security of partner CSO’s activists on personal level as part of digital security infrastructure of the organizations;
- To develop the digital security of partner CSO on the organizational level and equip them with latest knowledge and practical skills on digital security to effectively address the challenges to safe and secure digital citizen engagement under the conditions of war.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Task 1: To develop a comprehensive curriculum outline for the digital security training program for ENGAGE CSO partners (at least 30 CSOs and up to 50 participants). The outline can include, but does not need to be limited to the following aspects:
- key educational curriculum modules, ensuring a logical flow and progression of topics and considering the different levels of development of digital security practices among CSO partners;
- identified topics to be covered in each module;
- clearly defined learning objectives and outcomes of each module;
- methods and approaches to be used for each module based on the module’s content and objectives, estimated durations;
- anticipated results and methods to assess whether results are achieved;
- the outline must contain room for topics and questions suggested by the participants based on their specific needs, in the case of which details regarding these elements will be developed later.
Task 2: To prepare agendas, evaluation forms, and other materials for each educational activity as relevant (readings, videos, links to digital tools, etc.).
Task 3: To conduct all the educational activities for ENGAGE partner CSOs under the suggested curriculum within 7 months.
Task 4: To prepare intermediate and final reports on the implementation of digital security curriculum for ENGAGE partner CSOs (in English and Ukrainian). Each report should contain quantitative and qualitative results and recommendations for further capacity development activities for CSOs in digital security.
As an example, Pact/ENGAGE suggests the following structure of program modules:
- Basic: digital assets inventory and identification of digital risk and threats.
- Personal digital security: social media privacy and security, securing personal devices, email and messaging security, data backup and recovery, etc.
- Organizational digital security
- Internal: hardware/software, safe data gathering and management, examples of organizational policies on digital security, etc.
- External: website, social media pages and channels, mailing system, donation system, etc.
- Program: digital security for the specific digital citizen engagement tools that partners are using.
Pact/ENGAGE welcomes more suggestions on topics and approaches within this curriculum focusing on the development of the participants’ practical skills in digital security.
Deliverables:
- Final concept of curriculum on digital security for CSOs including detailed implementation plan.
- Agendas, presentations, evaluation forms, packages of compulsory and recommended readings (can also be videos, links to digital tools, etc. as appropriate) designed for individual use by each participant and for potential share within the organizations where the participants come from, as well as other materials as relevant within education.
- Curriculum on digital security for CSOs implemented.
- Intermediate and final reports (in English and Ukrainian). Lists of participants, results of evaluation forms, video recordings of online activities should be included in the reports as annexes.
Place of Performance: All services required under this solicitation will be performed in Ukraine.
Period of Performance: All services required under this solicitation will be delivered from September 20, 2023 to March 29, 2024.
Expected Level of Effort: Estimated Level of Effort is 50 consulting days. In frame of the timeline, all deadlines and due dates could be negotiated if strong arguments are laid in the proposal.
3. Qualifications
- Excellent knowledge of the current cyber- and digital security environment in Ukraine, especially under the conditions of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
- Excellent knowledge of latest developments and practical technical skills in the fields of tech development, cyber-security and digital security.
- Sound knowledge of tech services providers, programs, and digital resources currently available to citizens and CSOs is an asset.
- Proven experience in delivering training sessions, trainings and consultations on matters of tech development, cyber security, digital security, digital citizen engagement. The experience should show abilities to develop participants’ both theoretical and, most importantly, practical tech skills as much as possible.
- Technical knowledge, skills and expertise in designing and organizing training sessions and trainings both online and offline.
- Demonstrated experience in developing evaluation forms and other assessment tools, ability to analyze them and produce well-structured and consistent reports.
- Excellent writing and presentation skills.
- Fluency in English is preferable.
4. Eligibility
All proposals which fail to comply with the basic minimum requirements outlined in the solicitation shall be eliminated. See Sections C and E.
- Application Instructions
Proposals must be submitted electronically to kbondar@pactworld.org no later than 17:00 on August 22, 2023 (Kyiv time). The subject line should contain: “Proposal under Consultant Request P4767-2023-18.” The proposals expected to be submitted from an individual consultant as an individual/private entrepreneur.
Documentation required for application:
- Resume/CV. A short profile of an applicant featuring expertise and experience relative to the goals and objectives of this Consultant Request.
- Resume of a consultant or all experts engaged into the implementation the task if it is more than one person.
- Technical Proposal: An outline of curriculum (see recommendations and details above).
- Financial proposal (budget) in Excel file (in UAH currency). Clearly stated LOE with a requested rate per each Deliverable for consultants and per day.
Questions: All questions or clarifications regarding this Consultant Request must be in writing and submitted to kbondar@pactworld.org no later than 17:00 on August 15, 2023 (Kyiv time). The subject line should contain: “Questions to Consultant Request P4767-2023-18” Questions and requests for clarification, and the responses thereto, will be circulated to all Consultant Request recipients who indicate an interest in this Consultant.
5. Evaluation Criteria
Pact will evaluate applicants using the follow criteria (100 points in total):
Qualifications (Expertise of an applicant and ability to perform tasks outlined in this Consultant Request) – 40 points
Technical Proposal (Comprehensiveness, consistency, relevancy of the suggested concept of trainings) – 30 points
Financial Proposal (Cost effectiveness) – 30 points
6. Terms and Conditions
Disclaimers:
- Pact reserves the right to modify by written notice the terms of this solicitation at any time in its sole discretion. Pact may cancel the solicitation at any time.
- Pact may reject any or all proposals received.
- Issuance of solicitation does not constitute award commitment by Pact.
- Pact reserves the right to disqualify any quotation based on applicant’s failure to follow solicitation instructions.
- Pact will not compensate applicants for their response to the solicitation.
- Pact reserves the right to issue an award based on initial evaluation of applications without further discussion.
- Pact may choose to award only part of the scope of work in the solicitation or to issue multiple awards the scope of work.
- Pact reserves the right to waive minor proposal deficiencies that can be corrected prior to award determination to promote competition.
- Pact may contact applicants to confirm information and that the proposal was submitted for this solicitation.
- Pact may contact listed past performance references without notice to the applicant. Pact also reserves the right to contact other past performance information sources that the applicant did not list in the proposal.
- By submitting a proposal, the applicant confirms they understand the terms and conditions.
- Information pertaining to and obtained from the applicant as a result of participation in this solicitation is confidential. The applicant consents to the disclosure of the documents submitted by the applicants to the reviewers involved in the selection process. Please note that all reviewers are bound by non-disclosure agreements.
