INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY AND ELECTORAL ASSISTANCE 

 

 

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS 

 

Project Name: Constitution Building Programme (CBP) 

Assignment Name: Call for Submission of Proposals for a Global Exploratory Study of 
Constitutional Jurisprudence Related to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment 

 

Tender No. 258-16/56 

Tender Notice: The closing date for receiving proposals is on or before 21 June 2016, 23:59 
(CET) 

 

Section 1 General Information 

 

1.1 The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) is 
an intergovernmental organization established in 1995, with 29 member states across all 
continents, which aims to support sustainable democracy world-wide and assist in the 
development of institutions and the culture of democracy. At the interface between 
research, fieldwork and the donor community, IDEA provides a forum for dialogue, builds 
networks of experts, develops training materials and provides strategic advice at the 
international, regional and national level, cooperating with a range of organizations. 
1.2 International IDEA’s Constitution Building Programme, together with local, regional and 
global partners, raises awareness of the role constitution-building processes play in 
managing conflict and consolidating democracy. The work involves: providing technical 
assistance to national actors engaged in constitution building; providing knowledge and 
capacity-building resources that individuals and groups can use to strengthen their 
participation, in processes of constitution building; facilitating access to lesson learning in 
comparative contexts so that national, regional and international actors have more options 
to consider in addressing with constitutional challenges; and servicing a global community 
of constitution building practitioners through physical and virtual spaces for dialogue. 
1.3 International IDEA, in the context of a joint project with UN Women, invites proposals 
from qualified consultants to prepare an exploratory study of constitutional jurisprudence 
related to gender equality and women’s empowerment under a Contributor’s Agreement. 
The main activities are desk research and the preparation of a paper according to the Terms 
of Reference for the assignment. A detailed description of the assignment is provided in 
the Terms of Reference attached to this Request for Proposals. 




Tentative timeframe: It is anticipated that the services will commence in 1 July 2016 and 
they will have to be completed by 30 April 2017. 

Estimated budget: 12 000 Euro (twelve thousand Euro) 


Section 2 Preparation of Proposals 

 

2.1 Language: The official language for the proposal, contract, reports and any other 
documents in relation to the assignment is English. 
2.2 Estimated input: 31 days 
2.3 Required qualifications and experience: the candidate should have prior documented 
experience in the topic of the research (CV and list of publications) and in general with 
comparative constitutional jurisprudence and gender. 
2.4 The technical proposal should provide the following information: 


(i) A CV of the author (and co-authors, if applicable) and an outline of research and published 
work on related themes; 
(ii) an abstract and an outline, which describes and proposes a structure for the paper 
(iii) The proposed methodology and work plan for performing the assignment, along with any 
comments or suggestions on the Terms of Reference; 
(iv) The full name and contact details (including email address and telephone number) of two 
references. 
(v) Financial proposal: The financial proposal should indicate the number of days proposed, 
the daily rate of the consultant or consultants, and total fees. The proposal should be in 
Euros. 


 

Section 3 Submission of Proposals 

3.1 Proposals should be submitted in electronic format by e-mail to 
tendersubmissions@idea.int 




3.2 Proposals must be submitted on or before 21 June 2016, 23:59 (CET). Late proposals will 
not be considered for evaluation. Technical and Financial Proposals must be sent separately. 
Proposals being submitted by email should put the following text in the subject field: 

Tender No. 258-16/56 (Technical) – Do not open before 23:59 (CET) 21 June 2016 and 

Tender No. 258-16/56 (Financial) – Do not open before 23:59 (CET) 21 June 2016 

3.3 Proposals must remain valid for at least 60 days following the deadline for their 
submission stated in paragraph 3.2. During this period, the consultants are expected to keep 
available the professional staff proposed for the assignment. 




 

 

Section 4 Evaluation of Proposals 

4.1 The technical proposals will be evaluated and scored against the following technical criteria 
with respective corresponding weights: 

(i) Specific experience in conducting relevant research on constitutional 
jurisprudence across multiple regions and on gender equality (maximum 40 points); 
(ii) Experience of working with similar organisations (maximum 10 points) 
(iii) Adequacy of the proposed methodology, outline and abstract in responding to the 
Terms of Reference (maximum 50 points); 


The maximum technical score (T) is 100 points. 


 

4.2 The financial proposals will be checked and, if necessary, adjustments will be made to the 
prices to ensure consistency with the technical proposals in terms of work input. 

 

4.3 If not stated in Euros, the financial proposal will be converted to the currency of evaluation 
to obtain the evaluation price (E). 

 

4.4 The currency used for evaluation is the Euro (EUR). 

 

4.5 The financial scores (F) will be computed as follows: 

 

The lowest evaluation price proposal (Em) will be given a financial score (Fm) of 100 points. 

 The financial scores of the other proposals will be computed applying the formula: 

F = 100 x Em/E, where: Em is the lowest evaluation price, and 

E is the evaluation price of the proposal under consideration. 

4.6 The final scores (S) will be computed by applying the formula: 




S = t x T + f x F, where: t is the weight given to the technical score 

f is the weight given to the financial score 

4.7 The weights given to the technical and financial scores are: 




t = 75% 

f = 25% 

4.8 After completing the evaluation of the proposals, International IDEA reserves the right to call 
for interview a short list of the highest-ranking candidate(s) via video-conferencing. The 
consultant or consultants securing the highest final score will then be invited to negotiate the 
contract and if negotiations are successful the selected consultant or consultants will be 
awarded the contract. Should the negotiations fail, the second ranked consultant or consultants 
will be invited to negotiations. 
4.9 International IDEA reserves the right to vary at the time of award of contract the scope of 
work by up a maximum of twenty five per cent (25%) of the original Terms of Reference, 
without any change in the unit price or other terms and conditions. 




 

 

Section 5 Final Considerations 

5.1. International IDEA will not be bound to select any of the proposals. 

5.2 The following documents are enclosed with this Request for Proposals: 




Terms of Reference 

International IDEA Editorial Standards 

5.3 Further information on the Institute can be found on our website http://www.idea.int/. 
5.4 Clarifications may be requested via e-mail no later than 7 days prior to the submission 
deadline at: tendersubmissions@idea.int. Note a response to a request for clarifications 
will be issued to all tenderers on our website http://www.idea.int. Therefore bidders are 
advised to check the website regularly during the process. 





5.5 Both the successful and unsuccessful bidders will be notified in writing following the 
completion of the evaluation and contract award process. 




Complaints regarding any aspect of the tender process should be addressed in writing to 
both the Internal Auditor and Director of Corporate Services of the Institute via 
tender.complaints@idea.int.