Terms of Reference
Database and Website on Political Parties
Summary
International IDEA is through its programme on Dialogue and Research on Political
Parties (see Annex D for a programme overview) carrying out data collection on
external regulation and internal functioning of political parties. This will constitute
the basis for further research on - and dialogue with – political parties. Research is
conducted on a global scale through a network of regional and national partners.
To achieve analysis, publication and dissemination of knowledge and other research
findings and material, a database and a website on political parties will be developed
and maintained. The aim of this Terms of Reference is to acquire assistance in the
overall construction, development and maintenance of an IDEA database and website
on political parties.
1. The Context
Strong and sustainable democracy is dependent on well-functioning political parties.
They are crucial actors in bringing together diverse interests, recruiting and presenting
candidates, and developing competing policy proposals that provide people with a
choice. In a democracy there is no substitute for open competition between political
parties in elections.
Although little comparative research has been conducted, it is clear that the external
environment – the regulatory, financial, political and electoral spheres – in which
political parties grow and function, influences their strategy and organization. The
external environment also fundamentally impact on whether parties can become more
effective agents of democratisation. Concerns of corruption and party financing rules
have called for “engineering” through electoral and party laws, public funding,
registration requirements and media access.
The internal functioning of political parties determines how the views and social
demands of different groups are represented in parliament. Candidates nominated for
election are selected, supported and trained by their parties. In addition, parties put
candidates in touch with voters and hold them accountable. In many instances, the
electoral and political culture and associated structures have allowed traditionally
excluded groups, such as women, ethnic and religious minorities, indigenous and
young people to have only limited access to the political realm. With expectations
low, the pressures on parties to become more responsive are often fragmented.
The objective of the Programme is; to assist in developing and strengthening political
parties so they perform as effective actors of democratization and good governance,
trusted by voters, representative and responsive to public needs and concerns,
contribute to public debate, are equipped to support government and a constructive
opposition, thus playing a role in ensuring transparency and accountability of
government.
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Within this broad objective, the initial focus will be on two main areas: the external
regulation and internal functioning of political parties. With the aim of enhancing
knowledge on political parties, and stimulate dialogue with political parties, data
collection has been initiated in approximately 40 countries during 2004, a similar
number of countries will follow in 2005. The number of countries could expand to
100 during the course of 2005-06.
The first questionnaire is a country context exercise with 20 questions to frame the
political and developmental situation in each country. Many of these questions are
rich in text. The second questionnaire is on external regulation of political parties
(laws, regulations, standards) and contains 38 Qs, mostly with fixed response
alternatives but where texts need to be tied to these response alternatives. The third
questionnaire is on the internal functioning of political parties, i.e. the rules and
regulations that parties do, or don’t impose on themselves. The total number of
questions here is 90. We are researching 3-4 political parties in each country, and in
each political party we will interview 4-6 people. A summary of the research findings
is produced in each country, approximately 10 pages long. This country report is
structured for comparative purposes and needs to be included in the database.
Research is based on an exploratory approach, with information about many countries
still to be entered into the database, and considerable conceptual and practical effort
still remaining in the area of comparative analysis and synthesis of the data.
IDEA is working with many regional and national partners in the data collection
process. These partners will have access to the full data from the data collection and
easy transfer of data to partners will be essential for the analysis of the data. Other
partners are involved in the analysis and dissemination of the data and also need easy
access to the data.
2. Purpose of the Action
International IDEA is involved both alone and in partnership with other organisations
and actors with the design, maintenance and management of web based information
and database services. To facilitate this work, IDEA will recurrently require, either
on long or short term basis, to contract technical expertise in database and website
construction, development and maintenance.
The consultant/s will suggest options and provide agreed solutions for the overall
database and website construction, development and maintenance - to support IDEA’s
work on political parties. This also includes organisation of IDEA’s data, generated
from the three questionnaires and other sources as outlined under: 1. The Context
above - into a database. Easy transfer of data, and automatic update of data, from the
database to the website is essential, which underlines the importance of the interface
between the database and website.
Easily accessible research findings, topical discussion papers, and material with
applicable best practices are key outputs. The expected results by 2007 of the PP
component are:
a. Sets of options for enhancing the effectiveness of political parties as actors in
democratisation and for improving their accountability are developed and tested
in at least two regions.
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b. Best practice experience on changes in political parties’ management practices
(internal democracy, policy development methods, quotas, etc.), as well as in
their relations with civil society, is compiled and shared among key actors.
c. Tools for enhancing the access to political representation, influence and
engagement through political parties of traditionally underrepresented groups
such as women, youth and minorities, are developed and tested.
d. General principles on norms, basic standards and guidelines on the role, conduct
and functioning of political parties, voluntary or legally enforced, for both
legislative and internal reforms are defined by a critical mass of political actors in
newer and established democracies in at least two regions.
The outputs of the program will be disseminated by IDEA and partner organisations and through the various networks of political parties that IDEA work with,
particularly those networks built during the regional research projects. IDEA will
provide information on demand to countries and parties engaged in reform.
The actions of this terms of reference aim at establishing the database and website.
Aspects of development of the website in terms of design and communication aspects
are foreseen to continue and be part of the next phase of the assignment. The time
period for this terms of reference is April to 31 December, 2005. The next phase is
anticipated to cover the period 2006-2007, and will be subject to a later tender
process.
3. Description of the Tasks and Activities
The consultant shall in completing the assignment fulfill the following requirements
for establishing the database and website.
The database must be:
- Able to cater for large amount of data while remaining stable
- estimated amount of data through questionnaires and country report for 100
countries comes to a total of 2 GB
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engineered to include basic analytical functions, e.g. percentage, crosstabulation, frequencies etc, and search functions, to be attached to the database
on the website, without application of software like SPSS, excel etc.
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Neutral in format so that the database is compatible with software for analysis
of qualitative and quantitative data, such as SPSS, Excel etc.
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Able to support user-friendly graphical presentations, such as tables, charts
and maps, on the website
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User-friendly for IDEA staff and partners to code, enter, edit and update data
in the future
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Designed to allow for different levels of access to data, regulated via
password, and with easy access for outside researchers with varying clearance
for accessing the data
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Compatible with the new IDEA website technical platform and future and
IDEA’s Resources Centre (under development)
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Designed so that it is easy to select and export parts of the outputs of the
database for publication on IDEA’s website
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Compatible with other software and web presentations that IDEA uses
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Cost efficient
The website must be:
- Able to cater for large amount of data while remaining stable
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Fully compatible with the database for transfer and update of data and graphic
presentations
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Use as its basis for design the existing technical platform of the new IDEA
website, to ensure cost efficiency
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Able to generate and illustrate user-friendly graphical presentations of the
output from the database - such as tables, charts, maps
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Designed to allow for extensive and user-friendly communication with users
of the Political Party website
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Designed to allow for different levels of access to the web environment,
regulated via password
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Easy to access for outside users with different levels of access to the web
environment, including browser support
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Compatible with future use in web-based interfaces and IDEA’s Resources
Centre (under development)
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Designed so that it is easy to select and import parts of the outputs of the
database and analysis for publication on IDEA’s public website
-
Compatible with other software and web presentations that IDEA makes use
of
Outputs:
The consultant shall in fulfilling the above requirements deliver the database, website
– and interface between the database and website – by providing the following
outputs.
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The consultant will liaise with the relevant staff at IDEA to ensure
compatibility of the database and website with other IDEA requirements
during the course of implementing the assignment.
The consultant will provide a detailed time-plan and budget for the costefficient implementation of all outputs specified in this terms of reference.
Server:
• Provide the different options of hosting the database and website on a Linux,
Microsoft – or other - server and suggest the option best suitable for IDEA’s
work on political parties. The amount of data from questionnaires and country
report for 100 countries is approximately 2 GB. The server then needs to have
capacity to cater for this material, additional graphic presentation of analysis
and for the website itself.
• Implement the database and website functions on the server choosen
Database:
• Suggest the database option (Sql, Mysql, Oracle Access or other) that best
caters for IDEA’s work on political parties.
• Consult with relevant IDEA staff on existing database, software and website
solutions to ensure that the database for the Political Parties Programme is
compatible with existing systems at IDEA, and cost efficient in
implementation
• Implement purchase and setup of the new database
• Present options for programming the database and the functions of the
administrative interface that allow for various analytic functions like
frequency, percentage, cross-tabulation, search functions and others. These
functions shall be free for website users and not subject to licenses and fees
from software manufacturers (cf. http://www.idea.int/parties/finance/db/ for a
more basic solution of database presentation at website)
• Program the database so that the agreed upon analytical and search functions
are operational on the database and possible to use at the Political Party
website.
• Input of already colleted data into the database, approximately 40 countries
• Ensure that data from the three questionnaires and the country reports can be
combined and cross examined
• Have the database operational for analysis of data by 9 May, 2005.
• Carry out easy transfer of analysis in the form of charts, tables, graphs and so
on from the database for presentation at the website
• Ensure automatic transfer of future data collection into the database by redesigning of the existing questionnaires for data collection so that the
questionnaires can be filled out online (see appendix X for questionnaires)
• Ensure that the database allows for easy transfer of data to other software for
analysis
• Establishment of password-regulated levels of data access
• Assist IDEA in the initial analysis of data and advice on forms of presentation
• The relevant training to IDEA staff on input of data and other database tasks
shall be provided by the consultant.
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Maintenance and update of database during 2005. Data on countries will
require frequent update and changes, text documents will require less frequent
updates.
Website:
• Build the website on the existing technical platform of the IDEA website
• Present, to IDEA’s team on political parties, for discussion and approval a basic
design of the Political Parties website
• Have a draft version of the new website ready by 1 June, 2005
• Have the finished website ready for public launch by 1 August, 2005
• Continued design and development of the Political Parties website as
appropriate according to the needs of the Political Parties program, including
solutions, if necessary, beyond that provided by the technical platform of the
IDEA website. In doing so, the consultant will provide solutions for using:
- Search functions on the Political Party website
- Suggest, without implementation at this stage, profiling of the website based on
different categories of users (party member, constitutional lawyer, journalist,
researcher, activists, donors)
- Provide a function that continuously tests links to ensure that they are “alive”.
Ensures that website is continuously updated.
- Flash macromedia rollover function to avoid unnecessary clicking on links to
navigate the site, user friendly
• Development and maintenance of adequate redundancy and backups for the
Political Parties document collection and databases; prepare for providing
availability to access the Political parties website in remote locations, and
make recommendations for possible Political Parties regional satellite servers.
• Support for and maintenance of project infrastructure; development and
maintenance of project mailing list.
• Provide technical solutions for data exposure on the website. Offer technical
assistance with Political Parties researchers, managers, and partner
organizations as required.
• Explore alternative graphing or visualization methods for comparison of data.
• Implement detailed traffic analysis for Political Parties public site with monthly
summaries.
• Establish a Political Parties "Knowledge Network" by suggesting public and
private interfaces for communication between IDEA, partners and users of the
website. Ensure that the Political Parties program remains a valuable, relevant
tool to its community of users
• Fulfill the following design criteria:
- Operationally oriented, designed for the ‘practitioner’ Attractive and userfriendly on the web
- Highly compartmentalized, for ease of translation
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- Carefully structured, indexed and searchable
- Widely accessible and retrievable
- Printer-friendly
4. Management and Organisation
The relevant training for data input or other respective tasks shall be provided by the
consultant.
The consultant will be available for support on phone and email 1 hour/day.
5. Timing and Workplan
The assignment will commence in April, 2005. The activities should be completed 31
December, 2005.
6. Reporting
The Consultant will submit the following reports:
a. Inception Report: shall outline the proposed approach and final time frame for
the implementation of the services and shall be submitted by 15 May, 2005.
b. Final Report: shall be submitted upon completion of the services and shall
describe how the services have been performed and include the Consultant’s
final considerations and recommendations.
7. Budget
The total indicative budget for the assignment is EURO 10-12.000. Costs for purchase
of relevant software and computer equipment will be paid by IDEA through a
separate process.
8. Payment
The payment shall be made according to the following schedule:
- an advance payment, representing 50 percent of the fee, upon submission and
acceptance by International IDEA of the Inception Report;
- a final payment, representing 50 percent of the fee, upon submission and
acceptance by International IDEA of the Final Report.
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