About the organisation

Westminster Foundation for Democracy (“WFD”) is the UK public body dedicated to supporting democracy around the world. Operating internationally, WFD works with parliaments, political parties, and civil society groups as well as on elections to help make political systems fairer, more inclusive and more accountable.

We are a problem-solving, practitioner-led organisation that offers:

• Specialist analysis, research, and advice to inform policy makers on a range of democratic governance issues;
• High quality and impactful programmes that directly support the full spectrum of institutions in political systems to develop inclusive political processes, more accountable political systems, protection of rights and freedoms, and more pluralistic societies; and 
• International elections observation and technical advice on behalf of the UK. 

WFD’s organisational structure consists of a headquarters, based in London, employing circa 60-65 full-time staff in programme delivery, technical advisory and business support roles. Our head office teams provide organisational leadership and operational support to circa 100 locally-engaged programme delivery staff, located in our (circa 30) international programme field offices. WFD’s workforce is extremely culturally diverse, and we have good representation across a number of key demographic/characteristics.

More details of WFD’s strategy, programme activity and international footprint is available at https://www.wfd.org/.   

Background and Context

As an organisation we externally advocate for equality and inclusion through our programmes, and are leader in our field in supporting our beneficiaries to embed this values in there institutions and practices. However, despite our success with our outward focused work, there is a lack of structure and cohesion around our internal practices and systems around ED&I, and there is a growing sense that we need to do more to practice what we preach.  

In late 2022 WFD finalised a new strategy (a copy of which will be available to the consultant) focused on reinforcing our outstanding organisation. This strategy sets out our ambition and some key outcomes around ED&I which we will look to deliver over the next 3 years. These outcomes are:

Outcome 1: Equity, diversity & inclusion

Ensure WFD has greater accountability by increasing transparency of ED&I data and performance. Develop and implement training, governance, and risk and assurance mechanisms to embed inclusion into all strategic and operational areas of the organisation including an ED&I and wellbeing impact assessment tool to apply to all new and revised organisational policy and procedures, systems, decisions and change processes. Inclusion will be championed by senior leaders who will be accountable for modelling inclusive actions and behaviours. 

Outcome 2: One WFD

Ensure colleagues are supported to create spaces for discussion, collaboration, learning and socialising through networks and staff forums, and proactively encouraging opportunities for in-person contact.  

Outcome 3: Safe spaces

Ensure WFD fosters psychological safety within the working environments where people feel safe and heard, can actively participate, and share concerns or mistakes without fear of repercussion. This will be supported by systems and processes that offer timely, proportionate and effective responses when issues arise. 

This is also an outcome around enhancing our external and internal recruitment and flexible conditions, which has a strong link to ED&I.

We currently have minimal formal systems in place for capturing ED&I data at a corporate level, and no formal structures and/or targets in place to monitor our ED&I performance. We have been able clearly identify the problems through this strategy development work and set some clear outcomes, but we are looking to bring in some expertise to advise us on ‘how’ we can successfully achieve these outcomes and what we need to put in place to do this.

What we are seeking

Specification

To support delivery of our Outstanding Organisational Strategy, WFD are seeking an expert consultant to deliver:

1. Recommended industry/sector standard ED&I performance, monitoring and reporting frameworks and data collection and visualisation tools;
2. Develop a proportionate ED&I impact assessment tool for internal planning and decision making;
3. Advise of best practice initiatives and priorities that WFD should be focusing on as a progression organsiation with a clear ambition to mainstream ED&I into our internal practices and process;
4. An implementation road-map to support the organsiation meet our strategic ED&I outcomes.

Proposal Requirement

Proposals/Quotes

All proposals or quotes should be submitted in writing and include:

• The supplier’s name, status, company number, and registered office address
• An overview of the relevant experience, expertise, capability and capacity
• A description of the good(s) or service(s) to be provided and clear explanation as to how this meets the specification
• A transparent quotation of the charge for the good(s) or service(s), in sterling, to include: a clear breakdown of all costs; any proposed discount applied for WFD as a not-for-profit organisation; and a separate identification of any VAT charges (and/or any other applicable tax, excise or other charges).

The proposal or quote should include the RFQ Reference Number and be sent electronically and addressed to: procurement@wfd.org 

The same email address should be used for any questions related the opportunity.

Closing date: All proposals/quotes must be received by 23:59 on 1 February 2023.