Call for Tenders - Website Upgrade and Maintenance

Written by contact@mobili…

Dec 11 2025
hiring

1. Context of the Assignment

MobiliseYourCity is a global partnership launched at COP21, supporting 82 member cities and 16 member countries in developing and emerging economies to plan, finance, and implement sustainable urban mobility policies. The Partnership produces a large volume of knowledge, methodologies, publications, and resources, available in three languages (English, French, Spanish) and accessed globally through the MobiliseYourCity website.

The MobiliseYourCity website plays a central role in disseminating these resources, ensuring accessibility of project documentation, hosting methodological tools, sharing news and updates, and providing visibility to city and country members.

The current website is built on Drupal 9, with a substantial multilingual resource library and a database-heavy architecture. To maintain a secure, stable, and modern platform, the website requires a technical upgrade and reinforcement of overall security.

In addition, the Secretariat intends to refresh the website's visual design, not through a deep structural overhaul, but through a redesign aligned with the new MobiliseYourCity visual identity (to be provided during the assignment), improving usability, aesthetics, and user experience while preserving the existing information architecture.

The MobiliseYourCity Partnership also seeks to establish a new maintenance and hosting management contract, including monthly checks, troubleshooting capacity, and small improvements. To ensure transparency and competitiveness, MobiliseYourCity is launching an open call for offers for a unified mission covering upgrade, redesign, hosting management, and maintenance.

 

Download the ToR in Eglish            Télécharger les TdR en français

 

2. Objectives of the Assignment

The objective of this assignment is to:

  1. Upgrade the MobiliseYourCity website to a secure, modern, and stable platform.
  2. Ensure long-term security and technical reliability, including updates to servers, search functionalities, and database.
  3. Perform a redesign of the website aligned with the new visual identity manual (to be shared during the contract).
  4. Guarantee uninterrupted access to MobiliseYourCity’s extensive multilingual resource library and all current functionalities.
  5. Provide hosting management under a transparent and competitive arrangement proposed by the contractor.
  6. Deliver ongoing maintenance, including monthly checks, technical support, troubleshooting, and minor website improvements.
  7. Provide all services under a fixed-price contract, structured in clearly defined service components.

3. Scope of Work and Expected Deliverables

The mission is unified, but the ToR distinguishes four components.

Component 1 - Technical Upgrade

The contractor shall propose the most suitable technical solution for the MobiliseYourCity website. While an upgrade from Drupal 9 → 10 → 11 remains an acceptable option, the contractor may also propose a migration to another CMS or development framework (e.g., WordPress or other modern, scalable solutions), provided that all current functionalities, multilingual content, and the full resource database are preserved without loss.

The contractor shall:

  • Update the production and pre-production servers, ensuring up-to-date operating systems, PHP versions, libraries, and configuration.
  • Update search functionalities (e.g., Elasticsearch) and ensure the search engine continues to operate smoothly and efficiently across all resources.
  • Update and migrate the database, ensuring no loss of content, metadata, taxonomies, or relationships.
  • Perform security hardening, implementing best-practice security rules.
  • Ensure minimal service interruption, with any necessary downtime announced and agreed in advance.

Component 2 - Moderate Redesign Aligned with New Visual Identity

The redesign is not a full rebuild of the website but a modernisation of its appearance and usability. The contractor shall:

  • Refresh the website’s visual design based on the new MobiliseYourCity visual identity manual (provided during the assignment).
  • Improve the visual coherence of templates, icons, typography, vignettes, and graphic elements.
  • Update homepage layout, news presentation blocks, and selected templates to align with modern UX/UI standards.
  • Improve navigation logic where relevant without modifying the fundamental information architecture.
  • Ensure all design changes maintain compatibility with:
    • multilingual content 
    • the resource library
    • the search engine
    • responsive/mobile layout

Component 3 - Hosting Management

The contractor shall:

  • Propose a hosting management model that may include:
    • Direct hosting provision by the contractor
    • Reselling of third-party hosting services (with transparent pricing structure)
    • Management of hosting services purchased by MobiliseYourCity
    • Other arrangements proposed by the contractor 
  • Provide hosting management, including:
    • server monitoring
    • backups and restoration protocols
    • uptime and performance management
    • coordination with the hosting provider (if applicable) 
  • Ensure full continuity of service throughout migration and redesign phases. 
  • Clearly specify in the financial offer the hosting cost.

Component 4 - Maintenance and Support

The contractor shall provide maintenance for 12 months, renewable, including:

  • Monthly technical checks and performance reviews
  • Application of security updates
  • Troubleshooting, bug fixing, and assistance
  • A flexible system for small improvements (minor new features, UX adjustments, UI refinements)
  • A maintenance model proposed by the contractor (package, pool of hours, or equivalent)

4. Communication with Bidders During Tender Phase

Before submitting their offers, bidders may ask clarifying questions. MobiliseYourCity will answer them by email.

Contact emails: jacopo.giavoli@mobiliseyourcity.net

5. Timeline 

  • Component 1 (Technical Upgrade): completed within one month from contract start.
  • Components 2–4: implemented after the upgrade, max one month after the delivery of component 1 (preferably simultaneously).
  • Maintenance: 12 months, renewable.
  • Submission deadline: January 11

6. Required Expertise

The bidder may be a company or consortium with proven expertise in:

  • CMS development and migration projects (Drupal, WordPress, or other platforms) 
  • Complex multilingual websites 
  • Database-heavy systems
  • UX/UI redesign on CMS platforms 
  • Website hosting management and server administration • Website security and performance optimisation 
  • Long-term maintenance and client support

The team should demonstrate experience with at least: 

  • Migration projects 
  • Website redesign 
  • Hosting and maintenance

7. Proposal Requirements

Bidders must submit:

Technical Offer

  • Proposed methodology for the technical upgrade (including proposed CMS/platform if different from Drupal)
  • Proposed methodology and creative approach for the redesign
  • Proposed hosting management model (direct provision, reselling, or other arrangement)
  • Maintenance model and workflow
  • Timeline and implementation schedule
  • Risk mitigation strategy
  • Team composition and roles 
  • Relevant past experience

Financial Offer

The financial offer must be fixed price, structured as:

  1. Technical upgrade
  2. Redesign
  3. Hosting (with transparent breakdown of costs)
  4. Maintenance (12 months, renewable)
  5. Any optional services proposed by the bidder

8. Selection Criteria

Technical criteria

  • Quality and relevance of methodology (40%)
  • Demonstrated experience and portfolio (25%) 
  • Robustness of maintenance and hosting management approach (20%)
  • Coherence of redesign proposal (15%)

Financial criteria 

Price competitiveness and clarity of cost structure

9. Useful Resources

To ensure a coherent understanding of the MobiliseYourCity Partnership’s activities, content architecture, and visual identity requirements, the following resources will be useful to bidders when preparing their technical and financial offers:

MobiliseYourCity Website and Content Structure

Current MobiliseYourCity website: https://www.mobiliseyourcity.net

Bidders are encouraged to explore:

  • The multilingual resource library and its advanced filtering 
  • The structure of publications, tools, methodologies, and project pages 
  • The news and event sections 
  • Navigation pathways and taxonomy logic

Understanding this structure is essential given the volume and complexity of the resource database and the requirement for full functional continuity after the upgrade.

MobiliseYourCity Brand and Communication Materials

  • MobiliseYourCity Visual Identity Manual (to be provided during the mission) This manual will inform the moderate redesign and ensure visual consistency across the website.
  • MobiliseYourCity Communication Channels
    • To understand tone, messaging, and visual expectations: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mobiliseyourcity

Examples of Modern Mobility-Related Websites

(Optional, for design inspiration only - bidders may propose their own references.)

  • C40: https://www.c40.org/
  • GDCI: https://globaldesigningcities.org/
  • EIT Urban Mobility: https://www.eiturbanmobility.eu/
  • ICLEI: https://iclei.org/
  • NACTO: https://nacto.org/

10. Submission Instructions

Proposals and bidder questions should be sent by January 11, 2026 to:

  • jacopo.giavoli@mobiliseyourcity.net
  • contact@mobiliseyourcity.net

 

 

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