Call for Tenders | Lead Developer / Civic-Tech Team – Civic Space Watchdog (AI-Assisted MVP)

Location: Remote, with preference for overlap with Europe / MENA time zones
Contract type: Consultancy / Service contract
Deadline for submissions: 10 January 2026

1. Background

HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement is a regional, non-profit organisation working to defend and expand civic space, support human rights defenders, and advance fundamental freedoms across the MENA region and in diaspora. HuMENA focuses in particular on freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, and expression, including media and digital rights, and works through documentation, evidence-based advocacy, capacity building, and protection support.

Our work brings together local and regional partners, engages with international and regional mechanisms, and seeks to provide credible information and analysis to actors ranging from grassroots groups to UN and regional bodies. A core part of this effort is the ability to track developments affecting civic space in a consistent, timely, and structured way.

To strengthen this dimension of our work, HuMENA is developing the Civic Space Watchdog: an AI-assisted digital platform that will help us and our partners monitor civic space in real time, organise information from selected online sources, and turn it into searchable, reusable data.

The pilot phase will focus on Tunisia and Egypt. During this phase, the platform will be used primarily by HuMENA staff and a limited group of trusted partners. From the outset, the system must be designed to allow the addition of additional MENA countries later without major redevelopment.

HuMENA is seeking an experienced Lead Developer (individual) or a small civic-tech team to design and build the first working version of the Civic Space Watchdog, a production-ready Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for Tunisia and Egypt that can be expanded to the wider MENA region in later phases.

2. Purpose of the assignment

The contractor will design, develop, and deploy a secure, modular MVP for daily use. In concrete terms, the MVP should:

• Monitor a defined list of online sources related to civic space in Tunisia and Egypt, and ingest new content on a regular schedule.
• Use AI-assisted methods to flag and structure items that may be relevant to civic space, for example, developments affecting freedoms of association, assembly, expression, or attacks on human rights defenders.
• Provide a clear human review and verification workflow, so that only validated items are recorded as confirmed incidents or entries in the system.
• Offer an internal dashboard with search, filters, and an interactive MENA map, with Tunisia and Egypt active in this phase and other countries visible but inactive.
• Present information through a clear, visually compelling interface, with well-designed maps, tables, and charts that are easy to use for non-technical human rights practitioners.
• Be technically ready for a limited public view to be enabled at a later stage, without substantial changes to the core architecture.

The result should be a working platform that HuMENA can operate and maintain, and that can be scaled up in later phases.

3. Scope of work

The selected contractor will work closely with HuMENA’s project lead and designated staff. The scope below indicates the main components of the assignment.

3.1 Inception and design

At the start of the contract, the contractor will review HuMENA’s existing documentation on the Civic Space Watchdog and hold online meetings with the team to clarify expectations. Based on this, the contractor will prepare a brief inception and design document setting out:

• The main user roles and permissions (for example, reviewer, verifier, administrator).
• The overall system architecture and chosen technologies.
• The initial data model, including incidents, sources, key fields, and status values.

This document will be discussed and agreed with HuMENA before full development begins.

3.2 Architecture and core platform

The contractor will implement an architecture suitable for a data-heavy web platform. At a minimum, this should include:

• A backend built with a modern web framework (preferably Python-based).
• A relational database (such as PostgreSQL) with an explicit schema for records, sources, and verification status.
• An API layer to serve the frontend and allow for future integrations.
• A frontend using a modern framework for dashboards, forms, and visualisation.

The platform must fully support Arabic and English, including right-to-left display where relevant. The data model and interfaces should be multi-country by design: Tunisia and Egypt will be active in this phase, but other MENA countries should be easy to add later through configuration rather than redesign.

The overall user experience and visual design should be clean, consistent, and accessible, with particular care given to the readability of Arabic and to the clear presentation of complex information.

3.3 Monitoring and ingestion

HuMENA will maintain a source registry covering websites and platforms relevant to civic space in Tunisia and Egypt. The system should:

• Check these sources on a schedule agreed with HuMENA (for example, hourly or daily, depending on source type and load).
• Ingest new content and store it with appropriate metadata, including source, date, and any technical identifiers.
• Keep a clear record of when items were first fetched and of subsequent updates.

In addition to automated monitoring, the platform should provide complementary ingestion options, such as secure web forms for manual entry and CSV or spreadsheet import. Simple options for partner-side integration (for example, a basic API endpoint) are desirable but can remain modest at the MVP stage.

3.4 AI-assisted structuring and classification

At the MVP level, the system should include practical AI / NLP-assisted features that help:

• Identify content that is likely to relate to civic-space developments.
• Propose key fields such as country, date, event type, and theme, and suggest tags or categories.

Items flagged by the system should appear in a review queue. For each item, human reviewers must be able to see:

• The original content or a meaningful excerpt.
• All suggested fields and tags.

Reviewers must be able to edit or discard these suggestions. AI serves to speed up and structure the work, not to make final decisions.

3.5 Verification workflow

The platform should support a straightforward and transparent status flow, such as: New → Under review → Verified → Archived / Rejected.

Authorised users should be able to:

• Review items and their sources.
• Edit structured fields and tags.
• Change the status of items in line with their role.

The verification process should be intuitive and efficient for HuMENA staff and partner organisations.

3.6 Internal dashboard, map, and search

The internal dashboard will be the main interface for users. It should allow them to:

• Search and filter records by country, date range, theme, event type, and status.
• View an interactive MENA map where Tunisia and Egypt are active (clickable and filterable) and other countries appear as inactive placeholders for future phases.
• See clear charts and summaries, for example, incidents over time or by type, designed in a way that supports quick understanding.
• Export data in common formats (e.g., CSV) and generate simple, printable views to support analysis and reporting.

The dashboard should be visually coherent and pleasant to work with for users who will spend time in it on a regular basis.

3.7 Public view (prepared but not necessarily active)

The platform should be built so that HuMENA can enable a limited public view of selected data at a later stage, without major changes to the core system. When activated, this public view would:

• Display only verified data that HuMENA chooses to make visible.
• Use the same MENA map with Tunisia and Egypt active.
• Keep internal and public data clearly separated, with configurable publication rules.

Whether and when to activate a public view will remain HuMENA’s decision.

3.8 Security, privacy, ownership, and handover

The system will handle information that may be sensitive or politically risky. The contractor is therefore expected to:

• Implement secure authentication and role-based access control.
• Use encrypted connections (HTTPS) and handle credentials and secrets appropriately.
• Ensure regular backups and basic logging.
• Minimise the collection and storage of sensitive personal data, following a do-no-harm approach.

At the end of the assignment, the contractor will provide:

• Technical documentation, including architecture, setup, deployment steps, data model, and API descriptions.
• A concise admin/user guide and at least one online training session for HuMENA staff.

All source code, configuration files, and documentation produced under this contract will be made available in a version-controlled repository to which HuMENA has unrestricted access. HuMENA will hold full rights to use, modify, and further develop the system, including with other partners.

Additional details on monitoring priorities and advocacy use will be shared with the selected contractor or shortlisted candidates as needed.

4. Deliverables

At a minimum, the contractor is expected to deliver:

1. Inception and design document setting out user stories, architecture, data model, and an implementation plan agreed with HuMENA.
2. A working prototype using a limited set of sources, with ingestion and a basic internal dashboard, suitable for initial internal testing.
3. An MVP platform (beta) that includes:
   • Monitoring and ingestion from the agreed sources in Tunisia and Egypt.
   • AI-assisted detection and structuring of candidate items.
   • A functioning verification workflow with role-based access.
   • An internal dashboard with an interactive MENA map (Tunisia and Egypt active), search, filters, and clear visualisations.
   • The technical ability to enable a limited public view at a later stage.
4. A short security and risk note describing key measures taken and main limitations at MVP stage.
5. Technical and user documentation, and at least one online training session for HuMENA staff.
6. A final handover pack summarising the work completed and offering practical recommendations for future development phases.

5. Duration

The expected duration of the assignment is 4–6 months from contract signature to final handover. Applicants should propose a realistic work plan and timeline, indicating key stages and milestones.

6. Profile of the contractor

HuMENA welcomes proposals from individual senior developers and small teams. The contractor should have:

• Proven experience delivering production-grade web applications as a full-stack engineer or technical lead.
• Strong backend development skills, preferably in Python, and solid experience with relational databases.
• Experience designing and building data-heavy systems, monitoring tools, or dashboards.
• Practical experience with applied AI / NLP in web applications (for example, classification, tagging, extraction, or similar functions).
• Experience working with multilingual platforms, ideally including Arabic or other right-to-left languages.
• A clear understanding of security and privacy considerations when working with sensitive or high-risk information.
• An eye for clean, usable, and visually compelling interfaces and data visualisation.
• Previous work in civic tech, human rights, or independent media is considered an asset.

7. Evaluation

Proposals will be assessed using the following weighting:

• Technical proposal – 65%
  • Understanding of the assignment and the pilot context in Tunisia and Egypt.
  • Quality and clarity of the proposed technical approach and architecture.
  • Relevant experience and examples of similar work.
  • Consideration of security and privacy.
  • Feasibility of the work plan and timeline.
  • Approach to user experience and visual design.
• Financial offer – 35%
  • Overall value for money.
  • Clarity and realism of the budget in relation to the proposed approach.

Shortlisted applicants may be invited to an online interview and/or a technical discussion before a final decision is made.

8. HuMENA’s values and equal opportunity

HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement is committed to fairness, equal opportunity, and non-discrimination in all its recruitment and contracting processes. We welcome proposals from consultants and teams regardless of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ethnicity, disability, religion, or other status.

We particularly encourage applications from developers and civic-tech teams based in or from the MENA region, as well as from individuals and groups who are under-represented in the technology sector, including women, LGBTQI+ people, and members of marginalised communities.

HuMENA applies a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination, harassment, exploitation, abuse, and any form of misconduct, including fraud and corruption. Contractors are expected to respect these standards in their internal practices and in all interactions related to this assignment.

9. How to apply

Interested candidates are invited to submit the following in English (PDF format preferred):

1. Technical Proposal (maximum 7 pages), including:
   • A brief explanation of your understanding of the Civic Space Watchdog and this pilot phase.
   • The proposed system architecture and methodology, including the monitoring and AI-assisted components.
   • An overview of the proposed data model and core workflows (ingestion, verification, dashboard, map).
   • A short description of your approach to security, privacy, and user experience / visual design.
2. Work plan and timeline, outlining phases and main milestones.
3. Financial Proposal, presenting:
   • A detailed budget in USD, including daily or hourly rates and the estimated number of days for each component of the work.
   • Any key assumptions that underpin the budget.
4. Organisation / consultant profile and CV(s), including:
   • A short description of the consultant or company.
   • CVs of key team members.
   • Links or concise descriptions of relevant previous projects.
5. References from at least two recent clients for similar work.

Applications should be sent by email to [email protected] with the subject line: Tender – Civic Space Watchdog AI-Assisted MVP – [Your Name / Organisation]

The deadline for submissions is 10 January 2026. Late or incomplete applications may not be considered.