Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2022-04-01
Buyer: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Country: DE
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Competitive procedure with negotiation
CPV classification: 72000000 | 72200000 | 72227000: Software integration consultancy services | 72266000: Software consultancy services | 72600000
Submission deadline: 2022-05-02
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: In 2020, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Estonia, GIZ, and the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) launched the "GovStack initiative" to accelerate national digital transformation and digitalization of government services for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
With the support from the expert community, the GovStack initiative develops specifications of building blocks used to implement a variety of use cases in the realm of digital governance services. These building block specifications will be available as "digital public goods" for use by the global community. Quality and quantity of building block specifications will be part of a continuous improvement process in an open and collaborative manner.
To showcase and test an implementation of these building block specifications, a sandbox (or also called testbed) is to be developed and maintained. While the one sandbox is a crucial element of the GovStack initiative, the broader objective is to make every step in setting up the sandbox replicable by other community members (e.g. governmental organizations).
The implementation and operation of the sandbox includes use cases and the information mediator building block - the other building blocks which will be integrated are operated by respective vendors.
In 2020, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Estonia, GIZ, and the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) launched the "GovStack initiative" to accelerate national digital transformation and digitalization of government services for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
The initative aims to build a common framework and technical practice for the design of reusable and interoperable digital components - referred to as "digital building blocks" - needed to digitally transform government. By investing in digital building blocks which are easier to design, implement, and scale across sectors, GovStack is set out to help governments simplify the cost, time, and resource requirements necessary to create or modify their digital platforms, services, and applications.
The GovStack initiative is an expert community-driven multistakeholder effort aimed at assisting countries to build a shared "Digital Government Services platform" or "Government Technology Stack" consisting of a set of reusable foundational and common digital capabilities and services called Building Blocks - such as Digital ID, Information Exchange, Payments Gateway, Registrations, Security, eMarketPlace, Client Communication, etc., that can be used by the whole-of-government through any government agency to build new government digital services without having to design, test and operate the underlying systems and infrastructure themselves. This will reduce the time and effort needed to introduce and scale-up digital services in a more agile, accelerated, and cost-effective manner.
The initiative will support countries looking to implement their overall digital government transformation strategies by facilitating the development and scaling up of digital services that are cashless, paperless, presence-less, frictionless, personalized and consent-based leading to speeding up digital government transformation processes.
GovStack initiative vision: Our vision is that in five years, we can empower all governments - particularly those in low-resource settings - to take ownership of their digital futures by building more effective and cost-efficient digital government services. By simplifying the technology needed to build a digital government, we believe we can help countries to create digital government solutions that empower individuals and businesses while improving social well-being.
GovStack initiative mission: To establish our vision, we aim to develop a secure and standard-based approach towards designing and implementing generic digital public goods, which will simplify the costs, time, and resources needed for building digital government solutions. This approach, known as "digital building blocks," will enable any government to easily create and modify their own digital platforms, systems, services, and applications.
We believe that if we take an architectural approach centered around APIs and microservices to help unlock monolithic legacy systems where core data and services are siloed, then we increase the speed of IT project delivery, leading to more effective and cost-efficient digital governments which are also more responsive to the needs of businesses and their citizens.
With the support from the expert community, the GovStack initiative develops specifications of building blocks used to implement a variety of use cases in the realm of digital governance services. These building block specifications will be available as "digital public goods" for use by the global community. Quality and quantity of building block specifications will be part of a continuous improvement process in an open and collaborative manner.
To showcase and test an implementation of these building block specifications, a sandbox (or also called testbed) is to be developed and maintained. While the one sandbox is a crucial element of the GovStack initiative, the broader objective is to make every step in setting up the sandbox replicable by other community members (e.g. governmental organizations).
The implementation and operation of the sandbox includes use cases and the information mediator building block - the other building blocks which will be integrated are operated by respective vendors.
There is an option for the tendered service to be extended as part of the prolongation of the overall GIZ project. In detail:

Eligibility requirements: 1. Trading name and address, commercial register number. 2. Eligibility declaration that no grounds for exclusion in Section 123, 124 of the German Act Against Restraints of Competition (GWB) apply. 3. Eligibility declaration subcontractors if applicable. 4. Association clause if applicable.