Background

The mission of the Human Development Report Office (HDRO) is to advance human development. The goal is to contribute towards the expansion of opportunities, choice, and freedom. The office works towards this goal by promoting innovative new ideas, advocating practical policy changes, and constructively challenging policies and approaches that constrain human development. In addition, the office works with others to achieve change through writing and research, data analysis and presentation, support to the national and regional analysis, and outreach and advocacy work.

HDRO, in close collaboration with the Climate Impact Lab (CIL), looks to develop a co-branded interactive mapping platform to raise awareness of climate risks. The CIL is a team of scientists, economists and engineers from the University of California, Berkeley, the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), Rhodium Group, and Rutgers University working to measure the real-world costs of climate change. The project intends to construct an interactive map to show the different effects of climate change on people over the next decades in all parts of the world. It will translate global physical changes into impacts on human welfare, health, and security. The platform will serve as a public good that will allow people and policymakers across the globe to visualize future scenarios, anticipate risks, and provide information for local, national, and global action. 

The platform would be hosted on HDRO's high-traffic website (hdr.undp.org) that uses a Drupal content management system. The platform is expected to be one of the legacies of the HDRO project “New Generation of Human Security”.

The start of the project is planned in early September 2021 for a go-live date of the MVP version in December 2021. The platform would be a living space and updated over time with new research as the CIL and HDRO produce additional data and indicators. 

A final scope for deliverables will be defined in the agreement drafted based on responses to this RFP.

Overview and objectives

Under the supervision of the UNDP Human Development Report Office (HDRO) production and digital manager, and working with the research and strategic partnership advisor, the Contractor will be responsible for:

Design and build an interactive global data visualization/mapping tool that would show climate risk, impact and hazard data (including temperature, sea level rise, and others), including future data projections.  

The Contractor will build, test, and prepare to launch a visualization that lives on and coordinates with hdr.undp.org. Technical contacts for HDRO will provide guidance and coordination on the final site launch.

Scope of work and deliverables

Output 1:  Interactive Data Platform (approximately 90% of the project scope): The platform would include an interactive world map visualization with drop-down menus to show different layers of impact, and different time periods. Users would be able to compare across regions using the legend and learn more about the projections for a specific country in a tooltip. The tooltip may also illustrate uncertainty for a given impact. HDRO working with CIL will provide detailed functionality requirements (including the information displayed in a tooltip) in the initial meeting with the Contractor.

The Contractor will be provided with preliminary data, a unique shapefile associated with the 24,378 global regions in which impacts are estimated, and guidance on interpreting the variables. 

Output 2:  A data story with preselected indicators (approximately 10% of the project scope): The data story would present the platform in an engaging/animated/interactive way for broad audience (HDRO to provide a draft storyline and analytical background).

In addition, the Contractor will be responsible for UX/UI planning, design, wireframes, and front-end and back-end development. Deliverables will be functional on the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or any version with more than 1% market share. Deliverables will be responsive for mobile devices but may be pared down to optimize for speed and experience.

The RFP should be sent to [email protected]