Consultancy: Organization of virtual conferences (e-meetings) and review of remote conferencing platforms with RSI

Background

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is the global organization of national parliaments. It has a membership of 179 Member Parliaments. The main regional and other parliamentary organizations are also part of the broader IPU community, as Associate Members and Permanent Observers. The IPU promotes democratic governance, institutions and values, working with parliaments and parliamentarians to articulate and respond to the needs and aspirations of the people. It works for peace, democracy, human rights, gender equality, youth empowerment and sustainable development through political dialogue, cooperation and parliamentary action.

At its creation, in 1889, the IPU was founded to promote inter-parliamentary dialogue and diplomacy between nations. Today, we continue to provide a platform for the global parliamentary community to come together, exchange good practices and identify avenues for action.  It is in this context that, since the year 2000 (on the eve of the UN Millennium Summit), the IPU has organized every five years a World Conference of the Speakers of Parliament (WCSP).  The Fifth World Conference was scheduled to take place at the United Nations Office at Vienna in August 2020.

Following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 and the subsequent lockdown in many countries, a number of meetings scheduled by the IPU have had to be cancelled (the 142nd IPU Assembly initially scheduled to take place in Geneva in April), postponed, or their format changed to virtual or hybrid meetings.

Since early April, the IPU Secretariat has explored different remote conferencing platforms on the market and has held some small meetings with and without interpretation through two of these platforms. It has also conducted its own preliminary comparative analysis of the various options that would be available to the IPU (including advantages, disadvantages and cost implications).

Official meetings of the IPU hold various characteristics and specifications in terms of:

• Nature: national capacity building programs, regional seminars, specialized parliamentary conferences, global events with the participation of the full IPU membership;
• Format: working groups, drafting committees, training sessions, interactive debates, working sessions of IPU statutory bodies, high-level parliamentary conferences;
• Size (number of participants): small (15-30 persons), middle-sized (100-200 persons), large-scale (in the range of 1000 participants – as is the case with IPU general Assemblies and the World Conference of Speakers of Parliament)
• Number of languages: English-only, meetings in the two IPU official languages, meetings in the four IPU working languages (Assemblies and specialized conferences), meetings in the six official UN languages (WCSP).   

In light of the growing number of virtual meetings that the IPU is being called upon to organize in 2020, the Secretariat is recruiting a consultant, on a short-term basis, to provide it with guidance on the organization of e-meetings of varying scopes/magnitude.

Priority will be given to the 13th Women Speakers’ Summit and the Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament (week of 17 to 21 August). These will be high-level events (with expected participation of 1’000 persons for the Speakers’ Conference), ideally web-cast, with a comprehensive programme, to include

• Formal inaugural ceremony
• Davos-style interactive debate
• Six 45-minute panels
• General debate in the form of videos sent in advance and featured on the IPU website and YouTube channel
• Group photo
• Possible breakout sessions for confidential bilateral meetings (if feasible)

Objectives of the consultancy

The objective of the consultancy is to:

• support the IPU in  organizing virtual and hybrid meetings and to enhance its capacity in-house to organize such events;
• make recommendations on the most appropriate remote conferencing platform for the organization of IPU global events, with remote simultaneous interpretation (RSI);
• make recommendations on best practices in the organization of virtual and hybrid meetings;
• provide guidance on the organization of the Women Speakers Summit and 5WCSP, including mapping the needs for such high-level global events, preparation of relevant scenarios, use of the latest technologies, etc

The consultant will provide the following deliverables:

• Concept notes on the organization of the 13th Women Speakers’ Summit and Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament in virtual format, including registration tools and invitee management.
• Support in the running of the two high-level virtual meetings.
• A concise report on the most appropriate remote conferencing platforms for the holding of virtual global events, including in terms of a possible virtual IPU Assembly.
• A series of short meetings with a select number of IPU office-holders and staff, with a view to identifying needs and building in-house capacity on virtual conferences, with supporting documentation and guidelines for future reference.