Terms of Reference (ToR) for hiring individual consultant for IEC/BCC content development for BERHAN project

1.   About CARE Ethiopia

Founded in 1945, CARE is a leading international humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE started working in Ethiopia in 1984 in response to severe drought and famine. The main focus of our work is addressing the root causes of poverty and vulnerability through nexus and development programing as well as humanitarian response. This includes programing for improved governance; water and sanitation; food security; women’s economic justice; sexual and reproductive health and rights; and nutrition; and household and community level resilience. Our programs are implemented across both rural and urban areas. CARE Ethiopia works in multiple sectors including the following priorities: Food Security; Livelihoods & Resilience; Nutrition; Water, Sanitation & Hygiene; Humanitarian Response; Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights; Women’s Economic Justice; Dignified Work. CARE’s operation spans the majority of the country: Afar, Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, Sidama, Somali, Tigray, Addis Ababa, and Dire Dawa.

1.1 About the project

BERHAN – Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights initiative in Amhara region of Ethiopia is a 42 months initiative implemented by CARE. The initiative targets 31,396 women, girls, men and boys in rural communities in Este and Fogera woreda of south Gondar zone, where rates of FGC and EM are high and government SRH capacity/accountability is low. The BERHAN initiative will employ a holistic package of evidence-based, community-led interventions to address the drivers of EM and FGC, while improving SRH service delivery and rights.

 In line with CARE’s Gender Equality Framework, the BERHAN project aims to:

1. Increase the agency of girls and women through participation in Girl Groups (GG), income generation activities (IGA) and Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs);
2. Change relations between communities and government stakeholders/service providers through training in Gender, Equity and Diversity (GED), Gender-based Violence (GBV) mitigation, SRH-friendly service delivery, and Community Score Card (CSC); and
3. Transform structures, specifically harmful social norms, via CARE’s Social Analysis and Action (SAA) model and Behavioral Change Communications (BCC) efforts.

1.   Purpose of the consultancy

BERHAN aims for women and girls to exercise their sexual and reproductive health rights, leading to improved wellbeing by addressing the harmful social norms within the community. In this regard, development of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) and Behavioral Change communication (BCC) materials that deal with sexual and reproductive health and harmful traditional practice (HTP) issues within the community in simple, easy-to-understand language with clear message and illustrated by pictures in local context are of critical tools for pertinent social and behavior change.

The IEC materials are expected to deal with scientific information, practical knowledge, and sociocultural perspective of sexual and reproduction health and HTPs. The contents will be delivered in forms brochures and posters.

Objective of the Assignment

The objective of the assignment is to develop and design IEC/BCC materials on sexual and reproductive health and about HTPs that are easily understandable and culturally relevant to local communities in Amhara region South Gondr Zone Estie and Fogera woredas.   The IEC/BCC materials will be focused on addressing basic knowledge, practical difficulties, and sociocultural constraints on sexual and reproductive health and also the HTPs issues in the community.     

Specifics tasks

• Develop IEC/BCC materials presented with picture, illustrations, visualization, and texts that are suitable for disseminating information on the SRH and HTPs that leads to pertinent social and behavior change
• Develop IEC/BCC materials that are suitable to diffuse positive social norms through capture and use positive stories of groups and individuals.
• Prepare two types of IEC materials that meets potential audience’s need:  brochure and poster

 Target audience for the IEC/BCC material

• Adolescent girls aged 10 -14 and boys 15 -19, Community (SAA) group members.
• People with disability, victims of early marriage
• Female genital cutting practitioners

Government partners, school clubs

2.   Methodology

• Review the BERHAN project documents to gain thorough understanding of the objectives and expected outcome of the project
• Develop the contents of the IEC/BCC materials that will be written in both Amharic and English languages.

Major contents that shall be covered by IEC materials include but are not limited to.

1. Introduction and basic information about sexual and reproductive health and rights
2. How SRH is perceived in the society
3.  Challenges of SRH
4.  Basic information about HTPs special focus on early marriage and FGC
5.  Consequences of HTPs on individuals and the community in general
6. Individual and community roles to reduce HTPs, and possible ways to avert the practice
7. How Gender equality is perceived in the community

3.   Geographic focus

The locations of the program will be the BERHAN project implementation areas in Fogera and Este woredas of South Gonder Zone in Amhara Region. The consultants  with whom the contract will be awarded will be required to travel to the selected locations in the two woredas and conduct the field undertakings.

4.   Expected deliverables

 The following are expected deliverables of the assignment:

• An inception report, including Proposed timeline and work plan
• Detailed proposal for IEC materials
• Draft the design of  IEC materials
• Final pre-tested and comment incorporated materials

5.   Time frame

The table below reflects all expected activities of contract/assignment to take place from October to mid November.

Roles and responsibilities of CARE Ethiopia

CARE Ethiopia will be responsible for the following tasks/assistance for the smooth successful completion of the tasks assigned to the consultant

• Provide all relevant project-related materials and documents
• Provide comments and necessary adjustments of proposed work
• Organize meetings with program staff

Roles and responsibilities of the consultant

• Review BERHAN project documents for detailed understanding of the project and the context
• Submit the draft brochures and posters for comment and feedback
• Pretest with community to assess how simple and easy-to-understand the materials are.
• Incorporate comments and feedback received and submit for approval
• Deliver the approved documents within the given timeframe

6.   Submission of proposal

• The consultants who meet the requirements below should submit a proposal, which should include the following:
• Cover letter describing how the consultant's previous experience matches the consultancy objectives as well as the candidate’s interest for the consultancy. This letter should not be longer than one page.
• Technical proposal containing the interest and motivation of the consultant, clear framework, methodology and approach, timeline/work plan, comments on the Terms of Reference (TOR), brief experience and profile of the consultant, and any other relevant information regarding the specific assignment. A workplan for this assignment should be developed in relation to the methodology suggested by the consultant and the number of days set for this assignment. This technical proposal should not be longer than [15] pages.

Copy of the following:

• Renewed trade license
• TIN Certificate
• Tax clearance
• VAT Certificate

• Business Registration CVs, including detailed work experience and education
• No other annexes or attachments should be included.
• Financial Proposal. The consultant should estimate the cost and prepare a detailed budget to the key activities or phases in the workplan. Cost estimates may cover items including local transportation, professional fees, per diem and other expenses, payments for interviewers, data processors, and secretarial services, applicable tax, etc. This should be presented in a separate envelope and should indicate the breakdown of the proposed cost.
• The deadline to submit the proposals is 14^th October 2022, at 4:30pm.
• The technical and financial proposals should be separated and clearly marked and submitted to CARE Ethiopia as per the bellow address:
• CARE Ethiopia, Procurement Unit, Addis Ababa, around 22 Mazoria, behind Lex Plaza building, next to Ha’Geez Cultural Restaurant. The original and the copy should be clearly marked.
• For any further clarification please contact the CARE Procurement team through +251-116-183294. 

7.   Skills and qualifications

The consultant should have experience in producing IEC/BCC materials in similar organizations and have the following qualifications:

• Master's degree with at least 8 years and BA degree with 10 years of directly relevant experience in handling/leading the production of IEC/BCC materials.
• Have a sound and proven experience in IEC/BCC material development and publication on relevant issues (including designing).
• Sound technical, practical, and conceptual understanding of developing the IEC/BCC materials focusing on SRH and HTPs
• Experience in designing effective IEC/BCC and social marketing materials
• Experience in conducting IEC/BCC campaigns and social marketing in rural areas

8.   Selection/evaluation criteria

The selection committee will review all applications after the submission deadline. All applicants must meet the minimum requirements that described above. The following are evaluation/selection criterion of the technical and financial proposals: 

Technical

Financial

Applicants should submit their technical proposal and financial proposal separately. The technical and financial proposals constitute 80% and 20% of the total evaluation score, respectively. The first three firms/consultants with the highest technical points will be considered for the next round of opening their financial proposal. CARE Ethiopia has the right to contact short listed and potential candidates to present their proposal to the team and negotiate on terms and conditions if required.

Interested firms should pick up the full TOR from the CARE office. The deadline to submit the proposal is 14^th October 2022, at 4:30 pm. All applications clearly marked as “BREHAN project Video Production Consultancy” should be submitted in person to CARE Ethiopia, Procurement Unit, Addis Ababa, around 22 Mazoria, behind Lex Plaza building, next to Ha’Geez Cultural Restaurant.

CARE reserves the right to reject all non-responsive or otherwise unacceptable proposal.