Public call for Tender 83461817 Communication Agency - PN-21.2190.3-004.00 Womena Project

Context

The regional Project “Gender Responsive and Inclusive Politics and Economy in the MENA Region” – WoMENA aims to promote and strengthen the voice and agency of women in their economic and political participation in 6 countries: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia. WoMENA aims to cooperate with national and regional networks to implement measures to increase women participation in economic and political life, provide advice and capacity development support to make the work of the economic and political change agents in the MENA region more effective, and support networks on innovative approaches that increase the political and economic participation of women. The project is implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

To empower women politically and economically, the WoMENA project aims to influence this required social change to disseminate information, foster behavioural change, engage in communication for social change and encourage community participation through a gender-transformative approach. A communication agency is a key resource for projects that need support in communicating effectively, planning communication strategically and managing their communication internally and externally.

The WoMENA project would like to hire a communication agency for the following specific objectives to be reached:

• Enhance the visibility of the WoMENA project.
• Disseminate information about WoMENA ‘s activities.
• Share womena's success stories.
• Supporting key actors working with WoMENA to promote their achievements.
• Establish and maintain consistent communication within the WoMENA project from one side and the wide range of audience from the other side mentioned in the section below.

Whom does the WoMENA project want to address?

WoMENA is looking to address a wide range of audiences on a regional and country level in all six countries, as well as Germany. The communication products will be disseminated mainly online, through public and social media for internal and external use.

Stakeholders within GIZ and BMZ

Governmental Entities and Private Sector Representatives

WoMENA Partners, Alliances, and Intergovernmental Organizations

Key actors and Communities in the Six Countries

Influential Persons and Policymaker

Institutional communication, events communication, external communication, Internal communication.

Tasks to be performed by the contractor.

In the aim of refining and implementing the communication strategy directions already agreed on within the WoMENA project, the contractor shall work closely with the WoMENA team

Based on the information and material provided by the WoMENA project the contractor is responsible for providing the following services:

The contractor shall first meet with the GIZ WoMENA team to understand, on a regional and country level the vision, mission, goals, and activities. This meeting will allow the contractor to better envision the scope of assignment.

This will allow a better understanding of the communication objectives, the internal and external audiences, the key messages to be formulated, the list of communication channels that fits for the project goal which will eventually feed into a communication plan with success metrics and milestones.

Producing communication deliverables that will contribute to the roll-out of the above-mentioned communication strategy.

Deliverables include but are not limited to the following:

I. Distinctive Design and Communication Kit:

In line with the GIZ / BMZ corporate design regulations design a unique, recognizable visual identity solely for WoMENA (a design, not a logo) to unify communication. Develop one communication kit adaptable at both country and regional levels, including elements like:

1. PPT presentations
2. Roll-up banners
3. Slogan
4. Backdrop
5. Pins
6. Tote bags
7. Certificates
8. Sticker
9. Notebooks
10. Folder
11. Infographics
12. Events invitations
13. Creating a design template as an identity for the project
14. Booklet publication on WoMENA’s achievements
15. Technical specifications for printing

II. Articles:

Based on the content that will be provided to the writers by the WoMENA team members of the six countries, write 20 articles in total (article does not exceed 1500 words) in multiple languages (the articles should be made available in Arabic and English or French) that would highlight WoMENA and/or our partners’ achievements on women empowerment.

Highlight the work of key actors as an approach to reach target groups that are not actively informed about gender equality or WoMENA, fostering inclusivity and awareness by using a storytelling approach. Include photos of our activities or the activities of our partners and change agents.

III. Development and roll-out of a multi-channel communication plan (MCCP) with the WoMENA Lebanon Unpaid care work group with the goal of Raising Public Awareness on care work:

The MCCP should represent the following:

Our unpaid care work series, has took place over the past years, gathering participants from the 6 countries in the MENA region to share their experience and best practices, in Lebanon we have invited several participants with different backgrounds and experiences. The aim of this MCCP will be to raise awareness about the significance of unpaid care work, mainstreaming the results of a research that is being undertaken on the topic of care work and the unpaid care work participants sharing their stories, experiences, and contributions on this topic. This is to enhance the knowledge of the topic and spotlight the participants contribution.

The expected deliverables linked to the MCCP are the following:

Suggestions of communication content: the company shall provide suggestions on content creation material that would contribute to the roll-out of the communication plan. For the content creation, the tasks above (I and II) specify a range of content that could be used here. For other content, ex: video production, podcasts GIZ is to oversee this content creation, while the communication company will be in charge of supporting in the coordination of the conceptualization.

Linkage to platforms for dissemination of the information: booking three slots on TV programs to discuss unpaid care work and in which participants would share their experience. (the media outlets will be agreed upon during meetings with the WoMENA Lebanon team and the Lebanon Unpaid care work group.)

Support in designing one social media campaign in collaboration with bloggers, influencers (the social media outlets will be agreed upon during meetings with the WoMENA Lebanon team and the Lebanon Unpaid care work group.)

Production of three reports on campaigns’ reach and impact (to measure the impact of the MCCP.)

the deliverables and related number are attached in the TOR 

Certain milestones, as laid out in the table attached in The TOR , are to be achieved during the contract term

Period of assignment: from the 25^th of July 2024 until the 31^st of December 2024.

Concept

In the tender, the tenderer is required to show how the objectives defined in Chapter ‎2 (Tasks to be performed) are to be achieved (technical-methodological concept). In addition, the tenderer must describe the project management system for service provision.

Note: The numbers in parentheses correspond to the lines of the technical assessment grid.

Technical-methodological concept

Strategy (1.1): The tenderer is required to consider the tasks to be performed with reference to the objectives of the services put out to tender (see Chapter ‎1 Context) (1.1.1). Following this, the tenderer presents and justifies the explicit strategy with which it intends to provide the services for which it is responsible (see Chapter ‎0 Tasks to be performed) (1.1.2).

The tenderer is required to present the actors relevant for the services for which it is responsible and describe the cooperation (1.2.1-1.2.2) with them.

The tenderer is required to present and explain its approach to steering the measures with the project team and partners (1.3.1) and its contribution to the results-based monitoring system (1.3.2).

The tenderer is required to describe the key processes for the services for which it is responsible and create an operational plan or schedule (1.4.1) that describes how the services according to Chapter 2 (Tasks to be performed by the contractor) are to be provided. In particular, the tenderer is required to describe the necessary work steps and, if applicable, take account of the milestones and contributions of other actors (partner contributions) in accordance with Chapter 2 (Tasks to be performed) (1.4.2). 

Project management of the contractor (1.6)

The tenderer is required to explain its approach for coordination with the GIZ project. In particular, the project management requirements specified in Chapter 2 (Tasks to be performed by the contractor) must be explained in detail.

The tenderer is required to draw up a personnel assignment plan with explanatory notes that lists all the experts proposed in the tender; the plan includes information on assignment dates (duration and expert months) and locations of the individual members of the team complete with the allocation of work steps as set out in the schedule.

Further requirements (1.7)

Consideration of cross-cutting themes such as gender in communication and gender sensitivity: beyond the requirements for a tri-lingual communication company, gender sensitivity is of utmost importance: the work produced should be avoiding stereotypes and common mistakes when talking about gender in all communication, whether in articles, media, field visits, reports. The contractor should describe how they will ensure that our communication does not lead to a backlash and putting our staff and partners in danger

Minimum requirements for the Company:

The company must have the below minimum requirements to be eligible. If one of the criteria is missing the bidder will be disqualified:

• Legal registration in Lebanon
• At least EUR 50,000 average annual turnover for the last three financial years
• At least 8 persons as an average number of employees and managers for the past three calendar years
• Reference projects with a minimum commission value of EUR 25,000
• At least 2 reference projects in the technical field of communication and social media content management and at least 2 reference projects in the Mena region and/or Lebanon in the last 3 years.

General professional experience:

• 5 years of experience in the field of communication.
• 5 years of experience in handling web-based content management systems.
• 3 years of experience in the dissemination (writing and editing) of Communication materials on websites and social media channels, especially Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
• 3 years of experience in developing compelling content to generate response from audiences online, including key messages and tags, and submission of performance reports on the disseminated activities.
• Knowledge of using WordPress tools, and proven writing with sensitive language.
• Proven experience with managing similar complex sensitive projects.

Experience in the region/knowledge of the country and/or MENA region

• Proven detailed attention-oriented working on sensitive contexts mentioned in the concept note.
• Previous working experience with NGOs and other humanitarian organizations.

Personnel concept

The tenderer is required to provide personnel who are suited to filling the positions described, on the basis of their CVs, the range of tasks involved and the required qualifications.

The below specified qualifications represent the requirements to reach the maximum number of points in the technical assessment.

Team leader

Tasks of the team leader

• Overall responsibility for the advisory packages of the contractor (quality and deadlines)
• Coordinating and ensuring communication with GIZ, partners and others involved in the project.
• Contribute to the coordination of the content creation linked to the communication strategies.
• Personnel management, identifying the need for short-term assignments within the available budget, as well as planning and steering assignments and supporting local and international short-term experts.
• Regular reporting in accordance with deadlines.

Qualifications of the team leader

• Education/training (2.1.1): university degree (Masters) in design, marketing, communications, journalism, public relations or a related field.
• Language (2.1.2): language proficiency in Arabic, English and French.
• General professional experience (2.1.3): 8 years of professional experience in the design, marketing, communications, or journalism sector.
• Specific professional experience (2.1.4): 6 years’ experience working with I/NGOs operating in the humanitarian or development sectors. proven expertise in using adequate Language to avoid backlash (Gender language).
• Leadership/management experience (2.1.5): 6 years of management/leadership experience as project team leader or manager in a company
• Regional experience (2.1.6): 6 years of experience in projects in the MENA (region), of which projects at the WoMENA countries of implementation.
• Other (2.1.8): 6 years of experience and connection with media partners, corporate sponsors, and community leaders that will play crucial roles in the campaign. 

Short-term expert pool 1 of content creators (4 members)

For this experts pool digital communication would be the way to coordinate with the teams outside of Lebanon. For the technical assessment, an average of the qualifications of all specified members of the expert pool is calculated. Please send a CV for each pool member (see below Chapter 7 Requirements on the format of the bid) for the assessment.

Tasks of the short-term expert pool 1

• Content creation based on the WoMENA project regional, and country’s needs.
• ideally two of the 4 experts should have graphic design expertise.

Qualifications of the short-term expert pool 1

• Education/training (2.6.1): university degree (B.A) in design, marketing, communications, journalism, public relations or a related field.

• Language (2.6.2): language proficiency in Arabic, English and French.
• General professional experience (2.6.3): up to 5 years of professional experience in the design, marketing, communications or journalism sector.
• Specific professional experience (2.6.4): up to 5 years in communications, particularly working with I/NGOs operating in the humanitarian or development sectors. proven expertise in using adequate Language to avoid backlash (Gender language).
• Leadership/management experience (2.6.6): up to 5 years of management/leadership experience as project team leader or manager in a company
• Regional experience (2.6.5): up to 5 years of experience in projects in the MENA (region), of which 2 years in projects at the WoMENA countries of implementation.
• Other (2.6.7): up to 5 years of experience and connection with media partners, corporate sponsors, and community leaders that will play crucial roles in the campaign.