Storytelling Expert - ARE Activity

Project Background

The Lebanon Agriculture and Rural Empowerment (ARE) activity, funded by USAID and implemented by Chemonics International, supports Lebanese rural and peri-urban communities to obtain technical and financial resources in order to facilitate increased productivity, sales, and exports, improved business income, while also ensuring livelihood sustainability. To support this purpose, ARE will increase jobs; improve incomes; improve female participation and employment opportunities; increase domestic and export sales; increase private sector investment; improve access to finance; link value chain actors to domestic and international markets; and improve production through improved practices, technology, increased volume, and/or decreased cost. ARE supports two key expected results:
1. Increased domestic and export sales at both firm and farm levels.
2. Livelihoods improved, especially in rural areas and for women.

Summary of Position

As part of its tourism intervention, the Lebanon Agriculture and Rural Empowerment (ARE) Activity is supporting local rural tourism service  providers in developing experiential tourism packages in various areas.

These service providers need good storytelling skills to showcase their unique experiences and create an emotional connection with their guests. Thus, ARE is seeking a Storytelling Expert to provide targeted support to conduct a situational and gap analysis for these service providers to determine the needed improvement in terms of their narratives and their storytelling skills. The Storytelling Expert will then be supporting them in crafting compelling narratives for their different experiences, activities, and products.

He/she will be training nine (9) tourism service providers (listed below) on storytelling techniques in order to enhance their brand identity, connect with their audience, and elevate their overall customer experience through the power of storytelling.

The storytelling specialist will also provide technical training and technical assistance to the below ARE partner as needed.

• Bchaaleh Trails (Olives & Rural Traditions in Mountains)

• Caves d'Eden (Wine making in Lebanon, Zgharta & Ehden history)

• APJM (Zajal, Lebbeh and rural traditions in the mountains)

• Art & Work (Wine making in Lebanon, Kfardebiane/Faqra history)

• Laklouk Village Vacances (Rural Traditions in Mountains and Ehmej/Laklouk history)

• Arz Ehmej (Rural Traditions in Mountains and Ehmej/Laklouk history)

• Cezar Projects (Rural Traditions in Mountains, food heritage and Shouf history)

• Sports 4 Life (Rural Traditions in Mountains and Ghineh history)

• Jabbour Pottery (Rural Traditions in Mountains and pottery making)

The objectives of this technical assistance are to:

• Develop and implement captivating storytelling strategies that elevate the brand identity of tourism service providers.
• Create narratives that differentiate tourism service providers from competitors and establish a unique and memorable brand presence.
• Increase customer engagement through the development of compelling stories that resonate with target audiences.
• Foster emotional connections between customers and tourism service providers, resulting in increased loyalty and positive word-of-mouth.
• Contribute to the growth of tourism service providers by leveraging storytelling to attract new customers and retain existing ones.
• Plan and implement comprehensive content strategies that seamlessly integrate storytelling across various channels, including digital platforms, social media, and traditional marketing channels.
• Equip clients with the skills and knowledge needed to independently continue and evolve their storytelling initiatives such as developing their storytelling characters, developing coherent sequence of events, characters and settings that captivate the listeners, teaching them pacing, voice tones, managing the rhythm, flow of the story to intrigue suspense, interest, and laughter, and teaching them how to tailor the stories to the guests' cultural context - when needed.
• Ensure consistency in messaging and brand storytelling to reinforce the overall customer experience.

By achieving these objectives, the Storytelling Expert will contribute to the overall success and growth of rural tourism service providers, enhancing their brand image and customer relationships through the art of storytelling. The Storytelling Expert will be engaged on an as-needed basis at various stages of the intervention design and implementation.

Deliverables and Timeline

1. Conduct situational and gap analyses to determine the needed improvement in storytelling for each tourism service providers, and to understand their unique offerings, target audience, and business objectives: 9 days (1 full visit for each partner).

2. Submit detailed report following site visits including recommendations (ARE to validate report outline and format prior to using it): 2 days.

3. Conduct tailored coaching sessions (at least 3 sessions for each tourism service provider) to introduce the storytelling concept and techniques and co-develop captivating narratives that align with their experiences, activities and products: 9 days (Coaching session averaging 2 hours, total of 1 full day of coaching for each service provider).

4. Submit detailed report following the coaching sessions: 2 days.

5. Validate the narratives with each tourism service provider and train them on storytelling techniques (atleast 2 sessions for each service provider): 9 days (Validation/training session averaging 3 hours, which means 1 full day of for each service provider).

6. Submit a final report on the whole technical support processes, results and recommendations as needed: 3 days

7. Other deliverables as assigned by the ARE: 3 days.

*The estimated LOEs suggested in the table for each milestone are indicative and non-binding yet with a total LOE ceiling up to 37 workings days (not to exceed).

Place of Assignment

The Storytelling Expert is expected to travel to the areas of operation conduct field visits to the physical location of ARE partners and SMEs to be assessed. He/she is welcome to work from ARE’s program office space in Beirut if needed.

Reporting

The Storytelling Expert will report directly to the ARE Program Manager and/or Program Director and/or DCOP/CTO.

Qualifications

• Bachelor or Master’s degree in history or related fields.
• At least 7 years of relevant experience in storytelling, content creation, or brand development within the tourism or hospitality sector in Lebanon or the region.
• Innovative and creative mindset with a passion for storytelling.
• Ability to translate business objectives into compelling narratives.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, including public speaking and voice modulation.
• Training or workshop facilitation experience is a plus.
• Fluency in spoken and written English and Arabic required.

Ineligible Consultants:

Government employees: any person paid by the Lebanese Government, occupying an established position, either temporary or permanent, part-time or full-time, within a Lebanese Government institution.

Individual consultants or firms that appear on the List of Parties Excluded from Federal Procurement and Non-Procurement Programs. The list can be found at http://epls.gov.