Terms of Reference (TOR) For Social & Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Strategy Consultancy Services - Gender Based Violence Prevention and Response in The Horn of Africa Project– Somaliland- Hargeisa and Borama Districts

1.    Background:         

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.  We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination.  And its girls who are most affected. Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.  We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood.  And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge. We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 80 years, and are now active in more than 77 countries.

Submission:

Completed proposal documents (Mandatory Requirement along with the Quote) in sealed envelope clearly marked with a Consultancy Service for a Social & Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC).

Must be deposited in the tender box located at Plan Internation Hargeisa Office, Jigjiga yar behind Sacaadadiin Furniture before the deadline date and time and record the supplier representative in the attendance sheet.

Closing deadline: time: 12.00 pm date:  7th December 2024

Important: 

Offers transmitted in any other manner than those indicated above will not be considered. 

Requirements:

Plan International Somalia invites qualified and reputable Consultancy Firms with a proven experience in the consultant services to make an offer based upon the conditions stated in this invitation to the bid for the items in Annex 1.

Your offer should clearly indicate: a

1.     Unit price and total price as per the attached TOR

2.     Price should be net after deduction. Applicable taxes must be clearly specified and separated from the base costs.

3.     Validity of the offer.

4.     Delivery time should also be specified.

5.     Provide a Consultancy firm email contacts

Information to the consultancy service providers:

1.     Currency of offer should preferably be in US Dollars, but in case local currency is offered, the comparison of offers will be based on the prevailing rate of exchange.

2.     Plan international reserves the right to accept the whole or part of your offer. 

3.     Plan International reserves the right to accept or reject any application and is not bound to give reasons for its decisions. Giving false information will lead to automatic disqualification.

4.     The prices in the proposal must remain valid for 90 days from the date of tender closing

EVALUATION CRITERIA                                                                                                                        

1.    Mandatory Requirements: 

1.    Provide a certified copy of a certificate of business registration.

2.    Provide a certified copy of tax registration or tax clearance

3.    Provide references from previous clients especially INGOs.

4.    Updated bank statement

5.   A letter of intent expressing the consultant’s or firm’s capabilities and Qualifications.

6.   Consultant or agency profile outlining areas of expertise with previous works.

7.   Two samples of relevant work?

8.    Submission of similar experience in the area, including a sample of previous SBCC work Names and CVs of the team who will be the lead and associated with the assignment and how the assignment will be managed.

9.   A proposed timeline indicating activities/sub-activities to be undertaken and the corresponding outputs, including gender,SRHR and safeguarding  considerations.

10.  An execution plan of the work in reference of the time frame indicated in the TOR

11.  A detailed financial proposal which must include Consultancy fees, logistic costs and field-related costs. The Consultant will be liable for their own logistics.

TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR)

Social & Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Strategy Consultancy Services

Gender Based Violence Prevention and Response in The Horn of Africa Project– Somaliland- Hargeisa and Borama Districts

About Plan International

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.  We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination.  And its girls who are most affected. Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.  We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood.  And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge. We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 70 years, and are now active in more than 75 countries.

Plan international has started programmes in Somaliland that focuses on child protection , education, youth economic empowerment programming, food security working with/through partners and providing technical support to INGOs, Somaliland NGOs and the Government of Somaliland in Plan’s areas of expertise

Project Background

Plan International secured four years of funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation for the GBV Violence Prevention and Response program in the Horn of Africa. The goal is to strengthen the ecosystem to better prevent and respond to gender-based violence (GBV) in Somaliand. The project will be implemented in partnership with Women-Led Organizations (WLOs) in Hargeisa and Borama County. It aims to positively impact children and adults, especially girls and women, ensuring they live in safety, dignity, and free from violence. To achieve this, the project will use a socio-ecological framework, working at the individual, family, community, and structural levels, alongside a range of interconnected stakeholders.

The ultimate outcome of GBV is to strengthen the ecosystem to better prevent and respond to GBV in Somaliand. To achieve this outcome, GBV project aims to accomplish the following intermediate outcomes: 

1.      Women, men, girls, and boys increasingly recognise, prevent, report and address GBV.

2.      Governments, formal and informal women-led organizations (WLOs) at national and local levels deliver quality GBV prevention and responses.

Project Target Groups

·         Survivors of GBV and diverse girls, women and children at risk of violence: adolescent girls and boys, pregnant women, lactating women, women between 18-49 years of age, women above 49 years of age, parents and caregivers

·         Communities affected by GBV: Community-based protection/SGBV committees, traditional and religious leaders, schools (SRH clubs, peer education clubs/groups), MHM focal points, school mini-media groups, CSOs, technical working groups/networks, clusters, local media, traditional/customary/religious leaders.

·         GBV specialized service providers: OSCs, safe spaces, safehouses, GBV specialized service providers.

·         Practitioners working across other programmatic sectors: Health offices, health facilities/providers (Community Health Workers, SRH service providers in health centres/hospitals/OSC), model teachers, selected private sector partners, law enforcement groups (police, prosecutors, justice office).

·         WLOs and likeminded organizations: OPDs, youth and girl-led groups, ethnic minority groups, IDPLOs, advocacy networks.

·         Partner governments and policy makers: Local government council members, national ministries (health, women, children and social affairs), decentralized governments.

Objective of the Consultancy

The purpose this consultant service is to develop a SBCC strategy is to guide the design of GBV prevention and response communications interventions, that

·         Positively influence gender/social norms in support of long-term behavior change that prevents GBV, promote women’s empowerment and gender equality

·         Increases awareness among women and men, girls and boys, families, village authorities, religious leaders, and community members on GBV, SRHR and gender equality

·         Increase recognition, and reporting of GBV and the provision of emotional support for women, girls, men and boys who are survivors

·         Challenge gender stereotypes and victim-blaming attitudes and promote gender equitable attitudes

The strategy will address the influential factors such as gender and social norms to change perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours of individuals, health service providers, village authorities, community members, families, especially men and boys’ roles in supporting prevention and response to GBV at the household and community level. The SBCC strategy should:

·         Identify and define the behaviour change objectives (s) to be promoted by the GBV prevention and response project and the behavioral domains to be changed, determine priority target groups who practice the desired behavior(s); 

·         Identify individual, structural and social barriers and determinants of the desired behaviour change; define behaviour change strategies in connection to the project’s activities, outputs and outcomes;  

·         establish the intended audiences, set measurable behavioural communication objectives, and determine consistent messages, materials, and activities to be used across channels

Scope of the Assignment

The SBCC strategy will focus on challenging gender stereotypes to highlight local women participation in the- communal decisions and issue affecting them. Addressing questions about why, and countering resistance while promoting men and boys allyship.

1.      To design a gender transformative SBCC strategy which links to the project’s activities focusing on agency of women , and key stakeholders in the community.

2.       Outline the behavioural objectives (i.e. what change is desired in the behaviour of the target groups)

3.      Outline proposed interventions to achieve the behavior change objectives.

4.      Outline the methodologies and strategic outreach channels which are recommended for the various target groups (what would be the most effective means for specific audiences and in what forms, (e.g. radio, posters, pamphlets), by whom, where how often and when.)

5.      Provide an overview/example of the content/messaging that would be designed for various project activities.

6.      Building on the validated strategy, develop various SBCC messages that will be used to communicate with the target audiences to improve desired behaviors and change cultural and societal retrogressive behaviors in relation to GE&I. (The messages to be developed should be consistent, in plain and clear language, and address the root causes of gender inequality including negative gender stereotypes that reinforce systemic injustices and disadvantages for women and girls, limiting their potential and hindering societal progress.).

Under the direct supervision of GBV Project Coordinator, Gender Equality and Inclusion Advisor, Safeguarding advisor, Communications team and the project team, the consultant in line with principles of the TOR will carry out the following tasks:

·         Desk/literature review: A review of project-related documents including such as Baseline Survey report, Gender-Based Analysis report, the service mapping report and the Gender Justice Journey messages etc, review existing IEC materials and identify gaps and areas of improvement

·         Fieldwork: Go to the field (community and select schools) and relevant stakeholders, especially WLOs,  to gather information  and conduct participatory design workshops with women led organizations in Hargeisa and Borama while reviewing the GBV Project documents. Lead a participatory design workshop to inform the design of SBCC strategy to address the key project areas aligned to Plan Somaliand Communication Strategy.

·         Development of SBCC Strategy based on the analysis, including objectives, target audiences, approaches, channels, and action plan including monitoring and evaluation.

·         Develop, contextualize, pretest, and finalize age-appropriate key messages based on feedback.

·         Provide recommendations on production of IEC materials in various formats that are inclusive, diverse, easy to understand, context-specific and culturally appropriate (taking into account of ethnic groups, people with disabilities, and people with low literacy).

·         Identify a variety of dissemination methods to share SBCC messages using cultural events, and mass media (electronic media, radio, social media).

·          Customization and finalization of SBCC implementation guideline.

·         Implementation of appropriate behaviour change communication tools

Key deliverables of the consultancy include:

1)      Inception report

2)      Facilitation of ideation workshops to understand the existing project landscape, including its challenges, impacts and scope. Assess public attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge regarding GBV response and prevention. Identify key stakeholders, existing communication initiatives, and communication channels.

3)      ) SBCC strategy with pretested messages and dissemination recommendations

Responsibility of Plan Somaliland International

·         Provide all necessary information, briefings, support and source materials related to the project, including facilitating introductions with WLOs and relevant stakeholders;

·         Provide orientation on Plan International’s Safeguarding and & Prevention from Sexual Harassment, Exploitation & Abuse (PSHEA) Policies and Child Protection Branding Standard and Image Usage; 

·         Provide orientation on Plan International’s GE&I strategy and gender transformative programming 

·         Assistance with coordinating the  country office teams for discussions, pre-testing, and validation;

·         Close consultation and continuous review and feedback to enable the contracted consultant and/or firm to deliver the highest quality strategy and materials possible; 

·         Organize the presentation session for the SBCC strategy;

·         Effect payment according to the signed contractual agreement;

·         Printing/production, and distribution of SBCC materials based on the number of materials required through its procurement procedure.

Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy

As a child-centred community development organization, Plan International ascribes to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Children’s Act SOM/No. 2022 SOM. Accordingly, Plan has a policy on Safeguarding Children and Young People, which provides guidance on how individuals should conduct themselves while working with and otherwise relating to children, either directly or indirectly, during project implementation. All individuals and organisations, who work in partnership with Plan International shall at all levels, subscribe to and uphold the principles and practices outlined in the Policy which will be provided to the assigned Consultant. 

Branding / Copyright and Intellectual Properties

Copyright solely belongs to Plan International Somaliand; therefore, all productions and written content will be purely Plan International Somaliand property. All products must be in line with Plan International Somaliand branding guideline. Any other logo allowed, to be approved by the Communications and Media Relations Manager and Programmes Lead can appear on productions.

Rights to Intellectual Property

All intellectual property accessed or acquired during the currency of this agreement, including all availed documents/papers, books, photographs, videos, computer software or other literary or pictorial books shall be considered works made for hire and all rights to such intellectual property shall be held by Plan International. 

The required skills and competence for the consultant are;-

·         The consultant/consultancy firm must demonstrate through the proposed personnel that they meet the minimum requirement and that the lead Consultant must possess or have technical expertise/advanced degree or higher in a relevant field such Sociology, Social Sciences, Behavioral Science, Anthropology or a related discipline.

·         Over 5 years' experience in governance, communication and/or media programme management and strategy development.

·         Experience in conducting desk review, research, data analysis on social and behaviour change topics Demonstrable experience in the design and or development of social and behaviour change communication strategies or similar work.

·         A good understanding of Plan International core values and areas of work.

·         Articulate communicator and public speaker.

·         Experience with developing women, men, youth-friendly, visual, inclusive/accessible SBCC materials for diverse adolescent audiences including those with low literacy is a strong asset of the successful candidate

·         Experience in the following thematic areas; Gender Equality (GE), Gender Based Violence (GBV) prevention, sexual reproductive health and response and Child Protection.

·         The applicant should have excellent technical capacity to ensure high-quality translation and development of materials using clear visual elements.

Completed proposal documents (Mandatory Requirement along with the Quote) should be sent by this email [email protected] and making reference in the subject line as follows:

Subject: Conducting a Social & Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Strategy Consultancy Service in Hargeisa, Somaliland.

Closing deadline: time: 12.00 pm date: 7th December 2024