Consultancy - Social Media Campaign

 1.   Background

There is increasing evidence that acting in anticipation of a disaster rather than solely in response and delivering consistent support to the most vulnerable via government social assistance programs can reduce the impacts of extreme weather events. Acting in anticipation helps to target the right people at the right time and reduce the impacts and costs of response and recovery. Bringing the two concepts together in Nepal – Forecast-based Action (FbA) and Shock Responsive Social Protection (SRSP) – represents a valuable opportunity to improve system delivery, build off innovations, and reduce the disaster burden in one of the world's most disaster-prone countries. However, this idea holds many challenges. There are very few countries where anticipatory action has successfully been integrated into social protection (SP) systems. Mainstreaming the two concepts into Nepal’s social security allowance program (SSA), one of the country's key SP programs, will require careful design, testing and advocacy at many levels.

Nepal is implementing several social protection (SP) programs of which the Social Security Allowance (SSA) is the largest that provides allowance to senior citizens, single women, individuals with disabilities, children, and endangered ethnicities. While the SSA aims to support people with vulnerabilities in regular times, there are ample opportunities of integrating shock-responsiveness in this program to operate and provide additional support right before, during and after a disaster.

The European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid-funded project “Forecast-based Action and Shock Responsive Social Protection in Provinces 5 and Sudhur Paschim, Nepal” is implemented by a consortium formed by Nepal Red Cross Society, Danish Red Cross and Handicap International, led by Danish Red Cross, and with technical/strategic support by the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre.

This project aims to support an approach that integrates greater shock responsiveness and anticipatory action into Nepal’s SSA program, in order to inform the development of more responsive and anticipatory SP and early actions that protect the most vulnerable before, during, and aftershocks. It will build up from existing research, consultation with stakeholders, experiences of the Covid-19 preparedness and response operations using the SP system in Nepal, simulate possible designs of a shock responsive system and identify approaches with the highest potential, including contingency plans that could be scaled up. Consolidating learning and documenting evidence will serve as a proof of concept to test this innovation and support institutionalization of these systems.

2.   Purpose, Objective and Audience

The purpose of the consultancy is to build an understanding on the importance of acting in anticipation of a disaster and strengthening Social protection system to ensure its’ resilience to shocks. The concept of FbA-SRSP is new and therefore, it is important to build the understanding amongst the masses. The consultancy will cover a photo-series (photos and long captions) of 15 posts and published in an influential social media page that has substantial number of followers, possibly on both facebook and Instagram. It will specifically focus on:

-       Experiences of vulnerable groups during flooding.

-       Importance of acting in anticipation of a disaster, especially through the perspective of vulnerable groups.

-       Lessons learned during the simulation exercise and its use during the October flood.

-       Benefits of taking early actions and response work through the use of existing Social Protection mechanisms.

-       Early actions taken during the October flood.

-  Success of the cash transfer through leveraging Social Security Allowance (SSA) mechanism – registry for communication, SSA bank accounts for cash distribution, SSA complaint mechanism for feedbacks and complaints.

Objective:

 -       The consultancy will raise visibility of the work the red cross is doing on FbA-SRSP through the financial support of the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aids Operations.  

Audience:

-       The communication and visibility blogs will target primarily general audience in Nepal. DRC will also share the published posts with the ECHO and amongst other relevant partners and PNS.

 -       Consultation meetings with the project team to understand the project in-depth.

-       Study project documents.

-       Travel to the field and interview SSA beneficiaries, and stakeholders involved in the project.

-       Submit 15 posts that gives a comprehensive understanding of the project for review and inputs to the project team.

-       Share it on the Facebook page.

-       Share analytics on performance of the contents.

4.   Roles & Responsibilities

 -       The consultant is expected to work in close collaboration with the consortium partners, especially Danish Red Cross to plan and execute each step of work, and to deliver quality final deliverable.

-       DRC will support in coordinating with the field team for detailed planning of the visits.

-       The consultant needs to ensure consent (GDPR consent forms) is received from individuals. File and share the consent forms to DRC.

-       The consultant needs to submit final pictures and stories with DRC for future usages. Final copyright of the images will be owned by DRC. 

5.   Deliverables & Tentative Schedule 

TBA 

*Note: This is a tentative timeline that is subject to change.   

6.   Skills and Requirements

-          The consultant should have a good understanding of the socio-economic context of Nepal, including disaster and its impacts on the communities.

-          The consultant should be able to produce high quality photo and supporting captions, that highlights the problem faced by the communities and benefits of the FbA-SRSP project.

-          The consultant should run a popular blog, preferably on Facebook and Instagram, with a substantial number of followers and reach, in order to increase the visibility of the donor and of our work. 

7.   Financial Proposal 

The consultant is asked to submit a budget proposal along with a tentative work plan for the main activities and milestones. This includes photography, writing long captions and publishing 15 post in the social media page possibly on both facebook and Instagram, and sharing of insights.  

Submit a financial proposal in NPR, with detailed breakdown of cost and its related activity including all applicable tax/vat.

In your financial proposal please mention clearly about the terms of payment including bank details:

Bank Name:

Account Name:

Account Name:

Branch

8.   Travel allowance

-       The Danish Red Cross will cover all travel & accommodation cost as per actual basis & food-max NPR 1200 per person per day. 

9.   Required documents 

·                     Samples of previous work

·                     Analytics on the pages’ audience

·                     Tentative field plan with timeline

·                     The documents/certificates that should be submitted/attached with your offer are: -

•        Acknowledgement of ToR. (Please attach the signed copy of these Terms of Reference with your offer)

•        Copy of VAT/PAN registration certificate.

•        Copy of Business Registration, if applicable.

•        Copy of latest TAX clearance certificate, if applicable

10.  How to apply:

Interested individual and organization should submit the following documents to Ms Aliza Baidya at aliza.baidya@ifrc.org latest by 28th Jan 2022, please be informed that the Technical and financial proposal must be submitted as separate document. The incomplete proposal in all respect and proposals submitted after deadline will not be considered. 

1.       Submit a technical, financial, and timeline proposal demonstrating a thorough understanding of this ToR

2.       Submit detailed CV and application letter showing why you are most suitable for undertaking the consultancy

3.       Submit example of any relevant previous work

4.       Submit names and contacts for 3 references

We thank you in advance for understanding that only short-listed candidates will be contacted for the next step in the application process.