Deadline: 31 March 2017

Introduction
Hivos invites you to send a quote and brief proposal for an assignment to develop a project-related communication strategy and set the first steps in realizing it, resulting in a number of deliverables within three months time.

Background
Women Empowered for Leadership (WE4L) is a five-year programme (until 2020) managed by Hivos and implemented together with local partners in Jordan, Lebanon, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The programme aims for women to have equal opportunities and the capacity to fully participate in political and societal decision-making processes. We also want women to be recognised and supported by politics and society as leaders and agents of change.

We aim to make sure that:

(1) more women participate fully and effectively in politics and public administration at sub-national level,

(2) female leaders, linked with women’s rights organisations, have more influence on political and societal developments and on public opinion,

(3) civic organisations such as trade unions and political parties promote full and equal participation of women in leadership positions and demonstrate a significant change in their own policies and practices, and

(4) there is more recognition and support from the general public for women in leadership positions.

The Hivos WE4L programme is funded through the ‘Funding Leadership and Opportunities for Women’ (FLOW) fund of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. See: https://hivos.org/focal-area/women-empowered-leadership

Aims and focus of the assignment
This assignment is meant

(1) to further develop the communication strategy for WE4L, including well-defined communication goals, target groups, forms and channels,

(2) to build the foundation for the WE4L website and social media pages, following Hivos’ guidelines for communication,

(3) to assist the WE4L team with content generation and prepare its communication officers to continue in the same style and spirit beyond this assignment,

(4) to help Hivos to get the WE4L website and social media pages online, and

(5) to organize the production of a number of communication products to support the launch of the WE4L website and social media pages. The communication strategy should support the WE4L team in realizing the WE4L goals, as well as increase the visibility.

We have the ambition

(a) to be a source of new interesting information on women’s leadership and participation in decision-making in the MENA region and Southern Africa, to be used by professionals in this field as well as women leaders themselves,

(b) to stimulate debate on women’s leadership, participation in decision-making, and gender stereotypes among a wider public in East and West, in South and North (working languages: English and Arabic),

(c) to offer a platform to women leaders and women with leadership ambitions from the MENA region and Southern Africa, to enable their faces to be seen, their voices to be heard, their stories to be told, their ideas to be understood,

(d) to offer a platform for linking and learning on women’s leadership among stakeholders of the WE4L programme, and

(e) to make the WE4L programme, Hivos, the local partners in the WE4L programme, as well as the programme’s financiers (in particular the Ministry’s FLOW fund) visible to a wider audience.

Communication products to be used include short videos, photos, reports, news releases, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, infographics, animations, interactive maps, stories, etc. Channels to be used include the WE4L website, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Telegram, Snapchat, Whatsapp, etc.  

Deliverables
The assignment should result in the following deliverables within three months time:
1. A publicity/communication strategy for the WE4L programme, including well-defined communication goals, target groups, forms and channels, and including suggestions for continuation and content management (ongoing after the launch, to be done by permanent communication officers);
2. The structure of the WE4L website and social media pages, including site map;
3. Operational WE4L website and social media pages, with relevant content;
4. At least 3 high quality communication products for the WE4L programme.

Timeframe
The assignment has a timeframe of three months at maximum. The progress and interim results will be discussed with representatives of the WE4L team on a weekly basis.

Budget
The budget for this assignment is € 13,000 excluding VAT. The costs for the production of the communication products will be covered additionally.

Eligibility and profile
Eligible for this assignment are registered consultants and companies. We expect them to have experience and expertise in developing communication strategies, to have expertise and insight in a wide variety of social media, to be able to think out-of-the-box, to have affinity with gender equality and affinity with in the Middle East and/or Southern Africa, and to be able to build a website and social media pages that are fit for English and Arabic as working languages.

Deadline
Please send your quote and brief proposal in English on 31 March 2017 at the latest to the following e-mail address:

Marcel van der Heijden
Project Manager Women Empowered for Leadership
E-mail: mheijden@hivos.org

Additional information, if necessary, can be obtained via the same e-mail address.