Request For Proposals (RFP) For A Local Partner For A Humanitarian Accountability Programme – Baidoa

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP) FOR A LOCAL PARTNER

FOR A HUMANITARIAN ACCOUNTABILITY PROGRAMME

PROJECT BACKGROUND

BBC Media Action is delivering a programme funded by the USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, under the Global Annual Program Statement for humanitarian capacity and system strengthening. The programme aims to deliver step-change improvements in humanitarian communication, community engagement, accountability, and participation practice within three critical humanitarian contexts globally – Nigeria, Somalia and Ukraine – by focusing on improving the ability, motivation and connectedness of local and national actors to communicate effectively with people affected by crisis. In doing so, the programme hopes to contribute significantly to strengthening the delivery of aid and the internationally recognized priority areas of participation and accountability to affected populations (AAP), at both local and global levels.

The overall goal of the project is for people affected by crises to have greater access to practical information that they can use to help cope and survive. It aims to help people have a greater ability to participate in dialogue at the core of humanitarian decision-making, thus improving the relevance, accessibility, and inclusivity of a humanitarian response.

Activities delivered by BBC Media Action and partners in the three chosen geographies will focus on two key areas of intervention:

• Build capacity among local and national actors – including relief workers as well as public-interest media professionals – to improve their capacity to integrate proven communication, participation, and accountability approaches in their work with affected populations.
• Build more effective working relationships and bridges between existing humanitarian actors, coordination mechanisms and the national and local organizations (particularly including media actors) who are key to successful humanitarian responses.

To do this, BBC Media Action will provide capacity building and training to humanitarian and media practitioners and will support them in overcoming challenges they face in communicating effectively with communities affected by crisis. In Somalia, the project will take place in Baidoa and more broadly in the South West State of Somalia and the local the local capacity building partner will work closely with BBC Media Action to implement interventions required to enhance the effective humanitarian accountability and enable active participation of affected communities on humanitarian response among the different project actors in the target locations and support their improved relationship and collaborations at local level to assist their sustainability after the project ends.

PROJECT PURPOSE AND IMMEDIATE OUTCOMES

This project will seek to achieve the following purpose: Increased capacity of humanitarian aid responders (with a focus on national and local agencies) to consistently embed robust communication and participation within approaches and services for crisis-affected people. This will be achieved through the following intermediate outcomes:

• Humanitarian practitioners, especially national and local humanitarian actors, have increased understanding of the importance of communication and participation in humanitarian action and are more motivated to embed these approaches within their programming.
• Humanitarian coordination structures that seek to enhance communication and participation are more accessible and useful to national and local aid agencies as well as non-traditional actors such as national and local media professionals.
• The humanitarian community, at local, national, regional, and global levels, has enhanced access to tested resources and practitioner-led insight about how to improve communication with affected populations and increase participation across a range of humanitarian contexts.

PURPOSE OF THE RFP

The purpose of this request for proposal is to hire a qualified local CSO or media agency that is interested in humanitarian accountability and communications with the affected populations. We are looking for an organization to participate in the lifeline training and then help our team deliver future trainings, to try and support co-ordination efforts in Baidoa (especially post project implementation period). This will involve liaising with local media, INGOs, UN agencies, local authorities, and the affected communities. The local CSO or media agency is supposed to actively contribute the project sustainability in the long run after the implementation period ends.

SCOPE OF WORK FOR THE LOCAL CAPACITY BUILDING PARTNER

• Willing to accept and use the project capacity building trainings aimed at to deliver step-change improvements and strengthen bridges in humanitarian accountability, communication, community engagement and participation practice within the critical humanitarian context in Somalia by focusing on improving the ability, motivation, and connectedness of local, national and international actors involved to communicate effectively with people affected by crisis and promote humanitarian accountability across the actors.
• Willing to receive capacity building and technical assistance from BBC Media Action during the project implementation. In this aspect BBC Media Action will provide necessary trainings and in return the CSO is expected to catalyze coordination and coordination between different humanitarian actors.
• Support improved understanding among affected communities of how they can effectively participate in preparedness, response, recovery, resilience building, decision-making processes and social accountability efforts.
• Facilitate roundtable and panel discussions among key civil society actors, media, local authorities, religious/traditional leaders and IDPs and hosting communities to share new knowledge or devise new strategies as well as bridge conducive working and collaborative relationships.
• Establish and strengthen quality and effectiveness in community engagement and accountability efforts by ensuring that affected communities are fully engaged with and lead humanitarian response efforts.
• Support dissemination/production of learning materials generated by this project in Somalia.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

• Describe your organizational profile, expertise, and local contextual understanding of the matter.
• Describe how you will approach the work, and how you’d work in partnership with us.
• Set out any anticipated challenges with this RFP and how you will mitigate against them.
• Describe how you will meet the objectives and scope of work of this RFP.
• Describe your capacity building and sustainability approach in relation to the target beneficiaries, their locations and respect for the local context.
• How you will approach local capacity building and trainings to be undertaken as well as your mentorship expertise and approaches applicable.
• Expected challenges and solutions – Examiners will measure the strength of the applicant’s ability to describe potential implementation challenges and its proposed solutions, including innovative approaches to overcoming these challenges.
• Provide a breakdown of costs and a delivery timetable, including options if relevant.
• Share relevant examples from previous similar work, including examples.

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

The estimated start date will be upon signature of award, on or about March 15, 2023. The anticipated duration of the BBC Media Action’s support will be around 6 months with a possibility for extension.

ESTIMATED BUDGET

The maximum resources available for this work is forty thousand (40,000) United States Dollars for six months period with a possibility of costed extension after the successful completion of the initial period.

COST SHARING OR MATCHING

Cost sharing is not a requirement under this funding opportunity however it would be considered as an added advantage.