Kampala invitation to submit tender for media consultancy services

The UK is committed to strengthening a closer UK-Uganda partnership that supports mutual prosperity, ensures stability, reduces poverty, and strengthens democracy.

The UK invests in strengthening its economic partnership with Uganda, supporting climate change adaptation efforts, building broader UK-Uganda connections, and supporting Uganda’s engagements that stabilise the region. Through all these efforts the UK has consistently used their science, innovation, and technology (SIT) strengths to partner with Uganda and deliver progress and impact.

Through a focused 5-month campaign, the British High Commission (BHC) Kampala would like to better highlight breadth of the work of the UK in Uganda, by capturing the impact, diversity, and innovation of work over the years and creatively telling the story to the Ugandan people. While we would like to use the lens of SIT as a theme, we want the work of climate, growth, energy, stability, and other priority areas to be included as part of the storytelling.

The UK is looking to strengthen its partnership with Uganda, by building new awareness of the work, new collaborations and strengthening existing ones, including but not limited to, Uganda’s young creators and innovators, women, and academic institutions around areas of research, innovation, and emerging tech.

Objectives

This Terms of Reference (ToR) is to enlist supplier(s) to

• support BHC Kampala in breaking down its broader policy and program work, achievements and impact into engaging narratives while understanding stakeholder perceptions and refining our outreach strategy

• enhance and execute communication efforts through compelling storytelling, strategic content development – specifically using radio as the main platform

Work packages

Due to the breadth of the work and specialisations required in some areas, this ToR has been broken down into two packages (Package A and Package B). The supplier may bid for either one or both packages.

Up to £21,750 is available to the winning bidder for each work package. With an overall total budget for both packages not exceeding £43,500, taxes inclusive. If you are planning to bid for both packages you should clearly separate your deliverables and budgets for both in a single return.

Package ‘A’

Scope of work

The exact approach for this work will be discussed further with BHC Kampala and set out in the Supplier Proposal. However, it will require the consultant to engage in joint ideation and conceptualisation session(s) with the BHC, engage with the full breadth of the BHC’s policy and program work around areas of SIT, and proceed to breakdown the highlights and impact of this work into engaging and visually appealing content tailored for different audiences.     

During the content gathering and creation process, the consultant may be required to travel up to two times outside of Kampala with responsible BHC staff in the field and produce content as required by the campaign implementation plan. The travel costs should be accounted for in the bid, with the many flexible to be re-allocated if not needed for travel.

The entire work will cut across the following four areas

Content development

• collaborate with our team to identify key projects and initiatives
• extract impactful stories and results that highlight the organization’s impact

Content processing and design

• create multiple formats of content that may include articles and a series of human impact stories
• develop visual assets such as infographics, motion graphics, and short videos
• adapt content for various digital platforms, including social media, websites, and presentations

Stakeholder mapping and analysis

• identify and categorise key stakeholders based on their influence, interest, and impact on the BHC’s goals
• develop stakeholder profiles and relationship dynamics to map engagement opportunities and risks
• provide recommendations for targeted messaging and relationship-building strategies tailored to each stakeholder group

Deliverables

In close consultation and collaboration with the BHC, the consultant is expected to deliver the following

Content outputs

Overall, the BHC would like to have a set of high-quality pieces of impact storytelling that highlight our different areas of work. This will include print, visuals, digital and other potential content. Pace of content creation can be discussed.

Stakeholder Mapping Report

• detailed stakeholder map, including profiles, influence, and interest levels
• strategic recommendations on how to engage each stakeholder group more effectively

Client responsibilities

The BHC will be responsible for

• availing data and all information material needed by the consultant in their content generation and program production work
• approving all content, broadcast or digital before it is aired or published
• facilitating the consultant’s representatives with access to its program sites, activities, or project beneficiaries for purposes of gathering content as part of this partnership     
• proven experience in content creation, storytelling, and digital strategy

Timelines

All work will need to be completed by end of February 2025 or not later than the 15th of March 2025 at the latest. Specific timelines will be agreed upon with the BHC at our first engagement meeting after which they will be spelt out in the engagement contract.

Qualifications

• expertise in conducting perception research and stakeholder mapping
• ability to deliver high-quality outputs within tight deadlines
• knowledge of Ugandan media consumption trends, preferences, and audience dynamics
• demonstrable experience in Data and Information design and visualisation

The following are desirable

• flexibility and adaptability the consultant will have to work closely with the team from the BHC in the execution of this work, which may require them to be flexible in adapting to new deliverable dynamics during the duration of consultancy
• experience working with the UK or similar development partners demonstrating keen understanding of development work, programming, and impact assessment of the same will be an added advantage as it is an important first step towards communicating such work effectively
• ability to speak at least 3 local languages intelligibly would be useful but is not essential

Package ‘B’

Scope of work

The supplier will be expected to, in consultation with the British High Commission (BHC) Kampala, design and produce a 1-hour monthly radio program devoted to the BHC’s SIT policy work, which will be co-hosted by the British High Commissioner in Uganda and a co-host agreed upon by the two parties.

The supplier will also be expected to report at least one weekly story on the BHC’s SIT-related work across its policy and program areas and do at least one ground activation from one of the areas where the BHC’s SIT-related interventions is taking place.

The supplier will also be expected to promote all stories and programs delivered as part of this partnership on all its social media programs pre, during and after the said programs, and generally produce visually appealing multimedia content communicating the BHC’s SIT work to run on the radio partner and the BHC’s official media platforms. 

Occasionally, especially during the content gathering and creation process, representatives of the supplier may be required to travel with responsible BHC staff in the field and produce content as required.

Deliverables

In close consultation and collaboration with the BHC, the supplier will be expected to

• design, produce and host a 1-hour monthly program devoted to the BHC’s SIT policy work, which will be co-hosted by the British High Commissioner in Uganda and a co-host agreed upon by the two parties
• report/host at least one story or radio-discussion per week on the BHC’ SIT-related work across its policy and program areas
• undertake at least one on-ground activation per month to report live on the impact of the BHC’s SIT-focused interventions on people and/communities
• come up with social media promotion material for all stories and programs to be hosted and reported on the radio partner station as part of this partnership, pre, during and after the said programs
• come up with a data and information visualisation strategy to complement the radio broadcasts of this partnership’s activities. This will involve producing appealing multimedia content communicating the BHC’s SIT work which will run on the supplier’s and the BHC’s official media platforms

Client responsibilities

The BHC will be responsible for

• availing data and all information material needed by the radio partner in its content generation and program production work
• approving all content, broadcast or digital before it is aired or published
• facilitating the radio partner’s representatives with access to its program sites, activities, or project beneficiaries for purposes of gathering content as part of this partnership

Timelines

All work will need to be completed by end of February or not later than the 15th of March 2025 at the latest. Specific timelines will be agreed upon with the BHC at our first engagement meeting after which they will be spelt out in the engagement contract.

Requirements

• verifiable data of audience size and reach
• experience of providing similar broadcast support to recognisable organisations/development partners.
• the supplier should demonstrate a keen understanding of diverse demographic content preferences and audience peak hours and how both will be used to ensure a maximum audience for the stories, programs and content produced under this partnership

The following are desirable

• flexibility and adaptability  the supplier will have to work closely with the team from the BHC in the execution of this work, which may require them to be flexible in adapting to new deliverable dynamics during the duration of consultancy
• experience working with the UK or similar development partners demonstrating keen understanding of development work, programming, and impact assessment of the same will be an added advantage as it is an important first step towards communicating such work effectively
• ability to broadcast in more than one language would be useful but is not essential
• experience in Data and Information Visualisation The consultant should have demonstrable skill and expertise in designing and producing creative, visually appealing multimedia content that can give visual appeal to the UK’s work in Uganda

Budget and payment terms

Any submissions in response to this ToR must include a technical and commercial proposal. The commercial proposal will need to include a budget with a comprehensive breakdown of costs per activity for the full duration of the work.

The BHC will make available up to £21,750 to the winning bidder for each work package, with an overall total budget for both packages not exceeding £43,500, including taxes. Payments to the winning bidder(s) will be made in arrears following review of agreed deliverables in the stipulated timeframes. These will be agreed in detail with the winning bidder, prior to signing the contract with the BHC.

Intellectual Property Rights

The BHC will own all intellectual property rights to the final designs and materials created under this agreement. The designer may include the work in their portfolio with the BHC’s permission.

Application process

Interested suppliers can bid for either options – package (A) or package (B) or both, and proceed to submit a proposal outlining their approach, relevant experience, and pricing by 14 October 2024. In your submission, include samples of previous work, details of methodologies and a sample stakeholder mapping framework.

Submit your proposal (s) to Kampala.Bhcinfo@fcdo.gov.uk and include “Bid for media consultancy” in the subject line of your email.

Key documents

Annex A

Scoring methodology and evaluation criteria

Technical evaluation

BHC will convene an evaluation panel to score the supplier proposal based on the evaluation criteria below. The proposal will need to achieve a score of 6 ‘good’ in order to proceed.

Technical scoring methodology

The Evaluation Team will apply the following scoring methodology to the Technical Criteria

Technical evaluation criteria

The Evaluation Criteria and Weightings that will be applied to bids are detailed in the ‘Main Criteria’ table below. The Total Score for each Criteria will comprise of the score awarded (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10) multiplied by the weighting allocated to each Criteria.