About Plan International Nigeria
Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian non-profit organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood and enable children to prepare for — and respond to — crises and adversity. We believe in the power and potential of every child but know this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion, and discrimination.
Working together, with children, young people, supporters, and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges girls and vulnerable children face. We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 85 years and are now active in more than 70 countries, driving changes in practice and policy at local, national, and global levels using our reach, experience, and knowledge. Plan International is registered in Nigeria with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
Project Overview
Vulnerable Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AG&YW) and boys in Nigeria continue to have little or no access to quality health information and services needed to exercise their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Entrenched patriarchal norms and gender inequalities accentuate the relatively low power, agency and autonomy that AG&YW have over resources, decision-making, and social participation. Only 46% of married or in-union women in Nigeria aged 15-49 make their own decisions regarding SRHR (UNFPA, 2020). Use of any form of modern contraception by married women aged 15-49 is only 5.2% in Bauchi and 2.1% in Sokoto, both well below the national average of 12% (DHS, 2018). Child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) also plays a critical role in disempowering adolescent girls and limiting their access to resources and opportunities. In Bauchi state, 40.7% of adolescent girls aged 15-19 have begun childbearing; in Sokoto, it is 32.1%. The national average is 18.7% (DHS, 2018). Early pregnancies and family responsibilities limit adolescent girls from reaching their full potential and pull young women from the labor market, keeping them disempowered and impoverished. With few opportunities to participate and lead in local and household economies, AG&YW often experience discrimination and exclusion and carry an unequal burden of unpaid care work, which adds further barriers to the fulfilment of their rights.
As a response to these complex challenges, Plan International Canada, with funding from Global Affairs Canada, is working in partnership with Plan International Nigeria in the implementation of the AG&YW SRHR in Nigeria (ASPIRE) project. The ultimate outcome is to improve the realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights for AG&YW, including vulnerable populations, in Bauchi and Sokoto states respectively.
Purpose of the consultancy
The project plans to develop a gender transformative Social and Behavior Change Communications (SBCC) strategy focusing on GE and ASRHR aimed at adolescent girls and young women, boys, male and female caregivers, community and religious leaders, health care workers, teachers, SRH and CP actors, and relevant government departments with the dual objectives of providing information on ASRHR, MHPSS and CP (including CEFM) to improve uptake of services by adolescents, and the promotion of GE and challenging harmful social norms for behavior change (i.e. uptake of SRH services, and gender equitable behaviors).
Within the ASPIRE project, an SBCC strategy will serve as the guiding document which defines the behavior change objectives, the barriers and determinates of those objectives and proposed strategies and specific interventions the project should undertake to achieve the change. It should address the three levels of change – for GE, uptake of SRH services and MHPSS, CP and reduction of CEFM – which are the individual (adolescents), the community (parents, community leaders, and service providers (schools and health care and CP providers). Ultimately, the SBCC strategy aims to contribute to the reduction of poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes for adolescent girls and young women in the targeted states of Bauchi and Sokoto respectively.
Social and Behavior Change communications strategies: These are generally grounded in research and formed through consultative processes. Hence the need to conduct some level of desk review to understand better audiences and the sexual reproductive health topics and behaviors as well as other nuances and considerations. ASPIRE project will therefore conduct a Desk review, whose findings will be used to inform the development of our SBCC strategy. This Desk Review will be focused on a comprehensive SBC approach exploring factors that influence multiple levels—individuals, families, influential community members, communities as a whole, health care providers, and policymakers—to devise a maximally effective behavior change strategy for Sexual Reproductive Health and Right (SRHR), Gender Equality (GE), MHPSS, Child Protection (CP) particularly Gender Based Violence (GBV).
This Desk Review should uncover what people currently know, think, feel and do about the relevant topics and behaviors, and understand their motivations and barriers to changing or adopting new behaviors; In particular, the research should focus on women, men and adolescent girls and boys’ behaviors and understanding of SRHR, GE and child protection as well as society’s acceptance on the right of women and men, adolescent girls and boys. Parents, caregivers and guardians of adolescents need to be incorporated to achieve the goals of the research as they play a fundamental role in creating a protective and enabling environment for adolescent boys and girls. Besides, adolescent boys and girls need parental care and financial support before accessing and making use of some of the SRHR, GE, and child protection services. The consultant will seek recent resources that document the behavior and attitude of these stakeholders and the driving factors
The Desk Review should also help determine whether and how different topics and behaviors relate to one another in addition to the identification of key facilitators and barriers to the adoption of desired behaviors. Research findings will be used to generate a robust SBCC strategy to determine the best way forward for achieving project social behavior change outcomes. that the.
The staff of Plan International Nigeria and Plan International Canada will be the main users of the results of the Desk Review. In addition, key stakeholders in the project, such as government ministries / executing agencies, partner NGOs, local authorities and communities are the parties interested in the results.
Specific Objectives for Desk Review and Content Development for SBCC
- Review existing project documents and research studies including the PMF, baseline study, gender equality and inclusion assessment, health facility assessment and provider bias study to complete a prioritization exercise that identifies the main information gaps that need to be addressed through the project SBCC strategy. A template for this prioritization exercise will be provided by Plan Nigeria.
- Review secondary data to complement and validate the prioritization exercise.
- Complete a desk review of existing government, UN and non-profit led SBCC campaigns on SRHR, GEI and protection.
- Identify Strategic approaches across the socioecological model (eg. Campaigns, IPC, mass media, advocacy etc.) to address multiple audiences.
- Aligned with the above strategic approaches, develop context specific SBCC messages in local languages, that are in alignment with context on similar topics as well as which leverage existing materials produced by the government, UN and other agencies. For example, SBCC messages will be developed for disseminations via the following (tentative) channels.
- IEC messages and content (1-minute video clips, songs, jingles, and presentations-) to be used in the project Social Media campaigns including Plan Nigeria accounts on Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc.
- IEC content for use in project activities such as posters, leaflets/flyers, flex-banners (10 Different Messages developed for:
- School Health Clubs [boys and girls]
- Out of Schools Champions of Change Clubs [boys and girls]
- Child Friendly IEC materials to increase awareness of existing referral services within the community.
- Mental Health Support Lines for Adolescents.
- Scripts for drama shows to be aired in video format, which will be disseminated via cinema vans or television stations (20-minute drama show)
- Key messages document to be used in “storm theatre”, involving trained drama actors performing impromptu live at target locations. Theatre personnel will use storm drama techniques to perform impromptu in select locations, but will refer to the key messages document to ensure that the same are delivered to the audience.
- Radio jingles (which will be finalized in a separate 4-day workshop with stakeholders). (1-minute songs/jingles, 4 different messages to be developed, airing thrice daily).
- Pilot the SBCC messages for each of the above described SBCC media.
- Conduct a 1-day validation meeting with government and civil society stakeholders to review and validate content for the social media campaigns, IEC content, script for drama shows/storm theatre and radio jingles.
The developed comprehensive SBCC strategy will integrate issues related to Gender Equality (GE), Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (ASRHR), MHPSS and Child Protection. As part of the SBCC implementation plan the BCC messages will be integrated by Plan International Nigeria and implementing partners into various activities across the project, including training modules and materials for in-school and out-of-school adolescents aged 15-19 and 20-24 as well as training materials for facility and community-based service providers and used for messaging for community-wide events including service providers at facilities and messaging communicated by change agents during awareness raising and advocacy campaigns.
Methodology
The Desk Review methodology will be Secondary research as this is a follow-on to the quantitative baseline study and qualitative gender equality and inclusion (GEI) assessment (primary research), and Health facility assessment that includes quantitative results as well as qualitative data on provider bias.
The consultant will be required to work with Plan Canada and Plan Nigeria technical advisors to review, refine and finalize the tools
Assessment Location
Assessment is proposed to be carried out at a central location where all ASPIRE staff will participate and be guided to support the desk review
Scope of Work
The Consultant:
Under this Terms of Reference (ToR) will act as the lead on all components of the SBCC strategy development.
In this role, the Consultant will be responsible for ensuring access to secondary data sources and to:
- Review project documents, including the performance measurement framework (PMF), baseline study report, and qualitative gender equality and inclusion (GEI) assessment.
- Develop an inception report, including a data analysis plan, and incorporate all feedback from Plan
- Conduct extensive desk research and analyses of existing content (Including but not limited to the above-listed project documents) based on cultural context as well as required project outcomes.
- Obtain research ethical approvals where needed, including paying special attention to the unique ethical considerations of doing studies/research with and about children and young people, students in religious institutions in general, and on highly sensitive topics (i.e. child protection issues including GBV, and ASRHR)
- Prepare and submit a plan inclusive of Desk Review (desk and secondary data collection), SBCC strategy development, dissemination and rollout
- Write the report of the consultancy, incorporating the comments from Plan International Canada and Plan International Nigeria and from the consultative workshop.
- Collaborate with Plan International to integrate all feedback provided to create a final report.
- Arrange its own logistics for the transport of enumerators and field supervisors.
- Ensure all SBCC strategies and messages are developed and documented properly and are user-friendly to the target audience (AG&YW) at the health facility and community level.
During the consultancy, the following deliverables are expected:
- Inception report
- Desk review outline (including protocol and tools to use)
- Desk Review report
- SBCC Strategy document
- Final report
Supervision/Management of Assignment
The consultant will be required to work closely with the Plan International Nigeria ASPIRE technical Leads (GE&I Coordinator, , Health, M&E, Snr, Project Manager and Advocacy and Influencing Advisor). The consultant will however be directly accountable to the Plan International Nigeria M&E focal person on the progress of the assignment through updates via email and online conferences.
Suggested Desk Review report format is:
- Cover Page
- Table of Contents
- List of Acronyms
- Executive Summary: must be a stand-alone summary, describing the Project, main findings of the evaluation, and conclusions and recommendations. This will be no more than 1 page in length.
- Main Body: The main body of the report shall elaborate on the points listed in the Executive Summary. It will include the following sub-sections:
- Background Information:
- Methodology
- Evaluation Challenges and Limitations
- Main Findings & Analysis of Project Results
- Identified Good Practices and Lessons Learned
- Conclusions and Recommendations
Timeline
The Desk Review and SBCC Strategy development must be finalized within three weeks of the date of signing the contract. Payment will be based on deliverables. The consultant will be responsible for managing the number of days to complete the tasks. Travel costs will be reimbursed based on actuals and in alignment with Plan International Nigeria’s travel and expenses reimbursement policy.
The SBCC messages will be developed for each of the project stakeholders including (but not limited to) adolescent girls (10-14, 15-19), young women (20-24), male partners of AGYW, caregivers of AGYW, women powerholders, local traditional and religious leaders, community- and facility based health providers, local policy makers, etc. As part of the SBCC implementation plan the messages will be used to communicate with the target audiences to improve desired behaviors and change harmful behaviors in relation to GE, ASRHR, MHPSS, CEFM, and CP. The messages to be developed should be consistent and address the root causes for poor ASRH outcomes and related issues such as (Child Early and Forced Marriage) (Sexual- Gender Based Violence), (Mental Health and Psychosocial Support) CEFM, and SGBV.
Qualifications of Consultant(s)
- Comprehensive understanding of SRHR-related issues and related behaviors and practices in the context of Northern Nigeria.
- An advanced degree in a sociology/Social development discipline or relevant health field will be an added advantage.
- Minimum of 5 years of experience in coordinating, administering and leading Desk Review/SBCC design including the development of messages based on the identified findings from the Desk review of existing assessment
- Knowledge and experience with ASRH/FP/SGBV issues, MHPSS, Child protection
- Knowledge of and experience in gender issues are highly preferred;
- Fluency in English and Hausa (spoken and written);
- Ability to produce high-quality work under tight timeframes;
- Ability to work jointly with Plan International Nigeria and Plan International Canada staff and other stakeholder (govt) to integrate feedback as required.
How to apply
Application Package and Procedures
Applications for the consultancy must include the following components, to a total of 10 pages or less (not including appendices, CVs, etc.):
- Detailed technical proposal demonstrating a thorough understanding of this ToR and including the following:
- Demonstrated previous experience in coordinating and administering studies of a similar nature;
- Proposed plan for sources of secondary data with adequate consideration for coverage, relevance
- Description of the proposed approach for addressing gender equality, adolescent friendliness and child protection considerations in methodology, including Prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment;
- A proposed timeframe detailing activity and a schedule/work plan (including a Gantt chart)
- Itemized consultancy fees/costs
- The validity period of quotations
- Curriculum Vitae(s) of all proposed staff outlining relevant experience.
- Names and contact information of three references who can be contacted regarding relevant experience.
- A copy of a previous report of a similar nature undertaken
The proposal will be scored on both technical (methodology) and financial (budget) aspects weighted at 70% and 30% respectively.
Interested applicants are invited to submit their application package (as stated in the TOR) to [email protected] referencing the title ‘Social and Behavioral Change Communication Consultant’ in the email title.
Plan International operates equal opportunities and actively encourages diversity, welcoming applications from all areas of the international community. Women are encouraged to apply.
