WaterAid Liberia seeks the services of a proficient firm to carry out a pilot digital media awareness and influencing campaign on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in Liberia. The objective of this campaign is to create significant awareness and drive desired actions from the target audience by leveraging digital media channels and disseminating technical information on WASH. The expected firm should possess the necessary expertise to design and execute a comprehensive digital media campaign that can effectively communicate the importance of WASH and its impact on public health.

About WaterAid

WaterAid is an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping people break free from poverty and disease, unlock their potential, and change their lives for good through improved access to clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene. As a country programme in Liberia, we have successfully implemented water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) projects since 2009, predominantly in rural areas, benefiting some of the poorest and most vulnerable communities across 5 Counties. WaterAid’s rural programme initially focused on the Southeast (Maryland, River Gee and Grand Kru) Counties. Since 2013, we initiated projects along the Sierra Leone border in Gbarpolu and Grand Cape Mount Counties. WaterAid is a trusted and respected partner, influencing government and stakeholders to scale up evidence-based models. For the past five years, we have expanded to the urban space and WASH in health, mainly in Montserrado and Grand Cape counties. Overall, we reached 109,350 people with clean water, 72,450 people with improved sanitation and 115,500 people with hygiene promotion in 440 Communities, 78 Schools and 25 Healthcare Facilities.

Justification

WaterAid new 5-year Country Programme Strategy (2023 – 2028) was launched in March 2023 with the overall goal of contribute to universal coverage of inclusive, safe, affordable, sustainable, and climate-resilient Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in Liberia.

The plan is to strengthen the Liberia health system by integrating WASH and hygiene in health programs and prioritising the requirements of women and girls, who comprise most health service users and health workers.

WaterAid Liberia has set forth its objectives, aiming to achieve the following objectives by 2028:

• 700,000 more people have sustainable, safe, and inclusive WASH, starting with universal coverage in Todee District, Montserrado County.
• Public health outcomes in Liberia improved through better integration of WASH in the national health system.
• $13 million more per year mobilised for WASH across the country.

To support these targets, three key influencing priorities to drive the advocacy approach for the next five years were identified. This is in line with WaterAid’s Global Advocacy Priorities (GAP) and its Country Programme Strategy (CPS). The priorities are to advocate for improved quality and quantity of WASH Financing, Women’s Health, and Hygiene in Health Care Services.

To achieve these priorities, WaterAid Liberia has chosen to use a digital media campaign. This is part of a mass media and outreach approach to influence and promote advocacy priorities, influence and create awareness towards better WASH outcomes in Liberia. With the increasing use of smartphones and social media, digital media campaigns will help WaterAid Liberia reach more people directly, fast, even in remote locations. The campaign can be tracked and evaluated in real-time, allowing for adjustments to be made as needed.

Goal

The goal of the consultancy is to expedite WaterAid’s pilot digital media campaign, which intends to utilize a digital platform to enhance awareness, disseminate information, and test how policy decisions can be influenced to ensure access to clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene. The campaign also aims to determine the feasibility of inducing behavioural change.

Objectives

The objectives of the consultancy are to:

• Utilize digital media platforms, including mobile phones, to convey appropriate messages to targeted people/groups in the government, NGOs, Civil Society Organizations, and the Government of Liberia WASH institutions
• Promote WaterAid Liberia’s Advocacy and Campaign efforts by creating public awareness on WASH, Health and nutrition through digital media campaigns
• Enhance visibility and advocacy efforts of WaterAid Liberia’s Country Programme, and national policies that can influence WASH management.
• Disseminate information about WaterAid Liberia’s work and reach over 30,000 people, providing them with information on WASH and nutrition, along with strategic knowledge

Scope

The digital media and influence campaign will be implemented at both national and subnational levels, with the aim of targeting key policymakers in the areas of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), Health, and Nutrition, as well as development partners and members of targeted communities in WaterAid project areas. The campaign will be carried out over a period of four months, starting from December 18, 2023.

Responsibilities

The firm shall host 30 messagescovering WASH, Health and Nutrition topics for 4 Months – December 18, 2023 – April 18, 2024.

In addition to hosting messages on its platform, the firm shall provide the following services in consultation with WaterAid:

• Prepare and facilitate content committee meetings for the creation of content and the platform decision tree(s) on IVR/SMS/USSD
• Structure the decision trees with input from WaterAid
• Assist with the creation of key messages, according to best practices and stylization guidance, in a format appropriate for mobile communication (usually 4-5 sentences) and SMS (160 characters or less).
• Translate and record the first draft of key messages for pre-testing
• Conduct pre-testing of key messages
• Integrate pre-testing feedback for IVR/SMS/USSD messages and re-record content
• Submit the finalized content to WaterAid, who will share it with the relevant institution for validation.
• Provide access to a live dashboard for real-time visualization of content usage data
• Host content on the agreed platform for a period of at least one year
• Provide a monthly performance report on digital media engagement
• Design and execute a comprehensive digital survey targeting specific WaterAid audiences and locations to assess their level of satisfaction, gather feedback on their opinions and concerns, and expand outreach efforts
• Provide digital platform usage and analysis skills training for designated WaterAid staff members and partners
• Utilize data analytics to design and execute targeted campaigns aimed at promoting behaviour change messages to specific audiences

Skills and competencies

• Have technology that can be easily scaled to reach and engage a larger audience, providing them with relevant information and encouraging them to adopt positive behavioural changes
• Potential to directly reach over 30,000 targeted audience in a single message broadcast
• Have a diverse, qualified and like-minded team to leverage cutting-edge technology that makes a direct impact both at a higher level and local level of society
• Demonstrate a proven track record of successful collaborations with reputable non-governmental organizations, corporations, and governmental bodies
• Possess a proven track record of executing comparable campaigns or projects, involving digital monitoring, training, surveys, and analysis of contemporary social issues such as health, water, sanitation, hygiene, or nutrition
• Demonstrate experience in developing data analysis tools and interpreting and simplifying data
• Proven record of evidence-based reasoning and data-driven approaches to making decision

Requirements

• Accredited or certified by a relevant authority to operate legally
• Fulfil all necessary tax obligations to comply with regulations
• Knowledge and experience in using statistical packages
• At least 10 years of relevant experience in digital media marketing

Application process and submission

Interested candidates are required to submit the following documentation:

• Technical and financial proposal with a specific focus addressing the purpose and objectives of the assignment
• Initial work plan based
• Company or individual profile or CV including a minimum of 3 references.
• Detailed budget breakdown
• The CVs of key support staff

The deadline for both Technical and Financial Proposals is 19th December 2023. Proposals should be submitted to recruitmentwli@wateraid.org The subject line of your email should read “Application –Digital WASH Media Campaign Consultancy.”

Note: The application will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Safeguarding

WaterAid has a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of abuse. We require our staff, partners, and service providers to share in this commitment to protect all individuals we interact with from exploitation, abuse, or harassment.

Report Concern to: safeguarding@wateraid.org; 231(0)776361417 or 231(0)886814640