Consultancy- Content development of SBCC Strategy for the SHARE Program At Right To Play

1. BACKGROUND TO THE ORGANIZATION

Right To Play is a global organization that protects, educates and empowers children to rise above adversity using play. Established in 2000, Right To Play has pioneered a unique play-based approach to learning and development, focusing on quality education, life skills, health, gender equality, child protection and building peaceful communities. With programming in 16 countries, Right To Play transforms the lives of more than 2.3 million children each year, both inside and outside the classroom. Right To Play’s programs advance girls’ empowerment and gender equality by championing girls’ voices and their rights to equality, education, dignity and safety. Teachers, parents and community members are engaged in gender equality, supporting them to reduce harmful gender norms and barriers to girls’ education and empowerment at home, in school and their communities. Programs operate in both development and humanitarian settings and in partnership with communities and government partners. Right To Play is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and London, UK and operates in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Our programs are facilitated by more than 600 international staff and 31,900 local teachers and coaches. For more information, follow @RightToPlayIntl and visit www.righttoplay.com.

SHARE Program Overview

The Sexual Health and Reproductive Education (SHARE) program is a five-year, CAD 36.69M program funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC). Designed as a gender-transformative, human-rights progressive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) program, SHARE’s ultimate outcome is to increase the enjoyment of health-related human rights by adolescent girls and young women in Ghana, Mozambique, and Uganda. SHARE is implemented as a consortium led by Right To Play (RTP), in collaboration with WaterAid, the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), and technical partner FHI 360. SHARE’s ultimate outcome will be achieved through action on three interrelated pillars, mainly targeting adolescent girls and young women by:

1. Increasing the use of gender-responsive SRHR information and services.

2. Improving the delivery of gender-responsive services to address adolescent SRHR needs; and

3. Enhancing social action by key stakeholders to advocate for adolescent-friendly, gender-responsive SRHR services and policies.

The SHARE program identifies Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) as one of the core strategies contributing to improved equitable use of gender-responsive sexual reproductive health information and services by adolescents, young women, and men. The SBCC strategy will provide a comprehensive approach that responds to the SRHR information needs of the target population in all program implementation areas. The strategy will develop themes for all messages and specific activities for delivering the messages and outline plans for monitoring and evaluating the strategy.

The strategy will be evidence-based and uses the SHARE program theory of change as its conceptual foundation, i.e., it acknowledges the influence of interpersonal relationships, community norms, and the broader environment on adolescents’ and young people’s SRHR and their health behaviour. The strategy development will follow a standard process beginning with situation analysis and literature review, progressing through the design, development and pretesting of messages and materials.

The SBCC approach follows a systematic process to analyze the local problem/s to define critical barriers and motivators to change and design and implement comprehensive interventions to support and encourage positive behaviours. The process will follow a participatory approach where adolescents and young people are engaged from the design stage to implementation, monitoring and evaluation to ensure that their needs are addressed adequately. Adolescents and young people are a diverse group with diverse needs, and the strategy development process will ensure that the needs of the most vulnerable groups, such as out-of-school adolescents/youth, children in labour, married adolescents, adolescents/youth with disabilities, etc. are identified and included in the strategy. The strategy will also identify secondary audiences, such as parents, teachers, community leaders, and religious leaders, which can effectively promote social and behavioural change.

Objectives of the SBCC Strategy The main objectives of the SBCC strategy are: • To promote and improve knowledge about adolescents and young people’s SRH Rights and Services in all social groups • To support acceptability and community awareness to create enabling environment for SRHR information and education to adolescents and young people • To enhance demand for and access to SRH services among all adolescents and young people • To strengthen the mobilization of provincial/district and community resources to increase the SRHR information and services.

2. CONSULTANCY TASK DESCRIPTION

The SHARE program is in its first year of implementation, and a Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) expert is needed to work closely with Right To Play and consortium partners in Toronto and SHARE program countries. Social and Behavioral Change Communication (SBCC) principles will be incorporated throughout the program to encourage adolescents, young people, their parents/caretakers and other community members to apply this information to improve gender-responsive SRHR information and services. Communication products will be developed through an iterative process that will include several rounds of development, field testing, and revision. The consultant(s) will contribute to each of these phases. The SBCC consultant(s) will:

1. Lead formative research in each country, including desk review and stakeholder consultations, to gather context-specific information about barriers and enablers to SRHR behavioural change and identify appropriate channels and implementation modalities.
2. Consultation with local key stakeholder organizations concerning current strategies and programs, priorities, constraints and opportunities
3. Develop an SBCC strategy with well-defined objectives in consultation with internal and external stakeholders and sectors involved in SRHR programming. The strategy design process is participatory, outcome-oriented and gender-transformative resulting in a comprehensive SBCC strategy, including a set of core communication objectives disaggregated by the audience, program delivery strategies and project communication branding.
4. Drafting, revision and presentation of the SBCC strategy document in consultation with RTP and active collaboration with consortium partners
5. Draft SBCC messages or adjust if available for various target audiences in line with the results of the formative research
6. Pre-test SBCC messages among the target audience
7. Training RTP and consortium members on the implementation of the SBCC strategy
8. Submission of the final report and all deliverables.

3. DELIVERABLES

The consultant(s) will deliver the following: a) An inception report b) Formative assessment report c) Final edited SBC strategy d) SBCC training package e) Final consultancy report

4. TIME FRAME

The anticipated start date for the consultancy is August 29th, 2022, and the contract duration is projected for five (5) months.

5. SUPERVISORY ARRANGEMENTS

The consultant(s) will work closely with and report to the Global Programs teams. The consultant(s) and the relevant Right To Play project team will meet as per agreed timings at various stages of the consultancy period.

6. SKILLS AND EXPERIENCES

• Advanced degree in health promotion, health communication or public health

• Experience in carrying out at least 3 SBCC strategy development with at least two as lead consultant

• Experience working in sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender equality and inclusion, as well as women’s rights, and experience in integrating these practices and principles into SBCC

• Extensive experience in qualitative research methodologies

• Knowledge and experience working with community outreach and educational programs

• Fluency in English is a requirement

• Excellent cross-cultural communication skills

• The ability to work closely in a team, be patient, adaptable, flexible and able to improvise.

7. THE SELECTION PROCESS

RTP requires a sample of prior similar work done/led by the consultant(s) so as to determine the level of the consultant’s expertise and experience, as well as a two-page proposal on how the consultant(s) will conduct this consultancy, including a timeline and methodology. Once the consultant(s) is on board, their first deliverable will be to develop a more detailed inception report outlining the methodology and conceptual framework. The consultancy will be for a total duration of no more than 30 days. The financial offer should therefore be made based on this information.

8. CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION

a) All documents and data collected will be treated as confidential and used solely to facilitate analysis.

b) Where necessary, the respondents will not be quoted in the reports without their permission.

c) All those contracted by Right To Play must agree to sign and abide by the Child Protection Policy and Code of conduct and property rights policies.