Target Business Consultants Plc: Terms of Reference for A Media Production for a Behavioral Change Campaign

The Plan of Action is a 6-years plan that will include policy reforms on the macro-level, on the demand side (including interventions on 11 prioritized sectors), on the supply side to improve the levels of human capital in Ethiopia as well as on linkages to improve the functioning of the labor market. In this proposal, key components of this Plan that will directly be implemented and/or facilitated by the Jobs Creation Commission are detailed and explained. All these interventions are drawn from the Plan of Action for Job Creation and are aligned with the strategic objectives and priorities of the federal government of Ethiopia and include:

• Ensuring sectoral and macroeconomic policies are optimized to become pro-jobs or high job yielding
• Building capacity of different institutions to deliver the interventions of the Plan of Action and to improve the delivery and the implementation of the job creation agenda and priorities in general
• Strengthening the systems necessary for the delivery of public services linked to job creation (employment services, collection of data and understanding of the labor market, career development services, matching services, etc.)
• Expanding economic opportunities through the promotion of inclusiveness in the labor market and facilitating and promoting innovation to unleash the potential of different economic agents.
• Developing the private sector as the main engine for job creation through effective support to Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), in order to ensure the creation of formal and quality jobs for the new entrants to the labor market

About Mastercard Foundation 

•The Mastercard Foundation works with visionary organizations to enable young people in Africa and in Indigenous communities in Canada to access dignified and fulfilling work.  It is one of the largest, private foundations in the world with a mission to advance learning and promote financial inclusion to create an inclusive and equitable world. The Foundation was created by Mastercard in 2006 as an independent organization with its own Board of Directors and management. For more information on the Foundation, please visit: www.mastercardfdn.org

About  Enabling Ethiopia Project

• Enabling Ethiopia project is a three years initiative between MOLS and the   the Mastercard Foundation designed to improve youth employment opportunities through the implementation of  six key components:
• Adopting Job rich policies: Alignment of policies with the Plan of Action’s Visions and Objectives including revision the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises(MSME) strategy;
• Building and strengthening capacity: Fully embedding a ‘One Plan. One Report’ approach in Jobs Creation and building the delivery capacity of regional and sub-regional bodies
• Establishing and strengthening systems: Building a data-rich environment for employment services (LMIS);
• Building a labor market resource mapping and optimization: ensuring sufficient resources are directed towards meeting job creation
• Creating the next generation of high growth entrepreneurs in Ethiopia & Expanding Economic opportunities and inclusiveness: Large scale market-oriented upskilling work-readiness program along with inclusive innovation solutions in job creation
• Encouraging Entrepreneurship: through behavioral change and direct support though grants and competitions.
• About Target Business Consultant PLC(Target)

Target is a consulting firm established in 2004 for the provision of consulting services in business, finance, and organizational development.  It also provides business outsourcing services including fund management, payroll, and payment management services. Target is  provides service to the Enabling Ethiopia Project of MOLS as a Fund Manager. It  is responsible for handling the process of procurement of service, hiring service providers and effect payment for the service provided as per the approval of its performance of the assignment by the Enabling Ethiopia, MOLS project. 

2.  RATIONAL

Culture/Perception

According to a study on wage workers and graduates in eastern Ethiopia, 69% indicated their plans to be employees in governmental or private organizations whereas 31% showed a preference for self-employment, with more males preferring self-employment. The reasons for the strong desire to be wage employed comes from the fear to fail (due to high risk of doing business) and job security due to financial expectation from family members and/or societal expectation e.g. marriage, buying houses, etc.

In Ethiopia, there is negative perception of following unconventional career paths such as entrepreneurship as well as failure from it. There is limited understanding in the society that business gets established and most of the time might fail, as such most people do not want to pursue entrepreneurship. There is also lack of information about the business opportunity of knowledge-based or technology-enabled ideas and limited confidence that it can be done in Ethiopia. This is coupled by limited awareness about finance sources for those activities.

Solving major hindrances of entrepreneurs ingrained in traditions and cultures, requires comprehensive short-term and medium-term solutions. These include

• Behavioural change messaging using mainstream media and social media targeting at job seekers/aspiring entrepreneurs and their families and communities. These messages will need to challenge basic societal assumptions and encourage risk-taking and entrepreneurial competencies by targeting

• Individuals: Highlighting life struggle, failure and success, tenacity, opportunity maximization and creativity and innovation at each life and educational stages
• Families: focusing on the kinds of positive behaviours families should have and the supports they should offer to encourage innovation, risk taking, and creativity of young people, and
• Communities: to ensure the resourcefulness and comprehensive support and care communities should provide to aspiring entrepreneurs

• Promoting success stories and developing role-models who will help in inspiring young people and changing the mindset, and their perception of entrepreneurship.

Innovation Economy and its Opportunity

The top 10 valuable companies in the world today with the exception of one—Saudi Aramco, an oil company—are technology companies, most of them established in the last 30 years. All of them are driven by unique innovations that, in the last few decades, have ushered in a whole new way of creating value and employment: The Innovation Economy. The availability of capital and natural resources had in the past driven employment and economic growth but due to the accelerating growth in the availability and accessibility of technology, it has become possible to perform effective research and development, produce better products and services, and create new ones. The challenge, which is really an opportunity, for today’s Ethiopian youth is how to make the most of the Innovation Economy.

With knowledge, technology and entrepreneurship millions of Ethiopian youth can carve out their own future in the Innovation Economy. Even those with limited academic preparation can develop skills and knowledge using a plethora for online and offline resource available through their mobile phones. Using their mobile phones, they can ideate, prototype and market any service or product they wish to pursue. An entrepreneurial mindset, however, may not readily be available as mobile phones. Thus, it is important that the youth are encouraged to cultivate entrepreneurial mindsets, a critical step that will spur them to leverage knowledge and technology towards a rewarding participation in the Innovation Economy.

3. OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

General objective

• To serve as an introductory gateway for a series of messages the MOLS aims to disseminate to Ethiopian youth and their families to embrace entrepreneurship towards value creation and employment.
• Revising aspirations & perceptions of youth that have traditional ways of seeking to achieve their goals and securing wage employment through traditional way over entrepreneurship. The message should focus on deemphasizing the perceived prestige attached to wage employment and extoling the virtues of entrepreneurships in light of to changing labour dynamics today.

Specific Objective

• Educate youth about the Innovation Economy and how that is shaping the world around them through changing labour dynamics and the future of work, and
• Inspire and goad youth towards entrepreneurship leveraging the proliferation of knowledge made available through accessible technology
• Reassure youth and their families that seeking entrepreneurship route to employment and economic independence does not in any way constitute an inferior way of life
• Encourage youth towards risk taking, experimentation and failure by removing taboos associated with “failure” in business and enterprise
• Promote gender re-balancing in youth employment telling families to create access to girls as much as boys to resources to engage in entrepreneurship

4.          SCOPE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

Production Theme and Messaging

• The suggested theme of the messaging shall be “Your future is in your hands”.  However, a more creative wording/phrasing is welcomed focusing on the central idea of the theme. The central idea behind the theme shall be the youth can create their future—their own way to employment—through entrepreneurship in the Innovation Economy which only requires their use of their minds and technology.
• The Message has to tell the 30 million strong young workforces that knowledge is supreme, and a way out of poverty and hopelessness. It has to tell youth that they hold a gift, their youth, could be innovate and set out to solve problems. They disregard traditional ways of earning a living; ought to define their own path being entrepreneurs. They are liberated.
• The message shall also include families.  It has to tell them that it is a great gift they can give their child when they support all forms of earning a dignified living devoid of preconceived associations of the prestige that comes with wage employment. This means they encourage enterprise. They open new forms of learning. They encourage experimentation and failure. They introduce their young ones to useful technology early on.

Target audience

• Youth: the message should include the entire spectrum of youth that are currently enrolled in educational institutions, high school/college dropouts, young job seekers with little or no experience in the labour market, young workers already in employment Youth. Thus, it should focus in the aged 15-29.
• Families: parents and extended family members who have strong say in creating access to finance, knowledge and technology towards goading and supporting youth towards entrepreneurship

5.EXPECTED OUTPUTS/DELIVERABLES

A total of at least 11 unique audio-visual media and social media content using the following modalities at the minimum,

• 1 video from each region, i.e. Amhara, Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella, Harari, Somali, Afar, SNNPR, Sidama and SWEPR.
• Each video should be in the regional working language with Amharic and English sub-titles where necessary:
•  Each video must contain a direct messages and short-profiles of youths from above regions who have perused entrepreneurship to success and can be role models for others.

• A short list of selected entrepreneurs must be prepared by the service provider and sent to MoLS for comments and approval before production.
• A story board shall be developed and discussed with MoLS before production.
• Each video story must contain the entrepreneur’s challenges and struggles to success, and message to others
• Draft version of videos must be sent to MoLS for comments and approval

•  Each video must be 1 minute in length
• Each video must contain logos of Ministry of Labor and Skills and Mastercard Foundation
• The video production must be submitted in HD and web-standard file format

• All videos must be converted to audio media for radio transmission purposes.
• A digital poster must be developed for each video (i.e. for each entrepreneur) for social media distribution

• The posters shall be developed in the respective region’s local language, in Amharic and in English
• The original design file shall be shared with MoLS for comments and approval

All contents should be made for TV, radio and social media platforms. TV and radio content should aim for prime-time advertising slots.

6. Delivery time

The expected service delivery maybe organized around 2 phases with maximum of no more than 6 weeks to the deliver the first production. The service provider has to indicate a clear time frame for each phase of the assignment.

•Pre-production—1-2 weeks

•Production—1-4 weeks

 Delivery time

The expected service delivery maybe organized around 2 phases with maximum of no more than 6 weeks to the deliver the first production. The service provider has to indicate a clear time frame for each phase of the assignment.

•Pre-production—1-2 weeks

•Production—1-4 weeks

Work setting

The work setting for the assignment will include different aspects:

Timing and duration of the assignment

The duration of the contract will be 2 months and the expected starting date is 15^th of July 2022.

Briefing/debriefing arrangements

A first meeting/conference call will be scheduled on the first day for the MoLS team to brief the firm on the background information to develop each of the requested deliverables.

Reporting relationships and identification of responsibility for assessment of the services/outputs

The company will work in close consultation and under the supervision of the MoLS Project Lead. They will follow up the design process answering questions related to the documents. The Project Lead of the project in consultation with the MoLS’s and Mastercard Foundation’s  Communication team will assess the services and outputs of the firm.

6. PAYMENT SCHEDULE AND TIMELINE

Deliverables Deadline

20^th August 2022         - Inception report                                          - 30%

30^th September 2022   - Final Report, submitting all final productions - 70%

7.          REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Vendor should demonstrate and provide examples of previous experience in the performance of similar services as follows:

• A registered media production company with a strong portfolio of audio-visual productions in Ethiopia and/or a registered TV station, operating in Ethiopia, with in-house production studio and facilities
• The media company should have had a minimum of 2 years of operation in Ethiopia and proof of substantial reach and audience appropriateness is required.
• Previous work in production of animation advertisement is a plus

Requirement

• A registered media production company with a strong portfolio of audio-visual productions in Ethiopia and/or a registered TV station, operating in Ethiopia, with in-house production studio and facilities
• The media company should have had a minimum of 2 years of operation in Ethiopia and proof of substantial reach and audience appropriateness is required.
• Evidence of ability to mobilize appropriate ambassador celebrities for a social cause at minimal cost for the services rendered.
• Willingness to share part of the cost of production and/or broadcasting pro bono as part of a social corporate responsibility is highly welcomed.
• Previous work in production of behavioural change campaign messaging is a plus

Preparation and Submission of Proposal

The proposal consists of two parts: a Technical Proposal and a Cost/Financial Proposal.  Each part shall be placed in a separate sealed package marked with the name of the offeror and labelled “Technical proposal for Media Production for a Behavioral Change Campaign” or “Financial proposal for Media Production for a Behavioral Change Campaign.” as appropriate.  (If desired, both sealed packages can be enclosed within a larger single package.) 

Both the Technical Proposal and the Financial Proposal shall contain a letter of offer signed by an authorized individual that also indicates the names and contact information for individuals authorized to negotiate on behalf of the firm.

Preparation of the Technical Proposal

Proposals will be evaluated according to the criteria in this ToR, and therefore the Technical Proposal to be submitted should include the following information.

• A brief description of the Firm, including its organizational set-up, financial status, manpower, etc.;
• A discussion of work done for similar clients and works, with a list of current references; should be also supported with certificate of engagement. Sample previous production shall be submitted.
• The methodology to be employed, the work plan, and the structure of the technical team to be used to execute the assignment.
• The composition of the team of personnel which the service provider firm will provide and the tasks and the duration of work to be assigned to each member.
• As part of the technical proposal the service provider is required to submit detail activity plan per milestone or deliverables. 

 Preparation of the Financial Proposal

• All prices should be quoted in Ethiopian birr.
• a “fixed-price per unit of production” should be a basis for preparation of the financial proposal.  However, should an offeror feel that a different basis might be more mutually advantageous; it is welcome to submit a financial proposal, enclosed in the same envelope, prepared on the alternative basis.
• The sheet containing the summary of costs shall be signed and dated by an authorized individual. 
• Consulting Firms who are interested in the work shall submit their offers together with a bid bond in the form of Cash Payment Order (CPO) by the name ‘’ Target Business Consultants PLC’’ for a lump sum amount of Birr 10,000.  This bid bond will be returned to unsuccessful bidders immediately

8. OFFER VALIDITY

Tenders shall remain bound by their tenders for a period of 45 days starting from the closing date for the submission of the tenders.  Any change to a tender during this period (Financial, Technical proposals, etc.) may disqualify the tender concerned, at the sole discretion of Target Business Consultant.  Bidders are responsible for identifying the scope of work and for preparing their bids accordingly.

9.  BID EVALUATION AND AWARD

Evaluation of tenders will be made in two steps that include Technical and Financial evaluations. Technical Evaluation is given weight of 70% while the financial proposal shall be weighted 30%.

Technical Evaluation:

• Technical proposal shall be evaluated using the following criteria:
• The Firm’s organizational adequacy, professional reputations and general experience in the field of assignment; (10%)
• Past performance references and supporting documents; (10%)
• The adequacy and quality of the proposed approach, methodology, understanding of the service required, work plan (completion time and program) and staff schedule; (20%)
• The qualification and competence of the personnel proposed for the services to be undertaken and the Firm’s ability to perform the assignment with its own personnel and Equipment. (30%)

Financial Evaluation:

• Only firms whose technical proposal score high among the bidders will be considered for the financial evaluation. (30%)
• The financial proposal shall show the payment schedule and advance payment request requires a performance bound guaranty. 
• Proposed costs will be reviewed for reasonableness.  Please note that Target Business Consultants is not necessarily bound by any of the firms submitting proposals. Further, as quality is the principal selection criterion, selection will be based on the principle of “best value,” and Target Business Consultants does not bind itself in any way to select the firm offering the lowest price

10. SUBMISSION

Interested bidders should submit their technical and financial proposals on or before July 20 2022 on 2:00 pm, to the following address: -

Target Business Consultants Plc

N/Lafot Sub City,  Lebu mebrat Shoa supermarket 3rd floor

Tel +251 911 726996, +251 116 636645

Woderyelesh@targetethiopi.com 

Addis Ababa Ethi opia

Target Business Consultants PLC reserves the right to reject any or all offers.