Request for Proposals: Bulk SMS Services at Girl Effect - Tanzania
Who We Are
Girl Effect is an international non-profit that builds media
that girls want, trust and need. From chatbots to chat shows, and TV
dramas to tech, our content helps adolescent girls in Africa and Asia
make choices and changes in their lives.
We create safe spaces for girls, sharing facts and answering questions
about health, nutrition, education, and relationships, empowering girls
with the skills to negotiate and redefine what they are told is possible
"for a girl".
Our reach is 50 million and counting. And we're using technology to
reach girls at scale so every girl can choose to be in control of her
body, health, learning and livelihood.
Because when a girl unlocks her power to make different choices that
change her life, it inspires others to do so too. She starts a ripple
effect that impacts her family, community, and country.
That's the Girl Effect.
The Brand:
Tujibebe is a mobile-first digital brand that provides young
Tanzanian girls with the information and the inspiration they need to
make choices about their health, learning and livelihood- from setting
up a small business, saving for the future, speaking up about body concerns, and visiting a health centre.
Meaning "let's lift ourselves up, together" in Swahili, Tujibebe brings
young people together to overcome life's challenges and realize their
ambitions.
Tujibebe's content is accessible online whether girls own or borrow a
mobile phone - connecting with girls via a radio drama, radio chat show,
interactive audio stories, social media and IVR channels.
Tujibebe's Ambitions:
We have ambitious plans for Tujibebe and its role in creating
irreversible change for Tanzanian girls. To achieve this ultimate goal,
we need to reach mass scale and mass acceptance. This means increasing
our brand awareness throughout society, increasing our connection with
girls on the ground, working directly with local community radio
stations within their community, and piloting our girl networks
initiative in the future.
At the same time, we are beginning to transition to a new core audience
of young women (18 - 24-year-old girls with a bullseye on 18*), a shift
that will allow us to tackle broader SRH themes in line with our
discussion with the government. This is alongside a deepening focus on
economic readiness, economic empowerment and encouraging savings
behaviour in young women across Tanzania. By equipping and inspiring
girls to make positive economic choices and access financial services
and economic opportunities, we will open up new economic opportunities
for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW).
The Context for this Call for Proposals :
Tujibebe is currently running a campaign that is a continuation of our theme from Season 2 - Shining Through Every Change
- because our new older audience is also going through changes i.e
transitioning to adulthood and our proposition is for them to shine
through this transition by making the best choices as it pertains to
their sexual reproductive health and economic readiness. We want 18-24
year old girls to become aware that Tujibebe is a brand that focuses on
them and their concerns.
The campaign runs across six community radios in Iringa, Mbeya, Dar es
Salaam, Kagera, Moshi, and Tujibebe's social media channels. We now want
to add another distribution channel - SMSs, to ensure that messaging
reaches our rural communities, including the Northern and Lake Zones.
Objective:
We are looking for a partner to help reach our audience of
adolescent girls and young women - ages 18 to 24 through SMSs -
messaging blasts plus the ability to receive messages back from our
audience on the same number.
Deliverables:
- A shortcode that can be used to send and receive SMS.
- Schedule and send out 2 messages per week per region identified across Tanzania. The SMS should reach at least 10k people in each region specified. The proposal should include the cost of sending SMS blasts to ALL target audiences segmented below.
- SMS delivery is to be segmented by age and gender alongside geography
- Age - 18 to 24
- Gender - Women
- Locations - Iringa, Mbeya, Dar es Salaam, Kagera, Mwanza, Moshi
- SMS blasts to cover as many service providers as possible. The SMS blasts should cover a minimum of 70% of the available audience. A few we have identified as having a large youth demographic are -Tigo, Vodacom and Airtel
- Deliver weekly/monthly reports on SMS Blasts performance, which must include, at the minimum, the following -
- Number of SMSs sent
- SMSs opened/ read
- Number of audiences that have sent an SMS back to the same number
- The above broken down further by
- Demographic breakdown
- Geographic breakdown
- Network breakdown
- Terms of reference published: Oct 12, 2022
- Questions/Clarification Deadline: Oct 14, 2022
- Deadline for responses: Oct 17, 2022
- Deadline for proposal submission: Oct 18, 2022
- Supplier selection, contracting and briefing:Oct 20, 2022
- Project commencement: Oct 31, 2022
Proposal submissions:
Your proposal, should you be interested (Max 10 pages), should cover
- Your understanding of the brief and why you feel you are well placed to deliver on the requirements.
- Credentials - Please showcase any previous work that you consider to be relevant to what we are trying to achieve and how we approach our work, and the audience that we cater to
- Detailed reference list indicating the scope and magnitude of similar assignments
- Company Data Protection and Privacy Policies
- Details of your SMS platform - including and not limited to the below –
- Age breakdown
- Gender breakdown
- Locations breakdown
- Breakdown of Costs including (and not limited to) agency costs, SMS blast costs, rate cards for both toll free and non toll free short codes etc.
- Timelines
- Sample Reporting structure
This engagement will be managed by a member of Girl Effect Tanzania's Create team, who will work with the successful supplier to ensure its timely and thorough execution.
- Technical Evaluation
- Technical approach - Understanding and interpretation of the TOR - 10%
- Qualification and experience - Demonstrated experience working with a gender and age lens people - 20%
- Organizational capabilities - Showcase work done previously with significant/impactful delivery and results -20%
- Data Protection/Integrity - 20%
- Financial Evaluation
- Value for money/proposed budget breakdown - 30%
Evaluation Criteria
The criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are listed below:
Please note that Girl Effect is not liable for any cost incurred during the award/contract preparation, submission, or negotiation of the award/contract. All submitted documentation and/or materials shall become and remain the property of Girl Effect.
VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for 90 days from the date of bid closure.
How To Apply
To apply for this opportunity, please submit a proposal by email with the subject line "TujibebeSMS" to suppliers@girleffect.org by October 18th 5:00 PM EAT.
Prospective respondents who may have questions regarding this RFP may submit their enquiries to the same address provided by October 14th 5:00 PM EAT.
Tax
Applicants are advised to ensure that they clearly understand their tax position regarding local jurisdiction tax legislation provisions when developing their proposals.
Disclaimer
Girl Effect reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party. Girl Effect shall inform the ONLY successful applicant(s). The process of negotiation and signing of the contract with the successful applicant(s) will follow.
Safeguarding
You may be required to undertake safeguarding checks. The successful applicant will be expected to adhere to our safeguarding and data policies. We encourage you to read and understand our safeguarding policy, the executive summary of which can be found Here We have zero tolerance for all forms of violence against children, beneficiaries and staff.
Equal Opportunities
Girl Effect is committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal-opportunity workplace.
We are committed to building an organization that is increasingly representative of, and works extensively with, the communities that we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to procuring consultancy service organizations and individuals with diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds.
