ZGF is searching for a consultant/communications company to produce a 15 minute video documentary on the project entitled; Muchinga Pilot Project: Learning and Sharing event
Introduction and Background
With over years of grant making and capacity development support, to over 75 civil society organisations across the country, the Zambian Governance Foundation (ZGF) has gained significant insights into what works as well as what could be done better to promote the practice of policy engagement by civil society. By the end of 2012, it was clear that the approach and support tools used thus far to select Civil Society partners had not been effective in certain provinces. ZGF is therefore taking an even more proactive approach to equip Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) with the capacity to advance social accountability and policy engagement in the specific Affirmative Action provinces[1] from which few, if any, successful applications have to date been received. ZGF has also introduced new support tools (the Mini-Initiative Support grant and Imbuto Support facility) at a lower grant level and new approaches to capacity development. Of the four provinces, Muchinga Province presented as having the least civic and policy engagement activities – it has therefore been prioritised as the first area for piloting ZGF’s new strategy for the Affirmative Action provinces.
A theory of change for the Muchinga pilot project was developed and the goal of the work in Muchinga is to have “Active citizens that know, claim and secure their rights “
The following are the expected outcomes of the entire project:
CSOs carry out local social accountability and policy engagement work on their identified policy issue.
Vibrant community radio stations that provide information + spaces for engagement to increase social accountability.
More active citizens engaging duty bearers.
More responsive duty bearers.
ZGF has been working with 58 Civil Society Organisations and 2 Community Radio Stations (CRSs) in four district of Muchinga (Mpika, Chinsali, Isoka and Nakonde). The support has been in various forms; mentorship through the District Resource Persons (DRPs); trainings facilitated by ZGF members of staff, PSAM (through their Country lead) and other service providers; learning and sharing visits (Single Parents Association of Zambia visited Petauke District Land Alliance; Kasama Christian Community Care conducted a mentoring visit to God Visits Orphans); and learning and sharing events with one being held in January 2016.
The different forms of support have been used to identify organisations that have shown interest, understanding and commitment to carrying out social accountability initiatives as part of their service delivery work. Currently 7 CSOs and 2 CRSs have identified clear social accountability and policy engagement issues and have developed social accountability and policy engagement action plans for Imbuto Support. The implementation of the action plans is envisaged to create role models for the other 46 organisations that have been identified to learn from through learning and sharing opportunities.
As part of our efforts to achieve the listed outcomes above, ensure continued capacity development, networking as well as provide opportunities for learning and sharing among the CSOs in social accountability monitoring and policy engagement, ZGF facilitated a Learning and Sharing event in Muchinga province bringing together the 7 CSOs and 2 CRSs earmarked to receive Imbuto Support, and the other 46 CSOs.
The Learning and Sharing Event
The main objective of the event was to grow the demand for social accountability among Muchinga CSOs and the two CRSs in four districts of Muchinga Province. The event provided opportunity to:
Map 46 CBOs to understand what service delivery issues, if any, they are working on;
Increase ZGF’s understanding of the organisations and begin identifying more organisations that have service delivery issues they would like to work on/are working on through social accountability and policy engagement;
Catalyse a change in thinking in the 46 organisations so that they begin to see the link between service delivery and policy engagement and social accountability;
Promote the rights based approach to social accountability monitoring;
Promote the 9 Imbuto Support beneficiaries as models of how social accountability work can be done in Muchinga Province; and
Promote synergies among CSOs and CRSs operating in the same districts or working around similar service delivery issues.
Raise awareness on the importance of integrity in Social Accountability work (What is fraud?)
The event had approximately 60 participants and ran for 2 and a half days. It was highly participatory, ensuring everyone shared about their work and remained engaged during the entire event. Interactive methods were used to present and share information in the different sessions such as short presentations and group sessions, etc.
The first day focused on the mapping of 36 CSOs to create a baseline of their social accountability and policy engagement work and to understand what they have been doing since their last interactions with the ZGF-facilitated DRPs in 2014. The questions for the session were drawn from the mapping questionnaire that had been developed for the mapping visits. During the learning, the 8 CSOs and 1 CRS (Mpika FM had not submitted the Action Plan) shortlisted to receive Imbuto support were supported to finalise their Action Plans.
The second day (Day 2) continued with more mapping. When that was done, focus was shifted to introducing the Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) to Social Accountability and Policy Engagement through what was referred to as “The Conversation,” a lively discussion on the HRB approach which Laura did. The organisations participated in some group work.
The CSOs and CRSs shortlisted to receive Imbuto Support were given an opportunity to share their experiences on their organisations, their service delivery work and the link to service delivery issues and now social accountability work. They were able to share what problems they used to work on, how they used to work on the problems, what trainings and support they received from ZGF and PSAM and how that has changed the way they do their work.
On the third day, DOPE – a grant partner of ZGF – made a presentation similar to that of the CBOs and CRSs shortlisted and provided inspiration for the rest. The rest of the day was spent with a focus on the way forward with the 46 organisations having an opportunity to identify service delivery issues they can relate to and develop action plans for immediate steps they will be ready to take as part of their social accountability work.
Responsibilities of the consultant
The entire event was documented by one of our staff members with video footage for almost every minute. The consultant will need to:
Create a short but detailed 15 minute (maximum) long documentary from the raw footage that can tell a good story of the work going on in Muchinga;
Make human truths emerge through video—not just verbal description.
The goal of the documentary is to highlight the following;
To document the baseline data; that is the perceptions and work focus of the 36 organisations before social accountability monitoring is introduced by ZGF and PSAM.
The efforts and progress made with the selected CBOs and CRSs after closely working with them.
The consultant is therefore expected to:
To hold preparation discussion with project team on preparation of the videos.
Edit the provided footage and put together a workable documentary video as part of the documentation of the project.
To record narration and prepare background music and supporting footage (if needed) for the video.
Include English subtitles to ensure accurate translation.
To submit a draft documentary for final feedback by project team.
To produce the finalised documentary reflective of the feedback given
To produce and submit a soft copy of the documentary.
To produce and submit a minimum of 3 DVD copies.
Application process
We invite interested consultants/companies to submit the following application documents to zgf@zgf.org.zm and copy to: zgf@zgf.org.zm and CC info@zgf.org.zm or deliver hard copies to the Zambian Governance Foundation premises at 9 Mansansa Close, off Bwijinfumu Road by the 24th March 2016.
Expression of interest clearly expressing proposed activity schedule/work plan with time frame and cost of production;
CV of technical personnel proposed for this project highlighting qualifications and experience in similar projects.
[1] Affirmative Action (AA) Provinces are those that have been identified as having many/all districts were ZGF Grant Partners are neither located nor working; having low CSO activity (Number of applicants from the 3 calls for proposals); Remote districts with little social and other infrastructure.