Request for Proposals: Bulk SMS Services at Girl Effect
Job Overview
Request for Proposals: Bulk SMS Services
Girl Effect Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Remote 1 hour ago 16 applicants
Contract
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
Intended Timelines
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
Project end: Dec 5, 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
Reporting
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.
Evaluation Criteria
The criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are listed below:
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%
Technical and Financial proposals will need to be submitted as separate documents. Financial bids will not be opened until the technical evaluation and then only for those proposals deemed qualified and responsive.
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 “Tujibebe SMS” 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.
