Public Relations -PR- Company to Promote Community Actions to Change Gender Discriminatory Social Norms and Gender Stereotypes

Opportunity Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In Kosovo, UN Women has worked since 1999 to foster gender equality, women’s empowerment and make gender equality central to the work of other UN agencies in Kosovo. UN Women contributed to the existing legislation on gender equality and women’s empowerment and to the establishment of gender mechanisms at local and central levels. In 2002, UN Women facilitated the development and later the implementation of the National Action Plan for the Achievement of Gender Equality which set an example for similar action plans on gender equality in Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia. Importantly for Kosovo, UN Women has also promoted to governments and civil society women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution, decision-making and to ensure their access to justice.

Inhabitants of rural areas and female-led households are disproportionality affected by poverty, indicating that these groups are at risk of being left behind on SDG1.2 Groups subject to discrimination, especially the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities, as well as youth, women and disabled people, are also facing greater risks either through long-term unemployment, participation in the grey economy, low salaries, and lack of opportunities to generate alternative income sources. Furthermore, among women participating in the labor market, unemployment rates are higher than those of men. These problems are well recognized and increasing women’s participation in the labor market should become a public policy priority.

To this end, current project’s “Response to Covid-19 Emergency and Early Recovery Support” gender responsive approach will be guided by the UN’s Eight Point Agenda – SC 1325, Transform Government to Deliver for Women and Gender Equality. Interventions will take into consideration the disparate impacts of the pandemic on women and men, how it affects service delivery and access to services, areas where women are particularly marginalized including access to justice (such as property ownership, inheritance, access to finance, family law). The project will attempt to deconstruct genderbased discrimination that hinders women’s access to services, contributing to creating an environment that embraces women’s rights and addresses their needs in an equitable manner. To address some of these needs, UN Women jointly with UNDP, is implementing a project “Response to COVID-19 Emergency and early recovery support “focusing on the enhancement of the provision of social services by CSW and improve access to equitable, qualitative, integrated social protection for the most vulnerable groups, including women and girls. The Action is part of IPA II – 2014-2020 EU4 Social protection following the coronavirus.

Opportunity structure

Objectives of the assignment

As mentioned above, to implement the activities, UN Women plans to engage a local Public Relation Company which has relevant expertise to follow up on the objective of the Project on promoting community actions to change gender-discriminatory social norms and gender stereotypes. In order to tackle these issues, several activities and campaigns will be implemented to address gender equality gap and to encourage women victims/survivors of domestic violence to speak up and reach out for help. Secondary objective is increased visibility of UN Women mandate, and Donor Visibility Recognition, namely increased EU Visibility.

Two tailor-made campaigns will be developed: one campaign will focus on challenging prevailing social norms and concepts on women and their roles, and will aim to inspire men to engage in balancing the burden of unpaid care work; the second campaign will focus on women’s empowerment in general with the goal of challenging discriminatory norms and values and gender stereotypes.

All activities implemented by the selected PR Company, and all products produced within the asignment need to be in line with UN Women Branding and Visibility Guidelines, as well as with European Union Visibility Guidelines, through the “Joint Visibility guidelines for EC-UN Actions in the field.“

As part of the visibility activities to be undertaken the aim is at building strong awareness among relevant audiences about the objectives, activities and accomplishment of the project, the role of EU, partner organizations and the impact of this cooperation.

Project actvites on which PR Company need to cover and promote, are as follows:

1. Women’s economic engagement in response to the pandemic:
2. Support service providers from institutional mechanisms, shelters for protection of domestic violence survivors and NGOs with gender responsive training
3. Promote community actions to change gender-discriminatory social norms and gender stereotypes.
4. Establish mobile clinics to facilitate and increase access to rights-based services and to social, health and employment benefit schemes particularly for women, the elderly, and children and those from minorities.

Duties which are required from the PR Company, will be under the direct supervision of UN Women Project Manager through UN Women Head of Office, and in direct coordination and collaboration with UN Women Communication Assistance of the respective project. The selected PR Company in Kosovo will perform services outlined below but not limited to:

1. Provide a high level of visibility to the Project through public information outreech including press and media upon major initiatives / milestones of the project.

• Cover launching events of the project.
• Continuously take photos at each event organized within the timeframe of the project.
• Produce creative slogans and taglines that promote the activities of the project throughout the timeframe of the project.
• Covering opening ceremonies for the activities (online event is an alternative).
• Covering gathering and community engagement events (online event is an alternative).
• Branding the minivan (concept available)

2. Designing and implementing:

• one (1) awareness campaign that aimsto focus on women’s economic empowerment in general with the goal of challenging discriminatory norms and values.
• one (1) awareness campaign that aims to challenge prevailing social norms and concept on women and their roles and to inspire men to engage in balancing the burden of unpaid care work.

3. Produce 2 videos:

• one to include success stories of grant-winning women who lead MSME affected by the pandemic
• one focusing on facilitating access to supplementary services through mobile clinics.

4. Other possible communication products and activities as per the project needs, such as organizing publicity/public information outreach including press, media conference upon major initiatives/milestones of the project, press releases, media interviews, photo opportunities, newspaper, and other features.

Scope of work, consistent with the budget

Two tailor-made campaigns will be developed: one campaign will focus on challenging prevailing social norms and concept on women and their roles and will aim to inspire men to engage in balancing the burden of unpaid care work; the second campaign will focus on women’s economic empowerment in general with the goal of challenging discriminatory norms and values. The campaigns will be implemented through online and traditional media channels, including billboards, to reach rural areas; it is estimated that approximately 200,000 persons will be reached through these campaigns. The intervention also foresees a series of on-line trainings and/or webinars which will highlight the causes of gender discrimination, to be provided for young men and women. The aim is to provide positive role models and examples of gender equality in practice, including guidance and support in challenging gender stereotypes. The action is comprised of a set of interlinked interventions:

• Work with boys to educate them from an early age on non-violent expressions of masculinity, oriented towards equality and respect by promoting sustained school-based, sports-based or peer-to-peer education interventions that promote life skills and support healthy and caring ways of being a man;
• Develop a campaign which brings together the school system and technology education firms to develop on-line training material;
• Use digital channels to distribute gender-positive messaging and organise roadshows to build awareness about the benefits of workplace gender equality among university students, particularly young men.

Competitive scope

To apply, following documents needs to be submitted:

• Company profile
  • At least 5 years of demonstrated work experience in communications and media relations.
  • Demonstrated expertise and experience in the field of gender, media and public relations.
  • Demonstrated expertise in graphic design, photograph and video production.
  • Relevant experience at the national level in delivering communication services to promote the activities of international development organization will be considered an asset.
  • Experience in producing communication materials (print and online) for a variety of media.
  • Experience in on-line outreach and multimedia.
  • Proven experience in campaign and event organization.
  • Previous experience within the UN System, and the European Union is considered an asset.

• Company registration
  • The organization needs to be registered as an entity allowing them to operate as service providers and issue invoices.

• Technical proposal
  • Offeror shall provide a detailed description of how the management for the requested services will be implemented to achieve the requirements of the Terms of Reference. The activities in the implementation plan should be properly sequenced, logical, and realistic.
  • Offeror shall describe the potential risks for the performance of the TOR that may impact achievement and timely completion of expected results as well as their quality. Describe measures that will be put in place to mitigate these risks.

• Names of 3 former clients for reference checks
  • Provide at least 3 references which need to include information’s on client, contract value and period of performance (from/to) for reference check.

• Updated CVs for each team member, including the team leader.
• Financial proposal with break-down on budget lines as per required deliverables. The quotation shall specify a lump sum amount breaking down the professional fee for each deliverable, travel and other related costs.