Development of a concept for communication campaign aimed at overcoming gender-based professional stereotypes among Ukrainian youth

This Request for Quotation is open to all legally-constituted companies that can provide the requested services and have legal capacity to perform in Ukraine, or through an authorized representative.

This Request for Quotation is made within the project Equality Springboard: Project on Social Norms Change and Gender Stereotypes Elimination for Better Resilience and Prosperity of Women and Men in Ukraine, funded by the Embassy of Sweden in Kyiv. 

I. About UNFPA

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is an international development agency that works to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every child birth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.  

UNFPA is the lead UN agency that expands the possibilities for women and young people to lead healthy sexual and reproductive lives. To read more about UNFPA, please go to: UNFPA about us.

Terms of Reference (ToR)

Background

According to the survey “What Ukrainians are driven by when choosing a profession: the results of national public opinion survey on key factors and stereotypes” 56% of Ukrainians aged 14 and over agree that there are professions that are suitable only for men or women, and only 30% disagree. 73% explain the existence of "male" and "female" professions by physiological differences, and 79% also note different gender factors: traditional public opinion (38%), different upbringing of girls and boys (29%), different professional orientations (25%), etc.

              56% of Ukrainians believe that some professions are not suitable for women because they are physically weaker than men, and 47% mentioned gender stereotypes: "because women should have more time for home and family" (35%), "because some professions are not suitable for women ”(16%), etc. 38% of Ukrainians believe that some professions are not suitable for men, "because men have to work on well-paid jobs to provide for their families" and 20% - "because some professions are not suitable for men." 23% of respondents believe that there are no professions that are not suitable for women, and 30% - that there are no professions suitable for men.

              However, among the list of professions that Ukrainians often consider to be "male", physical strength is needed only for law enforcement agencies (61% consider this area to be "male" professions). The list of "male" professions is much longer than "female". Ukrainians consider the following areas to be "male": aviation (62%), architecture and construction (40%), agricultural industry (32%), biotechnology and engineering (31%), surgery (30%), information technology (27%) and public administration (23%). At the same time, Ukrainians consider the following areas to be "female": cleaning and raising children (51%), education and pedagogics (32%), fashion and show business (28%). Thus, the "male" range of professions is much wider than the "female".

              According to the stereotype that men should provide for their families, men were more often than women focused on future salary rate, when choosing the profession (38% vs. 32%), employment prospects (27% vs. 23%) and demand for the profession when choosing a profession (25% vs 18%). 21% of parents said that they force their children to choose a profession based on their gender. At the same time, men are more likely to be driven by their own interests when choosing a profession than women (58% vs 50%), also women are more likely to consult with their parents than men (42% vs 36%).

In general, women are much less likely to support gender stereotypes than men, especially among those aged 14-24. Young people aged 14-24 years are less likely to support gender stereotypes, which indicates a gradual rejection of them.

Another problem, which is partly related to the stereotypical perceptions of professions, is the unpopularity of vocational education and declining the number of students in vocational schools, as most graduating high school students enter universities. Despite the fact that there is a constant lack of skilled labour in regional labour markets. Now only about 14% of school graduates in Ukraine receive vocational professions, and the rest of high school graduates are focused on higher education. Thus, vocational education also needs to be promoted among enrollees. For example, on average in Europe, 40% of secondary school graduates receive vocational education, while in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Austria and Finland, the percentage reaches 70% and more. Among the key reasons why vocational education is unpopular among youth and their parents is low prestige of vocational professions as well as weak communication with parents, students, and employers about the opportunities students receive while studying at vocational institutions. .

Thus, it is important to promote overcoming gender stereotypes in the career choice process among young boys and girls and their parents, as well as to promote the prestige of vocational education among young people and their parents.

Goal

UNFPA Ukraine invites service providers who have successful experience in digital marketing and communications to develop a communication strategy that will include analysis of key target groups, key messages, visual approaches and activities/products recommended to be implemented within the campaign, implementation schedule, communications channels to obtain the necessary coverage, influence, involvement and interaction with the target audience.  A short-term contract will be signed with the service provider to deliver all mentioned services. The selected service provider will be working under the supervision of Lesia Parno-Kyryienko, UNFPA Project Associate, Communication.

II. Меthodology

Work scope

The aim of the campaign is to overcome gender stereotypes about the traditional division of professions into "male" and "female", as well as to encourage young people to choose vocational professions.

The concept of the campaign should be aimed at changing the gender-based perception of professions

among youth who choose a future career, as well as to change people's attitudes towards traditional gender roles in professions. The campaign should also  promote positive perceptions of vocational education.

In the framework of this short term contract it is expected to develop a communication campaign strategy and budget for 2022-2023 years.

Campaign tasks:

• Change the attitude of young people, parents and teachers to professions that are traditionally perceived as "male" (STEM, agricultural industry, architecture, construction, etc.) and "female" (education, pedagogy, art, nurse, kindergarten teacher, etc.) as gender-neutral.
• Promote the swelling number of girls/women who choose traditionally male-dominated occupations  (STEM) and boys/men who choose traditionally female-dominated occupations (education, pedagogy, culture, art etc.).
• Promote the opportunities provided by vocational professions for boys/men and girls/women and help to increase the number of enrollee entering vocational education institutions.
• Promote anti-discrimination approaches in education (higher schools, vocational training colleges, universities) to ensure further gender-sensitive career guidance and inclusiveness.

Expected results of the communication campaign to be reached in 2023:

1. 600 000 men and women aged 14-24, and 400 000 men and women aged 40-55 who have children covered by the communication campaign;
2. 17% of parents (compared to 21% in 2021) persuade their children to choose a profession based on their gender.
3. 54% of respondents (compared to 58% in 2021) aged 40-59 mention that some professions suitable only for men or for women;
4. 50% of respondents (compared to 54% in 2021) aged 25-39 mention that some professions suitable only for men or for women;
5. 46% of respondents (among them women-44%, men-48%) compared to 50% in 2021 (among them women - 48%, men - 52%) aged 14-24 mention that some professions are suitable only for men or for women.
6. 23% of respondents (compared to 27% in 2021) consider IT to be male industry.

The concept of the communication campaign is to be developed for identifying and selecting the most appropriate ways and methods of addressing the above-mentioned issues. Campaign should be built on a positive deviance approach.

The concept will 1) outline identified target groups (priority and influential), identified barriers and motivators to behaviour change, the expected results of the campaign, 2) suggest and substantiate its contents, 3) recommend delivery channels and timeline, 4) development of proposals for the campaign slogan(s), public messages and activities is required as well.

The main principle of interaction with the target audience is the exact segmentation according to demographic characteristics (gender, age, place of residence, language, social status) and the omnibus survey results. The main principle of delivering key messages through communication channels is using of the native and BTL advertising (not direct advertisement). Thus the required information should appear in the information field that is natural for the target audience.

The concept must include SMART objectives and respective targets (objectives must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound), description of activities, campaign implementation plan with a M&E mechanism to measure the campaign’s impact as well as general behaviour change among selected target group’s members. Substantively, the concept should geographically cover the entire country (or some specific regions, which will be agreed upon jointly with UNFPA Ukraine).

Target Audiences:

Target audience should be specifically determined for each proposed information, activity and delivery channel. More specific structure of target audience can be proposed, but it can’t go beyond the following target audiences:

1. youth (boys and girls) aged 14-16;
2. youth (boys and girls) aged 16-24;
3. parents (women and men) aged 40-60;
4. teachers (women and men) at high schools, vocational institutions and universities.

Coverage area - entire country (Ukraine).

Requirements

The concept of the communication campaign for aimed at changing attitude towards career stereotypes among Ukrainians must:

1.           Formulate and suggest the expected results of the campaign based on the overall goal of changing attitude towards the stereotypical division of professions into "female" and "male", as well as the promotion of vocational education among youth.

2.           Justify and describe in detail methods, time schedules, contents and target audience communication strategy of a public communication campaign.

3.           Propose and substantiate logical and transparent information activities and delivery channels to achieve the expected results of the campaign as well as M&E system to estimate the campaign's efficiency.

4.           Provide evidence-based cost assessment of the campaign.

5.           Ensure the most effective and efficient use of UNFPA funds allocated for this communication campaign.

1.           Concept of the communication campaign.

2.           Implementation plan with detailed description of activities, a description of the proposed materials, layouts, designs and campaign messages, timeframe table, monitoring framework and performance evaluation system.

3.           Detailed budget.

More specifically, the concept development process must include performing the following tasks:

1.           Formulate the communication campaign’s expected results using the SMART principle.

2.           All the proposed activities should be based on the results of the Omnibus research and other official open data on the situation in the educational system.

3.    Have the campaign’s frame of the concept (approaches) endorsed by the UNFPA before developing information content, methods and means of campaign delivery.

4.           Develop a monitoring framework (implementation milestones, quantitative and qualitative performance indicators for the campaign, as well as appropriate monitoring tools and mechanisms) to measure the progress and success of the campaign.

5.           Keeping in mind the target audience of the campaign (boys and girls, men and women aged 14-24, parents, teachers), develop appropriate culturally sensitive key information messages, which will be in line with UNFPA Ukraine values.

5.           Develop and justify a list of supporting and auxiliary information products (if such will be needed) required to achieve the goal.

6.    The selection of channels should be planned considering the target audience of specific information and communication materials within the campaign. Communication channels for target audiences, but not limited:

• Social media (with possible incl. of opinion leaders)
• Online and printed media
• Television and radio
• Internet (Social media, opinion leaders)
• Multi-media (Producing appealing multi-media content)
• Online and Offline events and social experiments.

7.           Perform an approximate costs analysis of a campaign based on the suggested concept and draft a provisional itemized budget for such a campaign.

8.           Submit the draft concept for review and feedback to the UNFPA; finalize the draft based on the received feedback and submit the concept for approval.

9.           Present the complete concept in Ukrainian language as a MS Word document and a MS PowerPoint presentation of the concept.

Any creative ideas falling within the scope of these provisions are welcome.

Works Performance Timeline

All deliverables envisaged by these terms of reference should be submitted to the requestor within two months upon signing a contract.

Payment conditions:

The payment will be done in accordance with the above deliverables acceptance of the Contractor's invoice and complete set of supporting documentation where applicable on a quarterly basis.

The payment will be done in currency: Ukrainian Hryvnias. Where two currencies are involved, the rate of exchange shall be the United Nations Operational Rate of Exchange on the day UNFPA instructs that payment(s) be effected (web: www.treasury.un.org).

Indicative time frames for the campaign

The deliverables envisaged by these terms of reference should be submitted to the requestor under the supervision of UNFPA Project Associate, Communication within two months upon signing a contract.

Intellectual Property

All information related to this project (documentary, visual, digital, cyber, project documentation, etc.) with which the Contractor may come into contact in the performance of its duties under this task shall remain the property of the United Nations Population Fund, which has exclusive rights to use them. Except for the purposes of this task, the information shall not be disclosed to the public or used in any form without the written permission of the United Nations Population Fund in accordance with national and international copyright laws.

Questions

Questions or requests for further clarifications can be requested during an organizational meeting - debriefing, which will take place on June 11, 2021 at 15.30 - 16.30 via ZOOM (link will be provided later)

In case of your participation in the debriefing, we ask you to send a confirmation with a full name of your representative to the contact person of the UNFPA up to June, 10, 2021 till 17.00 EEST.

If you cannot participate in the debriefing, please send us your questions and requests regarding the commercial offer to the contact person at UNFPA (see the contacts in the table above).

The question will be answered in writing, which will be distributed among all parties no later than June 18, 2021, 17.00 EEST.

 The deadline for submission of questions is Monday, 21 June, 2021 at 17:00 Kyiv time.

Requirements and qualifications:

UNFPA seeks a service provider with proven experience in communication campaign planning and accomplishment, preferably social campaigns (references to recently implemented campaigns of social nature are required) and good working knowledge of the Ukrainian media and advertising markets.

The offeror should:

• be a resident entity of or have legal representation in Ukraine with respective official registration
• work in the area of public communications for at least 3 years
• have experience in the field of public information and communication research and development, preferable in social advertising and conducting similar media campaign
• demonstrate ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure
• be fluent in Ukrainian or Russian, and English.

The advantage is previous experience of collaboration with a UN agency.

III. Content of quotations

Quotations should be submitted in a single e-mail whenever possible, depending on file size. Quotations must contain:

 a)     Technical proposal, in response to the requirements outlined in the service requirements / TORs.

The Technical Bid must be submitted by electronic method of transmission at the email address indicated in the section IV.

b)     Price quotation, to be submitted strictly in accordance with the price quotation form.

c)     Language of the proposal – English or Ukrainian.

d)    Separate Technical Proposal and Financial Proposal should be submitted in pdf format and be signed by the bidding company’s relevant authority.

IV. Instructions for submission 

Proposals should be prepared based on the guidelines set forth in Section IV and III, along with a properly filled out and signed price quotation form, are to be sent by e-mail to the secured e-mail and contact person indicated below no later than: Monday, 5 July, 2021 at 17:00 Kyiv time. Proposals sent to any other address will not be considered. 

Please note the following guidelines for electronic submissions:

• The following reference must be included in the email subject line: RFQ Nº UNFPA/UKR/RFQ/21/10. Proposals that do not contain the correct email subject line may be overlooked by the procurement officer and therefore not considered.
• Proposals should be submitted without VAT, as the UNFPA is exempt from VAT.
• The total e-mail size may not exceed 20 MB (including e-mail body, encoded attachments and headers). Where the technical details are in large electronic files, it is recommended that these be sent separately before the deadline.  

V. Overview of Evaluation Process

The evaluation will be carried out in a two-step process by an ad-hoc evaluation panel. Technical proposals will be evaluated and scored first, prior to the evaluation and scoring of price quotations.

Technical Evaluation (100 points max)

Technical proposals will be evaluated based on their responsiveness to the service requirements /TORs listed in Section ІI and in accordance with the evaluation criteria below. 

The following scoring scale will be used to ensure objective evaluation:

Only those technical proposals achieving the score of 65 points and above will be considered as qualifying for evaluation of the financial proposal.

Financial Evaluation (100 points max)

Financial proposals should follow the results-based budgeting approach. They will be assessed based on their clarity, completeness, level of detail and appropriateness. The maximum number of points shall be scored to the lowest price proposal among all technically qualifying applications. Other financial proposals will receive scores according to the following formula:

Total score

The total score of each application will represent the weighted sum of its technical and financial scores as follows:

VI. Award Criteria 

UNFPA shall award a Purchase Order/Contract with duration until 31 December 2021 to the offer with the highest overall score.

VII. Right to Vary Requirements at Time of Award 

UNFPA reserves the right at the time of award of contract to increase or decrease by up to 20% the volume of services specified in this RFQ without any change in unit prices or other terms and conditions.

VIII. Payment Terms

The payment will be done in accordance with the above deliverables acceptance of the Contractor's invoice and complete set of supporting documentation. 

The payment will be done in currency: Ukrainian Hryvnias. In case of two currencies involved, the United Nations Operational Rate of Exchange should be used on the day UNFPA instructs that payment(s) (web: www.treasury.un.org).

The payment terms are 30 days after receipt of the related documents, invoices and other documentation required according to the contract.

IX. Fraud and Corruption

UNFPA is committed to preventing, identifying, and addressing all acts of fraud against UNFPA, as well as against third parties involved in UNFPA activities. UNFPA’s policy regarding fraud and corruption is available here: Fraud Policy. Submission of a proposal implies that the Bidder is aware of this policy. 

Suppliers, their subsidiaries, agents, intermediaries and principals must cooperate with the UNFPA Office of Audit and Investigations Services as well as with any other oversight entity authorized by the Executive Director and with the UNFPA Ethics Advisor as and when required.  Such cooperation shall include, but not be limited to, the following: access to all employees, representatives agents and assignees of the vendor; as well as production of all documents requested, including financial records.  Failure to fully cooperate with investigations will be considered sufficient grounds to allow UNFPA to repudiate and terminate the Agreement, and to debar and remove the supplier from UNFPA's list of registered suppliers.

A confidential Anti-Fraud Hotline is available to any Bidder to report suspicious fraudulent activities at UNFPA Investigation Hotline.

X. Zero Tolerance

UNFPA has adopted a zero-tolerance policy on gifts and hospitality. Suppliers are therefore requested not to send gifts or offer hospitality to UNFPA personnel. Further details on this policy are available here: Zero Tolerance Policy. 

XI. RFQ Protest

Bidder(s) perceiving that they have been unjustly treated in connection with the solicitation or award of a contract may submit a complaint directly to the Chief, Procurement Services Branch at procurement@unfpa.org.

         Bidder(s) perceiving that they have been unjustly or unfairly treated in connection with a solicitation, evaluation, or award of a contract may submit a complaint to the UNFPA Programme Manager Olesia Kompaniiets at e-mail: kompaniiets@unfpa.org. Should the supplier be unsatisfied with the reply provided by the UNFPA Head of the Business Unit, the supplier may contact the Chief, Procurement Services Branch at procurement@unfpa.org.

XII. Disclaimer

Should any of the links in this RFQ document be unavailable or inaccessible for any reason, bidders can contact the Procurement Officer in charge of the procurement to request for them to share a PDF version of such document(s). English version of request for quotations prevails.

PRICE QUOTATION FORM

Proposals should be submitted without VAT as the UNFPA is exempt from VAT

I hereby certify that the company mentioned above, which I am duly authorized to sign for, has reviewed RFQ UNFPA/UKR/RFQ/21/10 [Development of a concept for communication campaign aimed at overcoming gender-based professional stereotypes among Ukrainian youth] including all annexes, amendments to the RFQ document (if applicable) and the responses provided by UNFPA on clarification questions from the prospective service providers.  Further, the company accepts the General Conditions of Contract for UNFPA and we will abide by this quotation until it expires.

ANNEX I:

General Conditions of Contracts:

De Minimis Contracts

This Request for Quotation is subject to UNFPA’s General Conditions of Contract: De Minimis Contracts, which are available in: English, Spanish and French