І. 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

 

ІІ. Terms of Reference (ToR)

Background and Description of the Program

Since 2015, the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine has been implementing a national program to counteract and prevent domestic and gender-based violence with the support of the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, and Estonia. Within the program, national mechanisms to counteract and prevent violence are being created, strengthened, and improved.  

Our work is focused on four directions:

1. Development and improvement of legislative base and national policy.
2. Setting up interagency cooperation at national and local levels.
3. Building a system of quality services for the survivors.
4. Raising awareness and changing public attitudes towards the problem of violence.

With the onset of a full-scale war, the risk of domestic and gender-based violence has significantly increased due to rapid changes, increased psycho-emotional tension, uncertainty, concerns about the future, loss of economic opportunities, forced relocation or movement restrictions.

• 7 out of 10 women in Ukraine claim that they have experienced psychological, physical or sexual violence from a partner or another person at the age of 15 or older.
• Every 5th woman who has been married has experienced violence from her husband. However, only every 3rd survivor of physical or sexual violence seeks help.

 

At the same time, in addition to the above factors, in the third year of the war, there is also a crazy fatigue from general uncertainty and national problems. Now there is an increasing feeling of despair, a sense of social injustice, an adaptation to the new status quo, helplessness, and a lack of understanding of how to act and how to combine several "parallel abnormalities" in one life. 

If we look at the latest polls regarding the mood of Ukrainians, we see that among the moods of Ukrainians the most prevalent are fatigue (55%), Ukrainians also feel tension (43%), irritation (32%), helplessness (31%), disappointment (29%), caution (28%), fear (28%) and anger (25%). Among the factors that most affect the stress level of Ukrainians are - traumatic experiences such as bad memories, conflicts, insufficient support, discrimination, deterioration of living conditions, health problems, threat to life as a possibility, due to the war.

All of this generates a tendency to "roll back" beliefs and behavior patterns to previous, more familiar, albeit harmful, patterns and stereotypes, which in combination with emotional stress can become the basis for increasing the level of violence in society, especially domestic violence.

 

Along with the tendency to increase tolerance of violence and justification of offenders, access and choice of necessary services and assistance became more difficult, due to the possible relocation of survivors to new regions, closure or overload of old social services and many new services and organizations offering their services.

 

According to a study conducted in the spring of 2024, most Ukrainians can now successfully identify signs of psychological, economic, and sexual violence. The more complex issue is that of unhealthy and toxic relationships; unhealthy trends are often described as mere jealousy, while toxic relationships are confused with violence and depression. 84% of Ukrainians know or have a rough idea of what to do in case of violence, but only 18% have support contacts. 33% do not know where to turn, apart from the police.

Information campaign “Break the Circle” - is a part of a large-scale UNFPA program for combating and preventing domestic and/or gender-based violence in Ukraine. The campaign is being implemented with the support of the UK government.

The primary target audience of the campaign are women aged 18 to 60 who have suffered from domestic violence or are at risk. However, the campaign's activities also envisage engaging broader audiences, such as relatives or witnesses of the survivors, or generally Ukrainians who encounter or carry harmful stereotypes that lead to GBV.

Since 2015, the campaign has been challenging beliefs that justify violence and is working to ensure that by 2030, there is zero tolerance for all its manifestations in Ukrainian society. The campaign is also the largest source of information for Ukrainians about assistance in case of domestic violence. 

The information campaign ecosystem currently includes:  

• The largest information platform in Ukraine about domestic violence rozirvykolo.org, where users can access information about types and signs of violence, ways to counteract it, as well as useful materials about means and services of assistance, advice for those who are in unhealthy relationships or want to help survivors of violence. The platform is visited by about 7 thousand people every month.
• Pages on social networks in Facebook and Instagram, which every day help thousands of Ukrainian women and men to learn more about types and signs of violence, places and services that are available for assistance; read useful tips for breaking the cycle of violence; debunk myths or discuss prevalent stereotypes in society; get inspired by the stories of other people who managed to break the cycle of violence and share yours; as well as learn about recent events or news about the system's operation. Since the beginning of the campaign, the pages have also become a certain place of support and experience sharing among the survivors.

Information about the page Break the Circle on Facebook:

• page audience: 93.6% - women, 6.4% - men; aged 25 - 50 years.
• engagement (March 2024) – 3.6
• number of subscribers – 28,137

Information about the Break the Circle Instagram page:

• Page audience: 97.9% - women, 2.1% - men; aged 25-40.
• Engagement (March 2023) – 7.2
• Number of subscribers – 15,829

- A channel in Viber that is aimed at an older audience and dedicated to informing about available services for survivors, useful contacts, advice, surveys and fostering intolerance to GBV among the channel's readers. The number of subscribers is 497 people.

About the "No Trivia" project

In 2019-2020, UNFPA launched activities on the topic of healthy relationships within the project "(Not) trifles in relationships". In 2020, more than 25 thousand young people joined a series of educational discussions with thought leaders and learned to detect early signs of toxic relationships. In 2021, within the project, staff of 50 youth centers underwent ToT training for the project to conduct educational sessions for youth in their regions. Also, within the project, there is a same-named Instagram page of the project (Not) trifles in relationships - @no_trivia.

In 2022, UNFPA expanded the theme of the project "(Not) trifles in relationships". In addition to the theme of healthy and toxic relationships, the project pays attention to emotions, feelings, and experiences caused or exacerbated by war. The project received an updated name - "No Trivia".

International studies emphasize the importance of preventing violence, especially in war or post-war conditions. At the same time, mental health support plays a crucial role in preventing violent relationships. Working with emotional regulation and resilience, stress management, and building relationships is extremely important in war and post-war circumstances when psychological well-being is extremely fragile. Numerous studies have shown that adolescents affected by war are vulnerable to an increased level of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety. This negatively affects relationships with their own "I" and interactions with other people in general.

The ecosystem of the project platform "Not Trivial" as of March 2024 consists of the following tools:
 

• Website, where guide-cards are collected, which briefly and accessible disclose important issues that concern teenagers. The website also contains key information about the project. From August 2022 to March 2024, the site was visited by more than 30 thousand people.
• Telegram-bot, in which teenagers can undergo a preliminary check of their emotional state and identify the problem that bothers them. The bot offers useful thematic materials or a session with a psychologist. The consultation takes place directly in the chat, free of charge and anonymously. From August 2022 to March 2024, psychologists conducted over 20,000 psychological online consultations, of which - more than 8,700 for unique clients.
• Instagram - helps young people to recognize psychological violence and build healthy relationships. Over the past year, the reach of Instagram posts has reached more than 3.5 million people.
• Telegram-bot, in which teenagers can go through three educational micro-courses. They aim to learn new information in small chunks - in a microlearning format. These courses help young people recognize toxic relationships, identify "red flags" and defend their own boundaries using the examples of popular songs, films and computer games. These three micro-courses are titled: "Music guide [non]toxicity", "Cinema guide [non]toxicity", "Gaming guide [non]toxicity".

Information about the page "No Trivia" (Instagram)

• Page audience: 81.4% - women, 18.5% - men.
• Their age: 13 - 24 years (67%), 25-44 years (28%)
• Number of followers – 13,645

OBJECTIVES

UNFPA Ukraine invites service providers who have successful experience in the field of communications. A short-term contract will be concluded with the provider according to which the provider will provide services. The selected service provider will work under the guidance of a Communication Specialist. The aim of the task is SMM support and promotion of the pages of the "Break the Circle" campaign, the "(Not) Trifles in Relationships" project to achieve the set goals.

LOT 1: SMM support and promotion of social pages of the Break the Circle campaign during the period from July 1, 2024, to March 15, 2025.

Key tasks:

1. Providing informational support to survivors or persons at risk regarding signs of domestic and gender-based violence, available assistance services, and action algorithms in situations of domestic violence.
2. Destroying harmful myths, stereotypes, or prejudices that may lead to domestic or gender-based violence or hinder seeking help.
3. Building a community for experience sharing and support (especially from those who have already broken the cycle of violence), as well as establishing a dialogue with the audience.

	Page	Required activities	Targets
1	Break the circle (Facebook)	Minimum of 3 posts per week, at least 2 sets of stories per week Using video content (reels, videos in stories, etc.) Involving service experts to create useful content (broadcasts, advice posts, etc.), primarily, on a pro bono basis. Promoting publications to achieve set goals. Using the existing brand style for publications Ensuring regular publication/story output, as well as communication with the audience on the page	Increase the number of readers (followers) to at least 30,000 people by March 1, 2025 Ensure an engagement rate of no less than 4 (likes+comments+shares / reach*100)
2	Break the Circle (Instagram)	Minimum of 3 posts per week, at least 2 sets of stories per week Engaging "experience" of users to create content. Using video content (reels, video stories, etc.) Inviting experts of services or influencers to create useful content (broadcasts, posts with tips, visits to services etc.), primarily, on a pro bono basis. Promoting publications to achieve set goals. Using the existing brand style for publications Ensuring regular release of publications/stories, as well as communication with the audience on the page	Increase the number of readers to at least 19,000 people by March 1, 2025 Ensure an engagement rate of no less than 7 (likes+comments+shares / reach*100)
4	Viber channel Break the Circle	Minimum of 3 publications per week Promotion of the channel among the target audience (in particular through partnership publications, advertising, etc.) Implementation of interactive formats Publication of adapted materials from pages on social networks, and the "Break the Circle" website is allowed (no more than 50%)	Increase the number of readers to at least 700 by March 1, 2025

 

*UNFPA may add additional publications about other program activities or partner organizations.

**Created materials should also take into account the context of war and use examples or situations relevant to individual TA segments (such as military families, IDPs, people with disabilities, etc.).

LOT 2: SMM support and promotion of the social page "No Trivia” during the period from July 1, 2024, to March 15, 2025.

No Trivia (Instagram)

Searching for content ideas. It is welcomed to involve a psychologist for content checking. Cooperation with psychologists can be on a commercial or free basis. All financial costs are on the contractor's side. Creating content, its proofreading and agreement with the UNFPA communication specialist. Content filling of Instagram account. Important: the contractor must offer fresh and creative solutions in communication that can stimulate subscriber growth. Creating image designs. It is mandatory to use the existing visual style of the page. We propose to make up to 10 publications a month, and at least 10 sets of stories a month. The number of posts and stories will be finally agreed upon with the contractor we choose. The contractor will have to target the page. Comment moderation and direct - checking and responding on the Instagram page in comments and private messages twice a day. Comments should be published from Monday to Friday between 10:00 and 19:00. Comments on weekends - should be checked and responded to at least once a day. Communication with the contractor who will be promoting the project "No trivia" beyond Instagram - sometimes this involves communication in common channels, agreement or adaptation, content plan, conducting joint meetings. This communication aims to create fruitful interaction for the promotion of a unified tone of voice of the project and attracting a larger number of teenagers to the ecosystem "No trivia". If a certain thought leader plans to collaborate with us on Instagram, the contractor must be involved at the stage of proposals and ideas for cooperation and posting, writing copy for the blogger, etc.

Increase the number of readers from 13,645 to 15,000 by February 25, 2025 Ensure an engagement rate of at least 15 (likes+comments+reposts / reach*100) Increase the number of male subscribers to 25%

 

Expected Products

Under the guidance of the Communications Specialist, the service provider is expected to achieve the following results:

1. 1. Ensure a monthly publication plan for the next month for the Instagram page "Not trifles" and a report for the previous month by the 10th of the next month. The report should include such indicators: engagement rate (ER), page likes, subscriber growth dynamics, number of new subscribers (including a breakdown of new subscribers by gender), total organic and paid coverage, number of publications, total number of likes, comments, shares, budget spent on advertising.
   2. Update the necessary pages: publication of approved publications, moderation, responses to comments and private messages from users. Commenting on relevant thematic publications on behalf of the page is welcome. 
   3. Provide a general report on the indicators of pages on social networks and general conclusions about the achievement of goals at the end of the term of providing SMM support services.

 

Payment

All services provided by this technical task must be delivered to the customer by March 15, 2024.

#	Services	Payment Terms and Conditions
1	Report on the support services provided within the requirements of the technical specifications for the period - July 1 -  August 30, 2024	30% after submission and acceptance of the report by UNFPA
2	Report on the support services provided within the requirements of the technical specifications for the period - September 1 - November 30, 2024	30% after submission and acceptance of the report by UNFPA
3	Report on the support services provided within the requirements of the technical specifications for the period - December 1, 2024 - March 15, 2025	30% after submission and acceptance of the report by UNFPA
4	Achieving the stated goals within the requirements of the technical assignment by March 1, 2025	10% after submission and acceptance of the final report by UNFPA

 

It is important to understand that UNFPA does not make advance payments for the implementation of activities. Accordingly, the payment schedule is as indicated above and cannot be changed at the stage of campaign implementation.

The contractor must consider the cost of the proposed activities and the fact that all payments will be made based on the results of accepted work, as indicated in the table above.

Intellectual Property

All information relating to this project (documentary, visual, digital, cyber, project documentation, etc.), with which the Contractor may come into contact when performing his duties according to this task, remains the property of the UN Population Fund, which has exclusive rights to their use. Except for the purposes of this task, the information should not be disclosed to the public or used in any form without the written permission of the UN Population Fund in accordance with national and international copyright laws.

Qualification Requirements

UNFPA is looking for a service provider with proven experience in social media communications, especially with knowledge of social networks.

The service provider must:

• be a resident or have legal representation in Ukraine with the appropriate official registration for at least 3 years (including registration as an individual entrepreneur);
• work in the field of media placement/communications/marketing for at least 3 years;
• have experience in communications/SMM and Internet media, especially in promoting Viber channels;
• have the ability to create visual content for social networks in accordance with the style of projects;
• previous experience working with the UN agency or another international organization is an advantage;
• demonstrate the ability to adhere to timelines, work under pressure and measure results;
• have a high level of proficiency in the Ukrainian language (especially written) and be able to communicate in English;
• specialist, who will be responsible for the project and will be the main contact person, must have at least 3 years of experience.

Questions

Questions or requests for additional clarification can be asked during the organizational meeting, which will take place on June 3, 2024 at 14:00 through a conference on the Zoom platform (a link to the conference meeting will be provided to registered participants).

In case of your participation in the organizational meeting, we ask you to fill out the online form by 17:00 on May 31, 2024, which is available at the link: https://forms.gle/SwsXZyvHYi2MsQSo7

The deadline for submitting questions is Friday, May 31, 2024, 17:00 Kyiv time.

If you cannot participate in the discussion, you can leave your questions and requests in the same form. If you have no questions but want to get answers to the questions of other tender participants - please register in the form via the link above.

 

The answers to the questions will be provided in writing. The answers will be sent out to all interested parties as soon as possible.

III. Content of Proposals

Proposals should be sent by email, if possible, in one message, depending on the size of the file, and should include:

a) A technical proposal duly signed and stamped, which should contain a presentation that will allow the evaluation of the specialist's / agency's approach according to the criteria given below. In particular, the presentation should contain:

• 3 examples of posts for "Break the Circle" pages, one of which should be in reels format;
• 2 publication proposals for the channel on Viber, one of which should anticipate an interactive format;
• 3 examples of posts for the "(Not) Trivial in Relationships" page;
• a brief description of the proposed advertising strategy for achieving the goals of the "Break the Circle" and "(No) Trivia" pages;
• description of the specialist's / team's experience through at least 3 successful cases (including promoting pages on Viber);
• a general acquaintance with the specialist / team and information on whether there is experience working with other international organizations
• Copies of registration documents of legal entity or private entrepreneur 

The technical proposal must be submitted electronically to the email indicated in Section IV.

b) The price proposal, duly signed and stamped, submitted exclusively according to the corresponding form.

Partial LOTS are allowed for this request. The bidder may submit proposals for only one of the lots. The bidder is not required to submit proposals for both lots but is encouraged to submit proposals for both lots.

Technical and Price Proposals shall be submitted BOTH in English AND Ukrainian.

The technical and price proposals must be sent as separate files and signed by the appropriate authority and sent in PDF format.

IV. Instructions for Submission

Proposals should be prepared in accordance with Sections II and III together with a duly filled and signed price proposal form, sent to the contact person only at the specified email no later than: Wednesday, June 12, 2024, 17:00 Kyiv time. Proposals sent to any other email will not be accepted for consideration.

Contact person:	Iryna Bohun
Email address:	ua-procurement@unfpa.org

Please note the following guidelines for electronic submissions:

The following reference must be included by the Bidder in the email subject line:

RFQ Nº UNFPA/UKR/RFQ/24/15

• Submissions without this text in the email subject line may be rejected or overlooked and therefore not considered.
• The total email size may not exceed 20 MB (including email 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 a specialized evaluation panel. Technical proposals will be evaluated and scored first, prior to the evaluation and scoring of prices quotations

Technical evaluation (maximum 100 points)

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

Criteria	[A] Maximum points	[B] Received points	[C] Weight (%)	[B] x [C] = [D] Total points
Quality, innovation and relevance of proposals to the goals and target audiences of the pages (including provided texts, themes, videos and proposed illustrations)	100		50%
Successful experience of the specialist or team in managing social-oriented pages on social networks (assessment of described cases)	100		25%
Compliance of the advertising strategy to achieve goals	100		15%
Quality of preparation of materials submitted for the competition proposal (clickability and access to links, absence of spelling errors, etc.)	100		5%
Confirmed experience of cooperation with international organizations	100		5%
Total	500		100%

 

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

Degree to which the Terms of Reference requirements are met based on evidence included in the Bid submitted	Points out of 100
Significantly exceeds the requirements	90 – 100
Exceeds the requirements	80 – 89
Meets the requirements	70 – 79
Partially meets the requirements	Up to 70

Financial Evaluation (maximum 100 points)

Price quotes will be evaluated only for bidders whose technical proposals achieve a minimum score of 70 points in the technical evaluation.

Price quotes will be evaluated based on their responsiveness to the price quote form. The maximum number of points for the price quote is 100, which will be allocated to the lowest total price provided in a special formula provided in the ToR. All other price quotes will receive points in inverse proportion according to the following formula:

 

Financial Evaluation =	Lowest submitted price ($)	X 100 (Maximum number of points)
	The price proposal that is being evaluated ($)

Total score

The total score for each proposal will be the weighted sum of the technical score and the financial score.  The maximum total score is 100 points.

Total score = 70% Technical assessment + 30% Financial assessment

VI. Award Criteria

A contract until March 31, 2025, between UNFPA and the supplier will be concluded with the bidder whose proposal scores the highest in the overall assessment and meets the requirements of the tender document.

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). UNFPA payment terms are net 30 days upon receipt of invoice and delivery/acceptance of the milestone deliverables linked to payment as specified in 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 Contractor; 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 the 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 a solicitation, evaluation, 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 Head of the Business Unit the UNFPA Programme Specialist Kostiantyn Boichuk at e-mail: boichuk@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).

 

PRICE QUOTATION FORM ^[1]

Name of the Bidder:
Date of the quotation:	Click here to enter a date.
Request for quotation Nº:	RFQ Nº UNFPA/UKR/RFQ/24/15
Currency of quotation :	UAH
Validity of quotation: (The quotation must be valid for a period of at least 2 months after the submission deadline)

Quotes shall be submitted VAT included (based on selected bidder’s taxation system)

Item	Description	Number & Description of  Staff by Level	Hourly Rate	Hours to be Committed	Total
LOT 1: SMM support and promotion of social pages of the Break the Circle campaign during the period from July 1, 2024, to March 15, 2025
Professional Fees
Total Professional Fees, UAH
Other Expenses
Total Other Expenses, UAH
Total, LOT 1 (VAT free), UAH
VAT, LOT 1 (if VAT payer), UAH
Total, LOT 1 (VAT incl.), UAH
LOT 2: SMM support and promotion of the social page "No Trivia” during the period from July 1, 2024, to March 15, 2025.
Professional Fees
Total Professional Fees, UAH
Other expenses
Total Other Expenses, UAH
Total, LOT 2 (VAT free), UAH
VAT, LOT 2 (if VAT-payer), UAH
Total, LOT 2 (VAT incl.), UAH
Total Price QUOTE (VAT free), UAH
VAT (if VAT-payer), UAH
TOTAL PRICE QUOTE (VAT incl), VAT

Supplier’s Comments:

 

 

I hereby certify that the company mentioned above, which I am duly authorized to sign for, has reviewed RFQ UNFPA/UKR/RFQ/24/15 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.

 

	Click here to enter a date.
Name and title	Date and place

 

 

 

 

 

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