Non-Partisan Elections Campaign Strategy and Implementation at Christian Aid

Consultancy: Development and implementation of a comprehensive multi-media nonpartisan elections campaign strategy
Type of Contract: Short-term consultancy

Background and Contextual Understanding

• Voice to the People (V2P) is a good governance project supporting communities in Kaduna state and the Southeast region of Nigeria to drive accountability among their leaders, raise their voices to demand the rights and services to which they are entitled and take part in the decision-making processes that affect their lives.
• V2P aims to tackle the high levels of poverty that persist in Nigeria due to poor governance and ineffective service delivery by supporting citizens to influence effectively the provision of improved public services for all, including poor and excluded groups. It also sets out to facilitate citizen inclusion in decision-making processes about policy and service delivery. It is doing this by empowering civil society and marginalised citizens as actors to know and claim their rights, to better engage in local and state level decision-making processes and to hold leaders accountable.
• Fundamental to this is the participation of citizens in the electoral process at all levels; from local to national. The project has worked in its local communities to reduce voter apathy, increase voter literacy and generally improve the turn-out of voters at elections, and in line with the upcoming 2019 general elections, the project is seeking to sustain its gains through ensuring that citizens exercise their rights to responsive governments, the project seeks to embark on a massive nonpartisan elections campaign that will increase voter turn-out and educate a critical mass of citizens about the electoral process as one of the ways to participate in governance processes.
• Funded by UK aid from the UK government, Voice to the People is a partnership of state and national level civil society organisations led by Christian Aid Nigeria.

Purpose of the consultancy

• The purpose of the consultancy is to develop and implement a comprehensive multi-media nonpartisan and neutral elections campaign strategy that will increase voter turn-out and literacy in the 2019 general elections.
• Specific objectives of the consultancy
• To develop and implement a comprehensive campaign strategy that will target the various audiences as specified below to:
  • Mobilise citizens to fully participate in the on-going Permanent Voters Registration exercise
  • Reduce voter apathy and increase voter turn-out by 75% in all the V2P target locations; taking into consideration inclusiveness, hence the campaign will specifically target men, women, People with Disabilities and other marginalised groups.
  • Promote peaceful and evidence-based elections
  • Increase voter literacy on electoral processes

Deliverables

• A multi-media campaigns strategy that will meet all of the stated objectives, clearly spelling out target audiences, activities, timelines and evaluation methods.
• Formative research document that will inform the strategy.
• Original multi-media content/materials that will be used in the implementation of the strategy.
• Implement all the components of the campaign strategy.

Consultant competencies:

• We are seeking a professional, experienced and already communications outfit or individual with experience in designing and producing campaigns for varying audiences. The outfit/individual should also have experience in working with multi-media formats, including social media, production of IEC materials, audio-visuals and radio content. The outfit/individual should also be familiar with working in grassroot locations and should have a sound knowledge of campaigning.

Budget and terms of engagement:

• 10% withholding tax will be deducted at source from the total cost of the consultancy fee for a firm, and 5% for an individual.
• 60% of the consultancy fee will be paid when the contract is signed, and the balance paid on final satisfactory performance.