Relevant Experience: Compiling Impact Stories for PS1

Job Description:

Faith in Action for Sustainable Climate Resilience

Faith in Action for Sustainable Climate Resilience is a five-year flagship programme initiated in January 2020 and will conclude in December 2024. The programme is being implemented in two districts (Peshawar and Swat) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two districts (Sanghar and Umerkot) in Sindh. The programme integrates all three thematic foci of the organization to achieve the objective through improved health and nutrition of most vulnerable communities and women-led households to cope with recurrent natural disasters and resource depletion. The mobilization and strengthening of local and national civil society organizations and stakeholders including faith actors to influence locally accepted and sustained awareness and advocacy drive on climate change are integral approaches of the programme. The table below enlists programme’s key information including, goal, outcomes, outputs, and target groups.

The Scope and Purpose

In five-year implementation span, the programme has made successes on diverse fronts. The programme contributed to strengthening the role of faith actors and civil society organisations to promoting collaborative climate change social action to improve their lives. The programme laid the foundation to enable and propagate the role of women in leadership and decision-making processes affecting them particularly related to climate change. Building resilient communities is bedrock of the programme that enable communities access to safe and adequate climate resilient WASH services. Through this assignment, our intent is to collect and compile change stories displaying transformation in the lives of targeted groups at individual, institutional, and cultural levels in purview of progoramme goals and objectives. Following table outlines the geographical outreach of the programme.

This will help the stakeholders including communities recognise and appreciate their contributions towards strengthening of individuals and communities capabilities of partaking and guiding climate change social action in collaboration with the duty bearers; acknowledging and empowering women/girls to realise and materialise their rights and improve self-esteem; strengthening of civil society organisations and their role to increase interaction in addressing the climate change challenges in diverse group of stakeholders; and building resilient and sustainable positive transformation in their lives. In addition, these impact stories will complement the project’s endline evaluation and help fulfil the visibility needs of the contracting organisation.  

In this respect, contracting organisation seeks specialised services of a consultant / consulting firm in identification, collection and compilation of impact stories (supported with photographs). The stories should be written in full detail, paying special attention to descriptions of individuals, environment and the interviewee's circumstances. Stories should consider followings: 

• Use alias/imaginary names, instead of real names of the individual(s),
• Name of village, town, community, region etc. to be used carefully and sensitively,
• Describe his/her/their social life and daily routine in detail, where appropriate,
• Describe, if he/she has experienced an act of faith-based discrimination and what helped in coping with this challenge,
• Mention of the local partner’s name and its staff working with the community, where appropriate,
• Some personal feelings/thoughts related to project interventions,
• Seek informed written consent to sharing and publishing views, photographs and recordings.

The contracting organisation expect that consultant would propose a methodology and a plan to accomplish this assignment. However, the methodology should follow the inclusive and multi-stakeholder approach including desk review, meetings, interviews and field visits. The consultant shall also engage men and women from different walks of life i.e., faith actors, civil society organisation, and representatives from relevant Government line departments etc. The consultant will outline the themes describing distinct themes and categorise the stories in accordance with these themes. The consultant will propose the criteria to select top two or three impact/change stories from each theme and provide synthesis to build understanding the depth and breadth of the change and contribution of the programme to these. Though the consult will propose the themes for change stories, these may include the following:

• Role of faith actors in mobilising communities for climate resilience and promoting cultural cohesion and social harmony.
• Observe the changes in behaviour related to safety, communication, and assertiveness. (adoption of new practices or avoiding harmful situations/practices)
• Track changes in participants sense of agency and control over their lives. This may include economic empowerment.
• Assess changes in participants social connections and collaboration for climate resilient actions.
• Women empowerment through sense of protection and leadership including economic empowerment.
• Knowledge and awareness

 Quality standards, principles, and ethical consideration

The service consultant/agency shall respect the contracting agency policies and guidelines such as Do no Harm - DNH, Data safety and ethical guidelines for the impact-stories. Data and information collected during the assignment will be used for the purpose of the assignment only and handed over to the contracting agency on completion of the assignment. Key aspects of the quality assurance regime that the consultant is required to provide in the proposal are:

• Overall quality control
• Data quality assurance
• Privacy/sensitive information protection and confidentiality.

Deliverables:

• A collection of documented stories (Bilingual; English and Urdu) showcasing significant changes experienced by programme participants at individual, institutional or cultural level
• A Summary Report detailing the story collection and selection process, along with key themes, findings and recommendation- A synthesis what change and how it relates to the assessed programme.

Timeframe:

Preferably 30-35 days (from the time when contract is signed). The assignment will be started on 20^th November 2024, tentatively.

Qualifications and Requirement for the Consultant:

• At least eight-year working experience in communications and publication pertaining to the socio-development projects.
• Excellent command on English and Urdu languages (story writing), and good photography
• Strong background in capturing impact story material for publications,
• Capacity to narrate the unbiased, objective stories,
• Possess sound understanding of the socio-cultural demography of the project areas.
• Proven experience of use of qualitative tools to collect data from individuals and groups.
• Ability to analyse the information through gender, equality and inclusion lenses.
• Understanding of differential effects of climate change challenges and issues pertaining to programme targeted areas.

 Role and responsibilities of the contracting agency

• Provide relevant programme documents and materials that supplement information for preparation of impact-stories,
• Facilitate partners’ staff coordination and support to identify potential stories from the field. The contracting organization is not responsible for expenses related to mobilisation of teams and participants at field.
• Disbursement of payment/instalment as agreed,
• Participate in the stories’ selection process outlined in approved inception report.
• Review and give feedback and approval on stories booklet

Role and Responsibilities of the Partner Organisations

• Provide relevant programme documents and materials that supplement information for preparation of impact-stories,
• Participate in the meetings and consultation organised by the consultant to fulfil the purpose of this assignment.
• Facilitate the interaction of the consultant with interview participants, as identified during consultation meetings. Partner Organisations are not responsible for cost incur to mobilise consultant’s team in the field.
• Participate in the stories’ selection process outlined in approved inception report.

Role and Responsibilities of the Consultant

• The consultant will complete the assignment as per agreed timeframe.
• Conduct interviews with programme participants to gather personal stories about the most impactful changes they have experienced due to the programme.
• Focus on capturing detailed narratives that illustrate the positive outcomes and transformations in participants’ lives.
• Develop and seek approval of contracting organisation on stories selection criteria.
• Collaborate with project stakeholders to review and select the most compelling stories that best represent the project’s impact.
• Ensure a diverse range of stories is included to reflect different perspectives and experiences.
• The consultant will share draft of impact stories for review and feedback.
• Bear the expense of boarding lodging and travel for him/herself and team throughout the assignment.

Mode of Payment

Payment will be made in instalments through cross cheques or online transfer as per schedule described in the service agreement.

Date of Submission

Interested individual candidates must submit their proposals no later than 16 November 2024 via email to: procurementpak.360@gmail.com . Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.