Term of Reference for Communication Agency

Formulating communication strategy and producing communication tools & materials for the project title Achieving Sustainability towards Healthcare Access (ASTHA)

A. Background

Swisscontact, Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation, is headquartered in Zurich and was founded in 1959 by Swiss private sector and academia for sustainable development cooperation.  Swisscontact promotes economic, social and ecological development by supporting people to successfully integrate into local commercial life. We create opportunities for people to improve their living conditions as a result of their own efforts. The focus of our systemic interventions in the private sector is the strengthening of local and global value chains. Through its projects, Swisscontact enables access to professional training, promotes local entrepreneurship, creates access to local financial service providers and supports the efficient use of resources with the goal of successfully promoting employment and income generation.
As an initiative to support Bangladesh in reaching the target of ensuring quality healthcare services at rural level communities, Swisscontact, in association with Novartis, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Julius Baer Foundation, is implementing the ASTHA (Achieving Sustainability Towards Healthcare Access) project. The project facilitates the development and integration of Community Paramedic services in rural Bangladesh. Its focus is to increase healthcare outreach in the rural inaccessible pocket areas, with special attention to Maternal and Child Health (MCH), Family Planning (FP) and Basic Primary Healthcare Services.

‘Community Paramedic’ is a two-year full-time course, designed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) where students acquire and develop skills on Maternal and Child Health, Reproductive Health, Family Planning and Primary Healthcare services. Training institutes affiliated with the Bangladesh Nursing and Midwifery Council (BNMC) are conducting this course to develop trained Community Paramedics for rural communities of Bangladesh.  After completion of 2 years’ training, students must sit for a final exam organized by BNMC and BNMC also provides practice registration among qualified Community Paramedics. Qualified Community Paramedics are eligible to do self-practice at the grassroots.

ASTHA is currently in its Phase II (January 2019 to December 2022) which will emphasise on business viability of Community Paramedic Training Institutes (CPTIs) and Community Paramedics (CPs) and on acquiring important partnerships for nationwide scaling up and sustainability. The project operates in seven districts, namely, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Barguna, Lalmonirhat, Rangpur, Nilphamari and Patuakhali.
The project is working in the following strategic areas: 

• Strengthening CP Programme 
• Enhancing the capacity and service provision of CPs
• Sensitising and involving public and private scale agents to promote CP service nationwide
• Creating mass awareness about CP profession and quality CP services

Additionally, the project designed an emergency response plan to counter Covid-19 pandemic and minimize the damage in rural and semi-urban areas of Bangladesh, preferably the North, North-Eastern, South-Western, and Dhaka region. Along with other components of the planned intervention, raising awareness about the pandemic, preventive measures, medical complications, required actions, and post-pandemic effect is considered as crucial area to focus on. The project intends to reach around 170,000 rural and semi-urban household including shop keepers and RMG workers. In regard to this, the project is going to hire a communication agency who will help the project in formulating communication strategy (considering the unprecedented situation) and design, develop/produce communication tools and materials.  

B. Objective

The objectives of the assignment are to:  

• Formulate a campaign strategy to aware a large number of people on prevention and management of COVID-19 (BTL channel is highly preferred)
• Design, develop/produce appropriate communication tools and materials and distribution of materials to the regional offices (Dhaka, Sylhet, Rangpur and Patuakhali)

C. Target Audience  

• Rural household (120,000)
• Small shop owner (20,000) 
• RMG workers and their family members (30,000) 

D. Methodology & Activities

1. Task of the service provider
• The agency will formulate a communication strategy (considering the current pandemic situation) along with detailed plan to aware the targeted audience on prevention & management of COVID-19 and other healthcare issues. The strategic actions need to be attainable within 5 months, measurable to comply with the donor’s compliance criteria and affordable
• The agency will design the appropriate communication tools and materials
• The agency will be responsible for producing required communication tools and materials and distribute as well to the ASTHA regional offices located in Dhaka, Sylhet, Rangpur and Patuakhali.  
2. Role of Swisscontact (ASTHA Project Team)
• Provide relevant information and expert opinion
• Provide technical feedback during the designing phase of the materials
• Approve the designs for promotional materials
• Bear the cost as per approved budget