JOAPR24018 – BEDTIME STORIES FOR BRAVE KIDS CONSULTANCY

THE ORGANISATION

Plan International Jordan (PIJO), an International Non-Governmental Organization established in 2016, has been at the forefront of addressing critical issues related to children’s rights and gender equality across Jordan. With a comprehensive portfolio of programs spanning education, youth empowerment, and protection—including Child Protection (CP), Gender-Based Violence (GBV), and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR)—PIJO is dedicated to creating safer communities for both Syrian refugees and Jordanian host populations. Operating across various governorates, our initiatives are tailored to meet the specific needs of refugees and vulnerable groups within these communities. Central to our mission is the support of at-risk children, adolescents and youth, focusing on preventing and responding to child marriage, child labor, and broader CP and GBV issues, while promoting their decision-making, participation, and empowerment.

Collaborating closely with parents and communities, PI works to raise awareness about child protection issues and bolster the capacity of families and societies to address the sexual and reproductive health needs of children and adolescents, aiming to safeguard them from violence, abuse, and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence. Embedded in our operations is Plan’s Global Gender Equality and Inclusion Policy, which guides our commitment to achieving gender equality, promoting gender justice, realizing girls’ rights, and fostering an inclusive society. This policy underpins PI’s five-year country strategy, our Values and Behaviors Framework, and our Theory of Change.

Our goals include:

• Confronting and challenging discrimination and human rights violations based on gender, including gender-based violence and exclusion.
• Challenging stereotypes and unequal power relations between genders to promote gender equality, girls’ rights, and inclusion.
• Fostering an organizational culture that exemplifies our commitment to gender equality, girls’ rights, and inclusion, supporting staff to embody good practices, positive attitudes, and the principles of gender equality and inclusion.

BACKGROUND ABOUT THE PROJECT

Bedtime Stories for Brave Kids – an initiative led by Plan International Jordan and Australia – seeks to provide children with traditional, age-appropriate stories and songs – a collection of narratives crafted by Palestinian children themselves and curated by respected Palestinian storytellers from various locations, including Gaza, West Bank and Jerusalem, in addition to Palestinian refugees in the wide diaspora. The project is tailored mainly for children aged 2-10 residing in regions affected by conflict. It encompasses the development of a mobile application for convenient story-telling, which will play a crucial role in effectively reaching and engaging with the target audience.

Through these stories, we seek to instill values of patience, courage, and resilience, enabling children to confront their fears and nurture hope even in adversity. This initiative serves as tangible psychosocial first aid support for children, harnessing the healing and educational power of storytelling. The stories will be cultivating sense of connectedness, patience, bravery, endurance and other positive values for children to learn from.

Objectives

1. Develop and curate a collection of culturally sensitive, age-appropriate narratives that specifically cater to the emotional and psychological requirements of young children residing in war-affected regions.
2. Establish a user-friendly and easily accessible platform that facilitates children, parents, and caregivers in seamlessly accessing and actively participating in these narratives.
3. Promote early literacy and cognitive advancement by employing interactive and captivating storytelling methodologies.
4. Cultivate a sense of community and emotional reinforcement among children and their caregivers by fostering shared storytelling experiences that connect them with their roots.

Accountabilities

1. Content Creation:

• Collect traditional stories and songs from Palestine and Jordan (among other countries) that foster a sense of belonging to the Palestinian culture and heritage. Those stories and songs will be uploaded onto a user-friendly mobile application that functions as a centralized repository for this project.
• Organize the stories/songs into categories based on age, themes, values, and cultural relevance.
• Collect lullabies for the age group 0-2 (if possible)*

1. Recording and transcription:

• Record high quality stories/songs/lullabies for children in an audio format (e.g. MP3, MP4).
• Provide script in Arabic that can be later translated and documented using various platforms.

1. Feedback and Interaction:

• Work closely with the app developer to organize the platform and ensure its accessibility, effectiveness user-friendliness.
• Help promote the application through partnerships with local schools, community centers, and humanitarian organizations.

Deliverables

The final product of this consultancy is 10-15 audio stories and songs (in Arabic) that can be uploaded into a mobile app for iOS and Android. The Application will be developed by another consultant.

Key features of the product include:

1. Age Range Selection: This allows children/ parents to select the appropriate age group (e.g. 2-4, 5-7, 8-10).
2. Category-Based Playlists: There will be multiple categories of songs and stories (e.g. Adventure, learning, culture…etc) linked with each age group. When the parent selects the age-group, they will easily find the content they are most interested in.

Approach

The approach for Bedtime Stories for Brave Kids Consultancy would involve a systematic and participatory methodology to ensure the successful achievement of the objectives. Below is a suggested approach for the project:

• Engage with key stakeholders, including representatives from Plan International and partners, to gather their insights and perspectives on the type/nature of stories to be collected.
• Leverage best practices in storytelling methodologies to ensure age, gender and cultural appropriateness.
• Work closely with the project team and the app developer to ensure the adapted application aligns with the cultural sensitivities and learning preferences of the target audience.

Methodology

No specific methodology is required, please refer to the technical expertise section below for more details.

Timeline

The contract shall start from the date of signing the agreement and the complete result should be provided to Plan Jordan by end of July 2024 at the latest. The work schedule (timeline) can be decided between the two parties before signing the agreement.

Level of contact with children

High.

Technical expertise, skills and knowledge

The consultant should meet the following qualifications and expertise:

• Proof of knowledge in social sciences, humanities, or a related field.
• A minimum of 5 years work-related experience in storytelling, research, and documentation.
• Proficiency in Arabic language and proven experience in Palestinian/Jordanian cultural heritage.
• Proven record of content creation, high-quality recording, voice over, and editing.
• Familiarity with the context and ability to reach a wide segment of the population inside Palestine and Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan.
• Ability to formulate real-time events in a dramatic narrative that suits the target group.
• Effective communication and writing skills.
• Strong problem-solving skills and attention to details.
• Flexibility and willingness to act upon feedback in a timely manner.
  • The business is headed by a woman (e.g. a female CEO)

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Technical offer (65%)

20% Reach and physical presence inside Jordan and Palestine.

10% Proficiency in Arabic and proven experience in Palestinian/Jordanian cultural heritage.

10% Previous experience in content creation, recording, voice over, and editing.

10% Proof of knowledge in social sciences, humanities, or a related field.

10% Years of experience in storytelling, research, and documentation.

5% Ability to record lullabies for the age group 0-2.

Financial offer 30%

Detailed financial offer specifying all costs, in a dedicated table including all taxes and charges.

Gender responsiveness 5%

Plan International defines a gender-responsive business as one that meets criteria for integrating gender equality and women’s empowerment principles in its policies and practices, and which is aligned to international norms and standards.

consultant must fulfil at least one of the following criteria to get 5 points:

• A woman-owned business i.e., “a business [which is] owned in whole, or at least more than half, by one or more women”
• Women occupy more than 35% of management positions in the organisation
• At least 55% of the workforce are women
• There are robust gender equality initiatives in place, e.g., a gender equality procurement policy, women empowerment principles are implemented in the organisational policies, etc.

Payment Procedure

Payment will be in three instalments:

• First instalment: 20% after submitting the script of stories/songs
• Second instalment: 40% after submitting the audio stories/songs
• Third instalment: 20% after uploading the stories/songs and testing the functionalities of the app and final approval of Plan International.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities of the service provider

The company/consultant will be responsible for carrying out the tasks outlined in this ToR and ensure the delivery of outputs stated above within the agreed budget and timeline.

Responsibilities of PLAN JORDAN

Plan Jordan primary responsibility will be to help the service provider achieve the objectives of this ToR and provide the needed contextual technical support.

Ownership

All documents, project designs, drawings, technical data, filmed and photographed material and other information shall remain the property of the Project and shall be treated as confidential by the consultant(s) at all times. They shall not be made available to any third party whatsoever, in any form, without the prior written approval of a properly authorised employee of Plan International. The utilisation of all proposals, plans and reports and other information provided by the consultant(s) to Plan International is the property of Plan International and the use thereof is solely at the discretion of Plan International. All documents and other papers, whether in soft or hard copy and whether containing data or other information, provided by Plan International shall be returned complete to Plan International upon completion of the assignment. All documentation and reports written during and/or as a result of this study, or otherwise related to it in any way, shall remain the property of Plan International and no part shall be reproduced or quoted, or otherwise used in any way except with the prior, express and specific written permission of authorised employee of Plan International.

Ethical and child protection considerations

The assignment will require the consultant to interface with children and therefore the consultant is required to provide a statement on the respect and protection of child rights, human rights and dignity of participants compliant with Plan’s Child Protection Policy.

The consultant shall read and sign Plan’s child protection policy (CPP) as fully understood and in agreement to in all respects and shall follow this in all and every respect during the term of the consultancy.

The consultant must follow Ethical Principles in research and obtain written/verbal consent from the subjects. Permission from elders should be sought if the children under 18 years are involved as subjects. Signed informed consent of each child and his/her parents need to be taken after explaining the purpose of the study.