Provision of SubContracted Partner Service on Advocacy and Consumer Rights for the EU Lot 2 Food Fortification Project

Terms of Reference

PROVISION OF SUBCONTRACTED PARTNER SERVICE ON ADVOCACY AND CONSUMER RIGHTS FOR THE EU LOT 2 FOOD FORTIFICATION PROJECT

(July 2025-June 2029)

1.    Background

Self Help Africa Malawi is an international non-governmental organisation working to create opportunities for lasting improvement in peoples’ lives. We work in partnership with others to support a range of livelihoods and food security, WASH and health, sustainable energy and gender equality programmes reaching over 1,000,000 people a year across Malawi. SHA currently operates in 17 districts in Malawi, supporting 24 on-going projects. Self Help Africa is committed to the safeguarding of all those who we work with through our work. We are committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour relating to our work including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct; and we are committed to promoting the welfare of children and the people we aim to assist with whom Self Help Africa engages.

Self Help Africa and its partners have received funding from the European Union to implement the Fortifying for Our Communities Undernutrition Status through Strengthened Civil Society Organisation Capacity in Malawi (FOCUS) Action. The overall objective of action is strengthened local CSOs contribute to improved nutritional status, especially for children under five, in Malawi. The Action brings together the expertise of a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) network-research-technical implementation consortium to enhance the capacity of the local CSO sector to collaborate with smallholder farmers, seed companies, premix distributors, millers, and other private sector value chain players to develop commercially viable, nutrition-sensitive value chains supported by an improved enabling environment for food based micronutrient approaches, namely, food fortification and genetically biofortified food systems in Malawi.

The specific objectives are to:

1) Enhance CSO capacity to promote equity, innovation and access to micronutrient rich, fortified, and biofortified foods.

2) Strengthen CSO capacity to monitor and hold duty bearers to account for the consumption of quality, safe, nutritious and appropriately biofortified and fortified foods and infant food.

Self Help Africa will implement the action in collaboration with the Civil Society Organisation Nutrition Alliance (CSONA), building on the expertise to ensure that local CSOs are equipped to engage effectively with producers of fortified foods and fortificants and enforcement agencies in the country, in ensuring adherence to quality manufacturing processes; the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), with unrivalled international expertise in supporting food fortification in over 50 countries; and the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM) with 30+ years of diverse knowledge and experience in food security and nutrition security, market access and gender.

SHA will lead the implementation in Dedza and Mulanje districts, CADECOM will lead in Thyolo and Balaka districts, while CSONA and GAIN will operate at district and national levels.

It is against this background that SHA and its partners are seeking a sub-contractor to undertake advocacy and promote consumer rights of the FOCUS project.

2. Objective of the assignment

The assignment aims to engage the services of the sub-contractor to implement the advocacy and consumer rights initiatives to enhance the transparency and accountability in food fortification markets of the FOCUS project. This requires extensive experience of engaging with Malawi consumers, advocacy, along with technical expertise promoting intake of micronutrients, especially from food fortification initiatives.

Specifically, the sub-contractor will undertake the following tasks:

  1. Undertake advocacy and consumer rights promotion on food fortification.
  2. Carryout stocktaking, assessment of existing materials and produce or adapt the IEC materials.
  3. Advocate for food safety, quality standards, and enforcement to protect consumers from unsafe or substandard products, including fortified food.
  4. Strengthening fortification awareness clubs in schools and communities both urban and rural.
  5. Facilitate complaints between consumers and suppliers of fortified and biofortified products.
  6. Support awareness building sessions.
  7. Support interface meeting between duty bearers’/service providers and service users
  8. Organize panel discussions between stakeholders.
  9. Conduct training programmes for the consumer awareness coordinators in both urban and rural areas on how they can identify fortified products on the market.
  10. Support and participate in programme reviews, planning sessions, joint monitoring and reporting.

3.    Competencies of the sub-contractor

The sub-contractor is expected to have the following attributes to be considered:

  1. Extensive experience of engaging with Malawi consumers, advocacy, as well as technical expertise promoting intake of micronutrients, mainly from food fortification initiatives.
  2. Experience in development work particularly in the fields of food and nutrition security,a. including agriculture related programming and implementation, fortification, lobby, consumer rights advocacy, behaviour change communication, and communication for Development,
    b. working knowledge and experience in gender analysis and safeguarding will equally be of an added advantage.
  3. Demonstrable experience of producing results-driven consumer rights awareness campaigns with media engagements.
  4. A proven experience in participatory approaches for gathering data and professional reporting.
  5. A proven experience in capacity building of CSOs in Malawi.
  6. A demonstrated high level of professionalism and ability to adaptive programming.

4.    Duration of the Assignment

The contract is proposed to start on 1 July 2025 and for the whole project duration which runs to 30 June 2029.

5. Application process

Interested candidates will be expected to provide the following documentation:

  1. Detailed response to TORs, with specific focus on addressing the purpose and objectives of the assignment.
  2. Detailed budget breakdown and a work plan covering the first 8 months up to January 2026.
  3. Detailed profile of relevant work with at least 4 traceable referees.
  4. All eligible subcontractors who have valid business license with traceable offices and fulfill the requirements can send the bid documents by uploading the electronic documents in a link provided below.
  5. Bidders should submit their offers, which should include delivery terms and bid validity.
  6. The TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR CONTRACTS FOR PROCUREMENT OF SERVICES & WORKS – SELF HELP AFRICA (SHA)_JAN 2023 will be applicable. These terms and conditions will be shared with the successful bidder for their review and signature.
  7. Kindly utilize this provided box link to upload electronic copies of your bid application. https://gsha.app.box.com/f/2ee29df3d1454cb6b0cbd2ba0413422e
  8. If you have any questions or need further clarification, please feel free to send an email to mw@selfhelpafrica.org

Alternatively, proposals may be submitted in sealed envelopes by hand, clearly labelled “ADVOCACY AND CONSUMER RIGHTS SUBCONTRACTOR” and delivered no later than 30th May 2025 to the Self-Help Africa (SHA) Country Office in Lilongwe. Submissions should be addressed to: The Procurement and Logistics Manager, City Centre, Mwai House (Same building as Centenary Bank), Next to Anamwino House, Private Bag B-495, Lilongwe.

The closing date of receiving bid submission is 30th May 2025.

Note: Self-Help Africa (SHA) is not bound to accept the lowest or any other bid. All bids will be evaluated in accordance with standard Procurement guidelines as well as the requirements for this Invitation to bids. Bids will be evaluated based on compliance with technical specifications, delivery period, price and discounts offered (if any). Self-Help Africa (SHA) takes the safety and well-being of all those we work with, very seriously. We have a zero-tolerance policy on abuse. Our recruitment is safe, meaning that we recruit contractors with the highest values and standards of ethical behavior.

Post expires at 11:59pm on Friday May 30th, 2025