Child-friendly media monitoring study

Type of contract: Institutional/individual consultancy

Duration: December 2017 – March 2018

  1. Background and Justification:

UNICEF cooperates with the Government of the Republic of Belarus in the implementation of the 5th country programme of cooperation for 2016-2020 years.

The overall goal of the country programme is to support Belarus in closing equity gaps in the realization of children’s rights and applying the principle of the best interests of the child in national policy- and decision-making. The focus is on the most disadvantaged among young children, children with disabilities, children deprived of parental care, juveniles in conflict and in contact with the law, children and women survivors of violence, and adolescents.

The programme embraces four major components:

    1. Safe, caring and supportive environment for children, including parenting, violence against children, de-institutionalisation, child injury prevention, etc;
    2. Realising the rights of children with disabilities, including early intervention, inclusive education, etc;
    3. Enabling social environment for adolescents’ meaningful participation, including youth parliaments, youth-friendly health centres, etc;
    4. Monitoring, knowledge generation and alliance building for child rights.

It is implemented through the high-level policy dialogues, fundraising activities, thematic projects modelling, strategic, advocacy, monitoring, communication and visibility and public mass events for different age groups.

  1. Objective and Purpose:

Media plays a crucial role in promotion of child rights in Belarus and around the world. In order to inform the current Communication strategy and Advocacy plan as to the most effective channels to focus UNICEF in Belarus Communication efforts, determine the depth and professionalism of journalistic coverage of the topics relevant to UNICEF work in the traditional media (TV, print, online) in order to determine in which areas building journalists’ capacity is required and establish baselines for measuring reach of our communication efforts in traditional media, UNICEF in Belarus will hire a company to carry out a media study, covering the year 2015 and year 2017.

The purpose of the consultancy is to develop a child-friendly media monitoring study and analytical report on child rights-related subjects, relevant to the work of UNICEF in Belarus, covered in Belarusian media in 2015 and 2017.

  1. Scope and focus:

The media monitoring report should include a list of relevant articles/reports with short descriptions (including links), grouped by subject, and measure number and estimated reach of child rights-related coverage in online versions of key Belarus print media (at least 20, relevant to the subjects of UNICEF work), Belarus national TV channels (ONT, CTV, as well as BT 1, 2, and 4) and online news sources (such as national and regional online portals). The exact format of the report should be developed by the contractor and agreed with UNICEF ahead of time.

Media coverage of relevant issues will then be defined as a number of related media reports in Tier 1 (national), 2 (regional) or 3 (thematic/niche) media outlets. Each media piece should be classified according to the following criteria:

  • Thematic area;
  • Type of media: online versions of print – TV – online news source;
  • Estimated reach of media outlet: Tier 1 (national), 2 (regional) or 3 (thematic/niche);
  • UNICEF Mentions: yes - extended (a comment from expert, position quoted or similar) – yes - simple (mention of UNICEF name) – no mention.
  1. Deliverables and timeline:

Deliverables

Timeline

Inception report, outlining the plan of work for the study, including keywords developed in accordance with the topics UNICEF works with

 

15 January 2018

Media monitoring report measuring number, quality and estimated reach of children rights-related media reports produced Belarus media (TV, radio, print, online) in 2015-2016, collected from online sources

 

February 2018

Analytical report (up to 3 pages), analysing the trends in reporting on child right-related issues and coverage of UNICEF work in Belarus, as identified in the study

March 2018
  1. Supervision, Work Relations & Oversight
    UNICEF Communication Specialist will do the overall supervision.
  1. PAYMENT CONDITIONS:

Payments will be carried out in US Dollars upon provision of the final invoice, after the work is completed.

  1. UNSATISFACTORY PERFORMANCE:

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines.  All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and that UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future. This ToR is an integral part of the contract (SSA) signed with the consultant.

  1. QUALIFICATIONS OR SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE/ EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
  1. Minimum of 3-5 years of professional media-related work experience;
  2. Education in journalism and/or media-related filed;
  3. Skilled in writing summaries, press texts and articles;
  4. Strong analytical skills;
  5. Professional work ethic, integrity, and initiative;
  6. Knowledge of international development issues.
  1. PROCESS FOR APPLICATION

Please send your proposals to Maryia Nekrashevich at mnekrashevich@unicef.org.
Proposals should include:

  1. CV (where appropriate, or a company profile);
  2. Draft proposal as per purpose and objectives above, including a draft list of media outlets proposed to monitor;
  3. Budget proposal.

Criteria for the selection of proposals:

1. Experience producing media monitoring reports and analyses;

2. Financial proposal.

Deadline for submission of proposals: 15 December 2017