CALL FOR APPLICATIONS:

REGIONAL EXPERTS IN DIGITAL POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS

NDI seeks consultants or firms with specific expertise in the political media landscape, especially on social media, in each of the following regions:

• Central and Southeast Europe

• Eastern Europe and the Caucasus

• Central and Western Africa

• Southern and Eastern Africa

The consultant(s) will be tasked with creating, reviewing, providing feedback on, and contributing to NDI-produced training materials designed to assist NDI staff and partners around the world in utilizing social media and the internet for political campaigning. 

The consultant(s) should have experience providing services to online political party election campaigns, with a focus on how they: develop online campaign strategies; create short videos and other social media content; identify target audiences; counter information manipulation; boost reach and engagement on social media platforms; and connect social media and online campaigning to traditional election campaign strategies and efforts.

Specifically, the consultant(s) would: 

• Develop a new version of NDI’s forthcoming training materials on select topics (described below) based on the consultant’s region-specific expertise, in close consultation with the NDI Political Parties team: 

1. Developing a social media and online campaign strategy 

2. Developing practical skills in filming, developing, editing, producing, posting, and amplifying online content across different platforms on a limited budget. 

3. Developing expertise on how to build audiences for content, both organically and through paid advertising and promotion. 

4. Developing expertise to respond to information manipulation campaigns through utilizing modern communication tools and social media platforms. 

The key question for the consultant to answer is, “How can we make these materials more relevant to my region?”

• Ad-hoc engagement with and advice to NDI’s forthcoming ‘community of experts’.

  • E.g. Availability to answer questions from digital campaign practitioners within the community; sending digital campaign resources or best practices to the group; organizing a zoom discussion on one of the aforementioned topics, at least once a quarter from 2025 to 2030.

• Participate in an online ‘Training of Trainers’ to test and provide feedback on the training materials (tentatively in February 2025); and

• Help lead a regional training-of-trainers workshop based on the materials, in collaboration with NDI, in a country within the consultant’s home region (TBC).

Timeframe: 

NDI expects the consultant(s) to complete the stipulated work and be available for international travel as necessary in order to develop the localized training materials and deliver a training-of-trainers between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025. 

Terms of Payment: 

Remuneration per contract under this RFP is estimated between USD $4,000 and $8,000 for services rendered. Bids will be evaluated based on cost-effectiveness in addition to substance.

Payments under this agreement are tied to NDI receipt and acceptance of the following specific deliverables:

• Detailed feedback on the digital campaign training materials;

• A localized version of the training materials with recommendations specific to your geographical region;

• Completed Delivery of in-country training; and

• Ad-hoc support to forthcoming NDI Digital Campaign network.

The consultant(s) is responsible for invoicing NDI for any payments requested under this Agreement. 

All invoices must provide the following information: Consultant(s) name and remittance address, project code under which the work was performed, current amount invoiced and cumulative invoiced. NDI will not consider invoices received more than one year after completion of work or 60 days following completion of the underlying project. 

INSTRUCTIONS AND REQUIREMENTS: 

Bids should be submitted to Jose Alvarado at [email protected] by December 23, 2024. Submissions should be electronic.

Proposals should include: 

• CV/Resume of the consultant;

• Financial proposal quote; and

• A brief description of the state of digital party communications in your home country/region, specifically in:

  • Social media and online campaign strategies; 

  • Developing online content across different platforms on a limited budget; 

  • How to build audiences for content, both organically and through paid advertising and promotion; and

  • Developing expertise to respond to information manipulation campaigns through utilizing modern communication tools and social media platforms. 

NDI will evaluate bids based on the consultant(s) ability to meet description of the services needed, experience, and price. NDI reserves the right to reject any and all bids. NDI reserves the right to consider bids for modification at any time before a contract is awarded. 

Proposals are expected to be binding for a period of 12 months from the published response date. NDI shall not be liable for any costs associated with the preparation, transmittal, or presentation of any materials submitted in response to the RFP. 

Bidders must provide disclosure of any known past, present or future relationships with any parties associated with NDI. For example, applicants should disclose if a member of their Board is also a member of NDI's Board currently or in the past. The bidder also certifies that the prices offered were determined independently and without the purpose of restricting competition with other applicants, including but not limited to subsidiaries, and that prices have not been and will not be knowingly disclosed to any other applicant unless required by law. Failure to comply with these requirements may result in the removal of the bid from consideration. 

ABOUT NDI 

The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) is a nonprofit organization established in 1983 working to strengthen and expand democracy worldwide. Calling on a global network of volunteer experts, NDI provides practical assistance to civic and political leaders advancing democratic values, practices and institutions. NDI works with democrats in every region of the world to build political and civic organizations, safeguard elections, and promote citizen participation, openness and accountability in government. You can learn more about the Institute at our website, www.ndi.org.