Terms of Reference for Content and Communications Consultant At Aga Khan Foundation

1. About the Aga Khan Foundation

The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is an Agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), a group of private, non-denominational development agencies that share a mission to improve the living conditions and opportunities for marginalized communities across some target countries in Africa and Asia. AKF was established by His Highness the Aga Khan in Switzerland in 1967 and began working in East Africa in 1974. Globally, AKF seeks sustainable solutions to long-term problems of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and ill-health, with special emphasis on the needs of rural communities in mountainous, coastal, and other resource-poor areas. In East Africa, AKF responds to local and regional priorities by developing and implementing effective programming, measuring, documenting results, and sharing lessons with governments, donors, and development actors to influence policy and practice. AKF operates a multi-sectoral portfolio that includes programming in Education, Economic Inclusion, Civil Society, Health, and Early Childhood Development.

2. Background

AKF has worked in education in East Africa for over 30 years with the objective of ensuring all boys, girls, and young adults are equipped with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values they need to interact effectively with the world and be contributing members of society. In 2022 there are several high level and critical education events in East Africa that AKF will be contributing to and leading on elevating the importance for AKF to tell our education story, clearly articulate impact, and learning, and develop content for communications products that speak to diverse audiences to ensure this information is accessible and usable across the education ecosystem across East Africa and globally.

One of the major events in 2022 is the Schools2030 Global Forum, hosted in Tanzania in June. There will be an explicit focus on collaborating with a global team to develop and finalize content for communications and learning products both before and after the event.

3. Consultant scope of work

The consultant or organization will be required to work in-person and remotely and in close collaboration with diverse teams across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, regionally, and globally. The consultant/organization will be working in very close collaboration with the Regional Education and ECD Advisor, Regional Communications Officer, and the Global Schools2030 Communications Manager to:

• Collate and curate research and learning papers from across East Africa conducted over the last decade
• Critically engage with the research and learning to cross-learning, replicable trends, etc. to develop a synopsis of AKF’s learning journey over the past decade
• Engage with AKF’s programming to develop a clear communication on AKF’s contribution to education over the past decade
• Drawing on all the above, develop clear, concise, and targeted content for communication products with a clear purpose, audience (including internal), and channel of communication.
• Ensure the Schools2030 annual report is broken down to be relevant and accessible to diverse audiences
• Curate content for the Schools2030 Global Forum ensuring this is clear and consistent
• Curate content posts the Schoosl2030 Global Forum to ensure the outputs are shared rapidly and with quality. This will include synthesizing notes from all breakout sessions to capture the learning journey through the Forum.

4. Key deliverables

While the exact quantity on the below is yet to be determined, the deliverable will include:

• Curated research reports (writing style rather than content)
• Synopsis of a decade of research and learning
• AKF’s education 10-year impact journey
• Targeted content to communicate research, learning, journey, and contemporary programming of AKF
• Schools2030 breakdown annual report
• Content for Schools2030 Global Forum, both pre-and post-event

  N.B. It is NOT expected for this consultant to be a graphic design expert or produce the final product in high design

5. Work Plan

It is expected for this scope of work to require approximately 200 days of time. While exact timelines on deliverables will be finalized during inception, the Schools2030 Global Forum materials will need to be delivered before the 3rd June 2022 and the post-event materials completed by 29th July 2022. AKF fully expects to be working with the consultant/organization to the end of 2022.

6. Criteria for selection

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It is expected that the successful consultant/organization will have:

• Experience working in the education sector and evidence of writing education content
• Evidence of excellent English language writing skills
• Evidence of developing content for diverse audiences
• Experience in communication, public affairs, and/or journalism
• Proven analytical skills
• Ability to work within diverse and remote teams
• Ability to work under tight timelines