CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST Materials for radio, television and social media to raise awareness on, encourage consumption of and create demand for traditional foods and natural products :

Job Summary

Deadline: 21 March 2023, 5pm

This is a call to support work under the USAID-funded Resilience ANCHORS Activity, implemented by ECODIT and Bio-Innovation Zimbabwe, among other partners.

Project summary
The overarching purpose of Resilience ANCHORS is to increase the capacity of communities to sustainably protect and manage community-based natural resources and the wildlife economy in anticipation of future shocks and stresses. The project is being implemented in the Southeast Lowveld (SEL) of Zimbabwe covering communities around the Save Valley Conservancy (SVC) and Gonarezhou National Park (GNP) and in the Mid-Zambezi Valley (MZV), Hwange and Binga districts.

Duties and Responsibilities

Among other objectives, the project seeks to enhance the marketing of various non-timber forest products (NTFPs). The project capitalizes on the growing health consciousness of consumers to leverage demand for “new” products; products that have been grown for a long time or occur naturally in Zimbabwe, but for which no current market demand exists. At the same time, in Zimbabwe, current economic conditions have seen a significant reduction in imports, presenting tremendous opportunity for the introduction of high-quality, locally produced products.

Promotion of these products will push demand and create new market opportunities for farmers. The increase in demand will also create opportunities for private sector companies.

In an effort to raise the profile of these products, Resilience ANCHORS is creating content to promote local ingredients to consumers, highlighting the quality, versatility and heritage of these products.

Expression of Interest
As part of that effort, Resilience ANCHORS seeks to create 5 10-min videos and 5 accompanying audio episodes this year, to engage and inspire farmers, viewers and listeners. Stories and insight will be shared about the plants and natural resources, about health and nutrition, cooking and food culture in Zimbabwe, history, and why it’s all important to our lives and society.

The overall look and feel should be entertaining, engaging and accessible—NOT NGO or donor promotional material. Farmers and general audience should hopefully learn new things but will not be preached to. The materials will be a celebration of Zimbabwe’s finest products, heritage and recipes—not a lecture.

Qualifications and Experience

Target audience are people in Zimbabwe and the region who are familiar with these products and dishes and ingredients but maybe have forgotten what they learned, or who grew up in towns and never learned much about them to begin with. We want to charm with memories of feelings and experiences while at the same time excite viewers and listeners about new ideas and tastes and flavours, to make them proud of their home, of where they come from and what fuels their culture. Beyond the SADC region, the target audience is anyone who enjoys cooking, food or travel programmes.

With regard to distribution, the videos must at least appear on YouTube or similar with a demonstrated reach by the end of 2023. The audio episodes should ideally be aired on national radio and so should follow format required.

How to Apply

To Apply
Submissions are to be sent via email to: [email protected].

Prospective partners should provide a 2-page overview of their company, experience developing similar content, with local communities and indigenous crops (links) and contacts of traceable references, a draft budget and timeline.