Design and Production of a Voters’ Education Campaign  

Terms of Reference

Design and Production of a Voters’ Education Campaign  

for the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections | LADE

‘Multi-dimensional Advocacy on Elections – Monitoring and Reforming the Legal and Procedural Frameworks’

Main Task

The Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE) is looking to engage a production house/company to assist LADE in the design and production of a well-structured, elaborated and informative voters’ education campaign, as well as to develop and update the voters guide as per the current legal framework and in accordance with the 44/2017 electoral law.

Background

After several years lobbying and advocating for a new electoral law, Lebanon has finally adopted the proportional system for the first time in  history, following a three consecutive rounds of mandate extension of the Lebanese Parliament. In this regard LADE has decided to launch a voters’ education program, in order to inform and communicate to the voters the new electoral law, and explain its main features to the general public.

As a matter of fact, the new electoral law has many inconsistencies, given that the whole electoral process has changed, including the voting mechanism, as well as the calculation of results, allocation of seats, and other practices related to the proportional system. It is one of LADE’s main objectives to attain a better engagement of Lebanese voters, and for the first time voters in particular, in a democratic process by allowing them to actively participate in this electoral cycle. It is one of LADE’s values to increase the level of awareness and push citizens to reinforce their civic and political rights.

Objectives

Providing voters with the adequate information requires a comprehensive approach to voter education and public outreach. A public outreach strategy should include a well-directed informative multi-media production. LADE’s voter education strategy considers the different target audiences and will use several types of media platforms. Specific multi-media productions should also provide information for illiterate and low-literacy voters, to encourage their participation and simplify voting processes, given that they may be unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the new methods.

The planned outcomes will be divided into various informative and promotional material, as well as the creation of new means of knowledge-sharing, aiming at raising voters' awareness on the new procedures entailed in the newly ratified electoral law 44/2017, as well as calling for election observers to register with LADE to be able to join forces on e-day as to be considered for the upcoming election monitoring training.

As such, LADE is proposing what follows to be produced in the upcoming month (January).

Deliverables

• Produce a series of up to 6 informative videos, making the new law easy to understand, giving the public a reference for the E-day. The type of the videos is to be discussed with the contractor.
• Create a group of 10-15 visual materials (such as leaflets, posters, infographics, supplements, promotional material, etc) to be disseminated on social media and use in trainings, explaining how to cast a ballot using the pre-printed ballot, how the vote is counted, etc.
• Create the identity and design of an “informative voters’ education kit” that targets several audiences.  
• Production of a TVC entailing a call of action, provoking the public to be proactive and to participate in preserving the integrity and democratic aspect of the electoral process by joining force with LADE as potential observers.
• Design of online and paper-based simulations, including seat allocations and vote counting as per the new law in the fifteen electoral districts.

Required Qualifications of the Production Company

• The company will be required to meet the following requirements:
• At least five years of experience in the media, advertising and comms fields;
• Experience in working with local NGOs or other international organizations on such topics;
• Knowledge and background info on the political and electoral context;
• Excellent technical capacities to ensure high-quality production.

Contractual Arrangements and Scope of Work

The selected company shall:

• Deliver scripts and clear storyboard for comments;
• Plan and schedule an efficient timeline for the project;
• Review all documents and materials provide in order to better understand the project objectives, LADE's mandate and the expected results;
• Produce a high-quality version of the visuals/graphics, videos with adequate background music and voice over in finest and high-quality video formats including HD, AVI and MP4, with English subtitles;
• Finalize the outcome incorporating the comments arising from the presentation to LADE;
• Provide, in addition to the soft version, a high-quality hard copy (DVD) of the final, approved version of the video. In addition to other appropriate formats that enable the video to be uploaded to LADE’s website and social media platforms.

In this regard, LADE shall provide the necessary support to the production company in order to execute the assignment during the duration of the contract. These shall include:  

• Content required for the production for all the material (this includes drafts of scripts for the videos);
• Access to project-related documents necessary for execution of the assignment;  
• Necessary background information and details as well as expert advice on the topic;

Any other inputs deemed necessary for successful completion of the assignment will be discussed with the company.

Proposal Submissions and Timeline

• Technical proposal not exceeding 5 pages in length with the proposed approach and activities to be taken for the implementation and management of the assignment, including an operational work plan with timeline;
• Breakdown of costs;
• Portfolio of the company’s work.

Full proposals shall be submitted to [email protected]. Incomplete proposals will not be considered,  no later than close of business on January 5.

Kindly use the title "Voters’ Education Campaign" in the subject line header. Only successful applicants will be contacted. The assignment is expected to be implemented within the month of January.

Intellectual Property and Copyright

All information pertaining to this project (video, audio, digital, project documents, etc) belonging to LADE, which the production company may come into contact with in the performance of his/her, duties under this consultancy shall remain the property of LADE who shall have exclusive rights over their use. Except for purposes of this assignment, the information shall not be disclosed to the public nor used in whatever without the written permission of LADE. The Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections holds exclusive ownership and rights to all design and other related production including all use and distribution rights.

Organisational Context

LADE is a Lebanese non-profit and non-partisan organization advocating for election integrity and fair representation as two vital pillars for a functional democracy. Since its establishment in 1996, LADE has been heavily involved in instigating electoral reform on a national level through a set of well-designed interventions amongst which election monitoring constitutes a cornerstone for a viable parliament, where it features as a necessary tool to assess the electoral framework and propose amendments when needed. The association's early efforts reached paramount in 1998 with the implementation and management of a full-fledged campaign aiming at restoring local elections across Lebanon for the first time since the breakout of the Lebanese Civil War. Consequently, LADE’s role grew further and as a leading reformist organization. LADE’s awareness extended throughout the years to cover pre-elections, e-day and post-elections activities. Moreover, the association has been able, in a short period of time, to catch up with the academic and societal debates around media ethics and gender participation and has successfully developed a multifaceted and multidisciplinary approach to citizenship and electoral reform.