Introduction:

Oxfam is implementing a project entitled “Contributing to Economic Resilience in Central Iraq” with the financial support of BMZ.  The overall purpose of the project is to strengthen the economic resilience of agriculture and food market systems. This is aimed at contributing towards the social and structural economic empowerment of communities and public-private partners (C3P) in Central Iraq, specifically targeti)ng Anbar Governorate. The project’s primary activities include supporting small-scale producers (SSPs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to increase production, income generation, and market development opportunities. Additionally, it focuses on improving the agricultural market system by institutional development, infrastructure rehabilitation, training, and creating synergies for policy reforms that will address structural impediments to agricultural growth and promote innovation.

The agriculture sector is vital to Iraq's economy but today accounts for less than nine percent of the country’s GDP. The size and productivity of the agricultural sector has been affected by decades of conflict, availability of cheap imports and a lack of government policies to effectively manage, protect or preserve Iraq’s natural resources. There are good reasons to believe that the agriculture sector could be a driver of economic growth in post-conflict Iraq in ways that favor the poorest populations. Both rural and urban households would benefit from increased production and lower prices, particularly vulnerable populations, such as female-headed households, which tend to spend a higher proportion of their income on food. Poor households dependent upon low skill labor would also benefit from increased demand for workers and increased wages. Supporting smallholder farming families and promoting linkages with market actors should generate jobs for farm laborers. Oxfam in Iraq aimsto support and encourage the local community to buy the local product other than the imported products, therefore, to promote local production purchase and consumption, a national level campaign will be launched to raise local consumers’ awareness of locally produced food and agricultural products.

Campaign Objectives and Outcomes:

The “Buy Local” campaign objectives include:

• Promoting Local Products: Raising awareness among local consumers about the benefits of purchasing locally produced goods.
• Market Development: Increasing market access and demand for local agriculture products, thus supporting local producers and SMEs.
• Economic Empowerment: Strengthening the agricultural economy by enhancing local consumption, creating more stable income streams for SSPs, and fostering greater community resilience.

The outcomes from these campaigns are expected to contribute to an empowered agricultural market system, increased local demand, and ultimately, enhanced resilience for agricultural actors in Anbar.

Methodology:

During the preparation phase of the materials, the consultant/consultancy firm will have to:

• Develop campaign messages promoting the purchase of local products by communities in Anbar, specifically for the Ramadi and Fallujah districts, to raise awareness for the different community groups including men, women, boys and girls etc,
• design all materials for the “Buy Local” campaign and share them for review by Oxfam technical team before printing,
• Use the designed IEC materials in form of street banners/billboards, and posters, and place them in strategic places in as well as distribution of promotional leaflets,
• Conduct awareness sessions with communities in populated public areas, such as parks, community gathering events, special days (if any), etc. to encourage the local communities on purchasing local products,
• Disseminate the campaign’s awareness messages to the local communities through popular two social media pages,
• Disseminate the campaign’s awareness messages to the local communities through one popular radio station in Anbar.

Roles, responsibilities and deliverables:

Key responsibilities of the contracted party are: 

• Close coordination with relevant stakeholders, local authorities including Directorate of agriculture, directorate of municipalities, chamber of commerce and among others.
• Design and preparation for all IEC materials related to campaign message and content including posters, leaflets, banners and signboards.
• Making interviews with stakeholders, product owners and local community members to help in producing a documentary video considering the value chain of the product along with media platforms.
• Agency responsible of the installation all the IEC materials in the public places 
• Prepare a final report. 

A. Coordination:

• Coordinate with the department of agriculture, department of municipalities and the chamber of commerce to inform about the campaign, seeking their contribution to increase ownership, as well as their approvals on the campaign. 

B. Awareness raising:

• Raising awareness of agricultural project owners and entrepreneurs about the importance of their participation in the campaign.
• Distribution of the campaign’s promotional leaflets through community groups (as indicated in the Methodology section)

C. Media coverage: 

• Contracting with one popular radio station in Anbar to increase the visibility for the campaign and deliver the messages to the communities, specifically in the districts of Ramadi and Fallujah. 
• Design educational materials specific to the campaign message and content for the radio stations. 

Logistics and Constraints:

The contracted party (consultant/consultancy firm) is responsible to all logistical needs and preparations required to carry out this assignment.

Time frame:

The assignment will be for 20 working days, starting the 15 Nov 2024. The timeline will be refined based on the company work plan and won't be beyond 12 Dec 2024. 

Required documentation:

Interested parties that would like to submit their offers must submit the following documents:

• Expression of Interest

A cover letter with a maximum of two pages which introduces the company with an expression of interest to carry out the work as described in this ToR.

• Technical & Financial Proposal

Technical proposal should include, but not limited to, understanding of the ToR, methodology and tentative work plan. The company should clearly indicate the relevance of their previous experiences and the application of these methods to this project.

While the financial proposal includes the total financial expected implications to carry out this work, including a detailed breakdown of costs for each activity to be accomplished. 

TOR LINK: https://oxfam.box.com/s/2codl9pa213kpgcebwe47eryz3l0q876 

The interested parties should send all the required documents listed above to the address irqconsultancy@oxfam.org.uk.

Email subject: Conduct ‘’buy local’’ campaign to promote local product preferences by local consumers

Deadline for submission of offers:

The deadline for submitting the offers is: 15th Nov. 2024 (17:00 hr.).