ToR Communication Strategy and Activities for the WMO Global Multi-Hazard Alert System Framework (GMAS)

• Duty Station: Home-based consultant
• Type of Contract: Special Service Agreement (SSA) / Individual Contractor
• Expected Starting Date: 13 September 2021
• Duration of Initial Contract: four months over a period of ten months (deliverable based)

Background

Early warnings for weather, water, ocean, and climate hazards have proven to be very effective in reducing loss of life and damage to property. Authoritative warnings provide the foundation for early action and life and livelihood benefit, and therefore multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS) feature prominently in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the Paris Agreement of the UNFCCC, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

As impacts related to hydrometeorological hazards affect increasingly exposed and vulnerable populations worldwide and their assets that frequently cross political boundaries, there is a need for the authoritative warnings and alerts from all countries to be made more easily accessible in a timely manner. WMO is committed to supporting countries in developing and strengthening their multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS) to enable multi-hazard, all-media emergency alerting to ensure citizens have access to information and the ability to act.

To meet this challenge, at WMO’s eighteenth congressional session Resolution 13 (Cg-18) – WMO Global Multi-Hazard Alert System Framework (GMAS) was approved. GMAS is considered to be the WMO framework, driver and vehicle for substantially increasing and enhancing the availability of, and access to, authoritative warnings and information related to high-impact weather, water, ocean and climate events at all levels. The vision of the GMAS Framework is to be recognized globally by decision makers as a resource of authoritative warnings and information related to high-impact weather, water, ocean, and climate events.

Other related initiatives include:

• Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the Paris Agreement of the UNFCCC, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• WMO Coordination Mechanism (WCM) to support humanitarian activities.

Purpose of the assignment

The overall purpose of the assignment is to support the WMO Secretariat, the Expert Team on GMAS (ET-GMAS), and WMO Members to effectively collect, curate, and communicate information that demonstrates the importance of connecting Member’s authoritative alerts and warnings on climate shocks, extreme weather, floods to decision making processes. The work will initially focus on engaging inputs of WMO Members, specialized centers, and humanitarian partners to develop an internal and external communication strategy tailored to the six WMO regional associations.

Subsequent work will include the provision of ready to use tools, templates and guidance to more easily produce and disseminate relevant and appropriate messages and outreach that efficiently communicates the value of GMAS and Member alerts to different stakeholder groups with a minimum level of effort and need for Communications expertise.

Through the development of a package of communication protocols and templates, and hands-on support to the WMO Secretariat and ET-GMAS subgroups, the assignment aims to develop standardized communication products across the GMAS implementation.

The audiences that we intend to reach are diverse and require a holistic set of tools that can be customized and deployed accordingly. Those audiences include: 1) WMO Secretariat staff, ET-GMAS members and WMO internal audiences including Executive Management; 2) donors and affiliated stakeholders; 3) developing country Government counterparts; 4) in-country civil society; and 5) the general interested public. Due to the variety of the audiences we seek to reach, we would like to standardize templates, guidance and in-kind support to enable standardized communication of the value of GMAS and WMO Member’s authoritative information.

The assignment also includes initial support for the implementation of select communication activities.

Description of duties

Under the direct supervision of the Director, Disaster Risk Reduction and Public Services Branch and in close cooperation with the Scientific Officer (SO/MHEWS) and the ET-GMAS, the incumbent will carry out the following tasks (home/remote-based):

1. Conduct focus group discussions  and produce a brief stakeholder analysis by region and/or stakeholder group. 
2. Produce a communications strategy for GMAS.
3. Produce templates for the items included in this package.
4. Initial communication activities (including two pilots to test the communication templates and refine).

1. Conduct focus group discussions and produce a brief stakeholder analysis by regional and/or stakeholder group

in three WMO regions (Africa, Asia, and South America) for two target stakeholder groups as well as a focus group discussion with UN and humanitarian partners (total of 7 focus group discussions). Produce a stakeholder analysis by region and stakeholder group.

The WMO ET-GMAS has conducted an initial mapping of relevant GMAS stakeholders. The consultant is expected to undertake a combination of quantitative and qualitative research including an opinion survey and series of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), provide analysis of the FGDs, desk research, interviews, and apply other qualitative research techniques to collect necessary data. As part of the assignment, FGDsand interviews will be conducted in three WMO regions (Africa, Asia, and South America) for target stakeholder groups and a global focus group discussion with UN and humanitarian partners (total of 7 focus group discussions). These will provide better understanding and data on the attitudes and perceptions of key stakeholder groups regarding GMAS, as well as their preferred channels of communications and trusted sources of information.

Produce a stakeholder analysis by region that identifies the general understanding of the GMAS Framework concept, roles and responsibilities of core Framework institutions, and identifies expectations, concerns, and national policy drivers. On the global level, identify key communication priorities to engage UN and humanitarian colleagues at the global and national levels to enhance uptake of authoritative information within decision making processes. The stakeholder analysis should also help identify the potential social mobilizers and key champions to deliver the messages within the community.

Output 1 should provide a brief stakeholder analysis outlining key message for target audiences, preferred communication channels, feedback/monitoring mechanisms.

2. Produce a communications strategy for GMAS

This phase of the assignment will include development of the communications strategy for GMAS, based on Output 1, stakeholder analysis, which outlines key message for target audiences, preferred communication channels, feedback/monitoring mechanisms.

Key elements of the Communications Strategy must be carefully considered and covered under this activity, including:

a. Communication objectives

b. Audiences (internal and external; primary, secondary, tertiary)

c. Key Messages

d. Communication channels, tools, and type of media (including social media) for identified

audiences

e. Feedback/monitoring mechanism

f. Evaluation tools

The final strategy should include the following elements:

• Clearly formulated objectives, such as: building trust within WMO Members and decision makers, encouraging engagement with the WMO community and UN and humanitarian partners; manage expectations by consistent feedback on Framework implementation, for Members include communication on the benefits/value they will receive from the Framework; as well as informing all other relevant stakeholders about the Framework; ensuring appropriate internal communications and close coordination and message alignment across various implementing agencies; etc.
• Develop a tailored strategy for the major groups of stakeholders based on their current knowledge of the Framework, perceptions, aspirations and needs, and their preferred channels of communication. Key messages will be developed for major stakeholder groups and FGDs can also be used for preliminary testing of the messages to assess which potential messages may resonate with the target audiences.
• Clear and useful message architecture with a focus on creating trust with the WMO and UN and humanitarian colleagues, while managing expectations on results, benefits and timelines in a transparent manner.
• Develop a two year schedule of communication actions with a timed and sequenced list of activities (events/products) targeted at specific stakeholder groups.

The strategy will need to include an internal communications component for the WMO GMAS Secretariat focal points and ET-GMAS to brief executive management and the larger WMO community.  The internal communications component of the strategy should assess the communications capacity of various GMAS implementing agencies/centres and recommend communications capacity building activities for relevant stakeholder groups, as necessary. It should also include recommendations for creating an effective internal/external communications mechanism for coordination of communications activities and alignment of messages, for example, by creating a working group that could include communications staff from different implementing entities.

Output 2 GMAS communications strategy.

3. Produce templates for the items included in the communications strategy

This phase of the assignment will include development of a  standard communications package: a collection of templates, tools and guidance that will enable standard communication of the activities and value of the GMAS Framework to a variety of stakeholders throughout implementation. Templates and tools should be roughly 75%+ static e.g. all outputs using the same template or tool would reflect a standard and uniform quality of information and look and feel, but with custom content.

An indicative list for this standard package is below. The assets listed below should be refined/recalibrated by the consultant under the Strategy developed in activity 2 and agreed with the WMO Secretariat.

Templates for comms products that can be applied, with modification as needed, to other Regions/countries:

• Script for Video:1-minute video that provides an introduction to the Framework, vision, value, roles, responsibilities in implementation.
• 2-minute video that provides an overview of the Framework and lessons learned per pilot region. The “template” for the script should include key questions, ideas, suggestions to build a script which can be easily customized.
• Template for Feature story (online interactive): with 1-2 visuals that summarizes and serves to “market” the Framework
• Template for a Framework 2-page concept note for different stakeholder groups: provides context, objectives of the Framework, short narrative, 2-3 highlights, 2-3 visuals such as photo, graphs, data, contact info for relevant person(s) for more information, quote or testimonial

The consultant will also create a general Communications primer to provide an overview of general comms principles and guidance with examples included to illustrate concepts e.g. persuasion, key messages, audience identification, KPIs for comms efficacy and reach, etc. This will also include specific guidance/tips on how to:

• Take a compelling project or partner photo to be used for collateral
• Craft a good quote or testimonial
• Write a concise and compelling Op-ed
• 10-15 key words and phrases that can be used for tagging content, as hashtags for social media posting, etc

Output 3 GMAS communication templates. 

4. Initial communication activities (including one pilot to test the communication templates and refine)

During the rest of the assignment, the consultant will support implementation of the following envisioned communications products:

• GMAS Framework online interactive story line that aims to clarify vision and objectives and support the change process to engage Members. Uploaded on the WMO GMAS webpage
• Develop a 2-page factsheet for different stakeholder groups: provides context, objectives of the Framework, short narrative, 2-3 highlights, 2-3 visuals such as photo, graphs, data, contact info for relevant person(s) for more information, quote or testimonial
• Script for Video:1-minute video that provides an introduction to the Framework, vision, value, roles, responsibilities in implementation.

The consultant will road test the communications templates (Output 3) in the implementation of the GMAS Africa pilot and refine templates as required.

Output 4 GMAS communication products and refined communication templates. 

Expected deliverables and timeframe

The assignment will have a duration of four months over a period of ten months.

Deliverable	Estimated Duration	Target Due Date
Output 1: Interviews and focus group discussions and stakeholder analysis report	1 month	Early to mid October  2021
Output 2: GMAS communications strategy	0.5 month	End of October 2021
Output 3: GMAS communication templates.	0.5 month	Mid November 2021
Output 4: GMAS communication products and refined communication templates.	2 months	staged deliverables. Timeline to be agreed prior to contract signature.

Other terms and arrangements

The Assignment is expected to be four months over a period of ten months. The consultant  will be selected in accordance with the WMO’s Standing Instructions.

WMO invites communication consultants to indicate their interest in undertaking the assignment  and demonstrate that they are qualified  to perform the activities. Specific qualifications include:

• Demonstrated experience in organizing focus group discussions (FGDs) and interviews  to identify key messaging priorities for different stakeholder groups and preferred communication channels
• Demonstrated experience developing communications strategies
• Demonstrated experience in developing communication templates
• Demonstrated experience in developing communication products (online story lines, 2-pg, scripts, and videos)

How to Apply

Interested consultants should send a proposal of no more than 10 pages to Ms Erica Allis, Scientific Officer, eallis@wmo.int , no later than 20 August 2021, with subject line “GMAS Comms Application”. Consultants should include their CV (not counted towards the 10 pages above, but should not exceed 5 pages)  proposals should include:

1. Description of Approach, Methodology and Work Plan
2. Work Schedule
3. Task Assignments & Level of Effort (LOE)
4. Consultant’s Experience
5. Financial Proposal

Timeline and Payment Schedule

The duration of the assignment four months over a period of ten months.

The tentative payment schedule will be:

• 25% upon provision of the stakeholder analysis report;
• 25% upon provision of GMAS communications strategy;
• 25% upon provision of final templates for videos, feature stories, 2 pagers etc. guidance notes and insights;
• 25% upon approval of all final templates and communication templates.