VIDEO DOCUMENTATION OF PROJECT
ON WOMEN, WATER AND
PEACEBUILDING

Background Oxfam is a global movement of people working together to end the injustice of poverty. In Pakistan, Oxfam and her partners have been working since 1973 to ensure all people, especially women and girls are able to exercise their rights and have access to basic services and economic resources. Oxfam, Association for Water, Applied Education & Renewable Energy (AWARE) and Strengthening Partnership Organisation (SPO) have together implemented ‘The Strategic Partnership Project on Women and Marginalised groups, Natural Resource Management and Peace-building’ (SPP) aimed at ensuring that women have a say in local water governance and peace-building policies and processes. The project is being implemented in the Akram Wah division in Sindh Pakistan, which includes the three districts of Badin, Hyderabad and Tando Mohammed Khan.

Rationale

Women are important stakeholders in water resource management but are never offered a seat at the high-tables where decisions over water governance are taken. According to the FAO, women in developing countries, make up 43 per cent of the agricultural labour force. Women in many countries, such as Pakistan, also bear the responsibility of feeding livestock in addition to domestic responsibilities of water collection, cooking and washing. Across the world, women spend long hours walking to and back from water sources for the collection of water. However, policies and processes dealing with water governance often do not include women and assume that all farmers are men, resulting in the marginalisation of women.  Access to irrigation water is also tied to land rights and denial of women’s right to own land keeps them excluded from water governance structures. This results in bad harvests and deepening of poverty for women smallholder farmers and growing food insecurity.

Under this project, efforts were made to ensure that women have a say in local water-level governance, peace-building processes and policies. The project aimed to raise awareness and equip women and marginalised groups to understand water governance structures, their own rights and establish linkages with government institutions and processes to ensure that they are able to play a meaningful role in the management of water resources. At the policy level, the project addressed structural inequalities faced by marginalised groups and women. In particular, the project aimed to bring attention to certain policies and laws which discriminate against women and marginalised groups and prevent them from meaningfully participating in water governance.

Purpose of Work:

Oxfam and AWARE seek the services of an individual consultant or firm to capture the impact of the project through a documentary. The documentary will be screened for a wide audience of donors especially those outside the country, government officials, social media followers,  supporters and others so they can be informed about the impact of their funding on the lives of individuals and government systems. The videos will be shared by Oxfam, SPO and AWARE locally and beyond.

Documentary films serve as an in-depth and informative resource which can effectively sensitize people to understand and realize the gravity of an issue and take action. They are also useful in capturing the journey of a project and its impact in a visually appealing manner. Through this film, we hope to depict both the seriousness of the issue, document the project life-cycle, the achievements of the women who were at its heart as well as the policy advocacy efforts. 

Scope of Work

Oxfam and AWARE seek the services of a consultant/firm or agency to produce one high quality documentary. The objective of this activity is to capture the project life cycle from efforts to impact and document the achievements these include rural women emerging as leaders in their communities, the recognition of their role in water governance and peace-building processes and garnering the support of stakeholders at all levels of policy change.

The following are the main objectives this film seeks to achieve:

• To showcase the work and visually capture the journey of the entire project i.e the context, the activities, the impact on the lives of women and other marginalised groups, the policy-level engagements
• To educate and inspire a general audience about the water crises and calling upon them to take action
• To enhance water users’ understanding of water rights and water governance structures and create a demand for the inclusion of women and marginalised groups in water-related decision making as a fundamental human right, protected under the law

Target Audience:

• Oxfam, AWARE and SPO’s donors, supporters and partner organisations in Pakistan and beyond
• Policy Makers and parliamentarians in Pakistan and in donor countries
• Social media supporters, civil society activities, academics and journalists working on water governance issues

Outputs:

1. One short documentary (15-20 minutes duration) written on 10 DVDs with covers and labels and shared on a USB Flash Drive. The video will be in Sindhi (local languages) and must be sub-titled in English
2. At least 50 high-quality photographs clearly captioned with names of subjects, location and one line description. 

Details of Outputs:

1. A.     Visual Production
   1. Produce strong visual documentation of the seriousness of the issue, the stories of women leaders, policy-level engagements and the impact of project activities. Locations may include all three project districts in Sindh i.e. Badin, Hyderabad and Tando Mohammed Khan. The consultant’s assignment includes, but is not limited to:

• Concept visualization
• Script writing (English)
• Filming of activities
• Interviews of individual subjects (Women leaders, project staff, government officials and parliamentarians)
• Editing
• Animation with graphics (to share statistics and other information)
• Background music
• Subtitles
• Final Compositing & DVD Packaging

1. The final product will be approved by AWARE and Oxfam. All rights for the video will be with AWARE and Oxfam. The consultant will be responsible for ensuring high quality sound and picture. The consultant must also ensure that dialogue is clear and understandable by a first-time viewer. 
2. The video must be shot using a full frame DSLR in at least 1080/24p resolution.
3. The subtitles must be shared with Oxfam and approved before being hardcoded on to the footage.
4. Voice-overs are not to be used, the narrative must be human-centred and led by the voices of women leaders               

Required criteria

• At least 4-5 years of experience in producing development-related documentaries for national or international organizations with the aim of reaching both local and international audiences.
• Knowledge about local practices, culture and language
•  Excellent technical capacities (state-of-the-art filming equipment) to ensure smooth and high quality (HD) production

Important Notes:

• The selected candidate will be required to submit final products for the above-mentioned deliverables in accordance with the agreed timelines.
• For all communication, the selected candidate will be bound to adhere to the branding and sensitivity guidelines of Oxfam.
• The consultant will be expected to seek approvals from the Media and Communication Manager at Oxfam and Project Manager at AWARE at the stage of pre-production (script and shoot plans to be presented for approval), production (first cut and subtitles must be submitted for approval) and subsequent cuts incorporating feedback.
• The consultant will be contractually bound to incorporate the feedback from the relevant staff members at Oxfam and AWARE.

Timelines:

• The engagement is expected to commence once a contract has been signed between the Consultant and AWARE, but should not take more than 30 days.
• Documentary, script and photos caption shall be provided to AWARE and Oxfam as specified above.

Procedures for submission of proposals:

Interested candidates should submit the following to AWARE (both in print by mail and by email)

• Detailed technical proposal comprising creative methodology, innovative approach, resume/profile of the applicant
• Itemized financial quotation
• Sample of Previous Work

Selection Process and Criteria:

The proposals will be evaluated through a competitive selection process. Following criteria will be followed.

• Profile and Sample:          50 points
• Methodology:                    20 points
• Proposed Budget:              30 points