Invitation to Tender (ITT) to Provide Consultancy Services for the Review and Translation of Flood Messages Into Hausa and Fulfulde Languages at Plan International Nigeria

Applications are invited for:

Title: Procurement of Consultancy Services to Review and Translate Flood Messages into Hausa and Fulfulde Languages on Flood Early Warning, Preparedness, Adaptation, Resilience, and Post-Flood Occurrences, that will be used on different platforms (SMS, Jingles, Posters)

Location: Northeast, Nigeria

Project Background

• In Nigeria’s Northeast region, specifically across Yobe and Adamawa States, the intersection of climate change and protracted humanitarian needs has left thousands of households increasingly vulnerable to devastating seasonal flooding. Despite the availability of technical meteorological data, a significant information gap persists.
• Vulnerable communities often lack access to reliable communication platforms, and where information does exist, it is frequently too technical or linguistically inaccessible to trigger life-saving anticipatory action.
• This "vagueness" in early warnings often results in community paralysis rather than proactive preparation.
• Plan International maintains a robust presence in these states, committed to enhancing community resilience through the ZCRA Project. Recognizing that technical forecasts alone do not save lives, Plan International is bridging the gap between data and action.
• By partnering with major telecommunications providers, MTN, Airtel, and Glo, the project ensures that localized, trusted risk information reaches at-risk populations directly on their mobile devices.

The transition from a technical forecast to a community-led response requires a deliberate, nuanced approach to communication. A message development will be contracted for;

• Translation and Localization: By engaging a consultant, the project ensures that messages are not merely translated but are culturally adapted into local languages that resonate with the residents' daily realities.
• Action-Oriented Design: message focuses on converting "vague" warnings into clear, actionable guidance. This ensures residents know exactly what steps to take before, during, and after a flood event.
• Validation: the messages developed will be tested by Plan staff in various communities. Feedback will be shared with the consultant, so it can be integrated into the final draft of the messages.

Invitation to Tender (ITT) Overview and Instructions
Overview:

• To identify a consultancy firm or a consultant that will review flood messages on flood early warning, preparedness, adaptation, resilience, and post-flood occurrences, that will be used on different platforms (sms, jingles, posters), for the Climate Resilience ZCRA Project.

Introduction

• The Zurich Alliance project is actively seeking a highly competent professional message developer to spearhead the review of draft flood resilience messages.
• The successful candidate will be responsible for reviewing of already drafted messages to resonate with communities context and translation of these messages into Hausa and Fulfulde languages.
• Furthermore, this role involves ensuring these critical messages effectively reach and resonate with relevant stakeholders at both the state and federal government levels to drive informed action and support.

Objective 

• The primary objective of this consultancy is to bridge the gap between technical flood forecasting and community mobilisation.
• The consultant will support the message review aimed at converting technical flood forecasts into clear, actionable alert messages that drive community preparation and response, countering vagueness that leads to inaction.
• The consultant will ensure that messages take into consideration relevant cultural factors and other local nuances, ensuring that every alert is calibrated for maximum clarity, trust, and action, and avoiding vague warnings that result in paralysis.

Scope of Work 

• The consultant is expected to messages are relevant to reducing citizens’ vulnerability to flooding and conversion of technical meteorological forecasts are converted to messages easily accessible and meaningful to local communities for relevant actions.

In addition, the consultant will ensure the following:

• Audience Segmentation: Mapping diverse stakeholder groups, from high-risk residential clusters to local commerce hubs, to ensure messages are tailored to specific vulnerabilities.
• Sentiment & Bias Analysis: Evaluating existing community perceptions and cognitive biases as captured in the baseline reports to pre-emptively address skepticism or warning fatigue.

Messaging Content and Localisation
The consultant will transform complex hydrological data into a high-impact Call to Action by focusing on:

• Clarity of messages to ensure they answer: What is happening? Where is it happening? How severe is it? What exactly must the recipient do?
• Linguistic and cultural localisation to ensure the development and production of effective, tailored content that resonates with the audience, local nuances, terminologies and prevalent cultural norms with messages that foster community trust and action.
• Appropriate tone & voice that strike the right balance between authority and empathy in the messages to create urgency without inciting panic.

Validation & Iteration:

• To guarantee efficacy, the consultant will support a rigorous testing phase, ensure consolidating feedback from the message testing exercise

Finalization: Refine all templates and scripts based on empirical field message testing exercise to ensure the final drafts are optimized for behavioral compliance.

Consultant Deliverables:

• Message Template Library: A suite of pre-approved, multi-lingual scripts for various flood severities.
• Multi-Channel Strategy Map: A tactical guide for platform-specific broadcasting.
• Validation Report: Documentation of pre-testing results and the subsequent refinements made to the messaging.

Language and cultural context 
The Consultant must have an in-depth understanding of the cultural contexts of communities in Yobe and Adamawa States. He/She must;

• Understand the local Northern Nigeria context
• Be able to speak, read and write in the local market language (Hausa and Fulfulde).

Key Deliverables 

• Support in reviewing the draft of the message designed in English into Hausa and Fulfulde languages
• Share the final draft of the message designed in English into Hausa and Fulfulde.
• Design sample posters, radio jingles and sms messages on flood alerts, preparedness, adaptation, resilience and post-flood occurrences.
• Review messages after message testing sessions and consolidate feedback into final drafts.

Key Dates and Timelines

• The following table outlines the key dates and timelines associated with this tender process.
• Plan International reserves the right to change these at any time as the tender progresses.
  To maintain transparency, fairness, and adequate time to prepare your offers, Plan International will inform all interested Parties of any changes to these key dates and timelines simultaneously and in a timely fashion.

Activity and Deadline Date

• Issue of Invitation to Tender: 4th September 2026
• Deadline for supplier submission of clarification questions: 10th September 2026
• Deadline for the plan to respond to clarification questions: 14th September 2026
• Deadline for submission of offers: 18th September
• Plan Review of Offers: 21st September 2026
• Contract Award: 26th September 2026.

Pricing:

• Bidders are required to complete the pricing schedule attached separately in ‘Annex B – Pricing Schedule.’
• All prices must be quoted in Nigerian Naira and inclusive of Value Added Tax (VAT).
• For international firms, you can also quote in USD.
• To ensure a fair and transparent process, Plan International will not be able to divulge budget information relating to this tender or associated Projects.
• It is expected that Bidders submit their best possible financial offer at the point of submission.
• The successful Bidder will be required to pay their staff who work on this contract at least the National Living Wage.

Application Closing Date
18th September, 2026.

Instructions to Tenderers
These instructions are designed to ensure that all Bidders are given equal and fair consideration. It is the Bidders' responsibility to ensure their offer is complete and that they provide all the necessary information asked for in the format specified, or risk their offer being rejected. Further details can be found in section 9.1 of this ITT document and Annex F of the tender pack, ‘Submission Checklist.’

Women-owned businesses and companies actively engaged in or advancing gender equality and women's empowerment in the workplace are especially encouraged to apply.

Documents comprising this tender pack are as follows:
PIN/CNSLT/026/011 Plan Tender Dossier
ANNEX A – Invitation to tender
ANNEX B - Pricing Schedule
ANNEX C - Technical Questions
ANNEX D - Supplier Questionnaire
ANNEX E – Non-Staff Code of Conduct
ANNEX F – Terms of Reference

Tenderers are required to submit their proposal, inclusive of all required annexes, via email. Unless stated otherwise, all communications from Bidders in relation to this tender must include the ITT reference number "PIN/CNSLT/026/011", and be directed to: Nigeria.Procurement@Plan-International.org on or before the deadline.

Note

• Offers must be received by the deadline specified in the "Activity and Deadline Date" section.
• The offer, correspondence, and documents related to the tender must be written in English.
• Each Tenderer or member of a consortium or sub-contractor may submit only one offer.
• Clarification and Questions must be sent to: Nigeria.Tenderinquiry@Plan-International.org on or before the deadline.