REQUEST FOR QUOTATION
RFQ No UNFPA/SRB/RFQ/23/001

UNFPA and UN WOMEN hereby solicit a quotation for the following service: “Communications Support for the JP Peer Mentoring Programme implemented by UNFPA and UN Women in Serbia”

UNFPA is seeking a communications and PR agency to develop a creative concept as well as to assist in the implementation of the campaign that will promote the Joint Programme on Peer Mentoring support in Serbia, securing both social and traditional media space. The Joint Programme is being implemented by UNFPA and UN Women with the support of the Italian Embassy in Serbia. This Request for Quotation is open to all legally-constituted companies that can provide the requested services and have the legal capacity to deliver in the country or through an authorized representative.

About UNFPA and UN WOMEN

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is the lead United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency for ensuring the rights and choices of all. The strategic goal of UNFPA is to achieve the three
transformative results: ending unmet need for family planning, ending maternal death, and ending violence and harmful practices against women and girls. In pursuing its goal, UNFPA has been guided by the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action (1994), the Millennium Development Goals (2000), and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015).
UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action, and peace and security.

Service requirements

Background information:
According to the latest estimate of the population at the end of 2020, which was published on 1 July 2020, there are 1,218,789 young people (15–30 years old) and they make up 17.7% of the population in Serbia or around 1/6 of the population.
Based on the findings of the Report on the Rights of young people in the Republic of Serbia 2020, young people faced numerous challenges in exercising human rights, especially in their rights to employment, education, freedom of movement, and information, and since the outbreak of COVID 19, in access to health care. Reasons for such unfavourable situations are numerous, and include unfamiliarity with their own rights, limited opportunities to exercise their rights, especially for the vulnerable categories, as well as prejudice, stereotypes, and often negative perceptions related to the capacity and reliability of youth in public life.
However, their level of participation in social life and decision making is low. Most young people feel that they are not adequately involved in the processes of decision-making at the national level (73%) as well as in the local community (73%) or at school (58%). About 90% of youth are not members of sports clubs, political parties, cultural and artistic societies or citizens associations. More than two thirds of young people (67%) are not ready to engage in the work of bodies that initiates or makes decisions of importance for young people, mainly because do not have enough information about their work (34%) and because they believe that their Involvement would not change anything (33%). Although the ministry responsible for youth strongly encourages all local governments to establish local youth offices for dealing with local youth policies and youth issues, out of 145 LGs, a total of 66 LGs do not have a youth council while 73% of LGs do not have a Local Action Plan for Youth.
In an effort to strengthen the participation of young people and to ensure that their voices are heard, and their needs reflected in the issues that affect their lives directly, the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) established a Youth Advisory Group (YAG). By establishing the YAG group, UNCT created the basis for the further promotion of networking among young people - those who are socially engaged both in urban areas and locally, as well as those whose potential needs the incentive to implement activities related to participation, value promotion, reconciliation, cultural cooperation, etc.
To expand the opportunities for youth participation at the local level and have them actively contribute to the development of society at large, the Peer Mentoring Programme is designed in a participatory
manner, and in consultations with YAG. Funded by the Italian Embassy, Belgrade, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Italy, Regional Cooperation, Unit for the Adriatic and the Western Balkans, Directorate General for Europe and International Trade Policy, the programme is aimed to support motivation of young women and men across the country to unleash their potential to become social innovators, leaders, thinkers and a powerful force for change in their communities and country. This will be achieved through a young leadership training and peer mentoring process in which experienced young people (YAG members) support their peers at the local level to create and implement the initiatives to increase youth participation, promote human rights and create space for social engagement of youth at the local level. Moreover, social media and digital platforms are to be used to spread information about the programme, to strengthen protection and promotion of human rights and benefits of youth participation.
Communication and outreach activities are key to achieving programmatic results, so the overall objective of communication endeavors is to help UNFPA CO and UN WOMEN CO to:
1. Raise awareness about the programme and its activities, achievements, and its potential impact in the country among key stakeholders.
2. Engage wider public in activities towards having more young leaders have their say and actively participate in decision making processes.
3. Draw the attention of policy and decision-makers, as well as potential partners to the programme as an important instrument for the benefit of society.

Instructions for submission
Proposals should be prepared based on the guidelines set forth in Section 4 above, along with a properly filled out and signed price quotation form, and are to be sent by email to the contact indicated below no
later than: Wednesday, 3 May, end of day, 24.00 Belgrade Time.
Name of contact person(s): Serbia Country Office
Email address of contact person(s): procurement.serbia@unfpa.org

Please note the following guidelines for electronic submissions:

•  The following reference must be included in the email subject line: RFQ No UNFPA/SRB/RFQ/23/001 – [“Implementing Peer Mentoring Campaign in Serbia”]. Proposals, including both technical and financial proposals, that do not contain the correct email subject line may be overlooked by the procurement officer and therefore not considered.
•  The total email size may not exceed 20 MB (including email body, encoded attachments and headers). Where the technical details are in large electronic files, it is recommended that these be sent separately before the deadline.
• Any quotation submitted will be regarded as an offer by the bidder and does not constitute or imply the acceptance of any quotation by UNFPA. UNFPA is under no obligation to award a contract to any bidder as a result of this RFQ.

Deadline:

The deadline for submission of questions is 22 April 2023, 15:00 CET. Questions will be answered in writing and shared with all parties as soon as possible after this deadline.

Proposals should be prepared based on the guidelines outlined in Section 4 above, along with a properly filled out and signed price quotation form, and will be emailed to the contact indicated below no later than: Wednesday, 3 May, end of day, 24.00 Belgrade Time.

PLEASE NOTE: DEADLINE FOR THIS RFQ HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 14, END OF THE DAY.

Name of contact person(s): Serbia Country Office
Email address of contact person(s): procurement.serbia@unfpa.org

Find more information in RFQ attached.