Scope of Work USAID & DFAT Collaboration Announcement Video

Objective

The Asia Foundation (TAF) is planning to develop and produce a USAID and DFAT collaboration announcement video to capture the importance of this partnership between the two key governmental donors in the region and promote the impact and results of the collaboration. TAF is seeking a qualified video production expert (video vendor) to create a visually stunning, audibly pleasing, engaging, and concise video for USAID and Australia Mekong Safeguards program.

Background

The USAID and Australia Mekong Safeguards Program (“the Program”) is a five-year (2018–2023) program that supports policymakers, government regulators, major financiers, developers, contractors, and communities with technical assistance, knowledge, and tools to foster consistent application of strengthened environmental and social governance standards, particularly for the energy, transport, and water sectors. The Program helps operationalize the vision of sustainable infrastructure development that Lower Mekong countries have put forward in their respective national green-growth strategies and regional platforms. Major donors and lenders are ramping up infrastructure investments in the region, and with this projected investment over the next decade, power generation is expected to grow from 96 gigawatts (GW) to at least 280 GW, and developers of road and rail infrastructure plans project that rail is likely to increase by 20 percent, with high-speed rail capacity increasing more than 50 percent.

However, environmental and social regulations and mitigation efforts are not keeping pace; the sheer number and cumulative effects of projects are damaging the Mekong ecosystem and affecting fisheries, forestry, farming, air quality, water quality, and flood regulation. Negative impacts on these and other ecosystem services in turn threaten Lower Mekong populations’ food security, health, homes, and livelihoods. While recognizing the economic-growth imperative of this underdeveloped region and the role of infrastructure in contributing to growth, the Program promotes profitable economic growth supported by sustainable infrastructure that causes less harm to the environment, biodiversity, and people.

The Program promotes sustainable infrastructure development; improves the application of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards, policies, and practices; and uses integrated approaches to develop sustainable infrastructure plans; and is developing the Mekong Safeguards InfoLab website to serve as a repository and turnkey gateway for everything related to USAID and DFAT’s work in sustainable infrastructure standards including introductions and gateway links to tools and program resources related to other USAID programs and DFAT’s Partnership for Infrastructure (P4I) and similar projects. The InfoLab is expected to launch in the first half of 2022.

Collaboration with Australia DFAT

Formalized in June 2021, the Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) partnered with USAID to strengthen Mekong Safeguards by expanding on current activities and conducting new activities to heighten the breadth of the partnership’s results. Activities conducted under this partnership will primarily affect needs and interests expressed by both USAID and DFAT, including regional, national, and project-level interventions that reduce environmental and social risks for energy and transportation projects, consistent with DFAT’s Environmental and Social Safeguard Policy. Shared interests of the partnership include gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) and interventions affecting infrastructure planning related to climate change resilience and will integrate DFAT priorities like improving water-related infrastructure, protecting vulnerable people, and assisting the economic recovery from COVID-19.

Specifications

The video vendor is required to produce a video of approximately two minutes in length. The video should be available in MP4 and AVI formats in both high-definition and low-definition versions.

Video Attributes

• 2-2.5 minutes in length
• Consists of three live interviews with individuals from USAID, DFAT, The Asia Foundation
• Contains video footage of Chiang Rai visit to demonstrate the challenge
• Discuss impacts of the USAID and DFAT collaboration
• Present possible and hopeful results
• First in a series of videos documenting the impacts of this collaboration
• Subtitles in English for all spoken dialogue

Audience

The video is to be designed to be published across all types of social media platforms, including USAID’s YouTube channels and all channels designated by DFAT. The audience is the general public and all concerned stakeholders, including a broad audience across Southeast Asia. The ultimate goal would be to have USAID Administrator Samantha Power share the video on her social media channels.

Development Requirements

The goals of the video are to:

1. Announce the collaboration of USAID and Australia for The Asia Foundation-implemented Mekong Safeguards Program and announce new name of the program (“USAID and Australia Mekong Safeguards Program”).
2. Promote new possibilities with additional funding and shared focus of U.S. and Australian regional priorities, focusing on leading democracies counterbalance authoritarian tendencies in the region.
3. Share footage of recent field visit to Chiang Rai to raise awareness of high-speed rail and river-widening issues affecting communities in Thailand and Laos.
4. Include short interviews with leading personnel from USG, DFAT, and TAF on the ‘what and why’ of this new collaboration.
5. Tease launch of Mekong Safeguards InfoLab.

Required Compliance

The vendor will be required to ensure compliance with all USAID branding and that any USAID logos used are the correct sizes and positions. The USAID Graphic Standards Manual and Partner Co-Branding Guide is available (https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1869/USAID_GSM-02_04_2020.pdf)

Video Production Notes

A storyboard in PowerPoint and/or PDF formats will be provided to the vendor prior to commencement of the project. This should only serve as a starting point, and the vendor is encouraged to think creatively as to how to fulfill the objectives of the announcement video.

Timeline

The list below provides an approximate timeframe for principal activities in the development of the video. It is expected that the successful offeror will adhere to this timeframe, which will begin with the kick-off meeting and end with the public launch of the video.

• Initial kick-off and planning meeting – 1 week after selection
• Present first edit of the video – 2 weeks after kick-off
• Receive feedback on first edit of video – 3 weeks after kick-off
• Present second edit of the video sound and subtitles – 4 weeks after kick-off
• Final adjustments requested by the client after USAID meetings – 5 weeks after kick-off
• Final adjustments made by developer; launch day – 6 weeks after kick-off

Interested applicant please send an email to mekong.safeguards@asiafoundation.org on later than February 4, 2022. In the email, please include the proposal for this service along with quotation and company profile. On subject title, please indicate ‘Announcement Video Production’.

(Only short-listed candidates will be notified.)