January 12, 2021

Context

The new era of purpose, social impact, Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices underscore an opportunity for the education sector to work with companies to create systemic, strategic, and scalable change.

The Global Business Coalition for Education has launched a multi-year Business Investment for Education Impact initiative which aims to build a stronger, more informed and impactful network of businesses with the potential to transform education outcomes through more strategic and coordinated investment. Using a quasi-design approach, the initiative has conducted a consolidated mapping of the global education landscape and evidence, including major actors, regulatory frameworks, guiding principles, strategic efforts and initiatives; will provide a series of design options for solutions for business and non-corporate stakeholders; will test and prototype the solutions and develop a refined product for companies and non-corporate stakeholders; and develop a business model to implement, deliver, and scale the use of the solutions to improve corporate investments in global education.

Our first phase, Scoping, Listening and Designing, focused on creating a consolidated mapping of the global education landscape and evidence, including major actors, regulatory framework, guiding principles, strategic efforts and initiatives and a series of design options for tools and products for business and non-corporate stakeholders. This phase took place through an extensive engagement with corporate and non-corporate stakeholders.

We are currently seeking proposals from consulting firm(s) to support the achievement of the specific tasks we plan to undertake in Phase 2 – Testing, Learning, and Prototyping – of the project.

The Project and Scope of Work

In this phase we will (1) define a specific education Call to Action for the business community that will serve as an entry point for more businesses wanting to engage on concrete actions to drive impact for Sustainable Development Goal 4; (2) create a diagnostic tool for businesses to assess their own positioning in the broader social impact ecosystem; (3) develop strategies aimed at maximizing impact across social and business goals; (4) create a partnership process and model that will help businesses find the right partners to connect and collaborate with to unlock change (e.g., other companies, international organizations, local NGOs, etc.) and leverage contributions through the major global funds and institutions impacting education in countries and regions around the globe. As part of the partnership process/model, we would like to find ways to bring forward evidence to inform the effectiveness of business interventions and social impact programs. In addition, we will (5) create discrete business modules to help companies understand various topics (e.g., measuring impact in education.)

The consultant will be responsible for helping us to design, develop, and implement a suite of tools and resources for private sector engagement in education. Specifically, the consultant will serve as both a strategy partner and technology partner to carry out the following activities:

Strategy Partner:

• Serve as primary partner to our team: this person(s) will help our team refine our high-level strategy approach and specifically assist with:

• Customer/user journey;
• Stakeholder engagement strategy and implementation;
• Resource development to translate complex topics into shareable training
  modules;
• Business model options for sustainability of products;
• Communication with technology partner where necessary.

Note: Strategy partners can apply to address one or all of the pillars of work in the scope of work.

Technology Partner:

● Serve as the technology partner to our team: this group will assist with:

• Technology assessment;
• User experience/journey development;
• Website design and build;
• Database recommendations or design & build;
• Progress tracker recommendations or design & build.

Expected Deliverables

The deliverables associated with each of the following points in the scope of work include:

Strategy

1. Design customer journey strategy and implementation process
2. Develop stakeholder engagement plan, including an ongoing phase of listening, testing, and iterating tools and resources based on stakeholder input.
3. Conduct stakeholder interviews.
4. Develop content and design various tools and resources, potentially including
   decks, modules, content resources and other training, strategic development and partnership materials for corporate and non-corporate trainings, including on topics such as: diagnostic tool for company positioning; the business case and changing internal narratives on investing in education; a good practice guide for non- corporate partners on working with the private sector; etc. The resources will need to adapt and align with various corporate and non-corporate archetypes.
5. Develop several business model options for sustainability of the final products.

Technology

1. Conduct a technology assessment to ensure recommendations can be properly managed by internal team.
2. Work with internal team and strategy partner as we develop the concept and content for website and provide feedback and options for website creation.
3. Create and build project website, including:
   1. Project homepage
   2. Diagnostic tool to determine a user’s “archetype”. Diagnostic tool will synthesize data and automatically provide user with an overview of their archetype
   3. Resource library for user to browse free reports, documents, videos, etc.
   4. Project library for user to browse NGO needs
   5. Login and member-only interface.
4. Recommendation for or design of a database for internal use that serves as a repository of user data, with relationship management capabilities, that interacts with the diagnostic tool.
5. Recommendation for or design of a dashboard or other mechanisms that allows partners to input results, lessons learned, etc. and helps staff to easily track the progress of projects and consolidate outcomes and stories from the ground.

Skills and Experience Required

• Knowledge of corporate social responsibility, social impact, shared value, international education, and/or related field.
• Experience in emerging technologies, scalable solutions, product development, and/or UI/UX design.
• Expertise in brand strategy, private sector communications, and customer experience.
• Passion and good understanding of the issues related to the global education crisis, corporate philanthropy, or international organizations, international development is a plus.
• Positive, can-do attitude, creative approach and ability to meet tight deadlines but still maintain a high-quality of work.

To submit your proposal:

Please submit a short proposal (no more than 5 pages) to info@gbc-education.org by January 29, 2021, with the name of the consulting firm in the subject line, outlining:

• The specific deliverables your proposal addresses from the RFP.
• Steps you would take to complete this project (including proposed activities and timeframe for each task).
• Overview/links demonstrating relevant skills and experience (e.g., examples of similar projects/work completed).
• Day rate, total number of days, and a breakdown of number of days for each task OR an itemized budget (with an itemized fee per deliverable) and estimated timeline for completion.

Proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Questions can be submitted to info@gbc-education.org and responses to questions received by January 25, 2020 can be requested for organizations submitting a bid.

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