Call for Consultancy: Development of Maternal, Newborn, Child Health and Nutrition (MNCHN) Community Theatre Scripts and Discussion Guides

Save the Children International (SCI), in collaboration with the Government of the Republic of Zambia through the Ministry of Health (MoH), with financial support from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is implementing the IMNCH-N Systems strengthening Project in Mongu District, of Western Province.

The project seeks to strengthen community demand, uptake, and utilization of Maternal, Newborn, Child Health and Nutrition (MNCHN) services through culturally appropriate Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) interventions. Community theatre has been identified as a high-impact participatory communication approach capable of stimulating dialogue, challenging harmful social norms, promoting positive health behaviours, and community-led action.

To support implementation of community engagement activities, a Theatre Expert/Consultant will be engaged to develop a series of short, evidence-based theatre scripts and accompanying discussion and adaptation guide that address priority MNCHN behaviours. The scripts will be used by community theatre groups, community action groups, health workers, and implementing partners during community mobilization activities, outreach sessions, dialogue meetings, and health promotion campaigns

Scope of the Consultancy

The purpose of this consultancy is to develop a package of engaging, culturally relevant, gender-responsive, and behaviour-focused community theatre scripts and and adaptation guides that promote key maternal, newborn, child health, nutrition, and quality-of-care behaviours among community members, caregivers, pregnant women, male partners, community leaders, and health service providersExpected Deliverables

The consultancy will:

1. Develop short theatre scripts that effectively communicate key MNCHN behaviours and address barriers, misconceptions, harmful norms, and social influences affecting service uptake and healthy practices.
2. Incorporate behaviour change principles, audience-centred messaging, and adult learning approaches into all scripts.
3. Develop structured post-performance questions that stimulate reflection, discussion, problem-solving, and community commitment to behaviour adoption.
4. Development of a structured adaptation guide on How to simplify language, how to localize characters, how to swap settings (market vs clinic vs home), how to shorten/extend scripts and how to adapt for audience segments Ensure scripts are culturally sensitive, gender transformative, inclusive, and suitable for community audiences.
5. Produce user-friendly materials that can be easily performed by community theatre groups and by health promotion personnel. 

MANDATORY CRITERIA: This includes the Supplier submitting the following requirements (where applicable):

• Legitimate business address.
• Tax registration number & certificate.
• Business registration certificate
• Trading license

Detailed specifications and evaluation criteria are provided in the full Terms of Reference (TOR) available at the link below.

Submission Deadline

Proposals should be submitted no later than 17:00 hours local time on Wednesday 17 June 2026 using the bidder response format provided in the TOR to Zambia.Procurement@savethechildren.org

Clarifications

Allclarificationsshouldbedirectedto: Zambia.Procurement@savethechildren.org no later than Tuesday 16 June 2026 10:00 hours