Africa: Terms of Reference - Consultancy to Create a Strategic Development Plan

29 February 2020
allAfrica.com
announcement

As AllAfrica turns 20 in 2020, the company is perfectly positioned to leverage unrivaled reach and reputation in the Africa niche market and flourish in a rapidly changing media marketplace that covets our largely mobile audiences, skewed towards global 'influentials' and engaged young Africans.

With offices in Dakar, Nairobi, Abuja. Cape Town and Washington, AllAfrica is the only independent, comprehensive pan African news and information source - of, by, and about Africa. AllAfrica serves decision makers and leaders in government, business, academia, NGOs and media, as well as a younger generation that shares a PanAfrican identity and seeks a collaborative platform to address their common challenges.

AllAfrica produces and aggregates multi-media content in English and French and distributes across multiple platforms. Along with the desktop and mobile site, AllAfrica features on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Viber, plus Google Newsstand, Apple News and Opera FeedNews. We disseminate on Bloomberg, LexisNexis and Factiva/Dow Jones and L'Européenne de Données; and to a content-partner network of over 100 news organizations across Africa and international media such as the Guardian (UK), Deutsch Welle and Radio France International.  Monthly reach on Twitter alone averages some 15 million. AllAfrica, despite scant resources, was recently named the fourth most influential information source – after multi-billion-dollar Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – in a survey on sustainable development awareness commissioned by the United Nations Foundation.

AllAfrica has survived successive media industry crises since its launch in 2000 – while better funded enterprises have floundered - and has remained the most relied-upon provider for PanAfrican news and information.

Building on two decades of achievements and a first-mover advantage in the high-value stakes to build Africa's dominant media and e-business platform, AllAfrica's Board of Directors is seeking proposals from qualified individuals and firms to produce a strategic development plan to launch the company into the next decade and beyond.

OBJECTIVE

The overall goal is to create a multi-year plan, in consultation with AllAfrica's management and board of directors, incorporating financial projections and an implementation timeline that will take AllAfrica to growth, dominance, financial sustainability and profitability.

SCOPE OF WORK

The outline of research and products required includes, but is not limited to the following:

  1. analyzing AllAfrica's existing assets – professional expertise, brand recognition, technology platform, media partnerships, track-record and influential user base;
  2. mapping the PanAfrican media landscape and competitive environment;
  3. identifying a range of business opportunities;
  4. producing a three-year business plan, based on the strategic development vision;
  5. developing a results-and-resources framework to graphically display likely outcomes;
  6. surveying the funding environment, including - but not limited to - impact and social investors and non-profits with a media focus.

DELIVERABLE

A Strategic Development Plan that includes:

  1. review of the PanAfrican media landscape;
  2. listing and explanation of strategic objectives and key results expected;
  3. analysis of institutional-capacity needs: editorial, sales, administrative and financial;
  4. identification of additional non-media growth areas.
  5. financial projections with narrative
  6. results-and-resources framework, and
  7. funders mapping

TIMELINE

A Strategic Development Plan draft is to be presented to the Board for review within 45 days after a contract is signed. Two weeks after feedback is received from the Board, a plan incorporating such feedback is to be concluded and presented to the Board.

INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

The plan developer will report directly to a committee of the AllAfrica Board of Directors.

QUALIFICATIONS

Applicants should possess expertise and experience in relevant fields, including media and digital communications; business planning and implementation; business development, sales and marketing; and finance.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Interested and qualified candidates should submit their applications that should include:

  1. detailed bio and CV;
  2. cover letter indicating relevant prior experience;
  3. proposal for implementing the assignment, including cost;
  4. sample(s) of relevant previous work

Applications should be emailed to rebootallafrica@allafrica.com. Please quote Strategic Development Plan on the subject line.

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