We invite proposals from expert consultants in audience development and stakeholder mapping to deliver plans, toolkits and training for a high-profile new project: ‘Local to Global’ – made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.

About Local to Global

The UK is home to 43 UNESCO land-based Designated Sites geographically covering 12% of the country and which contain the UK’s most prized cultural and natural heritage. This includes: World Heritage Sites, Global Geoparks and Biosphere Reserves. Over the next two years, the UK National Commission for UNESCO (UKNC) will develop a resilient network for UNESCO Designated Sites in the UK.

UNESCO Designated Sites are a bridge from local to global action. Across the UK’s coasts, countryside and cities is an extraordinary network of places and people working on important interconnected challenges related to environmental, economic, social and cultural diversity. Each Biosphere Reserve, Global Geopark and World Heritage Site is a central hub where openness and collaboration drive the innovation and creativity required to achieve a better quality of life on our planet for futures to come. There is genuine motivation amongst the network to cross-pollinate knowledge, resources and ideas as widely as possible. To match the ambition of these sites, and for them to play their part in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, UKNC is stepping up its game. Our reports on the National Value of UNESCO to the United Kingdom and UNESCO Sites for Sustainable Development have set a roadmap for how we want to help UK UNESCO Designated Sites fulfil their potential.

For the first time, Local to Global will convene UNESCO site coordinators and external consultants to provide training and resources that help them work with their partners to promote skills, confidence and capacity-building in the following key areas:

• Audience development, stakeholder mapping, and inclusion
• Fundraising and financial sustainability
• Digital transformation and web development

About UNESCO Designated Sites

UNESCO Designated Sites comprise broad partnerships, ranging from statutory agencies who oversee the conservation and management of natural and cultural heritage, private owners who own heritage sites or land, and broader communities who live, interact, and visit these sites. UNESCO-designated sites are also made up of combinations of local and national natural/cultural assets such as listed buildings, scheduled monuments, and national parks or areas of outstanding natural beauty, which together make them internationally significant. Overseen by a Site Coordinator or team, their role is to bring these stakeholders together to manage, protect, educate, research, plan, and sustainably manage these places. All sites achieve this by creating and maintaining a management plan. The UKNC would like to better understand the different types of partners/stakeholders in each UNESCO designated site and their needs and interests to help inform audience development, fundraising, and communications potential for Coordinators at the site level and the UK National Commission at the national level.

Responsibilities of the Audience Development and Stakeholder Mapping Consultant

The Audience Development and Stakeholder Mapping Consultant will report to the Project Implementation Manager and Project Administrator. They will also be required to work with the UKNC team, project board, UNESCO Site Coordinators and relevant stakeholders. It is envisaged that the majority of this work will be undertaken remotely, with in-person trips to sites as required for workshops and research. Travel costs will need to be factored into the overall proposal budget.

UKNC is therefore looking to appoint a consultant to produce the following outputs:

• A toolkit of audience development and stakeholder mapping resources that UK UNESCO Site Coordinators and the UK National Commission for UNESCO can use to inform future management planning, communications, programmes, and activities. This should include recommendations and practical ‘how to’ guidance (plus related digital content) on audience development and inclusion best practice in UNESCO Designated Sites drawing on pilot sites and exemplars. The toolkit should further draw on the consultant’s own experience and identify/summarise best practice in other settings outside the UNESCO Designated Sites arena, including contemporary practice where this can usefully be brought to bear.

 

• To develop a reliable and tailor-made toolkit, we require the consultant to deliver three deep-dive action-research projects at three pilot sites. The pilot sites will be one Biosphere Reserve, one Global Geopark and one World Heritage Site, with a geographical spread across the nations of the UK. The pilot sites will be selected by UKNC using a strategic approach. The consultant will work with the sites and the Project Implementation Manager to produce three tailored audience development plans and three stakeholder maps for the pilot UNESCO Designated Sites to test out using a small project grant issued by UKNC. The audience development plan should use an in-depth profile of the local community and practical ideas to broaden and deepen engagement with marginalised groups. The stakeholder map should include a full understanding of stakeholders’ interests, challenges, and needs, how a UNESCO Designated Site can better support or address them, how they could better work with the Designated Site, and what they value about the UNESCO Designated Site.

 

• The final toolkit will also include examples of best practice from a series of 12 exemplar sites that will make up a new Audience Development Advisory Group. To draw out these examples, the consultant must work with the Project Implementation Manager to deliver workshops with the Advisory Group and conduct follow-up interviews where appropriate.

 

• Present the toolkit in an accessible way to the wider UK UNESCO network. For example, through a series of online workshops or talks.

 

• Further to this, the consultant will be required to deliver training to UKNC staff on the potential for fully implementing audience development and stakeholder mapping methodologies. They will also need to recommend a series of baseline metrics that can be used by a separately contracted Evaluation Consultant to determine the appetite for, and scope of, change across the UK UNESCO network with regard to audience development.

Timeline and contract management

We expect the commissioned Audience Development and Stakeholder Mapping consultant to begin mid-April 2023 and complete final reporting by October 2024. Key dates will be confirmed with UKNC once in post.

The anticipated budget is £30,000 (including all expenses and VAT). The payment schedule will be structured in the following instalments:

25% April 2023 on recruitment and signing of contract

25% October 2023 on review of interim report

25% April 2024 on review of skeleton report, training and toolkit

25% November 2024 upon successful completion of the final report, training and toolkit

The Audience Development and Stakeholder Mapping consultant will be managed by UKNC’s Project Implementation Manager.

Award criteria

Proposals should be a maximum of 1,500 words and include:

• • Your approach and methodology for undertaking this work
  • An outline of internal responsibilities and liaisons
  • Details of staff allocated to the project and your collective experience in carrying out similar projects
  • Allocation of days across members of your team and your daily charging rates
  • Your timescale for carrying out this work
  • Overall budget plan
  • A brief overview of your relevant experience and qualifications related to this brief

Proposals will be assessed by UKNC against the following points:

• To what extent does the proposal demonstrate understanding of the issues and social values related to the project brief
• To what extent is the methodology set out in the proposal appropriate to the requirements set out in the brief
• What level of relevant experience and qualifications does the applicant demonstrate in order to successfully complete the work
• Overall value for money and financial viability of the quote
  Additionally, it’s desirable to demonstrate some knowledge of one or more of the following strategic topic areas: sustainable development goals, culture 2030 indicators, people-centred practices, industry clusters, asset-based community development, open innovation, culture and heritage capital.
• UNESCO sites bridge the arts/culture/nature divide, so it could be desirable for applicants to demonstrate sector knowledge of culture and heritage as well as the built and natural environment. We welcome joint applications if there are partners in other fields that the primary applicant would like to work with.

Submitting an application

All applications should be submitted to the UKNC Project Implementation Manager, Liam Smyth: [email protected]

No later than: Monday 27 March 2023

Interviews: Week commencing Monday 10 April 2023

The successful applicant will be expected to commence work on Monday 17 April 2023