Scope of Work

Facilitation of Annual Strategic Planning Meeting of Partners of Bloomberg Initiative to

Reduce Tobacco Use (BI) in India

Jaipur, November 3-6, 2025

Background

Tobacco use is a leading but preventable cause of premature death and disease in India

and around the world, causing more than 8 million deaths annually. The prevalence of

tobacco use in India among people aged 15-24 has reduced from 18.4% in Global Adult

Tobacco Survey (GATS)-1 (2009-10) to 12.4% in GATS-2, which is a 33% relative reduction.

However, the current levels of tobacco use are still very high across the country. Tobacco

use during adolescence and early adulthood is consistently linked to heart disease,

cancers, and premature mortality and has profound public health implications. According

to the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS-4), India, 2019, 8.5% of students – 9.6% of boys

and 7.6% of girls in India use any tobacco product. The survey also points out that 7.3% of

students use smoking tobacco products, while 4.1% use smokeless tobacco products.

This calls for urgent and sustained efforts at all levels and multi-sectoral coordination to

bring down tobacco use across all sections of the population.

The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use assists over 110 countries in enacting and

implementing effective measures to decrease tobacco consumption and safeguard

individuals from its harmful effects. Every year, the partners within the Bloomberg Initiative

to Reduce Tobacco Use come together to review and strategize the various tobacco

control initiatives aligned with the government of India’s efforts in implementing MPOWER

policies with the ultimate aim to reduce the prevalence of tobacco use in India. This year,

the partner’s meeting is scheduled in Jaipur, Rajasthan, bringing together around 30 plus

individuals from 7 global organizations supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies (BP) to

work in India on tobacco control.

Key objectives of the meeting:

Overall objectives of the partner’s meeting are to review past year’s policy and

programmatic progress, identify gaps and programmatic opportunities, and work on

collective strategies for addressing tobacco control efforts focusing on following

approaches

1. Identify common challenges/experiences across the program that requires

collective action.

2. Institute a cross collaboration-cross institute dialogue to do deep dives on the

identified challenges

3. Identify and articulate strategies for common goals to develop synergy among

partners in India

4. Develop a joint action plan leveraging each organization’s expertise and mandates

within the partnership.

At the end of the meeting, our goal as partners is to develop a set of shared objectives and

strategies. Additionally, we aim to create a joint action plan that clearly outlines the roles

of each partner, enabling us to enhance and collaborate on tobacco control initiatives in

India.

Scope Of Work

To support the execution of the vision described above, BP partners are looking for a

consultant who will support the following :

1. Preparation:

i. Provide consultation to partners and lead the design of a participatory and

results-oriented event in Jaipur on November 4th and 5th.

ii. Conduct pre-event interviews with 1-2 members from each of the 7 BP

partners (through one-to-one interviews)

iii. Develop and conduct a survey among all participants to assess the need for

and design of the event.

iv. Facilitate agenda development in consultation with BP partners,

incorporating insights from interviews and survey responses

v. Advise and develop materials and resources for participants as needed for

the meeting sessions.

2. Facilitation of the meeting:

i. Attend the meeting in person by arriving on November 3rd afternoon and

facilitate the two-day event on November 4th and 5th .

ii. Be fully available for four days, including two days of the event and two days

allocated for planning in October.

iii. Provide, include and conduct clear feedback and evaluation tools within the

course of the event to ensure a participatory approach among partners.

iv. Moderate and facilitate deliberation on important common goals (key priority

areas) for the India partners for 2025-26 as per the agenda. (please note we

will assign a technical lead from one of the partners to co-moderate a

particular session)

v. Summarize key action points and outline next steps to advance shared goals

beyond the event.

3. Consolidation after the event:

i. Document and consolidate the event feedback and evaluation into a report

that includes a synopsis of the meeting, participants’ feedback and an

assessment of progress and potential next steps.

ii. Provide consultation and implementation support for event follow-up and

reporting.

Note: We anticipate that the consultant will incorporate sessions in a way they are

strategic as well as innovative and interesting.

Selection Criteria

1. Demonstrated experience in facilitating issue-based strategy planning meetings,

preferably in the social impact and/or public health domain, and moderating of

global, cross-cultural participants.

2. Ability to work in a tight timeline and quickly come up to speed with the issue.

3. Strong command of English and cross-cultural communication skills.

4. Strong management experience within an event planning, development and

execution.

Demonstrated experience in creating a conducive, enabling, unbiased, and immersive

environment that would promote rich, open, flexible and strategic discussions.

Timeline

All services must be completed by November 30th.

Please send resume and confirmation of availability for the proposed dates / signed conflict

of interest document to Vaishakhi Mallik at vmallik@vitalstrategies.org latest by September

26th 2025.