REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL: Organizer and Trainers for Regional Technical Exchange Regi Youth Innovation Academy 2026: Scale-Up Workshop

About FHI 360

With a global presence spanning over 70 countries, FHI 360 brings together a diverse team of experts across various disciplines to address complex and interconnected development challenges. Grounded in our commitment to fostering sustainable human development, we strive to empower individuals and communities worldwide. EpiC Project – Regional Youth Innovation Academy 2026: Scale-Up Workshop Meeting Targets and Maintaining Epidemic Control (EpiC) project, implemented by FHI 360, funded by the U.S. Department of State, is dedicated to achieving and maintaining HIV epidemic control. EpiC is led by FHI 360 and draws upon local, regional, and international resource partners to provide technical assistance, as well as global resource partners who bring unique capacities. The Young At-Risk Population initiative by the EpiC Project is an initiative that aims to increase the uptake of HIV testing and PrEP among sexually active young adults aged between 15-24. In March 2026, the EpiC Thailand, EpiC Philippines offices, in partnership with Free to be YOUth along with private sector communications agency GUGMA, convened 30 youth leaders across Southeast Asia for the Beyond Horizons: Regional Youth Leaders Academy in Manila, Philippines. The initiative established a regional youth campaign concept focused on human-centered, status-neutral digital messaging across three core pillars: HIV Testing, Prevention, and Treatment. Following the academy, country teams participated in a post-bootcamp online coaching phase (April–July 2026) to adapt the regional campaign into country-level digital campaign. Each country launched its own localized country campaign tailored to community needs while utilizing unified regional campaign hashtags to maintain regional cohesion.

High-Yield Countries:

- Indonesia achieved an exceptional HIV case-finding rate and PrEP initiation from their online campaign, demonstrating highly effective online-to-offline (O2O) conversion among their target audience. - Thailand (MPLUS Foundation) generated over hundred clinic visits resulting in high confirmed HIV-positive cases finding rate) as well as PrEP initiations. Low-Conversion & Implementation Bottlenecks - Burma faced barriers because HIV service delivery is primarily restricted to central government facilities that clients are reluctant to access, limiting O2O conversion. - Cambodia, and Laos launched campaigns and demonstrated improvement in digital reach, but lower-case finding rates and lower PrEP uptake than anticipated compared to other countries due to ongoing learning curve in optimizing their digital campaign to tailor with local context. - Philippines encountered institutional and administrative delays, resulting in no active campaign launch despite strong baseline capacity. Building on the skills acquired from the first Regional Youth Leaders Academy in Manila, which sought to move beyond content sharing toward strategic demand creation for HIV services, EpiC Thailand will convene an the 2nd Regional Youth Leaders Academy featuring intensive hand-on learning sessions where participants will apply lessons learned to enhance their country-level campaigns to further increase case finding and PrEP uptake. This workshop will convene youth delegates, technical experts, implementation partners, and private sector advisors to evaluate performance, and optimize campaign models for FY2027.

Workshop Objectives:

The objective of this workshop is to drive concrete clinical outcomes at the country level. By applying lessons learned across countries during the pilot phase to assist participating countries in refining their digital demand generation strategies to drive high HIV case finding and PrEP uptake, the workshop directly supports EpiC country workplans across all participating U.S. Embassy Missions - Evaluate Pilot Data: Analyze campaign metrics (reach vs. clinic conversions, case finding yields, PrEP uptake) from the April–July 2026 pilot across all six participating countries.

- Facilitate Lesson Sharing: Replicate and/or adapt high-yield approaches from successful models to low-conversion countries.

- Refine Video Media Products: Conduct intensive hands-on creative sessions to re-script, edit, and polish existing country-level video content, incorporating strong opening hooks, direct-response service offers, PrEP promotion, and clear booking calls to action (CTAs) - Develop FY2027 Country-level Digital Campaign Plans: Formulate ready-to-launch FY2027 campaign workplans for all six countries.

Workshop Format:

To maximize available time during the 3-day workshop, participating country delegations will complete a Pre-Workshop Assignment and during the workshop will focus on: - Evaluating Pre-Workshop Assignment: Review country pilot data and media performance to identify key factors that drove case finding and PrEP uptake, while addressing conversion drop-offs. - Rapid A/B Hook Testing for Media Efficiency: Producing 1-2 core video messages with 2–3 distinct 3-second opening hooks to test audience responses. - Select and recognize the highest-converting social media asset produced and tested during the 24-hour evaluation window.

Target Audience (60 Participants):

Each participating country will send up to 5 representatives, including youth leaders, digital content creators, online counselors, outreach workers, and EpiC staff.

• Cambodia
• Laos
• Burma
• Indonesia
• Philippines
• Thailand
• U.S. Department of State (Bangkok)

Expected Outputs of the Workshop:

- Regional Digital HIV Performance Report: A report comparing conversion metrics from previous countries campaigns across all six participating countries, highlighting lessons learned, and identifying successful practices through sharing of country-level performance - A/B Tested Video Media Products Ready to Launch: Refreshed short-form video assets (Reels/TikTok format) featuring improved 3-second opening hooks, positioning of facility services, PrEP messagi