Development of MSF’s Menstrual Health Management (MHM) Toolkit

MSF Inclusive Innovation

**Development of MSF’s Menstrual Health Management (MHM) Toolkit**

**Consultancy: Development of Practical MHM Guidance and Information, Education and Communication (IEC)/Health Promotion (HP) Materials for MSF**

**Background**

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters, and exclusion from healthcare. Through its Inclusive Innovation team, MSF has been working to strengthen **menstrual health management (MHM)** support across diverse humanitarian settings.

Menstrual health is more than hygiene, it is fundamentally tied to dignity, health, protection, and participation. Yet in humanitarian contexts, it remains widely overlooked. Periods do not pause in crises, but access to the resources, facilities, and knowledge needed to manage them safely often does. Across many MSF settings, menstruation is highly stigmatised, and women and girls lack access to safe, private facilities and practical information, limiting their ability to move freely and participate fully in daily life.

In response, MSF’s Inclusive Innovation team has taken a holistic and participatory approach to MHM that goes beyond simply providing MHM products to address the full spectrum of needs, including stigma, knowledge, infrastructure, and community dynamics. This work has been grounded in seeking to understand the lived experiences of women and girls.

Since 2018, MSF have implemented 11 MHM projects across eight countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Sierra Leone, India, Bangladesh, Iraq, Ethiopia, and Bhutan. These projects have explored a range of approaches, including community-based participatory methods, menstrual underwear (MU) distribution, hygiene kit provision, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WaSH) facility assessments, and health promotion activities. Together, these experiences represent a growing but previously fragmented body of operational knowledge within MSF.

In January 2026, MSF’s Inclusive Innovation team produced the **MSF MHM Synthesis Report**, a comprehensive consolidation of this body of work. The report brings together qualitative and quantitative insights from across projects to identify common patterns, context-specific differences, and recurring operational challenges. It captures three core areas of learning:

- MHM knowledge, beliefs, and practices across different communities
- project outcomes, including the acceptability and feasibility of different approaches
- operational learnings related to design, implementation, and delivery.

From this analysis, the report presents 44 structured recommendations across five key implementation domain - context, organisational systems, project design, project delivery, and individuals - supported by an evidence confidence framework. **While the report provides a strong evidence base, it is primarily a technical and analytical document and is not designed for direct use in implementing integrated MHM interventions as part of MSF operations.**

This synthesis serves as the foundation for MSF’s forthcoming **MHM Toolkit**: a practical, field-oriented resource designed to translate evidence into action. The toolkit is intended to support MSF teams at project and coordination levels to design, adapt, and implement MHM interventions in diverse humanitarian settings.

The toolkit will function as a **decision-support and implementation resource**, bringing together:

- Practical guidance for designing and adapting MHM interventions across contexts
- Step-by-step tools and templates to support implementation and delivery
- Participatory methods to engage communities and address stigma and social norms
- Operational tools to support integration across sectors, including health promotion, WaSH, and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR)

Importantly, the toolkit is not intended to be a static guidance document, but rather a **modular, user-centred resource** that supports teams to make context-specific decisions and adapt approaches in real time.

While the synthesis report provides evidence, the toolkit is the means of translating that evidence into practice. A central component of the toolkit will be a suite of **Health Promotion (HP)** and **Information, Education, and Communication (IEC)** materials that make complex insights accessible, actionable, and relevant for different users and contexts. These materials will play a critical role in supporting community engagement, behaviour change, and the practical delivery of MHM activities.

**Objectives**

MSF's Inclusive Innovation team is seeking external creative communications support to translate evidence, recommendations, and operational learning detailed in the MSF MHM Synthesis Report into a practical, accessible and engaging suite of Health Promotion (HP) and Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials to be included in the MSF MHM Toolkit.

This requires a thorough review of the synthesis report to identify priority findings and messages, assess their potential for creative communication, and recommend the most appropriate content formats, communication assets, and storytelling techniques to maximise engagement across diverse audiences and operational applications.

The objectives are to:

1. To review, analyse, and synthesize the findings, recommendations, and operational learning from the MSF MHM Synthesis Report to inform the development of evidence-based resources and guidance.
2. To identify and prioritise key themes, messages, target audiences, and use cases, and translate complex evidence and operational insights from the MSF MHM Synthesis Report into clear, engaging, context-sensitive HP and IEC materials, and toolkit content.
3. To develop audience-appropriate materials that meet the needs of MSF frontline and coordination staff, as well as diverse community groups, including women, girls, men, and boys, ensuring relevance, accessibility, and practical applicability.
4. To produce implementation-ready materials that are suitable for printing in low-resource settings, optimised for digital use, adaptable across multiple operational contexts, and available in a range of accessible formats.

Core language: English (Materials should be created and delivered in formats that allow easy translation into additional languages)

**Expected Results/Outcomes:**

Our expected production cycles include:

- Discovery, Creative Direction and Content Planning
- Prototype Development and Concept Testing
- Final Asset Production
- Toolkit Integration and Roll-out Support

**Your team will:**

- Have demonstrable experience developing user-centred design and communication materials within humanitarian and global health contexts, including translating complex evidence and operational learning into accessible, audience-appropriate content and visual assets.
- The proposed team should demonstrate a complementary mix of expertise in creative strategy, health communication, content development, graphic design and illustration, storytelling, and user-centred research and testing. Prior experience in MHM, SRHR, gender, WaSH, or other related technical areas will be considered an asset.
- Include team members with professional-level English proficiency and demonstrated experience developing materials and facilitating collaboration across multilingual and multicultural environments, including with non-native English speakers.
- Have strong interpersonal and facilitation skills to work effectively with multidisciplinary teams and develop content that encourages meaningful engagement, reflection, and sustained community interaction.
- Be skilled in identifying communication opportunities and operational barriers, translating complex evidence into clear, accessible, and audience-appropriate materials that support understanding and practical application.
- Demonst