Terms of Reference Creative Consultant (Individual Consultant)

Who We Are

Girl Effect is an international non-profit that builds media that girls want, trust, and need. From chatbots to chat shows and TV dramas to tech, our content helps adolescent girls in Africa and Asia make life choices and changes.

We create safe spaces for girls, sharing facts and answering questions about health, nutrition, education, and relationships, empowering girls with the skills to negotiate and redefine what they are told is possible “for a girl.”

Our reach is 50 million and counting, and we’re using technology to reach girls at scale so every girl can choose to be in control of her body, health, learning, and livelihood.

When a girl unlocks her power to make different choices that change her life, it inspires others to do so, too. She starts a ripple effect that impacts her family, community, and country.

That’s the Girl Effect.

Our Approach

Girl Effect uses a branded media approach to deliver behavioral change messaging. 

We reach girls worldwide, where they are -online and offline- to support them at the critical moments when choices need to be made around their health, education, and economic future. 

We use our expertise in behavior change science to motivate and equip girls with information and support to help them see a different future for themselves, act on those choices, and drive greater demand for the opportunities and services available. 

Girl Effect builds youth brands that girls love and trust, reaching girls where they are and creating change. Our youth brands include Tukisonga and WAZZII in South Africa, Chhaa Jaa in India, Tujibebe in Tanzania, Yegna in Ethiopia, and Jikizinto in South Africa. They exist across multiple channels - digital (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, WhatsApp), TV, radio, print, and offline. Together, these brands reach over 20 million girls worldwide.

Girl Effect South Africa continues to grow its portfolio of work in South Africa, including launching new products and campaigns targeted at youth to support sexual and reproductive health and economic empowerment while working closely with young people every step of the way. 

Background

Girl Effect South Africa (GE SA), through its Jiki’zinto program, is implementing the Coining Campaign, a youth-led initiative reframing mental health through local languages and slang. The campaign will run across multiple platforms, digital, radio, and TV, with a strong emphasis on multi-format storytelling and youth participation.

The consultant will provide end-to-end creative production, asset development, and campaign support, ensuring outputs are culturally relevant, youth-friendly, and aligned with Girl Effect’s brand and safeguarding standards.

What You’ll Do

As a Creative Consultant, you will work with our internal content, safeguarding, and tech teams.  You will be responsible for the following:

Creative Production & Asset Development

• >100 Multi-format Assets:
• Statics, carousels, reels/shorts, stories, cut-downs.
• Weekly content output aligned to campaign calendar.
• Graphics & Motion:
• Key art, master templates, and adaptations for all platforms.
• Branded graphics for social media promotions (Udubs Radio, Platinum TV, Cape Town TV).
• Motion graphics for reels, transitions, and animated elements.

Videography & Editing

• Field Capture: Document activations, youth voices, and campaign moments.
• Editing: Produce reels (10–60s), shorts, and story cut-downs.
• Technical Standards:
• Add SRT captions for accessibility.
• Thumbnail design and cover frames.
• Platform-optimised formats.

Marketing & Distribution StrategyChannel Plan: Roadmap across Meta, Moya, YouTube, TikTok, and partner platforms.Weekly Content Calendars: Platform-specific schedules (radio, TV, digital).Call-to-Action (CTA) & Tag Frameworks: Ensure youth-driven language, clear engagement prompts, and alignment with safeguarding guidelines.Media Spend Recommendations: Light boosting recommendations (final spend decisions remain with GE).

Deliverables

• >100 Creative Assets (across statics, carousels, reels, shorts, stories).
• Templates for consistent branding and adaptability.
• Video Package including reels, shorts, captions, thumbnails.
• Marketing Calendar with platform-by-platform distribution plan.
• Monthly Performance Decks (reach, engagement, creative insights).
• Final Asset Library with governance documentation.

​​Who You Are

Skills and expertise:

• Minimum 5  years of experience in Creative Content creation
• Minimum 4 years of relevant digital marketing experience with accounts that have had national or multi-regional scale and complex audience sets
• Graduate-level proficiency in marketing, branding, design or creative writing
• Comfortable with numbers, digital data sets like spreadsheets 
• Degree or relevant experience in digital marketing, business, and project management. 
• Strong understanding of digital marketing and social media.
• Interest in working in a developing country context.
• Strong communication, writing, coordination and organizational skills.
• High attention to detail and ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines.
• Ability to remain flexible and find solutions to challenges.
• Positive, energetic, can-do attitude.
• Ability to work collaboratively in multicultural teams.
• Commitment to realizing the potential of girls and to the vision and values of Girl Effect

Open to learning, for example, learning how to use RapidPro or capturing learning to enhance digital products and pages 

Attitudes we are looking for: 

• Comfortable with complex organizational structures and multiple stakeholders 
• Comfortable with shared decision-making 
• Ability to be flexible within a fast-paced, changing environment.
• Passionate about making a positive difference in the lives of young women and girls.
• A ‘do-er thinker’ 
• Highly empathetic and context-sensitive - able to balance conflicting needs and priorities decisively 
• Mission-driven and cares about making a difference in the lives of young people and vulnerable sections of society

Most importantly, we need you to ensure that you have a lens that is youth-friendly & fun, body and sex-positive, gender inclusive, and a rights-based approach towards girls and young women. 

Procurement  Timeframe

• Terms of reference published: November 3, 2025
• Deadline for responses:  November  17, 2025
• Supplier selection, contracting, and briefing: End of December
• Project commencement: January 2026

Expected Commitment

• The creative consultant will be expected to spend 40 hours weekly with the platforms and liaise with the Create team and other stakeholders. 
• This is a part-time consultancy role
• Consultants should be willing and able to travel locally if and when required. 
• The consultant's assignment period is from January 2026 to May 2026

Location

The consultant must be based in South Africa.

Reporting

The consultant will work in collaboration with the country team.

Proposal Submission

Your proposal (Max 5 pages), should you be interested, should cover

• Your understanding of the brief and why you feel you are well-placed to advise us on this
• Portfolio
• As part of your application, please include a link or PDF of your portfolio of recent work, highlighting your abilities and experience relevant to the role, with specific examples of how you work, think, collaborate, and contribute to great design outcomes.
• Please note that we are unable to accept any applications without a portfolio.
• Credentials/CV Highlight work (if) done:
• In other geographies
•  In health-related content with adolescent girls or young women, in other geographies.
• Reference- Provide at least three references for similar contracts with a description of the service provided and the contract periods of performance.
• Breakdown of Costs with applicable taxes and other charges clearly identified in ZAR. Consultants should provide their discounted monthly billing for the deliverables.
• All applicable taxes should be quoted separately.

In their proposal, the bidder must demonstrate an understanding of the requirements described in the TOR and demonstrate how the bidder will meet the requirements of the evaluation criteria.

GE is not liable for any cost incurred during the award/contract preparation, submission, or negotiation of the award/contract. All submitted documentation and/or materials shall become and remain the property of GE.

VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for 90 days from the date of bid closure.

How to Apply

Please submit proposals, as described above, to suppliers@girleffect.org by the 17th November 2025. Please clearly mark your email with the subject “Creative Consultant-South Africa”.

Tax

Girl Effect is obliged by the South African tax authorities to ensure all taxes are charged where applicable. Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position regarding provisions of South African tax legislation when developing their proposals.

Copyright

All materials/documents arising from this consultancy work shall remain the property of Girl Effect.

Disclaimer

GE reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, the number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party. GE shall inform ONLY successful applicant(s). The process of negotiation and signing of the contract with the successful applicant(s) will follow. 

Please note: We will evaluate only proposals submitted following the application process outlined in the TOR and using our specified email address (suppliers@girleffect.org).

Safeguarding

You may be required to undertake safeguarding checks. Shortlisted consultants will be assessed on our organizational values at the interview stage. The successful consultant will be expected to adhere to our safeguarding policy. We encourage you to read and understand our safeguarding policy, the executive summary of which can be found Here. We have zero tolerance for all forms of violence against children, beneficiaries and staff. 

Equal Opportunities 

Girl Effect Services is committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. 

We are committed to building an organization that is increasingly representative of and works extensively with the communities that we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to procuring consultancy service organizations and individuals with diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds.