BACKGROUND

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. Plan has over 80 years’ experience and works in more than 75 countries across the world. We strive for a just world, working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners.

Plan International has been working in Tanzania since 1991. Our work supports marginalised children and youth, especially adolescent girls, to grow up physically and mentally healthy and ready to shape their future. We create an enabling environment and empower girls to be active drivers of change in realising their rights. We prioritise working with partners, and ensuring all of our work is evidence based.

Plan International Tanzania responds to the Burundian Emergency program in Kibondo and Kasulu since October 2015 due to Burundian refugees’ influx with special focus on Case Management, Psychosocial support activities and Education in Emergencies (EiE).

Purpose

Plan International is currently implementing a PlayMatters project in partnership with War Child, International Rescue Committee, Behavioural Insights Team and Innovations for Poverty Action. PlayMatters project reimagines childhood for refugees. It will bring play-based learning to 800,000 children across Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania. It will redefine education and cultivate a generation of lifelong builders. PlayMatters is inspired by LEGO Foundation’s call to challenge the status quo, to offer children the quality education they dream of. Children are not gaining the skills they need, teachers are under-supported, and parents are overwhelmed. The systems built to serve them are failing them. PlayMatters proudly offers something different. It is delivered by a coalition with a track record of thinking and delivering differently. We bring three distinct characteristics:

1. OUTCOMES. Everything we do is fuelled by the social, emotional, cognitive, physical, creative and resilience outcomes we seek. We know learning happens when children are at the center and teachers, parents and the system surrounding them embrace children’s agency and have not only skills and resources, but the motivation to drive change.
2. RESEARCH AND LEARNING. Effective delivery requires both rigor and a big heart. With LEGO Foundation, PlayMatters will generate scientific evidence that can transform our understanding of play and learning for refugees in East Africa and around the world.
3. THOUGHT LEADERSHIP. The LEGO Foundation Humanitarian Initiative offers an opportunity to deliver and comes with the responsibility to lead. Our consortium’s members have a record mobilizing other.

Dimensions of the Role

The Illustration Officer will  work  with the PlayMatters Project Committees and content development teams in six months duration.  The Illustration Officer will use skills in drawing, colour, composition, and storytelling to create engaging images that enliven for PlayMatters content for educators, community members, caregivers, and systems actors. He/She will review text, sketch, revise, iterate, and finish illustrations for PlayMatters products, adjusting as requested by the PlayMatters content team. He/She will create compelling fun-learning visual aids from text instructions and it will be an iterative process which will require refinements at different stages, before the final products are out.

Accountabilities

• Conceptualize and create colourful/engaging illustrations to support key ideas and concepts presented in textual educational materials for teachers, community members, caregivers, systems actors, and potentially children (illustrations may include elements for guides, posters, booklets, manuals, etc.)
• Participate in iterative design process, producing variations of illustrated content to ensure that illustrations convey the appropriate concepts and information for users
• Create illustrations that are of the highest quality and meet technical requirements
• Manage complex deliverables and multiple content development
• Generate ideas and concepts that are clear, communicative, and engaging
• Work collaboratively with all members of our content development committees to ensure technically accurate, appropriate, consistent, and responsive illustrations are creative
• Collaborate and communicate creative ideas with a cross-functional team that includes technical experts, graphic designers, behavioural scientists, and users to create compelling illustrations
• Stay on top of the latest standards, processes, and trends in the illustration field
• Create designs that are appropriate for both physical and digital versions of the content, and can translate into multiple formats
• Work in a fast-paced, diverse, and collaborative environment
• Adhere to tight deadlines and produce iterations of work with a short turn-around time

• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Child Protection (CPP) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI) are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

Key relationships

External – Close collaboration and strong working relationship with project consortium partners (War Child, International Rescue Committee, Behavioral Insights Team and Innovations for Poverty Action.) Where needed the Illustration Officer will also work with Regional PlayMatters Illustration consultant on technical matters.

Internally – The Illustration officer will report to the PlayMatters Project Manager whilst working closely with the EiE Specialist, EiE Coordinator as well as the EiE officers who will be working in content development and supporting implementation at camp level and in the host community. S/ HE will work closely with the MEAL and Communications and advocacy team, and Child Protection team and ensure that protection is integrated in all Education activities and content that will be developed.

Technical expertise, skills and knowledge

Essential

• Have and use own drawing tablets and digital illustration software (such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, CorelDRAW, or other)
• Excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills, including the ability to clearly explain creative decisions in spoken and written format effectively in a multi-cultural environment with international and national colleagues and partners
• At least minimum of two (2) years’ experience on the job of the same nature
• Strong eye for detail, a consistent style, and a willingness to share work with others for feedback
• Superb ideation and conceptual skills to create original characters and artwork
• Excellent sketching skills to quickly communicate ideas.
• An ability to receive, interpret, and implement constructive feedback from diverse project stakeholders and iterate on illustrated designs
• Work well under pressure, dealing with competing priorities, in a fast-paced team-oriented environment
• Detail-oriented and good multi-tasking abilities to meet multiple deadlines
• Strong team player
• Ability to navigate and creatively engage with diverse artistic traditions of East Africa
• Flexible and willing to integrate diverse feedback from a variety of technical partners
• Participation and flexibility throughout in an iterative design process with many diverse stakeholders across a large consortium and multiple content development teams
• A compelling portfolio that showcases aesthetic awareness, high-caliber drawing skills, and command of multiple illustration styles
• Fluency in English and Swahili is required, additional of Kirundi language will be added advantage
• Understanding of humanitarian crises and contexts in eastern Africa is a plus

Desirable

• Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to work in a matrix environment
• Good written and oral communication skills, including working team environment
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Having organizational skills and the ability to multitask while working on projects with varying activities, objectives, and deliverables
• Good negotiation and influencing skills
• Sound judgment and decision-making in complex situations

• Willingness and capacity to be flexible and accommodating in difficult working conditions

Plan International’s Values in Practice

We are open and accountable

• Promotes a culture of openness and transparency, including with sponsors and donors.
• Holds self and others accountable to achieve the highest standards of integrity.
• Consistent and fair in the treatment of people.
• Open about mistakes and keen to learn from them.
• Accountable for ensuring we are a safe organisation for all children, girls & young people

We strive for lasting impact

• Articulates a clear purpose for staff and sets high expectations.
• Creates a climate of continuous improvement, open to challenge and new ideas.
• Focuses resources to drive change and maximise long-term impact, responsive to changed priorities or crises.
• Evidence-based and evaluates effectiveness.

We work well together

• Seeks constructive outcomes, listens to others, willing to compromise when appropriate.
• Builds constructive relationships across Plan International to support our shared goals.
• Develops trusting and ‘win-win’ relationships with funders, partners and communities.
• Engages and works well with others outside the organization to build a better world for girls and all children.

We are inclusive and empowering

• Seeks constructive outcomes, listens to others, willing to compromise when appropriate.
• Builds constructive relationships across Plan International to support our shared goals.
• Develops trusting and ‘win-win’ relationships with funders, partners and communities.
• Engages and works well with others outside the organization to build a better world for girls and all children.