Creative Agency/Consultant for Pure Earth India Comms

Issue Introduction – Lead Poisoning

Lead is a potent neurotoxin that remains a pervasive public health problem and with exposure to 80 crores (one-third) of kids worldwide. India is no exception, with about half of all children below 14 years (~ 27.5 Crores) estimated to have elevated Blood Lead levels, BLL more than the WHO action standard of 3.5 μg/dL. This is alarming enough to damage their developing brains permanently and cause a reduction in IQ levels, lower educational attainment, more violent crime, and increased cardiovascular death. With these long-term health and social impact, the economic dent to the GDP estimates is quite significant, about 5 % of the total GDP.

Common mediums of lead exposure:-
● lead in water from the use of leaded pipes
● lead from active industries, such as mining and battery recycling
● lead-based paint and pigments
● leaded gasoline (which has declined considerably in recent decades but was a major historical source)
● lead solder in food cans
● lead in spices
● cosmetics, ayurvedic medicines
● toys and other consumer products

About Pure Earth

Pure Earth is a global thought leader in the fields of pollution and environmental health with two decades of track record of addressing lead pollution. Pure Earth has cleaned up toxins in over 120 locations across 25 countries, affecting millions of people. It identified and documented over 5000 toxic sites and their associated health impacts. It led to the development of the highly influential Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health with the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution. It has also published a number of peer-reviewed research papers analysing and describing the scope and impacts of unsound lead-acid battery smelting and lead exposures around the world.

Pure Earth in India

Pure Earth has been working in India since 2004 to address public health issues stemming from chemical and heavy metal pollutants, especially lead. In collaboration with local partners, the organization has conducted over 200 field assessments of lead-contaminated sites and implemented lead remediation and risk-reduction demonstration projects in Bihar & Tamil Nadu.

Pure Earth works both at the state and national level, including working with the Government think-tank NITI-Aayog to take national action to solve the lead poisoning problem. Most of Pure Earth’s ongoing work is in tandem with the recommendations for action, including lead source identification and Home-based Assessments (ongoing in Bihar & Tamil Nadu); Rapid Market place surveys to understand various possible Lead containing consumer products, public campaigns about the dangers of lead, revisions to the Battery Handling & Management Rules (now draft Battery Waste Management Rules 2022) and remediation of lead-contaminated legacy sites. In our ongoing country programs, it intends to analyze the high blood lead levels of the children and pregnant women through baseline and end-line surveys. It initiates different interventions to reduce the lead contamination in collaboration with State governments, health organizations and civil society groups etc. In the days to come, our focus would be to strengthen the government’s capacity to develop systems for monitoring of children’s exposure levels and treatment infrastructure for severely poisoned children in the country. At the same time, we would initiate campaigns to raise public awareness of risks from certain products and activities and empower the public to take personal protection measures and/or change behavior.

Creative Consultancy

Pure Earth wishes to hire a Creative Agency/consultant to provide support to generate awareness for the projects and help mobilize stakeholders and communities by creating various knowledge products, newsletters, audio-visual and digital media assets. The scope of services is as follows (this is an indicative, not exhaustive list):

Information brochure: Pamphlets, leaflets, brochures, etc.
Outdoors: Posters, banners, hoarding, display panels, etc.
Inter-personal: Audio, video, social media infographics, etc.
Other assets: Flip-charts and posters, flashcards, caps, T-shirts, mobile-phone covers, bags, stickers etc.

The actual type and number of various creative outputs will be guided by the projects and the organization’s needs. The selected creative Agency/consultant will be required to propose at least 2-3 high-quality variations to the materials.

Unit costs proposed for the above-listed items will be used for paying consultancy fees. The Consultant is advised to indicate any additional creative items that need to be included in the responses and comments to the ToR.

Ethical consideration:

The cultural, religious, language and gender sensitivities must be kept in mind while designing creative communication assets. Designs should be original and not be copied or duplicated from any other sources. Music/ background score should be original and not tracks that are pre-recorded/ downloaded/ loops.

Deliverables:

● Preparation and production of creative materials needed in all projects, subject to the approval from PE, for implementation of all creative works.

● Approval of final comprehensive campaign concept to best present the PE global mission and objective and align the campaign in India in terms of reach, frequency and penetration.

● Updating cost estimates on the production of creative materials proposed for the campaign and the related costs in applying the same in various creative designs.

Eligibility criteria:

Well-proven and demonstrated capacity and experience in the field of creative design. The agency/consultant must have more than 10 years of experience to work in this creative field.

Agency/ Consultant must ideally have a presence in India and experience of working with international development agencies in India, specifically in Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

Reporting arrangements:

The Creative Agency/consultant will report to the Director of Advocacy and Communication, Pure Earth India; will also be working closely with Pure Earth India Country Director, Program and Business Development team on a regular basis; Director Advocacy and Communication will be the Point of Contact for the Creative Agency/consultant and responsible for providing the final approval on all deliverable. The Consultant will receive a detailed briefing at the beginning of the assignment, with regular follow-up discussions via email, phone and in person as required.

Please submit your quotation by May 30, 2023 to [email protected]