External Evaluation Consultant - Disaster READY Phase 2 Community Storytelling and Impact Documentation

Working with Save the Children is more than just a consultancy:

It’s the opportunity to put community voices at the centre of a story that matters — and to help capture, with honesty and skill, what four years of community-led disaster preparedness has built, struggled with, and left behind. This is not a promotional brief. It is an invitation to produce something genuinely meaningful: a film record of what communities in Vanuatu have achieved, what they have learned, and what they still need.

About the Project

Save the Children Vanuatu (SCV) is seeking an experienced filmmaker or community storytelling consultant to produce the Community Storytelling and Impact Documentation for the Disaster READY Phase 2 project, funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Humanitarian Partnership (AHP) and implemented from July 2022 to December 2026.

The project has worked across 15 communities in three Area Councils — East Santo and Southeast Santo in Sanma Province, and South Ambae in Penama Province — reaching approximately 1,500 direct beneficiaries. Through Community Disaster and Climate Change Committees (CDCCCs), Community Action Plans, disability inclusion partnerships with VSPD and VDPA, and sustained engagement with Area Council governance structures, the project has built community-led disaster preparedness in some of Vanuatu’s most exposed communities.

Where you come in

As Lead Filmmaker or Storytelling Consultant, you will take creative and operational responsibility for producing a single documentary film of approximately 20–25 minutes, capturing the lived experience of this project — its impacts, its honest lessons, and the voices of the people who built it. Working under the oversight of the SCV Director of Advocacy, Communication and Stakeholder Engagement, you will lead story development, community engagement, filming, and post-production, delivering a film that works equally for a donor audience and for the communities who appear in it.

The full project document pack — including the 2023 baseline study, 2025 midterm review, annual reports and progress reports — will be made available at onboarding. Field work is planned for April–May 2026, with the rough cut due in July and all final deliverables in August 2026.

You will make an impact by

• Developing an inception plan covering your proposed community selection approach, story vision, consent tools and field calendar — coordinated with the parallel Final Evaluation.
• Conducting filming and photography across all three Area Councils and Port Vila, spending genuine time in communities to build trust and gather footage that is alive, not guarded.
• Identifying and developing two to four protagonist stories whose journeys carry the film’s narrative thread across communities.
• Capturing honest community voice — including what did not work, what committees struggled with, and what communities still need — without softening.
• Shaping all field material in post-production into a single coherent film with a clear narrative arc, professional broadcast quality, and English subtitles throughout.
• Producing secondary deliverables from the same fieldwork: social media cuts, captioned photographs and a labelled raw footage archive with consent records.

Does this sound like you?

You are a skilled filmmaker with a genuine commitment to honest, ethical storytelling. You know how to build trust in remote communities. You can conduct relaxed, responsive filmed conversations in Bislama. You understand that the most important voices are often not the most obvious ones, and you have the post-production craft to shape complex, multi-community material into a single piece that holds together.

This engagement requires

• Proven experience producing film or community impact storytelling in development or humanitarian contexts — at least one completed community-level documentary within the past five years.
• Demonstrated ability to work in rural or remote communities with women, people with disabilities, and others who may be less accustomed to being filmed.
• Fluency or high proficiency in Bislama, sufficient to conduct filmed conversations without relying on an interpreter for the majority of community filming.
• Experience working in Vanuatu or comparable Pacific Island contexts.
• A track record of ethical storytelling practice, including robust informed consent processes and sensitivity when filming children and people with disabilities.
• Demonstrated post-production skills — the ability to shape raw material gathered across multiple communities into a single coherent, well-crafted film.
• Confirmed availability to complete all deliverables by August 2026.

Desirable

• Vanuatu-based consultant or team that includes a locally based filmmaker. Applications from Vanuatu-based consultants and teams are strongly encouraged and will be prioritised.
• Experience working with or alongside organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs).
• Familiarity with AHP, DFAT, or similar Australian Government-funded humanitarian programming.

Indicative Budget and Payment

SCV seeks value for money — meaning quality of work and reasonable, transparent costs, not simply the lowest price. The indicative budget for this assignment is VUV 1,000,000, with scope to go up to VUV 1,500,000 depending on the proposed approach and logistics. This budget covers both professional service fees and field logistics combined.

Financial proposals should clearly set out:

• Personnel costs: role, number of days per phase, and daily rate for each team member.
• Equipment: consultants are expected to provide their own professional filming equipment, including camera, audio, lighting and storage. Equipment costs should not be included in the financial proposal.
• Travel and accommodation: all inter-island and in-country travel, with South Ambae logistics itemised separately and costed realistically.
• Community costs: refreshments for filming sessions and any local costs associated with community visits.
• Post-production: editing, colour grading, audio mix and subtitling for the full film and social media cuts.
• Data storage and transfer: hard drives or cloud storage for the raw footage archive handover.

The consultant is responsible for all costs associated with conducting the assignment, including field logistics and community visits. SCV will support community access, introductions and field coordination, but direct field costs — accommodation, transport, meals and community refreshments — must be reflected in the budget.

Payment will be made in three instalments: 20% upon SCV approval of the inception plan; 30% upon delivery of the rough cut of the film; and 50% upon SCV approval of all final deliverables.

Sounds interesting?

SCV seeks value for money — meaning quality of work and reasonable, transparent costs, not simply the lowest price. The indicative budget for this assignment is VUV 1,000,000, with scope to go up to VUV 1,500,000 depending on the proposed approach and logistics. This budget covers both professional service fees and field logistics combined.

Financial proposals should clearly set out:

• Personnel costs: role, number of days per phase, and daily rate for each team member.
• Equipment: consultants are expected to provide their own professional filming equipment, including camera, audio, lighting and storage. Equipment costs should not be included in the financial proposal.
• Travel and accommodation: all inter-island and in-country travel, with South Ambae logistics itemised separately and costed realistically.
• Community costs: refreshments for filming sessions and any local costs associated with community visits.
• Post-production: editing, colour grading, audio mix and subtitling for the full film and social media cuts.
• Data storage and transfer: hard drives or cloud storage for the raw footage archive handover.

The consultant is responsible for all costs associated with conducting the assignment, including field logistics and community visits. SCV will support community access, introductions and field coordination, but direct field costs — accommodation, transport, meals and community refreshments — must be reflected in the budget.

Payment will be made in three instalments: 20% upon SCV approval of the inception plan; 30% upon delivery of the rough cut of the film; and 50% upon SCV approval of all final deliverables.

How to apply:

Via our website: Save the Children Australia Careers

By email: HR.Vanuatu@savethechildren.org.au

Application Close Date: 14 April 2026

We welcome and thank all applications. Due to the anticipated volume of submissions, only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

Child Safeguarding & Diversity

SCV is a child-safe organisation. All consultants engaged through this process are required to adhere to SCV’s Child Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct, complete a safeguarding orientation prior to any fieldwork, and comply with SCV’s safeguarding protocols for activities involving children or vulnerable adults. A police clearance check or equivalent may be required.

At Save the Children, we seek a workforce and a consultant pool that is as diverse as our society. We believe diversity and inclusion are fundamental to our values and our work. Ni-Vanuatu consultants and teams that include local filmmakers are strongly encouraged to apply.