Procurement Notices

TERMS OF REFERENCE

1. BACKGROUND

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The UN Women Bangladesh Country Office (BCO) is looking for services for organizations for providing services on the followings:

-Translating documnts from English to Bengali and vice-versa of office reports, press releases/statements, speech, newspaper and magazine articles, features, audio/video interviews and other important documents including the policy and guidelines as and when required basis. –

-Editing services of report/documents from Bengali to English and vice versa.

-Interpretation from English to Bengali and vice-versa during official events and functions.

-Renting workshop/seminar equipment

UN Women BCO intends to establish a Retainer Institutional contract with the selected candidates for at least one-year period.  The contract will have provision of renewal in next two years. The service is required occasionally whenever required and only for the time needed. 

I. Duties and Responsibilities:

The Contractor assigned person for Translation/Editing/Interpretation will work closely with UN Women programme and operations teams to provide:

Translation Services:

• Produce high-quality translation of documents from English to Bangla and / or vice versa;
• Translating, editing and proofreading full content, footnotes and / or endnotes, captions under photographs, tables… etc.;
• Ensure content accuracy and detailed comparison of content, facts and figures, making sure there are no discrepancies in the meaning of the source manuscript;
• Ensure Arabic and English language excellence and proofreading, including excellent language, technical vocabulary, syntax, expression and grammar as well as use of formal gender sensitive terminology;
• Ensure confidentiality of the original texts and translated materials. The translation submitted to UN Women under each assignment is the property of UN Women and cannot be submitted, distributed or used by any other party, unless authorized.
• The translator is obligated to work within the required deadlines and be available to UN Women for comments and corrections.
• Work in close collaboration with UN Women Task Manager, and ensure the translation services are up to expectations and professional standards.
• Ensure quality check of translation; ensuring that no errors are left in the final text;
• Ensure final drafts are submitted ahead of time and revised as needed to meet UN Women expectations.

Editing and proofreading:

• Provide high-quality substantive editing and proofreading of documents, both Bangla and English;
• Conduct holistic substantive review of the manuscripts to correct grammar, check spelling, punctuation and delete redundancies, fix problem sentences, and sharpen vocabulary;
• Improve the overall clarity and organization of the text through re-arranging sentences and paragraphs, if needed, replacing inappropriate words and polishing the whole text.

Simultaneous Interpretation:

• Provide on-site oral translation services from English to Bangla and/ or vice versa for UN Women workshops, events, trainings etc.;

Renting Workshop/Seminar equipment:

actor will provide rent for interpretation equipment for translators, speakers, sound system, microphones for podiums and head table, cordless mics, headsets with all the wireless and connections necessary (cost of each equipment will be quoted separately).

1. DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT AND DUTY STATION

The time required for the consultancy is estimated at 150 working days within the period indicated or maximum of 2,000 pages of documents to be translated or edited. The organization will be engaged under a retainer contract, which facilitates direct engagement of the consultant depending on need and availability within the contract period for a pre-agreed fee.

1. SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

Payment will be based on deliverables and upon submission and satisfactory outputs/products in accordance with specified requirements.

V. Competencies:

Core values / Guiding principles:

Integrity:

• Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural Sensitivity / Valuing diversity:

• Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Communicating Information and Ideas:

• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively.

Self-management and Emotional intelligence:

• Creating synergies through self-control.

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others.

Functional Competencies:

• Professional knowledge and expertise in translation, working with UN agencies or international organizations;
• Knowledge of gender and human rights terminology;
• Advanced user of computers and office software packages, experience in handling web-based management systems;
• Knowledge of the UN terminology and key UN Women concepts;
• Extensive experience and knowledge of the work of the national government and civil society organizations on human rights, women’s rights and gender issues in Bangladesh.

VI.THE QUALIFICATIONS EXPECTED ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Education:

• Proposed Translator/Editor/Interpreter have University degree in translation, literature, Journalism and media, philology or other relevant field.

Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in provision of professional translation, interpretation and editing services;
• Previous expertise in translating, interpreting and editing gender, governance, human rights, poverty reduction, rule of law and development related documents/ events etc.;
• Experience in working with Human Rights Organizations, International Organizations, Research Institutions for at least 2 years.

Language:

•           Fluency in Bangla and English.

How to apply:

Candidate organizations interested in applying for this contract should provide proposal along with  CV of the proposed persons to work for Translation /Editing/Interpretation. CV will include full details on education, present and past employment/ jobs for the last 5 years, language skills, professional translations skills, computer skills, etc. Proposed fee structure will include:

Translation: per page or number of words

Editing: per page of number of words

Interpretation: per job or day

Workshop equipment: rent of each item/hour/day/job

Long listed candidates will be requested to translate a sample manuscript for assessment purposes; while those who are shortlisted will be requested to provide a financial offer and three references.

Evaluation:

UN Women applies fair and transparent selection process that considers the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

A two-stage procedure is utilised in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who pass the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

Evaluation criteria is as follows:

• University degree in translation, literature, Journalism and media, philology or other relevant field (max 10 points);
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in translating / interpreting/editing services on gender, governance, poverty reduction, rule of law and development related area (max 40 points) as well as experience on interpreting in workshop/seminars
• Experience of working with human rights organizations, international organizations, research institutions for at least 2 years (max 10 points);
• Translation/editing of sample manuscripts (English to Bengali and Vice versa) provided to UN Women (max 10 points)
• UN Women reserves the right to conduct reference checks, if needed.

UN Women will establish more than one institutional contract for the above-mentioned services. At the time of service needed, UN Women will do an internal review of established contracts and request the service from the available contracted firm. There is no guarantee that UN Women will pay the full amount of contract during the contract period, UN Women will process payments against services receipted upon request and assessed as fully satisfactorily received.