Editor (English Language) Consultant

Background

UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to implement these standards. It stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on five priority areas: (1) increasing women’s leadership and participation; (2) ending violence against women; (3) engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes; (4) enhancing women’s economic empowerment; and (5) making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting. UN Women coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in advancing gender equality.

The Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia developed and established its regional website. The website is a platform where UN Women’s work in the region are showcased. The website informs the general public as well as specific stakeholders, such as the government, civil society and donors about UN Women News from the region, its programmatic work, and key achievements. The Regional Office also produces other Communications Products such as brochures, factsheets, newsletters feature stories, publications etc.

Objective:

As most of the content provided from field offices are written by people whose native language is not English, copy-editing this content into proper English is extremely important for the Regional Office.

The editor will also be expected to make the website as marketable as possible, along with catchy language, titles etc. that would attract the attention of the general population as well as other relevant stakeholders.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Programme Specialist and Regional Communications Specialist of UN Women ECA RO, the editor will edit the content for the website and UN Women knowledge products, including publications, brochures, briefs, factsheets, guidance documents etc., and ensure the content provided is up-to-date and relevant, s/he may ask for more information, key results, and additional materials. The editor is expected organize the content in a clear, concise and understandable way, using easy to understand and attractive language when necessary to outreach to larger audiences.

S/he will:

• Write/edit/proofread UN Women knowledge products, including but not limited to publications, brochures, briefs, factsheets, policy documents, guidance documents
• Write/edit/proofread web articles for UN Women’s official regional website
• Ensure consistency, accuracy, grammatical correctness and adherence to UN Women’s writing style guidelines  

Liaise with UN Women Programme Specialist, Regional Communications Specialist  and other relevant UN Women ECA RO regional staff as well as staff in field offices if needed for review and finalization processes

Schedule of Payments:

Payment in full upon final submission and satisfactory outputs/products in accordance with specified requirements. Payments will be made monthly after the outputs/products are reviewed and approved by the regional office’s Regional Communications Specialist and the relevant RO staff.

The time needed to complete all work will be agreed with the ECA RO Programme Specialist prior to being carried out. The Consultant needs to fill out a timesheet, provided by the ECA RO, that would detail the work that was completed in a day and will be paid based on a daily fee.

Competencies

Core values

• Integrity: Demonstrate 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 and valuing diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity

Core competencies

• Organizational Awareness: Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment
• Development and Innovation: Take charge of self-development and take initiative
• Communicating and Information Sharing: Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication
• Self-management and Emotional Intelligence: Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others
• Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional competencies

• Excellent communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies
• Excellent writing and editing skills. Writes effectively and creatively across different constituencies
• Demonstrates very good understanding of and experience in communications and outreach/advocacy
• Ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate
• Very effective at multi-tasking
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Demonstrates exceptional ability to remain calm, in control and good humoured even under pressure and tight deadlines
• Excellent organizational and coordination skills and attention to detail 

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree is required.
• Bachelor’s Degree in English language, social sciences, communications or any relevant field is desired.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of experience as an editor, writer, with outstanding writing skills;
• Extensive experience in creating and editing website content;
• Experience in editing materials for human rights-related international organizations;
• UN experience is an asset.
• Proven record or writing and/or editing in the area of gender equality and women empowerment is an asset;
• Record or writing and/or editing in the area of feature stories is an asset.

Languages:

• Native English skills – both written and spoken.

Application procedure:

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application:

• Cover letter to include a brief overview in English (unedited text) about which of your previous experiences makes you the most suitable candidate for the advertised position.
• P11 with past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment, a signed copy should be submitted.
• Financial Proposal The financial proposal should be daily fee for writing/editing and other required work; and
• Example of translation, writing and/or editing/quality assurance work in English – provide two examples carried out in the past 6 months.

Evaluation of applicants:

Consultants will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of qualifications (technical) and financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) Having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

• Technical Evaluation (70%) – max. 70 points
  • Bachelor’s Degree in English language, social sciences, communications or any relevant field is desired. – max. 5 points
  • Experience as an editor, writer, with outstanding writing skills; - – max. 15 points
  • Extensive experience in creating and editing website content; – max. 15 points
  • Editing materials for human rights-related international organizations; – max. 10 points
  • UN experience – max. 10 points
  • Proven record or writing and/or editing in the area of gender equality and women empowerment – max. 10 points
  • Proven record or writing and/or editing in the area of feature stories. – max. 5 points
• Financial Evaluation (30%) – max. 30 points:

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion. A suggested formula is as follows:

p = 30 (µ/z)

Using the following values:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

µ = price of the lowest priced

proposal z = price of the proposal being evaluated Signatures- Post Description Certification

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination.  All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)