Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between all genders 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 leads and coordinates the efforts of the United Nations System to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of national priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with government, civil society and other relevant actors.

Under the framework of the current UN Women Nepal Country Office (NCO) Strategic Note 2023-2027, UN Women in Nepal continues its work to strengthen women’s leadership and participation in national and local level decision-making processes,  empower women economically by supporting women, especially those from the most vulnerable and excluded groups[1], promote environmental sustainability, climate and disaster resilience and transform gender discriminatory social norms and end harmful practices for inclusive and transformative human development.

[1] Excluded women’s groups include rural women, conflict affected women, survivors of trafficking, returnee women migrant workers, home-based workers and women living with HIV.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision and guidance of the Communications Officer and in close consultation with the relevant Programme Officers, the selected consultants will be responsible for providing professional English editing, knowledge product development including policy briefs and other documentation as per the need of UN Women Nepal Country Office.  The scope of work requires substantive experience and understanding of gender equality and empowerment of women, result-based management and excellent writing and analytical skills. The detailed scope of work and responsibilities of the assignment as follows:

Key Duties and Responsibilities-

• Substantive/language editing, to ensure internal coherence and robustness of the document. In this connection, the Consultant will: (a) ensure that content ambiguities, vagueness, redundancy, deficiencies, and inconsistencies are resolved, (b) language errors are eliminated, (c) overall structure of the document is strengthened, and (d) the general readability and appeal of the manuscript/documents are enhanced.
• The responsibilities include thorough proofreading in conformity with the UN Editorial guidelines and revising as well as rewriting as needed in compliance with established standards and formats.
• Copyediting to ensure accuracy in language, structure, and rhetoric expressions.
• Drafting and finalisation of policy briefs and knowledge products in consultation with relevant Programme Officers and Programme Specialist. Based on the need, the consultant should carry out secondary review of reports, resource materials, undertake consultation meetings with relevant stakeholders, produce analytical summary briefs of the consultation, collect and use human interest stories to feed into knowledge products and policy briefs.
• Provide technical expertise and advisory services on effective communication of results.
• Compile words used to enhance the readability of the document, provide them with corresponding meaning/s and share them with the staff to expand their vocabulary in English writing/reporting.

1. Contract Supervision:

The consultant will be accountable for their deliverables to the Communication Officer.

1. Deliverables:

Deliverables and timelines:

1. A professional, accurate, and deadline-compliant proofreading and editing service of English documents and reports by ensuring accuracy in language, structure, and rhetoric expressions in accordance with the above-mentioned scope of work and responsibilities.
2. Number of knowledge products and policy briefs/advocacy briefs drafted/finalised in consultation with relevant Programme Officers.
3. Documents delivered (preferably) in Microsoft Word in three versions: clean copies, copies with changes track marked, and third versions with comments of edited English text. The edited documents should ensure content ambiguity is resolved, language errors are eliminated, the structure is improved, and the overall comprehension of the manuscript is enhanced.
4. The Consultant is also required to reflect in their comments and corrections the principles upon which such corrections were done. This is consistent with the continuous learning approach that underlines the capacity building efforts of the UN Women Nepal Country Office.

1. Duration of the assignment and duty station

This is a home-based assignment for one year on retainer basis (as and when required). The assignment may also include field missions outside of Kathmandu and participation in meetings and consultations in Kathmandu. UN Women will not be committed to purchasing any minimum quantity of the services, and purchases will be made only if there is an actual requirement upon the issuance of a Purchase Order based on this retainer contract. UN Women shall not be liable for any cost in the event that no purchases are made under this retainer contract.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s Degree in international development studies, gender/women’s studies, business studies, communication, economics, political science, related social sciences, or any other related discipline.

Experience and Knowledge

• A minimum 5-7 years of relevant work experience in development sector particularly on English editing, report writing and documentation, analytical skills and knowledge product development.
• Strong skills to undertake multi-stakeholders dialogue and consultation.
• Proven understanding of development work in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Experience in working with international development partners, , or the UN previously in similar assignments is an asset.

Language skills

• Excellent command of written and oral English; and
• Knowledge of additional UN language is an asset