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 leads and coordinates the United Nations system’s efforts 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 Member States’ priorities and efforts towards building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women Sri Lanka is responsible for proactively driving the positioning of UN Women among the donor community, development partners and the general public by promoting gender equality, working for elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girl and supporting women’s empowerment. Given the functional responsibilities of UN Women in Sri Lanka, the work of the office includes ensuring technical quality of research reports and communicating its key messages in local languages. Communicating strategic results and key messages are a must to mobilize partners and resources as well as to drive progress on gender equality by reaching a diverse audience in the country.

Under the overall guidance of Country Focal Point at UN Women Sri Lanka, working closely with Project Officers, the Consultant is responsible for the following:

• Editing, revising and rewriting as needed and formatting to produce high quality, reader friendly, accessible, timely, results-based reports, programmes and corporate communications material, policy research reports and other documents and materials aligned with UN Women’s established standards and formats. This includes incorporating any feedback provided by UN Women.
• Translation of English language press releases, documents, reports and other material to Sinhala language
• Writing / Editing human interest stories in Sinhala

Duration of Assignment

1 year (01 March 2021 – 28 Feb 2022). The consultant 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.

Maximum 100 days of assignment period; UN Women does not warrant that the maximum of 100 days. The service will be purchased during the term of the Agreement.

Deliverables

• Translation of press releases from English to Sinhala
• Proofreading / editing of press releases, reports and other documents as required
• Writing / editing human interest stories in Sinhala language

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 Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in journalism, communications or relevant field
• At least years of high-level experience in writing, editing, proofreading and communicating programmatic information in reader-friendly formats and styles
• Experience in writing high quality Sinhala language reports, articles and stories.
• Proficiency in English and Sinhala
• Familiarity with technical terms in relation to UN Women’s mandate and the use of gender sensitive language (Writing samples in relation to social / development issues to be provided)
• Previous work experience working with UN Agencies and an understanding of gender equality is an asset

Evaluation Criteria

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 utilized in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100.  Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically qualified candidates who may be contacted for validation interview.

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation will be considered and evaluated.
• The total number of points allocated for the price component is 100.
• The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

Submission of application

Interested candidates are requested to submit electronic application to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org and cc nemanika.amarasinghe@unwomen.org  with a subject line as “Application for Copy Editor Sinhala LK”  no later than 25 Feb 2021. The submission package must include:

• CV
• Personal History Form (P11), which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs;
• Financial proposal: The financial proposal shall specify a daily fee;
• 5 writing samples on social / development issues including press releases and stories or articles

All applications must include (as an attachment) the CV, P11, writing samples, and the financial proposal. Applications without financial proposal will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.