CONSULTANT VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
Issued on: 24 September 2014
ORGANIZATIONAL LOCATION: UN-HABITAT
DUTY STATION: Nairobi
FUNCTIONAL TITLE: English to French translation of UN documents
DURATION:Timeframe: 6 working months. The consultancy will commence on October 15th 2014 and end on April 14th 2015. Renewable depending on availability of funds
CLOSING DATE:****10 October 2014
BACKGROUND
There are 863 million slum dwellers globally and if no serious action is taken, the number is projected to rise over the next 30 years to about 2 billion. Unless radical efforts are made to provide a range of affordable housing options and legal and secure land at scale, cities will be host to hundreds of millions of new slum-dwellers. The situation is critical and unprecedented. In response, UN-Habitat aims to mobilize a global coalition of partners to address the challenge of unsustainable urbanization. UN-Habitat’s vision is “to help create by 2013 the necessary conditions for concerted international and national efforts to stabilize the growth of slums and to set the stage for the subsequent reduction in and reversal of the number of slum dwellers.” This vision, derived from the Millennium Development Goals, cannot be realized without systemic reforms to promote access to land and housing for all.
The Housing and Slum Upgrading Branch of UN-Habitat promotes increased access to adequate housing, slum upgrading and prevention, and community development through five cross-cutting strategies: Advocacy, knowledge management, policy advice, capacity development at the global, regional, national and local levels, and implementation support at the national and local levels. The main activities of the Branch include supporting local authorities and central governments in the formulation and implementation of housing policies and strategies to achieve adequate housing for all, as part of sustainable urban development. The Branch promotes a twin-track approach focused on improving the supply and affordability of adequate and sustainable housing for all, and slum upgrading and prevention initiatives, in the implementation of operational activities. This is done through promoting the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing as a component of the rights to an adequate standard of living.
With the objective of contributing to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7D "to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers”, the Slum Upgrading Unit assists governments to harmonise actions towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by pro-actively engaging at neighbourhood, city, national, regional and global levels; and strategically plan urban development for an efficient socio-economic transition in developing countries, cities and neighbourhoods.
As UN-Habitat is the lead agency for the Millennium Development Goal 7c and 7d aiming for access to water and sanitation and the significant improvement of living conditions in slums, the Housing and Slum Upgrading Branch under the Slum Upgrading Unit is implementing the Participatory Slum Upgrading Program (PSUP).
PSUP is an initiative of the ACP Secretariat, funded by the European Commission and implemented by UN-Habitat. The PSUP consists of three phases: (1) urban profiling; (2) participatory action planning and programme document formulation; and (3) participatory pilot project implementation. There are currently 24 countries in Africa who have joined the programme at different phases: 8 countries in Phase 1, 18 countries in Phase 2 and 8 countries in Phase 3.
The goal of PSUP is to positively contribute to MDG 7C and 7D, to halve by 2015 the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation, and to significantly improve the lives of 100 million slum-dwellers by 2020.
PSUP has catalysed growing action and investment in initiatives supporting slum improvement and prevention in 40 countries and over 150 cities across Africa, Caribbean and Pacific States through the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme. This is being achieved through the partnerships UN-Habitat has developed with global Habitat Agenda partners such as Cities Alliance, the World Bank Institute, GIZ, as well as bi-lateral development partners, national and local Governments, NGOs and CBOs.
Rationale for the Consultancy
The PSUP is working with partner countries within the ACP region and whose culture and language is diverse. Predominantly the English and French are the official languages adopted in the 35 countries where the PSUP is being implemented with almost divided into 2 equal proportions between the 2 language groups. This is also reflected in the PSUP Team in Nairobi. As documents and information is produced in these two languages, the need to translate this information to be availed to both audiences is ever present.
RESPONSIBILITIES
The responsibilities under this consultancy are twofold:
- Support the Slum Upgrading Unit in the professional translation of official documents, guidelines, workshop material, conference material, promotional material, official communication and alike
- Review and improve draft translations of existing documents
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
For the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP) and in cooperation with the ACP Secretariat as well as the European Commission (EC), six general programme criteria have been agreed and applied in the proposals to the EC. Consequently, the indicators are essential for future EC external evaluations looking at the successful implementation of Phase 3.
That is why these indicators shall be also integrated in this evaluation and country selection process.
- Quality of the project design: the appropriateness of the suggested project objectives and underlying problems, the needs and priorities of the intended target groups and beneficiaries that the project is supposed to address and the adaptation to the physical and policy environment within it operates. This shall include the quality of the project preparation and design – the logic and completeness of the project planning process, and the internal logic and coherence of the project design.
- Achievement of the main objectives and effectiveness of Phases 1 and 2 implementation as well as the proposed Phase 3 pilot projects:the assessment of expected results and impacts, including unintended ones, and then the comparison of intended and unintended consequences for Phase 2 and Phase 3. The consequences shall be evaluated in relation to the overall goal and the objectives of the PSUP, and the respect countries’/cities’ objectives.
- Efficiency of the implementation to date: to what extent funding, human, financial resources, regulatory, and/or administrative resources contributed to, or hindered, the achievement of the objectives and results. This also includes the ownership of the national and local governments to contribute to the programme implementation in line with national priorities and budgets.
- Sustainability of the effects: an analysis of the extent to which the results and impact are being, or are likely to be maintained over time, taking into account the multiplier effect of the planned slum upgrading activities and the extent to which the projects identified in Phase 2 are being or are likely to be financed and implemented (based also on the developed resource mobilisation strategy).
- Key cross-cutting areas of interventions:for example land, environment, gender, human rights, housing, basic urban services etc. are combined and are taken care off in the programme design which leads to a strong project with multiplier effects.
- Coordination, complementation and coherence:the degree that the proposed pilot projects are coherent with national priorities and current efforts of the key local and national partners, with donors and EU policies and Member States in particular, with the UN Country Teams, UNDAF and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers as well as UN-HABITAT’s Country Programme Documents (if in place). This shall include an assessment of the positioning of UN-HABITAT within the overall context of donors in the field of urban development.
DELIVERABLES
The consultancy is output based. The following translations are expected to be carried out by the consultant.
- PSUP guidelines and ToRs for Phase 1 (approximately 130 pages)by Mid November2014
- PSUP guidelines and ToRs for Phase 2 (approximately 150 pages)
by End November 2014
- PSUP guidelines and ToRs for Phase 3 (approximately 120 pages)
by Mid December 2014
- PSUP promotional material (calendar, banners, desk calendar, pamphlet, information kit)
throughout
- PSUP E-learning modules (approximately 40)
throughout
- PSUP workshop material (presentations, templates, questionnaires)
throughout
- Communication to partners for international events, regional workshops, capacity development workshops
throughout
- Conference materials (e.g. presentation templates, questionnaires, reports, background reports, presentation review) for an international conference in 2015
throughout
TIMEFRAME
The assignment will be undertaken for a total of 12 working months during the period of October 2014 to September 2015.
Conditions of this consultancy are subject to the UNOPS rules and regulations.
Once the outputs are accepted by UN-Habitat, it will be the property of the United Nations, which shall be entitled to all property rights, including but not limited to patents, copyrights, and trademarks with regard to all material which bears a direct relation to, or is made in consequence of, the services provided to UN-Habitat by the Consultant.
UN-Habitat will make reference to and acknowledge the contribution made by the consultant to the preparation of the materials produced by the consultant.
COMPETENCIES (maximum of five)
- Ability to work with tight deadlines and on multiple tasks.
- Outstanding writing and translation skills.
- Attention to details.
- Knowledge of international development contexts, especially housing, slum upgrading and urban planning.
EDUCATION
- Advanced degree and mastery of English and French Language
WORK EXPERIENCE
- Minimum of 2 years relevant experience in translation work.
- Experience in translating UN documents or other institutional documents, samples of previous work may be requested for due diligence
- Experience in translating technical documents and manuals is preferred
- Institutions engaged in addressing urbanisation challenges are encouraged to apply
LANGUAGE SKILLS
- Fluent (spoken and written) English and French
- Multilingual: preferably Spanish or any other UN official languages.
OTHER SKILLS
- High motivation to explain highly technical subjects to individuals with minimal knowledge in subject areas within the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP) network is desirable.
REMUNERATION
Payments will be based on deliverables over the consultancy period. There are set remuneration rates for consultancies. The rate is determined by functions performed and experience of the consultant. The fees will be paid as per agreement.
We are encouraging the application of institutions.
How to apply:
Applications should include:
- Cover memo (maximum 1 page)
- A technical and financial proposal based on the above mentioned deliverables. Institutional applicants are required to indicate the human resources for this task.
- CV in the PHP format, accessible through the INSPIRA website (inspira.un.org) Please note, if using INSPIRA for the first time, you need to register in order to activate your account, which will allow you to log in and create a personal History Profile.
- The PHP should be attached to the application as a PDF file.
- Summary CV (maximum 2 pages), indicating the following information:
- Educational Background (incl. dates)
- Professional Experience (assignments, tasks, achievements, duration by years/ months)
- Other Experience and Expertise (e.g. Internships/ voluntary work, etc.)
- Expertise and preferences regarding location of potential assignments
- Expectations regarding remuneration
Please also be advised that since April 15th 2010, applicants for consultancies must be part of the UN-HABITAT e-Roster in order for their application to be considered. You can reach the e-Roster
through the following link: http://e-roster.unhabitat.org
All applications should be submitted to in electronic format (using MS Word) by email to psup@unhabitat.org.
Deadline for applications: 10 October 2014
UN-HABITAT does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process. If you have any questions concerning persons or companies claiming to be recruiting on behalf of these offices and requesting the payment of a fee, please contact: recruitment@unon.org
