National Consultant –Interpreter (Retainer)

Contract

This is a National Consultant contract. More about National Consultant contracts.

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 centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. UN Women in Bangladesh supports the government to implement commitments to international normative standards on gender equality and women’s human rights. The new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for 2022-2026 was launched in 2021 and the corresponding UN Women Bangladesh Strategy Note (2022-2026), defining UN Women’s strategic engagement in Bangladesh, has also been finalized. The country strategy focuses on strengthening the national structures and mechanisms for gender mainstreaming in policies, plans and budgets; supporting efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women; promoting women’s access to decent and safe work; promoting policies and government investment in women’s empowerment and resilience building in the context of climate change, humanitarian crisis as well as other threats to peace and security. UN Women works with a range of stakeholders in Bangladesh including the government, civil society and women’s organisations, youth, UN agencies and donors, to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will work under direct supervision of Communications Analyst -UNW Bangladesh Country Office to ensure following tasks and deliverables will be submitted:

A professional, accurate and fast translation/ interpretation service from Bangla to English and vice versa such that the meaning and understanding of key principles and analysis presented reflects their true sense.

• Simultaneous and consecutive translation/interpretation at UN Women events and workshops
• Translation/interpretation ensures accuracy in language, structure, and rhetoric expressions.

The job will require attending online calls, webinars, workshop/seminars or visiting UN Women programme sites in Bangladesh.

DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT AND DUTY STATION The time required for the consultancy is estimated at 40 working days within the period Indicated. 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.

DELIVERIES and SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS UN Women will contact the SSA before a specific assignment. Payment in full upon final submission and satisfactory outputs/products in accordance with specified requirements.

Travel and DSA and other logistics: No DSA will be paid for Dhaka city. The SSA will require travelling outside Dhaka. For such travels the SSA will be paid air ticket (on actual) and Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) as quoted but not exceeding UN allowable DSA rate. If the job requires sitting in the office, UN Women will provide sitting space accordingly.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies: • Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards; • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability; • Treats all people fairly without favoritism; • Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional Competencies: • Ability to pragmatically apply in-depth knowledge and experience of issues and practices in the fields of gender equality in Bangladesh; • Strong communications skills, and experience in presenting evidence and ideas for policy and programme; • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude; • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.

Required Skills and Experience

Educational Qualification:

Master’s degree or equivalent from reputable institution in Social Science, Literature, Linguistics, Law or any related field.

Experience:

• Professional experience in translation and transcription including interpretation Service.
• Experience on issues relevant to UN Women’s work preferred.
• Excellent command of written and oral English and Bangla.
• Proven computer skills (MS Office) and internet tools.
• Respect for confidentiality.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, only and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the SSA in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages

Evaluation Method and Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Cumulative analysis-

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant up on Cumulative Analysis/evaluation and determined as: 1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and 2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation; Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70 mark in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation. Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 49 points out of 70)

Criteria-01; Educational Qualification and diversification - Max Point 10 Criteria-02; Professional experience in English-Bangla-English translation. Max Point 30 Criteria-03; Experience on working with development organizations or UN agencies. - Max Point 20

Criteria-04; Fluency in English and Bangla and supporting documents for similar type of jobs- Max Point 10

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 70. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points (49) will be considered as technically-qualified candidate.

Interested candidates will submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.

To be included as part of the proposal:

Only applications including all items mentioned above will be considered.

Application letter explaining your interest in the consultancy and why you are the most suited candidate for this position.

• Cover letter outlining relevant work experience
• Updated CV;
• Personal History Form(P11); https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc
• Financial proposal: The financial proposal shall specify a professional fee for 40 working days
• Evidence of earlier related previous work /contract

NOTE: Documents required before contract signing:

UN Personal History Form; Full medical examination and Statement of Fitness to work and travel for consultants with travel involved. (This is not a requirement for RLA contracts);

Security Certificate BSAFE: EN: https://agora.unicef.org/course/info.php?id=17891 Individual subscribers over 65 years of age are required to undergo a full medical examination including x-rays at their own cost and obtaining medical clearance from the UN Medical Director prior to taking up their assignment; Release letter in case the selected consultant is government official.

Only applications will all items mentioned above will be considered

Note: The individual consultant who does not meet the above eligibility criteria shall not be considered for further evaluation. Necessary documentation must be submitted to substantiate the above eligibility criteria