English Editors

Office-wide supervised by Planning and Social Policy Section, UNICEF Viet Nam

UNICEF Viet Nam is looking for experienced English editors to provide high-quality editing to a number of key publications on children.

1. Background
Following the mid-term review in 2008, the Government of Viet Nam and UNICEF agreed that UNICEF would strengthen its role as a knowledge leader on children in the country. UNICEF, together with government counterparts, is therefore in the process of producing key research and analysis on children in Viet Nam in order to support more evidence-based interventions by all actors working in support of children.
Between August and December 2009, the Planning and Social Policy Section (PSP) and other sections of UNICEF Viet Nam will be finalizing a number of major documents, studies, reports, and other printed materials on children for publication. It is expected that these documents will serve as important reference materials for the Government and development partners in Viet Nam for years to come; hence, they must be of the highest quality.

2. Purposes and Objectives
To edit English documents related to children’s issues in Viet Nam to publication-level quality and standards.

3. Methodology and technical approach
- The methodology consists of editing the electronic (Word) versions of various documents. Changes/edits should be done in track changes, and tracked and clean versions should be provided to UNICEF. In some cases, a more “active” editing approach may be required, e.g. if information is presented in a way that is not clear to the read, the editor may be required to actually re-write certain sections of the document. This will be the case for documents which have been poorly translated from Vietnamese.  In all cases, the consultant will discuss with UNICEF on the extent of editing/re-writing before starting actual work on the document.
- The consultant should use UK English, and should follow the UN style guide for all edits/changes. S/he should also familiarise themselves with recent UNICEF publications prior to commencing work, including the global UNICEF Annual Report and recent publications by UNICEF Viet Nam. The office  will provide “before” and “after” versions of previous publications in order to clarify the kind of editing expected.

4. Activities, Task, deliverables and timeframe
Activities and Tasks:
All tasks will consist of editing documents provided by sections. At this time the exact number of documents and the number of pages is unknown. However, among the documents to be included are:

- Global Child Poverty Study (translation from original Vietnamese text; approx. 80 pp)
- Situation Analysis of Children (original English version, many authors; approx. 200 pp)
- Summaries of “Child Poverty in Viet Nam: Who and Where are the Poor?” (20 pp and 2 pp)
- Dong Thap Situation Analysis (translation from original Vietnamese text; approx 70 pp)
- Study on the impact of domestic migration on families left-behind (translation from original text; approx. 30 pp)
- Others to be determined.

Deliverables and Time frame
Sections will provide the documents to the consultants as they become finalized in terms of technical content. The consultant is expected to provide track changed and clean version of the documents (electronically) generally within 5 working days of receiving the document, with more time possible for documents longer than 50 pp. following negotiations with UNICEF. Payment will be made based on the number of days worked. (It is generally expected that a 20 pp document can be edited in one working day of 7.5 hours.) A long term agreement will be issued to cover one year initially. The renewal will be made annually. .

5. Management
The consultant will be supervised by the Chief of PSP section. S/he is expected to work off-site (i.e. not in the UNICEF office), but to consult the respective sectionas often as needed in order to ensure clarity on expectations and deliverables. It is not necessary for the consultant to be based in Viet Nam since all communications can be done via email and telephone.

6. Qualifications and experience required:
- Degree in English or related field;
- At least 3 years experience in editing, writing, synthesizing major reports, studies, documents for publication;
- Superior English writing and editing skills;
- Familiarity with Viet Nam development context an asset;
- Previous experience doing writing/editing work with UN agencies an asset.

Interested candidates are kindly requested to submit the following information:
Letter of interest
Proposed budget and fees
CV/P-11 form

Please indicate the title of the assignment on the top left corner of the to UNICEF address.

Human Resources Officer
UNICEF Viet Nam
81 A Tran Quoc Toan, Hanoi – Viet Nam
Or email: [email protected]

Closing date for receipt of proposals 23 Sept 2009

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