Contractor for Copy Editing and Proofreading Service – WARM Facility

Terms of Reference
Contractor for copy editing and proofreading service – WARM Facility

1.      Background

In line with their international commitments on climate change and sustainable development objectives, the European Union (EU) and French Development Agency (AFD) are actively supporting Vietnam in the areas of climate change mitigation and adaptation. AFD mobilizes the WARM Facility (Water and Natural Resources Management Facility) funded by EU to prepare and implement investment projects co-financed by AFD loans and Vietnam's own resources over the period 2021-2029 for an estimated total amount of 200 million euros.

The WARM Facility supports the preparation and implementation of strategic infrastructure investment projects in the areas of water and natural resources management in response to key local challenges such as flooding and coastal erosion, exacerbated by climate change. In addition, the experience gained from these projects will contribute to the policy dialogue on climate, environment, and natural resource management. This facility is the first of its kind to be implemented by AFD in Vietnam. This innovative programmatic approach allows for greater efficiency and project quality, serving programming that is aligned with the priorities of the Vietnamese government and AFD.

Thanks to AFD’s loan and EU’s grant, WARM Facility and WARM-funded projects must ensure adequate communication and visibility as required by AFD and the EU. Therefore, we are looking for a service provider for copy editing and proofreading services to serve WARM Facility’s communication objectives.

2.      Objective

Under the supervision and cooperation of WARM Communication Officer (CO), the contractor will provide editorial service, including English-Vietnamese-English translation service, to maintain WARM website’s content updated to raise public awareness about (i) WARM Facility’s three main topics (ii) WARM projects and activities (iii) highlight engagement and partnerships among Team Europe and Vietnam policymakers, national organizations, local communities, youth, and private sector.

WARM three main topics are as follows:

1. Urban resilience to climate change and natural hazards,
2. Integrated coastal zone management,
3. Integrated management of natural disasters.

WARM target audiences are as follows:

1. project donors, partners/authorities at national and international level,
2. project direct beneficiaries/local communities,
3. public population

3.      Expected tasks

The contractor shall work in a rapid turnaround time, in high quality, with considerable creative input and rapid understanding of new concepts and variations, and in compliance with WARM guidelines and AFD’s request.

Specifically, the editing and proofreading service shall include but is not necessarily limited to the following tasks:

• Edit and proofread news/articles/reports and other contents in either English or Vietnamese following AFD and WARM guidelines. Editing the documents in English should be undertaken preferably by a native English editor;
• Checking the accuracy of used terminology, grammar, and spelling;
• Propose improvements to the news/articles/reports in order to create easy-to-read, educational content in a journalistic style (catchy headlines, subheadings, quotes, key facts...)
• Copy-editing the English version of the news/articles/reports while maintaining the authors’ writing style to the extent practical;
• Eliminate and smoothen inconsistencies and/or repetitions;
• Translate documents from Vietnamese into English, and vice versa, where required;
• Finalize layout of all online uploading content as per requests;
  Specifically:
  
  • In-depth articles: No later than 02 working days;
  • Other (e.g., reports, videos, photo essays): No later than 03 working days.

4.      Expected deliverables

The selected contractor will provide a professional editorial service with following features.    

• A high-quality, professionally edited, and proofread documents in “track changes” mode as per request;
• Fully edited/translated documents which are ready for uploading to WARM website as per request.

5.      Time frame and payment

A frame contract will be signed with the contractor for the period of July 2022 – 2025 with a possible extension to 2029.    

Payment shall be made as per purchase order(s) for service(s) and by each quarter or every 06 months, upon approval of deliverables by AFD, and within 45 days upon receipt of invoice.

6.      Provision of monitoring and progress of control

The contractor will be managed by strictly following the implementation plan and WARM guidelines agreed with AFD in undertaking this assignment.

The contractor will work closely with and report to the WARM CO over the course of implementation.

AFD and EU will own the rights to all content produced through this assignment.

7.      Qualifications

The contractor should possess the followings:

• Holding advanced and relevant qualifications in journalism or or as an editorial editor;
• Proven experience in copy-editing and proofreading in English for an international audience;
• Track record in editing/proofreading, translation in the context of international development and/or environment;
• Ability to deliver results in a timely manner.

8.      Application

Interested candidates please send your proposal in English with following information:

• Organization’s profile;
• CVs of editors/implementation team;
• At least 3 work sample and specify if it is author or copy-editor;
• Suggested timeframe for the delivery of a product of approx. 20.000 words;
• A price quotation (see Annex 1).

Please send your application to: [email protected] and cc [email protected] as soon as possible and no later than the extended deadline - August 4th, 2022. Please include the position title in your email subject line. Application will be processed on a rolling basis. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.