Request for Proposal at the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, dedicated to implementing projects for the United Nations System, international financial institutions, governments and other partners around the world.

Applications are invited for:

Title: Request for Proposal - Long Term Agreements (LTAs) for the provision of Technical Translation and Revision Services from English to French / Spanish

Reference: RFP/2022/40516

Background
Within UNOPS, Implementation Practices and Standards (IPS) is responsible for the UNOPS delivery practices. Through its two main groups, the Infrastructure and Project Management Group and the Procurement Group, IPS provides thought leadership, standards and oversight as support to the successful delivery of programmes and projects within UNOPS service lines (infrastructure, procurement, project management, human resources and financial management services).

IPS aims to reduce organizational risks, improve project performance and promote excellence across UNOPS projects through the Implementation Standards Management Framework and provides organizational oversight on the application of standards. IPS also supports the positioning of UNOPS in the UN system and development sector in infrastructure, project management and procurement.

The Infrastructure and Project Management Group and the Procurement Group lead the establishment of policies and standards in their respective fields in the organization. The groups publish several guidelines, policies, standards and templates that are used widely by UNOPS personnel in different locations. The standards are also complemented by various learning materials, including online courses and internal certifications. Last but not the least, as part of UNOPS positioning, these groups produce external publications and thought leadership pieces that may be co-written with UNOPS partners, including academic institutions.

While all these materials are usually published in English, UNOPS endeavors to translate as many as possible in the main languages that UNOPS operates in. UNOPS would like to establish several Long Term Agreements (LTAs) to:

• Translate and revise technical content (infrastructure) from English to French and Spanish languages based on IPS bespoke technical needs and specialized subject matters in the following areas:
  • Built environment / infrastructure / civil engineering / construction across all sectors (buildings / vertical infrastructure, utilities, transportation, etc.) and relevant engineering disciplines (civil, mechanical, structural, electrical, geotechnical, construction management, etc.)
• Provide desktop publishing and visual design services.

Objectives and Scope of Work
The service provider is expected to provide IPS with:

• Translation services - For each call-off order from UNOPS, the LTA holder will ensure the following:
  • Translation of the content by a single translator per project (unless otherwise required by UNOPS)
  • Content must be revised by a second translator (i.e., a designated “Reviser”) unless otherwise specified by UNOPS
  • Delivery of the translated content in the same file format provided by UNOPS (mainly in one of the Google Suite products or InDesign)
  • Build and update a termbase of UNOPS key terminology integrated into the LTA holder’s Translation Memory (TM)
  • Update the LTA holder’s TMs for UNOPS after the completion of each project, including relevant feedback and revised material.
• Highly technical revision services:
  • When requested, have the content revised (comparing against the source language) by infrastructure technical specialists (engineer(s), architect(s) or other specialized infrastructure professional) with experience in the relevant discipline(s) and with experience revising translations. This includes integration of the revision into the translation
• Desktop publishing and visual design services:
  • Produce translated publications using Adobe Creative Suite software, such as Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, based on a provided English design file (packaged Adobe InDesign file, where all content to be translated is provided in editable formats). The expectation is that the provider returns the translated content in the same format, i.e., a packaged InDesign file, and following the same layout as the original. Some layout adaptations might be needed to fit the translated content, on a case by case basis, following guidance provided by UNOPS.
  • This includes adjusting all graphic elements (e.g., figures, boxes, tables, photo captions) to the length of the target language text, and covers required translation and revision, including the extra efforts needed for proofreading.

Qualification Requirements
Company:

• The service provider must be a duly registered business entity with their respective national bodies.
• The service provider has been in business offering translation and revision from English to French and Spanish services for at least three (3) years, which includes at least one (1) year translating and revising infrastructure content.
• In addition to the focal point managing the LTA (i.e., Account Manager), the supplier must have the ability to provide a focal point to be a single point of contact for each specific project (i.e., Project Coordinator).
• Ability to provide a project plan for the agreed deliverables including the expected timeline.
• Ability to provide a weekly/bi-weekly progress update to the UNOPS focal point on the agreed work plan and deliverables.
• The service provider must use one of the Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools available on the market to:
  • Be able to identify repeated content in the source content and provide a breakdown of the various repetitions; and
  • Ensure consistency in our translations (updating relevant translation memories and term bases as required).

Specialized knowledge:

• The Supplier must provide evidence of specialized knowledge by submitting 2 translated samples per language (4 in total, 2 for French and 2 for Spanish).
• The Supplier shall provide both the original and the translated publication.
• Each sample shall be between 1500 and 4000 words. Note that it can be an extract of a longer publication. Do not deviate from the word count range.
• Both samples should feature technical content related to any of the following subjects:
  • Civil engineering, including:
    • Geotechnical engineering
    • Structural engineering
    • Construction engineering
    • Water resources engineering
    • Environmental engineering
  • Construction management or supervision
  • Architecture and urban planning
• The samples must be examples of the supplier’s own past work. UNOPS is providing examples of technical content to ensure that the type and complexity of content requested is clear, however the UNOPS examples cannot be used by the supplier as samples. The supplier must submit samples of their own past work.
• At least one of the samples provided by the supplier,for each language, must be highly technical and targeted at an expert audience, e.g., technical engineering specifications, detailed guidance for architectural designs, or related. Both of the examples provided by UNOPS (source language only) are considered highly technical and targeted at an expert audience

Personnel Resources:

• The service provider must provide evidence of the technical competencies and qualifications of translators and revisers through records such as named CVs and certifications that will be used to provide services to UNOPS.
• Using alternate resources must be endorsed by UNOPS upon review of their CV (to ensure the CV meets the minimum requirements).
• Each position must be held by one individual. One individual cannot be listed for several positions.
• UNOPS encourages linguistic diversity in the team proposed.
• The bidder should propose at a minimum the following team

Application Closing Date
18th April, 2022.

Please Note
Interested vendors must respond to this tender using the UNOPS eSourcing system, via the UNGM portal. In order to access the full UNOPS tender details, request clarifications on the tender, and submit a vendor response to a tender using the system, vendors need to be registered as a UNOPS vendor at the UNGM portal and be logged into UNGM.

For guidance on how to register on UNGM and submit responses to UNOPS tenders in the UNOPS eSourcing system, please refer to the user guide and other resources available at: https://esourcing.unops.org/#/Help/Guides

Interested in improving your knowledge of what UNOPS procures, how we procure and how to become a vendor to supply to our organization? Learn more about our free online course on “Doing business with UNOPS” here

Click Here (PDF) for a detailed description of the RFP.

Related Documents

• DRiVE Supplier Sustainability Questionnaire (MS EXCEL).
• General_conditions_services (PDF).
• Section I_ Instruction to Offerors (PDF).
• Section III_ Returnable Bidding Forms RFP_2022 (MS WORD).
• Section IV_ Contract Form (Long_term_agreement) (PDF).
• UN Supplier Code of Conduct (PDF).
• UNOPS ESOURCING VENDOR GUIDE (ENGLISH) v1.7 (PDF).
• UNOPS Example 1 of Technical Infrastructure Content (PDF).
• UNOPS Example 2 of Technical Infrastructure Content (PDF).