Consultant for Editing of Report Card 15

The Report Card team within the Social and Economic Policy (SEP) section both carries out the data analysis and drafts the main text of RC15, including all tables and figures. An expert editor is now required to work on the text as delivered by the drafting team, to improve the flow and sharpen the messages.

Terms of Reference

Editing of Report Card 15
Office of Research – Innocenti
Social and Economic Policy
1 April 2018 - 1 August 2018

Background

In keeping with UNICEF's global mandate to advocate for the rights of all the world’s children, the longstanding Innocenti Report Card series focuses on the well-being of children in industrialized countries. Designed to appeal to a wide audience while maintaining academic rigour, Innocenti Report Cards include one or more league tables ranking the countries in the European Union (EU) and/or the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) according to their record on the subject studied.

UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti has produced fourteen editions of the report since 2000. The proposed Innocenti Report Card 15 (RC15) will focus on equality of educational opportunities for children. RC15 will focus on:

(1) The cross-country variation in the extent of equal educational opportunities in high income countries;
(2) A more deliberate and extensive analysis of learning beyond cognitive achievement;
(3) Metrics quantifying the contribution of socioeconomics, gender, residence/migration status to unequal opportunities (beyond simple correlations); and
(4) The role that specific policies and investments in education have on unequal educational opportunities.

In so doing, RC15 will address two overarching research objectives strongly linked to policy analysis and advocacy:
RO1-Diagnostics assesses the current state of equal educational opportunities across high income/rich/industrialized countries; and
RO2-Policy Analysis discusses the role of public spending and educational specific policies in mitigating unequal educational opportunities in those countries.

The Report Card team within the Social and Economic Policy (SEP) section both carries out the data analysis and drafts the main text of RC15, including all tables and figures. An expert editor is now required to work on the text as delivered by the drafting team, to improve the flow and sharpen the messages. 

Scope of Work/Objectives

The editor will work on the final text (appx. 12,000 words) written by non - native English speakers. The text should be edited to produce fluid, natural and stylish English. The challenges are as follows:
 to understand the data as presented;
 to follow the story of unequal opportunities in education presented by the writer;
 to eliminate grammatical and syntactical errors that arise from the language difference;
 to ensure clarity within sentences and throughout the text, avoiding any possibility of misinterpretation;  without losing the writers’ energy and passion in making the case for children,
 to tweak the style into a more elegant but high-level journalistic English form, while avoiding prosaic  institution-speak.

The key messages and points should be evident throughout and be made and highlighted with subtle force; statements made should be unambiguous and fully reinforced by the data presented. However, attention should also be paid to UNICEF style and potential policy sensitivities.

Specific activities to be completed to achieve the objective

To edit the Report Card 15 text provided by the Office of Research by the writer of to a high standard of fluent and compelling English.  The editor will use the tracked changes and comment feature in MS Word to perform her/his tasks.

He or she will:
 Edit the text to ensure consistency of logic and flow, ensure readability and accessibility of concepts;
 Check the consistency, purpose and logic of any boxes and tables vs. text, ensuring  abbreviations/acronyms, titles, graphs, and tables (including their notes and sources), are accurate vis-à- vis the text.
• Where necessary, sharpen the clarity of the text, maintaining the focus on the specific aims of the briefs
• Eliminate repetition and flag any potential sensitivities (e.g. political / gender).

The editing will include all elements such as the acknowledgements, boxes, data sources panel, notes, references, front and back matter. The editor’s task for these elements is to ensure that they are present and in correct English, but he/she is not expected to copy edit any text. This will be carried out by a specialist on a separate contract.

Outputs and delivery dates

5 June A sample of editing input for at least one section to be sent to Office of Research
 SEP. Any comments will be sent to the editor by 8 June.
21 June Editor to return all text to the Office of Research fully edited in tracked changes.
23-27 July Editor works with SEP on finalizing the draft, having responded to comments from the Director and  stakeholders

Qualifications and/or specialized knowledge or experience required and desirable for undertaking the assignment

1. Degree in the humanities, journalism, economics, social science or development studies
2. At least 15 years’ experience of substantive editing
3. A strong research or communication background
4. At least 15 years’ experience working on development issues and global affairs
5. Outstanding drafting and editing skills in English language and ability to convey advocacy and policy  messages clearly and concisely but in a sensitive way.
6. Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of economics, social policy and child rights issues.
7. Excellent English writing skills.

Duration of the consultancy

30 days’ of work between April 1 and August 1, 2018, including two trips to Florence (one on 22nd of January and another in mid-April (date TBD) for Advisory Board meetings. The majority of the work will be carried out between June 1 and June 21 and between July 23 and July 27.

N.B Candidates are requested to indicate as part of their application documentation their daily fee in USD. Those submitted without will not be considered