2022-04-24

Short-term Consultancy, Legal Translator Urban Land Management Legislation of South West State of Somalia

South West State of Somalia
Posted on April 24, 2022

UN-Habitat

Short-term Consultancy, Legal Translator Urban Land Management Legislation of South West State of Somalia

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

Issued on: XXXXX

ORGANIZATIONAL LOCATION:	UN-HABITAT
DUTY STATION:	Home Based
FUNCTIONAL TITLE:	Short-term Consultancy, Legal Translator Urban Land Management Legislation of South West State of Somalia
POST DURATION	35 Working days
CLOSING DATE:	10 May 2022

BACKGROUND

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, is the agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. UN-Habitat helps the urban poor by transforming cities into safer, healthier, greener places with better opportunities where everyone can live in with dignity. It works with organizations at every level, including all spheres of government, civil society and the private sector to help build, manage, plan and finance sustainable urban development. The post is located within the Somalia Programme, Regional Office for Africa (ROAF).

“Saameynta” (Somali translation: ‘impact’) – is a joint UN programme to support the Federal Government of Somalia to find durable solutions for more than 75,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) and vulnerable host community members, out of Somalia’s total caseload of 2.9 million IDPs.

Through enhancing the sustainable reintegration of displaced communities in urban areas, Saameynta aims to leverage value generated by planned urbanization and urban infrastructure investment, and to increase the self-reliance and access to sustainable basic services of internally displaced people living in Baidoa, Bossaso and Belet Weyne.

UN-Habitat’s support to Saamenyta is directed at strengthening the capacities of local authorities and state authorities in inclusive and participatory land governance and the application of tools such as Social Tenure Domain Model and fit-for-purpose land administration that contribute to reduce the risk of forced evictions and strengthen tenure security for displaced people as well as enabling a better access to basic social services in their areas and neighbourhoods.

Building upon technical support for government institutions under previous Durable Solutions Projects (e.g. Midnimo, Dhulka Naabada), Saameynta will continue supporting awareness and capacity building for both community representatives and technical staff from relevant government institutions to implement the newly established Urban Land Management Legislation in South West State of Somalia. The state law has passed the Regional Assembly in January 2022 and received the assent by the State President in February 2022.

UN-Habitat seeks a short-term Translator to provide legal Somali /English translation services to UN-Habitat, Regional Office for Africa, Somalia programme..

RESPONSIBILITIES

The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the OiC Somalia Programme and the assigned Saamenyta Project manager in close collaboration with other project team members.

She/he will mainly contribute to preparation of capacity building interventions for technical staff from local and state authorities by professional translation of the South West State Urban Land Management Legislation (2022) into Somalia.

Specifically, she/he will perform the following tasks:

Translate the official Somali version of the South West State Urban Land Management Legislation (2022) together with resp. supporting documents into English, preserving the legal relevance, tone, cultural references, and nuances of meaning;
Consult with assigned project team members on specific content matters upon specific land governance terms and concepts and to ensure compliance with the original version;
Mark specific sections where further consultations with the resp. Ministry of Public Works, Reconstruction and Housing, South West State, are deemed necessary and draft a comprehensive report;
Prepare and document a verification meeting with officials from the resp. Ministry of Public Works, Reconstruction and Housing, South West State, on the drafted Urban Land Management Legislation and support documents as well as UN-Habitat respective staff to make sure adherence of requirements and quality translation;
Revise the translation and check that the text (word file) contains no errors;
Submit the final version of the translated Urban Land Management Legislation and support documents.

Outputs

Submission of workplan for consultation with project team and Ministry of Public Works, Reconstruction and Housing, South West;
Submission of draft translation of the Urban Land Management Legislation and support documents, South West State, together with report on issues to be discussed clarified with the Ministry of Public Works, Reconstruction and Housing, South West State;
Report from consultation meeting with the Ministry of Public Works, Reconstruction and Housing, South West State;
Submission of the reviewed final translation of the Urban Land Management Legislation and support documents.

QUALIFICATIONS

Education

A first level university degree in foreign languages, public policy, economics, law or another related field is required

Work Experience

Proven work experience of at least three years in translating training materials, reports, manuals and official government documents from Somalia into English and English into Somali; Minimum of 3 years’ experience in legal document translation is also required.

Excellent knowledge of the Somali traditional justice system and ability to interact with government officials, justice stakeholders, elders, scholars, and sharia leaders; proven experience from land governance and /or access to justice system is an advantage.

Language

Strong written and oral skills in both English and Somali are a requirement.

Other skills

Excellent translation and interpreting skills and provision of simultaneous and consecutive services in English/Somali and Somali/English; Legal knowledge, skills or experiences will be added value to consider; Ensure effective and efficient provision of services; Demonstrate a client-oriented approach, tact and ability to work with people of different national and cultural backgrounds

PLEASE NOTE THAT APPLICATIONS RECEIVED AFTER THE DEADLINE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED

How to Apply

Applications should include:

1) Motivation letter (maximum 1 page)

2) Completed United Nation Personal History Form ( P.11)

3) Submit Financial Proposal for the assignment

4) Please note that selected candidatates will be requested to provided samples of translated legal documents from relevant assignments

Qualified women are highly encouraged to submit their application.

Assessment Method

Evaluation of qualified candidates includes an assessment exercise which will be followed by competency-based interview for short-listed candidates.

All applications should be submitted to:Officer-in-Charge

UN-Habitat Somalia