National Consultant-Adolescent Girls Storybook Translation (English to Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo) Abuja Nigeria ,1 Month, (Remote), Abuja

UNICEF, guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, works together with partners in 190 countries and territories to promote and advocate for the protection of the rights of every child.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, a chance. 

In Nigeria, UNICEF works in a complex humanitarian and development setting to fulfill and protect children's rights in partnership with the government, civil society, children, and families.  UNICEF Nigeria is one of the largest UNICEF Country Offices globally - click the link to learn more about UNICEF in Nigeria:

How can you make a difference? 

UNICEF Nigeria is committed to advancing the rights of adolescent girls by strengthening their voice, leadership, and agency, in line with its global priorities under the Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP) 2026–2029, as well as the Country Office Gender Action Plan (2024–2027) and the Adolescent Development and Participation Strategy (2023–2027). As part of this commitment, UNICEF has developed an Adolescent Girls Storybook, co-created with adolescent girls across Nigeria, to amplify girls' experiences, aspirations and recommendations while promoting positive social norms and gender equality.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment To expand access and use across Nigeria’s major linguistic communities, UNICEF seeks three (3) qualified national consultants to translate the storybook, and accompanying multimedia content, from English into Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. The translations must preserve the meaning, tone, cultural sensitivity, child-rights framing and storytelling style of the English version while using natural, age-appropriate language that adolescent girls, caregivers, communities and partners can easily understand.   In this context the translated storybook will serve as:   • A tool for girls’ empowerment and learning, strengthening girls’ confidence, voice, and aspirations • A future-focused narrative, reflecting the Nigeria that adolescent girls want to shape and live in • An advocacy resource targeting government, partners, communities, and adult duty-bearers to promote enabling environments for girls’ rights and opportunities.   Scope of Work:   Reporting to the Adolescent Development Specialist and working closely with the lead writer, the consultants will do the following:   Inception and translation planning:   • Attend an inception meeting with UNICEF to confirm expectations, audience, tone, timelines, file formats and feedback process. • Submit a brief translation approach, workplan, quality assurance process and glossary development plan.   Translation into Nigerian languages:   • Translate the complete English storybook into Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. • Preserve the original meaning, intent, storytelling voice, emotional tone and adolescent-friendly language. • Maintain gender-responsive, child-rights and safeguarding terminology across all three language versions.   Cultural adaptation and terminology management • Adapt idioms and expressions where literal translation would be unclear or culturally inappropriate, without changing the intended message. • Develop and apply a concise translation glossary for recurring terms, names, concepts and UNICEF terminology. • Flag any content requiring UNICEF decision-making, such as terms with multiple accepted translations.   Quality assurance, editing and proofreading • Conduct linguistic editing and proofreading for the Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo versions before submission. • Ensure internal consistency of names, headings, captions, page references, punctuation and terminology. • For firms/teams, ensure independent review by qualified language editors/proofreaders for each language.   Review and revision • Participate in UNICEF review sessions as required. • Incorporate consolidated UNICEF feedback and submit revised versions with clear version control.   Final production support • Deliver clean, publication-ready translated manuscripts in Microsoft Word and any agreed editable format. • Review the designed/layout version of the storybook to confirm linguistic accuracy, formatting, text flow, punctuation and readability before publication. • Ensure translations avoid stereotypes and communicate girls’ empowerment, resilience, leadership and innovation.   Work Assignment 1. Inception Meeting and Translation Approach   Deliverable: Inception meeting completed; translation approach, workplan, glossary structure, version-control approach and quality assurance process submitted and approved.   2.First Draft Translations.   Deliverable: Inception meeting completed; translation approach, workplan, glossary structure, version-control approach and quality assurance process submitted and approved.   3.Revised Translations   Deliverable: Revised Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo translations incorporating consolidated UNICEF feedback submitted with clean versions and a short response-to-feedback note.   4.Final Quality-Assured Versions   Deliverable: Final edited, proofread and publication-ready translations delivered in Microsoft Word and any agreed editable format; translation glossary and terminology guide submitted.   5.Finalization and Production - Layout Verification   Deliverable: Final review of the designed storybook completed to confirm linguistic accuracy, formatting, text flow, punctuation and readability before publication.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

Minimum requirements:

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Translation, Linguistics, Nigerian Languages, English, Communication, Literature, Education, Development Studies, Gender Studies or a related field.

Work Experience: A Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in translation, localization, editing or multilingual publishing. • Proven experience translating educational, adolescent-, child- or social-development materials. • Demonstrated experience translating from English into one target language - Hausa, Yoruba and/or Igbo. • Experience in applying quality assurance processes, including editing, proofreading, terminology management and version control.   Skills:  Excellent translation, editing and proofreading skills. Ability to produce culturally accurate, age-appropriate and contextually appropriate translations. • Strong understanding of inclusive, respectful and non-discriminatory language. • Ability to maintain meaning, tone, child-rights messaging, safeguarding language and gender-transformative intent. • Excellent attention to detail and ability to deliver high-quality outputs within agreed timelines. • Ability to coordinate effectively with UNICEF and respond to consolidated feedback.   Language Requirements:    Fluency in English is required. • Each consultant will be required to have native or near-native proficiency in one target language (Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo). • Strong understanding of Nigerian linguistic and cultural contexts is required.

Desirables:

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others 

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. 

All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

Remarks:  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.