Copyediting, Design and Publishing Consultancy at International Alert

Background

Almost a decade of violence in Borno State has created a humanitarian and social disaster, leaving millions of people in precarious conditions, and destroying the social fabric that maintained harmony at the community level. Immediate action is needed to promote peaceful coexistence in communities torn apart by conflict and mass displacement. In particular, the conflict dynamics around the reintegration of the thousands of women and children who have been held in Boko Haram captivity need specific attention.  Thus, building on more than 3 years of work done to promote peaceful reintegration of women and girls’ survivors of Boko Haram captivity and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), International Alert (Alert) proposes a 2-year programme with an overall goal to reinforce the resilience and reintegration of conflict affected women and children and promote community peacebuilding. The specific objectives are:

Community and religious leaders are equipped to understand and address challenges to reintegration.

Stigma against women and children associated with Boko Haram is reduced

Community members work collaboratively to identify and resolve conflict related to reintegration.

The project will target women and children’s survivors of Boko Haram violence, community and religious leaders, and communities displaced by conflict. The project will be implemented in Gubio IDP camp, Teacher’s Village IDP camp, Sulumri host community, and Shehuri North host community in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council; Bulabulin Sallake and Kamchege IDP camp in Dikwa LGA; GSSS IDP camp and host community in Bama LGA, with a total budget of £900,471 and in partnership with local NGOs. It will use a community-based methodology, employing mapping and capacity building of local peacebuilding actors; culturally appropriate psychosocial and economic support to vulnerable survivors; dialogue and targeted community-led actions to manage conflict peacefully; shared social and cultural activities for groups divided by conflict; and sensitisation on peacebuilding through media. The project will also ensure targeted engagement and advocacy with relevant government and international stakeholders to push for lessons learned to be integrated into broader peacebuilding and reintegration strategies and policies.

Consultant will be writing up, designing and production of project magazine in accordance with Alert media publications and standard. The main objective of the magazine is to publish impact and success stories of International Alert project titled: Hadin Kan Mu Karfin Mu (Our Unity, Our Strength): Reinforcing the resilience and reintegration of conflict affected women and children and promoting community peacebuilding in North East Nigeria, funded by CSSF-UK Government implemented from 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2021.

Scope of Work

The consultant/firm will provide high quality services to International Alert for the end-of-project knowledge management publication. The consultant will be responsible for preparing designs and developing magazine that incorporates themes on reconciliation processes to safely reintegrate conflict-affected women, girls and children to their families and communities. Socioeconomic support and resilience to violent extremism and supportive mechanisms for survivors with insurgency related GBV concerns, peace clubs’ platforms to improve the quality of acceptance and friendship for children (formerly) associated with armed groups, supportive training sessions to improve the existing capacity of community and religious leaders in conflict management, and overall promotion of social cohesion in communities across communities in Borno State.

Copyediting and Proofreading

• Consultant/firm will carry out copyediting, editing, and proofreading on a draft publication and produce a final version that will be ready for design and printing.
• The editing process will involve a review of current text and sentence construction to achieve an optimal flow and clear/concise presentation of information, including checks for consistency especially in terms of spelling, style and headings, check spelling and grammar, font sizes and fonts, bullet listings and spaces.
• Consultant/firm may need to redraft and synthesize some parts of the existing text in order to make the publication clearer and understandable to external audiences. However, the consultant/firm is expected to refer to the authors to ensure validity of statements/stories.
• Consultant/firm will check the title pages, the cover, and the copyright page carefully, verifying consistency in titles, ISBNs, photos/artwork copyright and so on.

Typesetting

• Consultant/firm will conceptualize and develop a design and theme that is suitable and reflects the brand identity, inhouse styles, colour scheme and guidelines.
• Consultant/firm would make graphic designs of the document that illustrates the messages in a visually appealing and reader friendly way using infographics, pictures, and illustrations. All photos, logos and other materials required to deliver an excellent job would be provided.
• The consultant/firm would create a printer ready layout from the text document using Adobe InDesign.

Timeframe

The implementation period for this assignment is expected to be from 1st March to 15 th 2021.

Inception meeting with programme staff and desk review of draft content and pictures for publication                        3
Copyediting, editing and proof reading of document       4
Design layouts of final document in     Design                 4
Publication Specification

• A3 format
• Maximum of 32 pages
• Full colour
• Design colours will be in line with International Alert’s branding guidelines and standards.

Expected Deliverables

The expected results/products from the services provided by the consultant/firm are:

1.     Edited, copyedited, and proofread publication in MS Word.

2.     Designed/typesetter publication in InDesign and PDF.

Detailed work plan will be discussed and agreed upon selection of the Publication Designer/Producer. The present Terms of Reference (TOR) may be subject to modification, without changing the overall objective and the scope of work, on the basis of mutual consultations.

Requirements for Consultant

• 3-5 years’ experience in copyediting, proofreading, designing, and publishing reports and journals particularly for international development organizations.
• Evidence of conducting similar works and designs particularly in the last 3 years.
• Experience with the use of design software, particularly the Adobe Suite.
• Demonstrated experience in working with government partners and other stakeholders in public sector development programs.

Payment schedule

This will be a fixed cost contract with one lump sum payment upon delivery of the output to the satisfaction of Alert.