Provision of French Translation Services to the United Nations

A. General information The United Nations is seeking proposals from vendors to provide high-quality translation services from English into French. Given the sensitive nature of United Nations documents, the quality of translations must be ensured by thorough in-house revision of all jobs prior to delivery. Contracts will be awarded for an initial duration of one year, with the possibility of four additional one-year extensions. The estimated volume of UN requirements is three million words each year. Interested vendors must demonstrate the necessary linguistic and technical expertise as well as the capacity to provide high quality translation services from English into French. Vendors expressing interest must have registered in the United Nations Global Marketplace (UNGM) in order to be able to participate in the Request for Proposals at a later stage. The United Nations may award contracts to two or more vendors. B. Services required 1. Types of documents The documents submitted for translation will cover a wide range of subjects, including texts of a general, economic, social, legal, scientific and technical nature, and will be in different formats and of varying lengths. They will include parliamentary documents as well as publications. 2. Target language The target language will be French. All documents will be translated from English into French. 3. Source language The source language will be English. All documents will be translated from English into French. 4. Volume of translation from English into French The volume of translation, text processing and formatting services to be provided by institutional vendors is estimated to three million words. Vendors will be requested at a later stage to provide evidence of their ability to meet these requirements, including at least three years of historical data/evidence of ability to deliver the indicated word count. 5. Supporting documentation (may be submitted in French – NOT REQUIRED NOW) Vendors who express interest in participating in this solicitation will be requested at a later stage to submit supporting documentation, including: a) A list of previous translations from English into French, preferably in the legal, economic/financial, political, technical/scientific and general/social fields; b) A list of clients, including International Organizations, to whom they provide translation services from English into French; c) Certification of compliance with ISO 17100 and/or a description of quality assurance processes in place. 5. Accuracy Vendors shall guarantee the accuracy of translated documents, i.e. faithfulness to the original text, correct use of French grammar and terminology and adequate style. Established United Nations terminology must be consistently adhered to through the use of UN databases, including terminology databases (e.g. http://unterm.un.org/), the United Nations Official Document System (http://www.un.org/en/documents/ods/) and such other sources as may be provided by the United Nations.