Consultancy for Sign Language Video Translation of the Simplified Access to Information Handbook

About the GPU:

The Gambia Press Union (GPU) is the umbrella body for media practitioners in The Gambia, registered with the Attorney General’s Chamber in April 1979. With trade union and professional pursuits, the Union is mandated to safeguard the welfare of media professionals and promote press freedom. In over four decades of its existence, the GPU has evolved into a leading prominent national union and civil society organization of international repute.

Background:

After five years of an unprecedented CSO-led right-to-know campaign, the National Assembly of The Gambia on July 1, 2021, voted to pass into law the Access to Information Bill. A month later, President Adama Barrow signed the Bill into Law. This legislative framework grants the citizens – and everyone else – the legal right of access to information that the government and private entities keep for or on behalf of the public. Previously, there were a series of awareness campaigns like training ATI cluster members, a nationwide caravan, and strategic meetings with cluster heads to advocate for the passage of the Bill, which has been achieved.

The success of the ATI legislation, however, lies not just in the quality of the legal instrument, but also in its application, use, and implementation. In view of this, GPU hired a team of legal consultants in 2022 that developed a roadmap for the successful implementation of the ATI legislation. The roadmap, which was reviewed and validated during a two-day consultative retreat with stakeholders in November 2022, is intended to inform the programmatic activities of the GPU and other stakeholders around the Act.

As the legislation already enters into its implementation phase and to ensure proper understanding of the key provisions of the legislation by journalists and members of the public, the GPU also hired a legal consultant in August 2023 to simplify the ATI Act into a comprehensive non-legalistic handbook called the “Citizen’s version” of the ATI law. The handbook will enable journalists and members of the public to understand when, how, where, and from whom to request information within the government machinery. It will also enable them to ensure accountability and transparency in all sectors of the government.

To ensure the citizen’s version of the ATI law is made readily accessible to everyone, including Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), the GPU seeks to hire a consultant to produce a Sign Language Translation Video of the Simplified ATI Law Handbook with sub-titles in English.

The video will be made available to organisations representing PWDs and will be featured on the GPU website and GPU’s various social media platforms on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter (now X), LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Summary of services required:

The consultant is required to produce a Sign Language video between 20 and 25 minutes of the Simplified Version of the Access to Information Act, 2021 with English sub-titles and relevant animation/pictures. The consultant will summarise some of relevant provisions of the legislation in a concrete, precise and easy-to-understand manner for the target groups to easily understand the law and be able to utilise it. Translations must be devoid of legal jargons for easy comprehension.

Duties of Consultant:

The contracted consultant shall perform the following tasks:

• To develop produce translation of the simplified ATI Handbook into English in a manner that will be directly understood by indigenous members of the public as well as persons with disabilities.
• Ensure coherence between sign language, the English sub-titles, and the animation/pictures;

Deliverables:

The contracted consultant shall deliver the following items:

• Development and presentation of the video translation
• Produce good quality video
• Submission of final video

Application process:

• The consultant should submit a technical proposal and budget demonstrating an understanding of the scope of work and detailed methodology for carrying out the consultancy (maximum of five pages using Times News Roman font size 12 and single line spacing).
• The proposal should include timelines and the roles and capacity of the consultant.
• The timeline should detail the workflow from the consultancy start date to the end date.
• The proposal budget should have sufficient details to allow for the evaluation of elements of the costs proposed.
• Submit CV of the consultant.
• Full proposal document (technical proposal and budget) should be submitted to po2.gpu@gmail.com, copying programmanager.gpu@gmail.com  and pressuniongambia@gmail.com and accounts@gpu.gm by 15^th December, 2023.
  

Qualification of the consultant:

The successful bidder(s) shall:

• Be an expert(s) in video production;
• Have proven experience of at least 3 years in video production services;
• Be fluent in English;
• Have excellent written and communication skills in English;
• Demonstrated experience, knowledge, and understanding of the task.

Award Criteria

The quotation that will get the highest score will be awarded the contract. The award will be based on the following criteria:

Start date and period of implementation

The deadline for submission of bids is 15th December 2023 at 12:00PM. The successful bidder will be contacted within five days of the deadline and will receive a contract for the work to be done. Work is expected to start immediately after a contract has been awarded.