Child Protection Officer (Birth Registration)

Contract

This is a UNV National Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as National UN Volunteer. It is normally only for nationals. More about UNV National Specialist contracts.

According to data published by the United Nations Children’s Fund, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 57 per cent of all unregistered births worldwide. The Nigeria MICS report (2021) indicates that 50.3 percent of live births, a little more than half of children under 1 year of age had their births registered, and 57.3 percent for children under 5 registered, and 36.0 percent of children under 5 with birth certificates and a much lower number in possession of birth certificates for children under 1.

Regarding death registration, data from WHO show that Nigeria lags far behind other global regions, with only 10 per cent of deaths registered in Nigeria with insufficient capacity of producing statistics on the causes of death.

In an underperforming civil registration system, individuals remain unrecorded and hence unrecognized by the State. Civil registration records are the desirable source of vital statistics; however, Nigeria has not benefited from a continuous supply of reliable data on vital events, including birth registration including causes of death, to support informed policymaking and the implementation and monitoring of development plans. There is therefore an urgent need for a strategic shift in the registration of the significant life events of individuals for the betterment of society.

UNICEF is supporting the efforts of the government (NPC) and other civil registration ecosystem stakeholders at the states and community level to reach the hardest areas using fully digitalized technology to leapfrog the outdated, paper-based birth registration systems and offer more inclusive methods of providing unique identities to the underserved and giving more children a foundation for full participation in society.

These UNV will provide technical guidance and management support to digitalized birth registration process within the wider framework of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) reform in Nigeria UNICEF’s field offices in Bauchi, Borno, Enugu, Sokoto, Kaduna, kaduna and Lagos state respectively.

Under the supervision of the UNICEF Nigeria Child Protection Specialist (Birth Registration) in the Abuja Country Office and the overall supervision of the Chief of Child Protection Section, the UNVs- Birth Registration Officers will assist with coordinating the implementation of Child Protection programmes at the State and LGA levels and contribute to the achievement of Child Protection birth registration targets and results for year 2024.

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Chief, Child Protection Section and Child Protection Specialist, the UNV Birth Registration Officers will support the birth registration programme and ensure that the current and comprehensive data is available to guide the birth registration programme, advocacy, intervention priorities, strategies, design and implementation plans in targeted States. The UNVs will be expected to travel to different locations of the programme in their states and LGAs. The UNVs will contribute to the following outcomes of the birth registration programme: • Support the National Population Commission (NPC), the State Ministry of Health (SMOH), State Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA) and other partners in the implementation of evidence-based interventions that will result in the scale-up of digitalized birth registration services in focus states’ field offices. • Ensure timely information collection, dissemination of all data and information relevant to the digitalized birth registration process, and on reporting, coordinating, and delivering relevant information for a unified process at the State and LGA level • Support increased birth registration coverage in the state through integration into routine health care service delivery and conduct of digitalized birth registration process
• Support state, communities and LGA level awareness on the importance of birth Registration • Coordinate inter-agency collaboration, workforce and partnerships for improving digitalized birth registration process at the state level, including operationalization of MoUs with health actors, ad hoc registrars/volunteers and NPC registrars at the state level to increase the registration and certification of under-5 children registered. • Support deployment, training and onboarding of the ad/hoc volunteers on the digitalized process and provide all the needed tools for registration purposes. • Increase the proportion of poor, marginalized, under-five years’ old children with increased access to, and effective utilization of, high impact health and birth registration interventions.

More specifically, the UNVs will support the following aspects of the programme, in close collaboration with the Chief, Child Protection and the Child Protection Specialist:

I. Implementation • Ensure that the digitalized birth registration process is linked with other IT platforms within the government, such as the health information systems, national identity (ID) system, the electronic management of immunization data and the vital statistics system, and securely store data at scale, in a cost-effective way. • Identify lessons learned and use knowledge gained for development planning and timely intervention to achieve goals on digitalized birth registration process. Improve demand for birth registration and certification and support conduct of social mobilization drives at the community level and mobilize traditional and religious institutions to improve birth registration coverage. • Develop a unified template and deploy across all the focus states for communication, reporting, attendance, collation of information, technical support, FAQ, and other pertinent templates to support the digitalized birth registration process. • Strengthen digitalized birth registration services and certification for all (at least 9 million) children accessing immunization services at the health care delivery points and in all communities in focus field office states. • Support integration of digitalized birth registration services within the health sector and in the communities on the efficient use of birth registration digitalized birth registration application.

II. Coordination/Meetings • Facilitate partnership at State, LGA and community levels (working with MoH, SPHCDAs, WDCs, Media, Religious Institutions, VCMs, Basic Education Actors and all institutions and structures) on effective implementation of the digitalized birth registration process in focus states • Support digitalized training and other capacity development activities of NPC, SMOH, SPHCDA, and other community level actors using birth registration training modules to impact birth registration services within the high impact MNCHWs care interventions. • Support National Population Commission (NPC) State offices, States Ministry of Health (SMoH) States Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA) and Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs (MLGCA) to ensure full and effective integration of birth registration process in health centres, hospitals and health care delivery points- in focus field office states.

III. Communication • Support the implementation of advocacy and social mobilization strategies and actions for improving birth registration of children in focus field office states. • Support efficient distribution of Information, Education and Information (IEC) materials for digitalized birth registration process and support media advocacy and awareness campaigns to improve birth registration coverage in the focus states, LGAs and Communities

IV. Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation • Provide monthly monitoring, supervision and mentoring sessions for ad hoc registrars and health workers on digitalized birth registration in focus field office states. • Participate in field visits and travel to the locations of the programme to supervise and monitor field level activities during implementation. • Gather inputs from the States and coordinate the preparation of monthly and quarterly narrative digitalized reports and other status reports. • Document reports of programmes conducted, lessons learned and best practices while working in collaboration with the States and LGA actors on birth registration digitalized process.

A. Core Values

• Care • Respect • Integrity • Trust • Accountability

B. Core Competencies

• Nurtures, Leads and Manages People. • Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness. • Works Collaboratively with others. • Builds and Maintains Partnerships. • Innovates and Embraces Change. • Thinks and Acts Strategically. • Drives to achieve impactful results. • Manages ambiguity and complexity. • Genuine commitment towards the principles of voluntary engagement, which includes solidarity, compassion, reciprocity and self-reliance; and commitment towards UNICEF’s mission and vision, as well as to the UN Core Values.

• relevant progressive professional experience at the national or international levels with implementing and/or supporting national CRVS frameworks and digital CRVS systems, including mobile and web-based applications, with demonstrated capacity to manage programmes involving many stakeholders is required. • Experience with large scale projects including ICT, mobile and web-based technologies, particularly designing or deploying tools • Prior experience in both development and humanitarian contexts is an added advantage. • Experience with CRVS digital solutions (e.g., as a user or administrator) is an asset.

As this is a national UN Volunteer assignment, the UN Volunteer will be responsible for arranging his/her own housing and other living essentials.