Community Child Protection Officer (Birth Registration)

Contract

This is a UNV Community Volunteer contract. This kind of contract is known as National UN Volunteer. It is normally only for nationals. More about UNV Community Volunteer 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 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 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 such as birth registration and 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at the states and community level to reach the hardest areas using fully digitalized technology to leapfrog the outdated, paper-based birth registration systems and offer more inclusive methods of providing unique identities to the underserved and giving more children a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. This 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 in focus states of 22 States (Katsina, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Bauci, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara, Jigawa, Kaduna, kano, kebbi, Sokoto, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta and Lagos).

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 UNV's-Super Coordinators will assist the Local Government level birth registration coordinators to facilitate the implementation of Child Protection programmes at the State, LGA and community levels and contribute to the achievement of Child Protection birth registration targets and results for year 2023 across multiple duty stations including Bayelsa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kogi, Lagos, Ogun, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Chief, Child Protection Section and Child Protection Specialist, the UNV Super Coordinators 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 Coordinators deployed across the various states including Bayelsa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kogi, Lagos, Ogun, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara will be expected to travel to different locations of the programme in their states and LGAs. They will contribute to the following outcomes of the birth registration programme: • Support the National Population Commission (NPC) Deputy Chief Registrars, birth registrars, ad hoc registrars, local government level birth registration coordinators, 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 the focus state. • 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 level, LGAs and community levels. • Support increased birth registration coverage in the state and LGA through integration into routine health service delivery and conduct of digitalized birth registration process. • Support state, community state and LGA level awareness of the importance of birth Registration • Coordinate inter-agency collaboration, workforce and partnerships for improving digitalized birth registration process at the state, LGA and community levels, including operationalization of MoUs with health actors, ad hoc registrars 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 incumbent will support the following aspects of the programme, in close collaboration with the Child Protection Specialist: A. 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 birth registration. Improve demand for birth registration and certification and conduct social mobilization drives at the community level and mobilize traditional and religious institutions to improve birth registration coverage. • Develop a unified template and deploy at the communities, LGAs and across state 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 eligible children accessing immunization services at the health care delivery points and in all communities, LGAs and state. • 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.

B. Coordination/Meetings • Facilitate partnerships 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 state. • Support digitalized training and other capacity development activities of NPC, SMOH, SPHCDA, UNV Super Coordinators 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 and communities - in focus states.

C. Communication • Support the implementation of the developed advocacy and social mobilization strategies and actions for improving birth registration of children in focus state, LGAs and communities. • 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 LGAs and Communities.

D. Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation • Provide monthly monitoring, supervision and mentoring sessions for local government coordinators on digitalized birth registration in focus states. • Participate in field visits and travel to the locations of the programme to supervise and monitor field level activities of the programme. • 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.

*Additional Information As this position is community-based, UN Volunteers selected for this assignment must ordinarily be resident in the duty stations indicated for this assignment at the time of application.

• Accountability • Adaptability and flexibility • Creativity • Judgement and decision-making • Planning and organising • Professionalism • Self-management

• Professional and interpersonal skills; • Skills in community development; • Good communication skills. • Ability to work with minimal supervision

Nigeria is a unique country and UNICEF is a unique (humanitarian) operation. It provides for an interesting and enriching environment, but also requires a mature level of cultural awareness, as well as more stamina and commitment than elsewhere to make life comfortable and affordable. Therefore, flexibility and the ability and willingness to live and work in harsh and potentially hazardous conditions, involving physical hardship and little comfort, are essential.