Internship for Research and Knowledge Management - CRVS, PD/Child Protection, NYHQ

UNICEF is looking for research interns to assist in birth registration and legal identity research and knowledge management activities for the Child Protection Section. As effective programming must be grounded in robust data and evidence to demonstrate results, the research and analysis generated through this internship will help broaden the evidence base on emerging issues for birth registration to inform programme and policy interventions. This work will be in support of UNICEF's mission and objectives in the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan and will help inform evidence based policy interventions for increasing birth and civil registration.

Background & Rationale

The right for every child to be registered at birth and to be recognized as a person before the law (legal identity) is prescribed in several human rights conventions including the Convention on the Rights of the Child which underpins UNICEF’s work around birth registration and legal identity. Increasing the rate of birth registration – and reaching even the most marginalized and excluded children - is a strategic priority for UNICEF and embedded as one of the three core child protection impact indicators of the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan. In 2016 UNICEF reported birth registration activities in 86 countries; multi-sector programming on birth registration in over 50 countries, and 25 countries reported on efforts to increase registration access among vulnerable populations such as refugees, ethnic minorities, newborns, adolescents and children with disabilities.

The Child Protection Section is responsible for ensuring that every child is protected from violence, exploitation and abuse. Apart from being the first legal acknowledgement of a child’s existence, birth registration is central to ensuring that children are counted and have access to basic services such as health, social security and education. Knowing the age of a child is central to protecting them from child labour, being arrested and treated as adults in the justice system, forcible conscription in armed forces, child marriage, trafficking and sexual exploitation. A birth certificate as proof of birth can support the traceability of unaccompanied and separated children and promote safe migration. In effect, birth registration is their ‘passport to protection.’ Being an integral part of civil registration systems, the demographic information provided by birth registration is imperative for governments to create and monitor national population statistics. Improved birth registration records contribute to statistical data that are crucial for planning, decision making and monitoring actions and policies aimed at protecting.

Given the growing recognition of the importance of CRVS, and rapid increase in demand for technical support in this space, this internship opportunity, under the guidance of a team of technical experts which will help foster the understanding and capacity of an intern in an emerging development field. The interns will be managed under the Child Protection Specialist on Birth Registration at New York HQ, and be assigned a technical expert in their internship topic of choice to help further develop their research and knowledge management.

Purpose:

UNICEF is looking for research interns to assist in birth registration and legal identity research and knowledge management activities for the Child Protection Section. As effective programming must be grounded in robust data and evidence to demonstrate results, the research and analysis generated through this internship will help broaden the evidence base on emerging issues for birth registration to inform programme and policy interventions. This work will be in support of UNICEF's mission and objectives in the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan and will help inform evidence based policy interventions for increasing birth and civil registration.

Internship Topics:

A. Emerging issues research/knowledge management: Addressing gaps in knowledge on birth registration related programming (ex. ending child marriage, emergency and humanitarian context, financial inclusion/ cash transfers, adolescents and youth, disability etc.) through the development of a structured database of information and/or the drafting of issues papers and literature reviews on specific topics. This will include a brief analysis of opportunities for impact based on existing country data.

B. Country Case Studies/Examples Review: Review UNICEF programme documents for country examples to demonstrate multi-sector integration of birth registration (with education, health, immunization etc..) and identify examples of UNICEF’s equity work supporting vulnerable populations (children in institutions, on the street, migrant and refugee children etc..).

Expected results:

• Support knowledge management of birth registration materials and resources on a broad range of relevant topics
• Contribute to providing resources which will support the production of an evidence based multi-sector strategy on CRVS
• Collate UNICEF examples around CRVS from countries
• Collaborate with other sections such as Health and Data and Analytics to coordinate and support multi-sector work around birth/civil registration programming.
• Identity impact opportunities/countries based on existing UNICEF data

Duty Station:

New York, New York and home based. The intern will be required to meet regularly with their supervisor and periodically with other key UNICEF staff in person or skype.

How to Apply

Applicants are requested to send their submissions by 20^th December 2017, 11:55pm EST.

Applications must include:

• Cover letter
• CV/resume
• 1 writing sample of previous work

Please indicate:

(i)            Preferred start and end date

(ii)           Availability (FT/PT) if less than FT include estimated number of hours per week

(iii)          If you would like to be considered for a monthly stipend, please include a brief explanation*

(iv)         Duration of availability (3 – 6 months)

(vi)         Internship Preference: (a) Emerging issues research/knowledge management (b.) Country Case Studies/Examples Review.

(v)          Top 3 technical areas of interest (ex. health, child welfare, poverty reduction, gender equality ect.)

Applications submitted without the above information will not be considered.

NOTE: Files should not exceed 5.0MB limit               

*subject to the availability of funding, interns may receive a monthly stipend as a contribution towards their living expenses. a one-time lump sum may be paid to interns recruited from outside the duty station to contribute towards expenses such as travel to and from the duty station.