Consultancy Assignment: Acceleration of Child Birth Registration

The overall objective of the assignment is to support the Ministry of Home Affairs accelerate the registration of births.

Background and Justification

In 2011, the Government of Lesotho moved the mandate to register vital events (births, marriages, divorces, adoptions and deaths) from the Ministry of Local Government to Ministry of Home Affairs. The task was to fully register all vital events through robust registration campaigns with the aim to establish and maintain a credible National Population Register.

Civil registration is defined as a system by which a government records of all vital events of its citizens and residents. It is important to note that, a well-functioning civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system registers all births, deaths, marriages and divorces and duly issues certificates. It compiles and disseminates vital statistics, including causes of death information. Furthermore, this is a source of data essential for good governance, policy planning, programming and monitoring on national and sub-national level

Children are the most vulnerable groups in society and most adversely affected by poor CRVS systems in their countries. Inability to register births of all children at birth not only violates their rights but deprives each one of them an identity and the crucial birth certificate which is a child passport to education and welfare programmes. Registration of births at the time of occurrence also protects children from potential trafficking, child labour, or other forms of abuse. Children, if not registered, are also unable to claim social benefits such as inheritances and grants. Every child is born with the right to a name and identity. Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the child (CRC; 1989) provides that The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality Lesotho has ratified CRC and has domesticated it into the Children Protection and Welfare Act, (CPWA; 2011). Section 8 states that child has a right to be registered within three months of birth whether born alive or still-born.

According to the Lesotho Census Report 2016, only 45% of under-5s births have been registered. In collaboration with UNICEF, the two above-mentioned Ministries plans to come together to accelerate and improve the registration of child births by registering such events at source where they occur being at health facilities or at community levels.

The Ministry of Home Affairs is committed to improve birth registration rates through the department of National Identity and Civil Registry. The e-birth notification system links hospital/health centre maternity wards with the e-National Population Register System (NPRS) based at the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration. Nurses who attend to the birth of a child, immediately capture the details of the child and the mother on touchscreen computer boards, strategically placed within the maternity ward. This information is instantly uploaded to the NPRS database for verification and linked to the parents ID profiles. Having the notification of births linked electronically to the National Population Register System (NPRS), improves the quality of vital statistics produced in the country.The system is also a welcome departure from the present mechanism of relying on surveys for estimations of birth registration rates and projections of the numbers of births each year.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, the Government of Lesotho has requested UNICEF to support the Ministry in strengthening the birth registration system. Being fully aware of the apparent need to facilitate the acceleration of registration of child births and in response to the request of the Government, UNICEF Lesotho wants to engage a qualified national consultant to support the Ministry to provide day to day technical support.

Objective

The overall objective of the assignment is to support the Ministry of Home Affairs accelerate the registration of births.

The specific objective of the consultancy includes:

• Prepare a report on the current system of birth registration indicating areas of improvement and UNICEF’s support;
• Prepare an action plan jointly with the Ministry based on the report;
• Strengthen the coordination of birth registration services by relevant government Ministries’, community-based structures and partners;
• Support the Ministry in the identification of children in need of birth certification;
• Support the selection of community councils and health centres to provide birth registration services;
• Facilitate trainings on birth registration;
• Provide monitoring of registration services through field visits and other forums;
• Organise monthly partner meetings on birth registration;
• Provide quarterly and monthly reports on the number of children registered and issued with brith certificates.
• Any other duties as may be assigned by the supervisor

Tasks and deliverables

Payment schedule

Work relationships: 

• The consultant will work from UNICEF offices with regular visits to the field and will participate in programme meeting once in a month;
• The consultant will be responsible for planning meetings with governmental and non-governmental partners on birth registration matters; 
• The consultant will be reportable to the Child Protection Officer; and the strategic guidance will be provided by the Chief of Social policy;

Payment schedule: The payment will be processed upon submission and approval of the deliverables as per the payment schedule.

Required qualifications, technical background and experience

• An advanced university degree in applied social sciences, law, child protection, social policy, child well-being or related field;
• Familiarity with relevant international and national policy framework;
• 2 years outstanding experience and skills in designing, implementation and monitoring children protection or social protection programmes at national and sub-national levels
• Familiarity with working with governments ministries and non-government organisations
• Familiarity with UNICEF mandate and goals;
• Excellent writing, analytical and communication skills;
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to work in a team;
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills, including working with children;
• Ability to work under pressure and deliver results;

Conditions

• The consultancy is open to Basotho nationals only.
• The candidate selected will be governed by and subject to UNICEF General Terms and Conditions for individual contracts.
• The consultant will perform the work using own resources (e.g. computer).
• UNICEF will provide work space;
• The consultant will submit an all-inclusive quotation (travel, field trips and consultancy fee).

Conditions

• The consultancy is open to Basotho nationals only.
• The candidate selected will be governed by and subject to UNICEF General Terms and Conditions for individual contracts.
• The consultant will perform the work using own resources (e.g. computer).
• UNICEF will provide work space;
• The consultant will submit an all-inclusive quotation (travel, field trips and consultancy fee).

How to apply

Interested and qualified candidates are requested to submit their application to the following link: https://www.unicef.org/about/employ/?job=512964 by 31 May 2018.

Please indicate your ability, availability and rate (all inclusive rate) to undertake the terms of reference above.

Applications submitted without a fee rate will not be considered.We invite you to watch a short video on the system on how to apply:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePgDIQ9RVYs&feature=youtu.be

If you have not been contacted within 1.5 months of the closing date, please accept that your application was unsuccessful. Regret emails will be sent only to shortlisted/contacted candidates.

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.