National Consultant at the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)

United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: National Consultant - Technical and Management Support to the National Population Commission on the Development and Deployment of Digitalized Technology to Register Births in Nigeria

Job No: 563256
Location: Abuja
Contract Type: Consultant
Level: Consultancy
Categories: Child Protection

How Can You Make a Difference? 

• The purpose of this consultancy is to support the efforts the Federal Government of Nigeria, National Population Commission (NPC) and partners on the development and deployment of a digitalized birth registration process and support acceleration of a transformative civil registration and vital statistics systems in Nigeria. 
• The Consultant as an experienced professional, will be supporting NPC towards promoting a digitalization process to register at least 12.7 million children in 2023. 
• Under the guidance of the Chief, Child Protection, and Director General of NPC, Consultant will be responsible for undertaking the following:

Managerial Responsibilities

• Provide the right process to adopt and create a synchronization structure for the success of the Birth Registration digitalization process. This includes the provision of the right template for evidence of activity, information disbursement process, readiness assessment checklists and operational guidance for state and LGA level digitalized birth registration process.
• 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.
• Prepare and assess monitoring and evaluation reports to identify gaps, strengths and/or weaknesses in birth registration programme management. Identify lessons learned and use knowledge gained for development planning and timely intervention to achieve goals of birth registration in year 2023 and beyond.
• Support the management of birth registration digitalized processes at the community levels and escalate any key risks and issues to Chief, Child Protection, and Director General of NPC decision making actions.
• Document reports of programme documents, lessons learned and best practices for the digitalization process.
• Support facilitation of trainings, webinars, and knowledge-sharing initiatives for the configuration, interoperability, deployment and adoption of the digitalized birth registration process.

Implementation:

• Provide technical and operational support to guide the efforts of National Population Commission to achieve a digitalized birth registration process and to implement the digital solutions and appropriate model of operations to register under-5 children massively.
• Create and implement a change management plan for the National Population Commission and support an effective governance and accountability mechanisms for birth registration process within the eCRVS system in Nigeria
• Promote linkages between civil registration and the health sector to improve the coverage and completeness of birth and death registration in Nigeria.
• Support the efforts of National Population Commission (NPC) that are underway to having in place a recruitment application and a comprehensive electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (eCRVS) system and coordinate the implementation of birth registration activities at the National, State and Local Government levels and facilitate timely and efficient delivery of digitalized birth registration process.
• Provide support to the Child Protection Specialist on the development of concept notes and implementation of activities in line with the birth registration programme set targets for the year.
• Provide supervisory support to National and State level UN Volunteers and Coordinators on increased birth registration process, including creation of an innovation hub/unit for the National Population Commission.

Coordination / Meetings:

• Provide technical support to the birth registration Child Protection Specialist on coordination related activities, meetings, events, and participating in birth registration related working groups with health and other partners as required.
• Proactively build and strengthen strategic partnerships through networking and advocacy with governments, UN system agency partners (UNFPA, WHO, UNDP, UNHCR, IOM) and internationally recognized institutions, NGOs, and the private sector and internet providers in order to leverage these partnerships to achieve wider acceptance of the eCRVS process according to international standards. 
• Organize workshops for relevant stakeholders on issues related to birth registration and  on development and training of health and NPC personnel (Deputy Chief Registrars, Registrars, ad -hoc registrars, etc)  on the digitalized birth registration process, collation and management of data generated.

Communication:

• Document progress of existing digitalization initiatives, reports of programmes conducted and best practices while working in collaboration with the national, States and LGA actors on birth registration digitalized process.
• Report on the progress of across the states and document reports, solutions and lessons learnt.
• Develop initiative briefs and other products supporting the digitalized process
• Support identification of potential implementation partners for identified digitalized system, and facilitate partnership building.
• Develop advocacy papers, communication reports and support the documentation of programme implementation process, progress made, best practices,lessons learnt and recommendations.

Qualifications
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have:

Education:

• An advanced University Degree (Master's or Higher) in Information Technology, Social Sciences, International Humanitarian Law, Development Studies, Community Development, Public Health, Education and/or related field is required.
• A first-level University Degree in a relevant field combined with 8 years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

Experience:

• A minimum of eight (8) years of relevant progressively responsible 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.
• Experience in Digital Public Goods, Open Source, mobile and emerging technology
• 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

For every Child, you demonstrate:

• UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 
• To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

Application Closing Date
4th July, 2023 (W. Central Africa Standard Time).

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Note

• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
• Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered "staff members" under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors.
• Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 
• The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment.
• It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts. 
• UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.