Call for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems Experts

Call for Experts in Civil Registration, Information Technology, Public Health, Statistics, Law and Social and Behaviour Change for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Systems Strengthening in South Africa

Background

Systematic registration of vital and civil events — including birth, death, causes of death, marriage, and divorce — is critical
for improving Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH).
The statistics generated from civil registration become valuable evidence, giving policymakers and practitioners the knowledge they need to review
the circumstances leading to each maternal and child death, identify preventable factors, and take action where needed.
However, such crucial administrative systems are lacking in many countries.
It is estimated that one-third of the world’s
births and two-thirds of the world’s deaths are not registered or are incorrectly certified. According to the World Bank
Identification for Development (ID4D) dataset, the current total unregistered population is 1.5 billion. Africa and South Asia are home to 140 million unregistered children under five years of age.

The Centre of Excellence for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System

Funded by Global Affairs Canada and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and housed at IDRC, the Centre of Excellence for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems is a global resource hub that actively supports national efforts to develop, strengthen, and scale up Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) systems.

Its role is to facilitate access
to global standards and tools, evidence and good practice, and technical assistance.

The Centre of Excellence works in close
collaboration with the Global Financing Facility, a key financing platform of the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health (2016 – 2030). F

Purpose of the Directory

In order to facilitate country-level access to technical expertise and assistance for strengthening CRVS systems, the Centre
of Excellence is launching this call for expressions of interest to invite professionals with expertise in CRVS, or related areas,
to apply for inclusion in a directory of experts.

The Centre of Excellence, country-level stakeholders and other global partners may draw upon experts in this directory to request specific technical expertise, or offer research, capacity building or consultancy opportunities.

Why You Should Apply

As a technical expert, you will contribute to the systematic strengthening of CRVS systems in developing countries.

Improved CRVS systems directly contribute to good governance, as well as to measuring the improvement of RMNCAH outcomes,by providing data for more than one third of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators.

Specifically, a technical expert may contribute to:
• Assessment, planning, and monitoring of CRVS systems;
• Strengthening inter-sectoral coordination;
• Business process mapping and review;
• Digitization;
• Vital statistics reporting;
• Mass registration processes;
• CRVS in fragile contexts;
• Understanding and facilitating CRVS systems-related behavior and socio-cultural change.
Photo: Mohammad Al-Arief / The World Bank
CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE for CRVS Systems LE CENTRE D’EXCELLENCE sur les systèmes ESEC

Privacy and use of Information

The directory of experts will be an electronic database housed by the Centre of Excellence. To protect applicant information and privacy, the directory will not be made publicly available or searchable.

The Centre of Excellence will establish a standard of service for the directory, and the means for country, regional or global stakeholders to access services from experts in the directory.

Applicants will be asked to consent before their information is shared with stakeholders needing their expertise.

The Centre of Excellence will assume no responsibility for any contracts formalized between other stakeholders and experts
in the directory.

A detailed privacy and consent policy is included in the

application form.

Qualification of Successful Candidate

Education:Advanced university degree in their areas of expertise (law, social sciences, IT, public health,statistics,management,communication, etc.) or other relevant area. Professional experience of 5 years might be substituted
for an advanced degree.

Work Experience:
• Mid-level professional: At least 3 to 5 years of professional work experience at national, regional and/or international levels in one or more of the above fields.
• Senior level professional: At least 7-10 years of professional work experience at national, regional and/or international levels in any of the above mentioned fields.
• For both mid-level and senior professionals, experience in developing countries will constitute a substantial asset.

Experience and/or familiarity with UN agencies, in particular UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA, UNDP and Economic and Social Commissions is desired and will constitute an asset.

Language Proficiency: Fluency in English and/or French is required for any deployment/contract. Fluency in other
languages, in particular UN languages or the language of the duty station, will constitute an asset.

Priority Skills and Profile Needed for the Directory

Professionals who have extensive operational or policy making experience in civil registration systems, identification, electoral and single registry programs, stemming from being in senior government positions or academia, and skills in one of the following six specialized areas are invited to register in the directory of experts:

Technical expertise in civil registration
Eligible candidates will be those with experience at policy level or in operation and management of civil registration systems.

Additionally, experience in public administration, decentralization, systems modernization and reform is highly desirable.

Technical expertise in statistics
Eligible statisticians will be those with experience in conducting assessment, planning, monitoring and strengthening coordination within CRVS and/or other data systems.

In addition, experience in developing or using tools for data gathering and analysis for use in vital statistics reporting, administrative statistics, household surveys, and the demographic analysis of mortality and fertility data is desirable.

Technical expertise in law, in particular analysis and drafting of legislation

Eligible legal experts should have the capacity to support a changing process of updating CRVS legal frameworks at the country level.

They should have experience in reviewing, analyzing and drafting legislative corpus such as laws, acts,regulations and directives associated with CRVS.

Additionally, strong knowledge of international human rights, privacy
and personal data protection, and refugees, migrants or internally displaced populations is desirable.

Technical expertise in digitization
Eligible digitization experts should have the capacity to design IT Systems and innovative solutions aligned with CRVS systems operational requirements. In addition, technical knowledge in one or more of the following areas is desirable:
business process mapping and analysis; software and database development, design and management;

IT infrastructure design and management; system integration and interoperability; and mobile technology.

Technical expertise in communication, social mobilization and behavior change

Eligible candidates will be those with experience in social sciences, cultural anthropology, and/or communication for
development.

This includes socio-cultural research; development of evidence based measurable communication for development strategies to support change at individual and community levels; development of communication tools; and/or program management.

Technical expertise in public health
Eligible experts from the public health sector should have extensive in-depth knowledge and experience of reproductive,maternal, newborn, child and/or adolescent health; monitoring and evaluation; birth and death notification processes, including the international standard forms for registering these events; and health information systems.

How to Apply

For more information and job application details, see; Call for Experts in Civil Registration, Information Technology, Public Health, Statistics, Law and Social and Behaviour Change for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Systems Strengthening in South Africa

Application Deadline:June 30th, 2017.