UN Children's Fund Kenya Vacancies

UN Children's Fund Child Protection - Birth Registration, Kenya (Re-advertisment) Kenya Vacancies

Child Protection - Birth Registration, Kenya (Re-advertisment)

Purpose of Assignment

The purpose of the assignment is to support UNICEF Kenya Country Office (in particular working closely with the Child Protection - and Health Sections) in providing technical support to the Government of Kenya (particularly the Civil Registration Department) and other UNICEF partners in strengthening the birth registration system in Kenya

Estimated level of the assignment
P3/NOC

Location of Assignment
Nairobi, with frequent travel to counties

Duration of contract
11.5 months

Start date
From: 01/09/2017
To: 15/08/2018

Total Days for Field Visits
On an average 3 days a month and depending on the need

Reporting to:
Child Protection Specialist/Chief of Child Protection

Budget Code:
Regular Resources

Is consultancy assignment in the approved Technical Assistance Plan

Yes

If, Yes, attach copy of the approved page

N/A

If No, attach approved NFR/Justification for the consultancy


Background and Justification

Birth Registration, the official recording of a child's birth by the government, establishes the existence of the child under law and provides the foundation 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.’ Universal birth registration is one of the most powerful instruments to ensuring equity over a broad scope of services and interventions for children.

Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child specifies that every child has the right to be registered at birth without any discrimination. The Sustainable Development Goals, to which Kenya has signed on, include a target on birth registration, i.e. Target 16.9: ‘By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration.’

This comes under Goal 16: ‘Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.’ The inclusion of target 16.9 means that the provision of legal documentation is being recognized and addressed as a global development issue.

The 2010 Constitution of Kenya (Article 53) recognizes that children are entitled to basic rights including the right to be registered at birth, to education, nutrition, shelter, health care and parental care. Birth registration in Kenya is also captured under the 1928 ‘Births and Deaths Registration Act’ (Act. No, CAP. 149).

It makes the registration of birth and death mandatory through prescribed process. In Kenya, overall 60.4 per cent of children are registered, but only 24 per cent of under-five children have a birth certificate (Source: Economic Survey 2016, KDHS 2014).

Though there are no significant variations in birth registration between boys and girls, there is a significant discrepancy between urban and rural registration rates with 81.9 per cent of children registered at birth in Nairobi, while only 16 per cent registered in Mandera in the North Eastern region (Source: Economic Survey 2016). Low awareness of the importance of birth registration may be an explanatory factor, as may the lack of access to health and registration facilities.

UNICEF places high priority on the registration of births for all children and ensuring that all registered children have birth certificates. Timely and efficient birth registration systems enable governments to know and plan for children born in a year and thereby plan for all required services that are key for their development.

UNICEF Kenya is committed to working with Government at the national and county level to strengthen systems that will ensure birth registration targets are not only achieved but maintained and the data used to inform planning across various government sectors including resource allocation with focus on identifying and targeting marginalized population groups to bridge the equity gap.

The 2013-2017 Strategic Plan of the Civil Registration Department (CRD) outlines strategies aimed at realizing 100% birth registration coverage. They include the implementation of the Maternal Child Health (MCH) strategy of BR and CRVS system strengthening through automatic, digitalization and mop-up of unregistered children to populate the Integrated Population Registration System (IPRS).

Other strategies include capacity development for data processing and utilization of vital statistics as well as enhanced timeliness in documenting vital events through strengthening capacity of registration agents, demand creation and use of birth certificates. The Government is now in the process of reviewing and updating the strategic plan. The main components of the plan are expected to be the same with some changes based on the achievements made against the Plan.

UNICEF has been supporting the CRD in implementing some of the components and will continue its support, mainly in the area of
(a) strengthening national and local registration system through stronger legal and policy framework
(b) institutional capacity development
(c) digitalization of the birth registration including use of innovative new technologies
(d) supporting implementation of MCH Strategy on BR
(e) creating demand for birth certificates and use of birth certificates,
(d) linking birth certificates with service availability
(e) evidence building through piloting, data collection, and monitoring.

Scope of the work
1. Goal and Objective: Under supervision of the Child Protection Specialist, with management oversight of the Chief, Child Protection, the consultant will provide technical support towards strengthening the birth registration system for achieving 100% birth registration in Kenya by 2030. The consultant will work in close collaboration with the Health, PME, Education and Social Policy teams of UNICEF. These teams are represented in a Birth Registration task force chaired by the UNICEF Deputy Representative.

2. Provide details/reference to RWP areas/UNDAF output covered: This assignment is linked to UNDAF Outcome 1.2 (Policy and Institutional Framework) and 2.4 (Social Protection) and UNICEF Country Program Document (CPD) Outcome 4 and Output 4.1 activity 4.1.3 (Birth Registration System)

3. Activities and Tasks: Specifically, the SSA will:

1. Support UNICEF, the CRD and other key partners for strengthening legal and policy framework in relation to birth and death registration:

a. Review existing legal and policy frameworks including the draft law to identify gaps and recommend changes to the draft birth and death registration law;

b. Review the current strategic plan and come up with new plan to accelerate 100% registration at birth by 2030;

c. Elaboration of integrated strategies for UNICEF to support accelerated birth registration through various ongoing interventions supported by UNICEF sections (for example: Child Protection Centre, MCH interventions, ECD interventions, Immunization interventions)

2. A comprehensive report1 with all the key areas of review as outlined above (the gaps in legal and policy framework including recommendations for amendment, draft plan for CRD and specific strategies and modalities of implementing those strategies)