POSITION OVERVIEW

GHAI has an exciting opportunity for an early/mid-career lawyer to develop and populate a publicly accessible database of countries’ Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) laws and regulatory instruments. The consultant will work as part of a dynamic team within a global initiative to support reforms to low- and middle-income countries’ CRVS systems and legal frameworks. The database would be a high-profile resource within the wider initiative. Civil registration is the foundation for legal identity and many individual human rights, and civil registration data is required by governments for public health planning.

This position is a 1 year term staff position, full-time with defined requirements.

The role will initially be to create the database by identifying and working with an IT firm to develop the database infrastructure and platform; selecting the metrics for analysis of the legal instruments; and setting the search criteria. Once the database infrastructure is created, the incumbent will identify, catalog, analyze and input country laws and regulatory instruments. This position reports to the Director, Data for Health.

While prior experience in CRVS systems is preferred, it is not required to apply for the position. Full training on CRVS systems, legal frameworks and best practices will be given to the selected candidate.

While initially this position is for a 1-year term, the role may be extended depending on funding availability.

PROGRAM AND POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), a program of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), supports legal and policy change campaigns around the globe to improve public health. GHAI is one of eight implementing partners within the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Data for Health (D4H) Initiative (other partners include Vital Strategies, the CDC and the CDC Foundation, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia, Johns Hopkins and United Nations High Commission for Refugees). This initiative is focused on assisting low and middle-income countries with establishing stronger CRVS systems, including CRVS legal frameworks.

While rarely at the top of the political agenda, effective and efficient CRVS systems that register birth, deaths, and other vital events, are a basic function of good government and public policy, and are foundational to human rights. However, many low- and middle-income countries do not have effective systems operationalized. Birth registration confers legal identity and is the basis of many fundamental individual rights. Nearly half of all children under 5 in Africa are unregistered and have no legal identity. This impedes their access to education and health services. Without a legal identity people cannot access basic services such as banking and the formal job market, are denied the ability to vote and young people are at greater risk of child marriage and trafficking. Without systems that register births, deaths and causes of deaths, governments do not know what or where their population is and cannot plan or deliver public health or other public policy interventions.

The legal framework for the establishment and implementation of CRVS systems is fundamental to ensuring civil registration systems are universal, compulsory, continuous and permanent.

GHAI’s roles within the D4H initiative include providing technical legal assistance for reviews and reform of countries’ CRVS systems; and leading and supervising in-country grantee civil society organizations to advocate for political prioritization of CRVS system and legal reforms. To date GHAI has undertaken reviews of CRVS laws in over 30 countries.

The CRVS legal reviews entail working closely with in-country lawyers to analyze a country’s current CRVS legal frameworks and offer recommendations for how they can be brought into better alignment with international best practices; then provide legal assistance to the government to adopt those recommendations through legal and policy reforms.

The incumbent will need to liaise closely with the GHAI global team and in country lawyers to determine how to effectively catalogue the country laws and the legal analysis of those laws and what the relevant metrics and search criteria should be, taking into account UN best practice.

The position is based in GHAI offices in Washington DC. GHAI operates a hybrid working arrangement with three days in the office and two days of remote working.

WHAT YOU’LL ACCOMPLISH:

The legal consultants’ principal areas of responsibility will be to:

Undertake relevant training on CRVS law and practice.
Develop a work plan for the database project in collaboration with GHAI HQ staff.
Develop a RFP for identifying and selecting the IT company to create and build the database infrastructure and public platform.
Work with GHAI HQ staff and global and in-country legal consultants, and Data for Health partner organizations, to determine 1) key areas/variables for analysis and comparison of country legal frameworks 2) criteria for selection of countries to be included in database 3) criteria for selection of instruments to be included in database to agree on the criteria and metrics for the analysis of CRVS laws and legal instruments.
Work with the IT company to build the database infrastructure.
Identify the countries for the first round of data input.
Collect and collate CRVS laws and legal instruments.
Work with GHAI HQ staff and legal consultant to analyze the CRVS laws and legal instruments and input these into the database.
Test and review the database functionality.
Develop the database platform with the IT company.
Assist with the launch of the database.

In addition, where appropriate, the legal consultant may also be expected to:

Review CRVS legal frameworks and evaluate them against international best practices.
Organize and lead workshops, meetings, and conferences in relation to the departments legal technical assistance work on CRVS.
Teach and mentor others on international legal best practices pertaining to CRVS.
Coordinating with relevant government agencies, international stakeholders, funders and implementing partners.
Participating in coordination meetings and technical working groups.
Providing ongoing legal technical assistance as requested.
Work directly with government officials and their staff.
Contribute to legal articles, case studies, blogs, toolkits and other reports related to the Data for Health Initiative.
In collaboration with partners, develop country legal strategies as an integrated part of an overall strategy for CRVS reform and implementation.

SKILLS YOU’LL BRING TO THE ROLE:

• Juris Doctor Degree (or the equivalent first-level legal degree awarded by a law school accredited by the national authority responsible for accreditation).

• At least three to five years of relevant post-law school legal experience.

• Experience working on legal databases with a preference for the development of the database infrastructure.

• Demonstrable project management experience.

• Experience analyzing laws against international best practices.

• Experience preferred with developing training programs in public policy or public health legal issues.

• Knowledge and experience of government legislative processes.

• Excellent analytical skills, legal writing and research ability.

• Experience in legal analysis of public health or public policy issues, particularly in the area of CRVS, strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated excellence in communication and in working with people from diverse cultures and countries.

• Familiarity or work experience outside the United States preferred.

• Ability to take initiative and work independently with only general supervision.

• Ability to work in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment.

• English language proficiency.

• Other language proficiency highly desirable.

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