Birth Registration Officer

About this role

The United Nations Volunteers assignment is hosted by UNICEF in the United Republic of Tanzania. The UNV Birth Registration Officer will be placed within the Child Protection section at UNICEF Tanzania and report to the Child Protection Specialist responsible for Justice and Civil Registration and Vital Statistics. The duty station is the local government office in Mwanza. Since 2012, UNICEF has partnered with the Government of Tanzania through the Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA) to strengthen the civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system by improving access to and efficiency of birth registration.

This partnership has included technical and financial support for the Simplified Birth Registration System, legal framework amendments, personnel training, and public awareness campaigns. Birth registration coverage rose from 10 percent in 2013 to 68 percent in 2023 across all 26 regions of Mainland Tanzania. UNICEF now supports the fully digital e-RITA platform and efforts to link birth registration to legal identity, school records, and the JAMII biometric ID system for children over six. The Birth Registration Officer will support planning of programme interventions in Mwanza and provide technical support to local government authorities for the electronic CRVS rollout, including digitizing registration backlogs and archiving paper records.

The officer will liaise regularly with RITA, the National Identification Authority, education officials, and the Prime Minister's Office Regional Administration and Local Government to ensure children from birth to age 17 are registered and linked to the Jamii number system. Additional responsibilities include supporting the development of gender- and equity-focused monitoring and evaluation tools, conducting district visits to monitor registration strategy implementation and school connectivity, representing UNICEF to local government officials, and drafting reports and knowledge products with the Child Protection and Innovations team. A minimum of seven years of professional experience in social development planning and management, child protection, birth registration, or education programming is required.