Senior Consultant for Development of Maternity Protection Act at UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Fund: (Deadline 25 September 2022)

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.

And we never give up.

For every child, Health

To learn more about UNICEF work in Rwanda, please visit the country website https://unicef.sharepoint.com/sites/RWA/

How can you make a difference?

Background:

Breastfeeding gives all children the healthiest start in life. Breastmilk stimulates brain development and acts as a baby’s first vaccine. Breastfeeding lowers healthcare costs, creating healthier families and a smarter workforce. It also protects mothers’ health. When mothers breastfeed, everyone benefits. UNICEF and WHO recommend that children be exclusively breastfed during the first six months of life and that they are given solid or semisolid complementary food in addition to continued breastfeeding from age 6 months until age 24 months or more when the child is fully weaned.

Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended because breast milk is uncontaminated and contains all the nutrients necessary in the first few months of life. In addition, the mother’s antibodies in breast milk provide the infant with immunity to disease. Early supplementation is discouraged for several reasons. First, it exposes infants to pathogens and thus increases their risk of infection, especially diarrheal disease. Second, it decreases infants’ intake of breast milk and therefore suckling, which in turn reduces breast milk production. Third, in low-resource settings, supplementary food often has poor or inadequate nutrients.

Still, worldwide, only 44 percent of children younger than six months are exclusively fed breastmilk (UNICEF global database 2021). By age two, only 46 percent receive any breastmilk at all. Rwanda DHS2019/20 showed that exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months after birth is widely practiced in Rwanda. Eighty-one percent (81%) of children younger than the age of 6 months are exclusively breastfed, which slightly decreased from Eighty-seven (87%) in DHS2015. However, the percentage of young children who are exclusively breastfed declines with age, from 87% and 89%, respectively, among children aged 0-1 months and 2-3 months to 68% among those aged 4-5 months. In addition, about 4 percent of children receive a prolateral feed, that is, something other than breast milk during the first three days of life.

A major factor undermining efforts to improve breastfeeding rates is the lack of time for working mothers who are obliged to resume work early after their leave and who only have an average of 3 months of leave. This often negatively affects the mother’s choice to breastfeed her child optimally.

To overcome this situation, the International Labor Organization (ILO) established a Convention on maternity protection which was revised in 2000 at its International Labor Conference in Geneva on 15 June 2000, with the backing of some governments, that had gone all out to roll back established social gains. The Maternity Protection Act protects the health of women and their children at the place of work, training, and study during pregnancy, after childbirth, and during breastfeeding. Different countries have adopted the maternity protection act and Rwanda would like to adopt it to optimize the IYCF practices in its population.

Purpose: 

UNICEF is supporting NCDA to promote and support breastfeeding practices in Rwanda. One of the agreements is to develop a maternity protection act to allow working mothers to have enough time to take care of their children and breastfeed optimally.  It is in this regard that technical assistance is needed to develop a maternity protection act.

Scope of Work:

1. Conduct a review (desk review and key stakeholder interviews) of existing laws and regulations relating to maternity protections and ILO recommendations. Specifically:

1. Identify and compile all laws, regulations, and litigation that relate to the ability of the government to implement the ILO maternity protection recommendations in the public and private sector, including labor laws, social protection laws, and any other relevant legal instruments.

1. If there are existing laws that address the ILO recommendations, consider to what extent they are effective. This may include evidence that they are being enforced, such as through agency monitoring/reporting, enforcement actions, anecdotal reports or observations, or evidence/lack of evidence of enforcement actions being taken, or whether implementing regulations or policies have been adopted.
2. If it appears that they are not effective, consider the reasons for this. This could include whether they contain appropriate enforcement mechanisms, how they have been interpreted by an enforcement agency or court, and whether the appropriate agencies have been tasked with enacting, implementing, monitoring, and enforcement.

2. Identify whether there are existing laws that provide regulatory authority for any ministries or agencies to enact, implement, monitor, and enforce measures for each of the ILO recommendations at a national level.

1. This includes identifying the remits of existing inspection/enforcement agencies and considering whether these have sufficient authority and resources to carry out the necessary monitoring and enforcement, and if not, what legislative or regulatory change would be required to achieve this.
2. If no existing laws contain the appropriate regulatory authority, identify which existing ministries or agencies may need to be given authority to enact, implement, monitor, and enforce each of the ILO recommendations.
3. Identify whether there are any existing legislative or regulatory instruments that would need to be amended to allow for each of the ILO recommendations, or if new legislation or regulations are needed.

3. Recommend the most appropriate policy pathway to implement each of the ILO recommendations.

2. Conduct key informant interviews with different stakeholders on their contribution to maternity and breastfeeding protection or violation, and to help establish the most appropriate policy pathway for a new law or regulation.  Stakeholders will include staff from different institutions such as NCDA, Ministry of Gender and Family, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor finance, and others involved.
3. Draft/develop the appropriate legal instrument adapted to Rwanda according to the situation analysis from legal review and key informant interviews.
4. Present the legal instrument to the different sectors for their final contribution through a workshop.
5. Finalize the legal instrument by incorporating the inputs from different stakeholders.
6. Support the process of submission of the legal instrument to the Rwanda Law reform commission or appropriate body.
7. Once the draft legal instrument is approved at the Prime Minister level, prepare a cabinet paper and an explanatory note that goes to PM and PM to submit to the parliament
8. Accompany the process of owning and approval of the legal instrument by parliament.

Work relationships:  

The consultancy involves working closely with the National Child Development Agency (NCDA) of the Ministry of Gender and Family promotion, the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Justice, and different other social cluster Ministries, Development Partners, Nutrition Technical Working Group, and the UNICEF Nutrition technical team.

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks/Milestone:

1.Conduct a review (desk review and key stakeholder interviews) of existing laws and regulations relating to maternity protections and ILO recommendations. Specifically:

• Identify and compile all laws, regulations, and litigation that relate to the ability of the government to implement the ILO maternity protection recommendations in the public and private sector, including labor laws, social protection laws, and any other relevant legal instruments,
• Identify whether there are existing laws that provide regulatory authority for any ministries or agencies to enact, implement, monitor, and enforce measures for each of the ILO recommendations at a national level,
• If no existing laws contain the appropriate regulatory authority, identify which existing ministries or agencies may need to be given authority to enact, implement, monitor, and enforce each of the ILO recommendations,
• Identify whether there are any existing legislative or regulatory instruments that would need to be amended to allow for each of the ILO recommendations, or if new legislation or regulations are needed, Recommend the most appropriate policy pathway to implement each of the ILO recommendations.

2. Conduct key informant interviews with different stakeholders on their contribution to maternity and breastfeeding protection or violation, and to help establish the most appropriate policy pathway for a new law or regulation:

• Draft/develop the appropriate legal instrument adapted to Rwanda according to the situation analysis from legal review and key informant interviews.
• Present the legal instrument to the different sectors for their final contribution through a workshop.
• Finalize the legal instrument by incorporating the inputs from different stakeholders.
• Support the process of submission of the legal instrument to the Rwanda Law reform commission or appropriate body.

3. Once the draft legal instrument is approved at the Prime Minister level, prepare a cabinet paper and an explanatory note that goes to PM and PM to submit to the parliament

• Accompany the process of owning and approval of the legal instrument by parliament.

Deliverables/Outputs:

1. Legal analysis finalized and Key Informant reports on maternity and breastfeeding protection and breastfeeding practices in the working environment available
2. Consultative workshops conducted
3. Final draft reviewed and finalized with all stakeholders mainly NCDA
4. Finalized maternity protection act (taking into account the situation analysis from desk review and interviews as well as inputs from different sectors drafting the act, conducting review workshops and finalization getting ready for approval at the Prime Minister level)

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or Higher) in Law or related fields.
• Experience in the development of international or national acts/regulations on maternity protection, social protection, labor, or other relevant law or regulation.
• At least 8 years of professional experience in drafting national laws.
• Sound experience in reviewing and drafting laws related to maternity and/or breastfeeding protection, and familiarity with social protection and labor laws. 
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Effective organizational skills
• High drive for results
• High commitment; teamwork, and strong interpersonal and intercultural skills.
• Computer literacy especially with Excel and database management.
• Fluency in English (verbal and written), French, and Kinyarwanda is required.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

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. The candidate may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid).