Consultant, Handbook for Parliamentarians on Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health

Background

Despite the progress made during the Millennium Development Goal era, many women, children and adolescents worldwide still have little or no access to essential, high-quality health services and education, clean air and water, adequate sanitation and good nutrition. They face violence and discrimination, are unable to participate fully in society and encounter other barriers to realizing their human rights.

The Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016-2030) provides a road map for ending preventable deaths of women, children and adolescents and helping them realize their potential and their rights to health and well-being in all settings. The Strategy’s objectives are aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has worked on women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health (WCAH) for more than a decade, mobilizing parliaments through advocacy, accountability and capacity-building. In 2012, through the IPU, parliaments adopted a landmark resolution on Access to health as a basic right: The role of parliaments in addressing key challenges to securing the health of women and children. Following the adoption of the resolution, the IPU published a handbook for parliamentarians on Sustaining Parliamentary Action to Improve Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. In 2017, an addendum to the Resolution was approved to bring it into line with new frameworks and strategies, in particular the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016-2030) and the IPU Strategy. Given these developments, the IPU and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) have agreed to produce an updated handbook for parliamentarians on women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health.

Description and scope of the activity

The handbook for parliamentarians will be grounded in the framework of the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and will further support the implementation of the IPU Resolution and its addendum.

The purpose of the handbook is to strengthen the health outcomes of the most vulnerable and marginalized populations by: (a) providing guidance to parliaments and parliamentarians on WCAH, including institutional and political challenges; and (b) strengthening the capacity of parliaments to deliver on WCAH, drawing upon their prerogatives in terms of legislation, oversight, budget allocation and representation.

The handbook should be a practical tool that includes both good practices from parliamentary work and questions for self-reflection to enable parliaments to assess capacities and identify opportunities and lessons learned.

The development of the handbook will involve a review by the consultant of existing tools and other materials already produced through the IPU and other fora to identify key issues and ways for parliaments to effectively tackle WCAH. In consultation with the IPU and PMNCH, s/he will subsequently propose an outline and content for the handbook.

The draft handbook will be reviewed by a group of experts, including parliamentarians and WCAH experts. The final version will incorporate the feedback received from this group. The consultant will also develop a PowerPoint presentation on the handbook to be used by the IPU and PMNCH in awareness-raising and capacity-building activities on WCAH.

Deliverables and timeline

ACTIVITY	DATE
1. Signing of contract	Early December
2. Review of existing tools and consultation with the IPU and PMNCH	End of December
3. Proposal for the outline and content of the handbook	Mid-January
4. First draft finalized and submitted to the IPU and PMNCH	Mid-February
5. Feedback incorporated and final version of the handbook submitted to the IPU and PMNCH	End of February
6. PowerPoint presentation on the handbook delivered to the IPU and PMNCH	Mid-March

Requirements

Candidates for the consultancy position need to be able to demonstrate:

• Knowledge of the functioning of national parliaments
• Knowledge of relevant international frameworks and processes, especially the SDGs and the Global Strategy on Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health
• Understanding of the health sector at the national level, ideally knowledge of key issues in relation to women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health
• Track record of producing written policy and/or guidance documents
• Excellent writing skills in English
• Excellent time management and attention to detail

Location

The consultant will work based from home, maintaining regular communication by phone or Skype and email.

Workload

The total amount of work on the project is estimated at 25 to 30 days of work.