Consultancy: Analysis of tools for parliamentary engagement on women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health

Background

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is the global organization of national parliaments. It has a membership of 179 Member Parliaments. The IPU promotes democratic governance, institutions and values, working with parliaments and parliamentarians to articulate and respond to the needs and aspirations of the people. It works for peace, democracy, human rights, gender equality, youth empowerment and sustainable development through political dialogue, cooperation and parliamentary action. These objectives are pursued through the Organization’s political and programmatic work, which includes research, standard-setting, knowledge dissemination, technical cooperation and capacity-building.

The 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 2019, the IPU Assembly adopted the resolution Achieving universal health coverage by 2030: The role of parliaments in ensuring the right to health. This was preceded by the 2012 resolution Access to health as a basic right: The role of parliaments in addressing key challenges to securing the health of women and children and its 2017 addendum.

To support these instruments, the IPU and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) produced a handbook for parliamentarians on women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health. The handbook Road map for action on women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health provides an action-oriented framework to help parliamentarians decide how best to improve health outcomes for women, children and adolescents by developing and financing evidence-based policy solutions, as well as institutional oversight, public engagement and strong implementation mechanisms.

The IPU and the PMNCH are now looking to develop complementary and/or derivative tools to support the implementation of the handbook’s proposed approaches and to facilitate parliamentary action on WCAH.

Objectives of the consultancy

The objective of the consultancy is to support the IPU and the PMNCH in developing various strategies and tools to promote parliamentary action on WCAH, specifically:

• Make recommendations on the dissemination and uptake of the IPU‑PMNCH handbook, focusing on effective use of the publication – this should include proposals for derivatives of the handbook that may increase the accessibility of its content as well as recommendations on how this dissemination might be integrated into IPU and PMNCH programming
• Make recommendations on how to support systematic access to WCAH‑related data by parliamentarians, parliamentary staff and parliamentary practitioners.

The consultant will provide the following deliverables:

• A concept note assessing the relevance and feasibility of an app providing WCAH data as a complementary tool to the IPU-PMNCH handbook, and outlining the proposed scope, content, partners and implementation approach
• A dissemination plan to further disseminate key messages and best practices set out in the IPU-PMNCH handbook, including draft concepts of all proposed activities and mock-ups of the proposed communication tools for the handbook
• A concise report outlining options for other relevant tools and innovative ideas to support uptake of the handbook and parliamentary engagement on WCAH at various levels. The report might include options for developing a digital version of the handbook, and propose ways to encourage parliaments to seek input from women, children and adolescents into their work on health issues.

Consultant’s deliverables and timeline

ACTIVITY	DEADLINE
1. Signing of contract	Mid-June
2. Consultation with IPU and PMNCH; and review of the handbook and other relevant resources	End of June
3. Development of concept notes for the app, dissemination plan and communication tools	Mid-July
4. Final version of deliverables under point 3 based on IPU and PMNCH feedback	End of July
5. Identification of other relevant tools and strategies; and production of a concise report outlining options	End of July

Requirements

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

• Knowledge of the functioning of national parliaments; knowledge of the IPU an asset
• Previous experience in information management
• Previous experience in developing and/or assessing IT, communication or other tools in support of guidance documents
• Excellent time management and attention to detail
• Proficiency in English

Location

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

Workload

The total amount of work on the project is estimated between 9 and 12 days.