The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that birth registration and obtaining a birth certificate, confirms the identity, nationality, and age of the child stressing that birth registration is crucially important in Bauchi State of Nigeria, as it is in any other state, for several reasons.
This was revealed by Bauchi Chief of Field Office, UNICEF, Dr Tushar Rane, while speaking at the 3-day Operational Plans for Birth Registration, 2023 Orientation and Planning Meeting for massive scale up in Bauchi State held at the Jamil Hotel, Bauchi yesterday.
Tushar Rane added that it is for planning and development as it provides essential data for planning and development purposes, such as determining the number of school-aged children in a particular area, or assessing healthcare needs.
He however stressed that there is a very critical and urgent need to intensify all efforts to scale up birth registration in Bauchi State, especially to children under 5 years of age.
“For Legal identity, birth registration is the first step towards establishing legal identity, without a birth certificate, a child may face difficulties in accessing basic services such as education and healthcare, as well as in exercising their rights as a citizen.”
“It is for protection from exploitation and abuse because Children without birth certificates are at a higher risk of exploitation and abuse, as they are more vulnerable to child labor, child trafficking, and forced marriage,” he said.
“It is also for citizen participation as an important prerequisite for citizens participation in democratic processes, such as voting, as it provides proof of age and nationality.”
According to him, overall, birth registration is an essential tool for protecting children’s rights and ensuring their access to basic services, as well as for promoting development and citizenship in Bauchi State and beyond.
“2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) findings, Birth Registration (US children) is at 38.3% in Bauchi State. Moreover, in 2022 when a joint UNICEF/Government performance review took place in the Bauchi Field Office one, it was found that Bauchi State was one of the lowest performers in birth registration.
“Therefore, we will continue to work with the Bauchi State Office of the National Population Commission as well as the government and people of Bauchi State, to scale up the registration of births in the State by strengthening routine registration focusing on children 0-4 years of age,” he said.
He then explained that the agenda for the event was to orient the participants on the range of initiatives to support the State in strengthening routine birth registration and micro planning to enable smooth and successful roll-out of the initiative.
The initiative targets to register the births of at least 1,080,984 children under 5 years of age in Bauchi State saying that to achieve this ambitious goal, “we would need the engagement, participation and full commitment of all stakeholders present today, in the State and in every LGA.”
Declaring the event open, the Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir reiterated his readiness to collaborate with International development partners in ensuring quality service delivery in the health sector.
The Governor who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Ali Babayo Gamawa expressed pleasure over the cordial relationship between the state government and the international development partners operating in the state.
He was full of commendation to UNICEF for donating a modern oxygen station to the General Hospital in Azare saying that the gesture will go a long way in solving the problem of scarcity of oxygen in the hospital.
On the birth registration exercise, the government lamented the low progress in the state, he assured that his administration is committed to ensuring that the next exercise succeeded in the state as the government will give all necessary support needed.
He therefore urged the participants to be attentive to the papers that will be presented during the meeting and come up with an implementable action plan for the exercise.
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