UTL Boosts Birth Registration with New MobileVRSUTL Boosts Birth Registration with New MobileVRS A Child’s Appeal Without birth registration, Nassanga told Speaker Ssekandi, children in Uganda remain vulnerable, since they remain unknown to the Government and therefore cannot be planned or catered for in schools, health facilities and other services that are important for their survival and development. “Without birth registration our rights as children are threatened with neglect and violence,” the child emphasized. The Child’s Right to an Identity Articles 7 and 8 of the Convention stipulate that every child has the right to have a name and to belong, the right to be registered immediately after he or she is born, and to be citizens of a country. Birth registration, therefore, upholds the child’s right to an identity. Uganda’s Birth Registration Problem Sadly, however, of the approximately 1.5 million babies born in Uganda each year, only one in five is registered under the age of 5. Not only are registration services inaccessible to most Ugandans, but registration fees and other hidden costs (such as transport charges) render them too expensive for the majority to afford. “At the moment, final birth registration services are only accessible in Kampala, which makes it quite costly for many Ugandans who live outside the capital city,” says Augustine Wassago, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Kampala. “Not many people can afford the registration fees, coupled with the associated transport and accommodation charges, and other hidden costs around the exercise, which is eventually why many children are left out of the exercise.” Besides, the registration system has its own challenges, being manual and paper-based. It can take several months from the time a child is registered to the time they receive their birth certificates, particularly for children born out of hospital. This, according to Wassago, is because the paperwork moves from the “notifier” who records the birth at village level, to the parish chief, to the sub-county or town council for registration, before a birth certificate is subsequently prepared and sent back to the waiting parents through the same administrative structure. Enter UTL’s MobileVRS System “At Uganda Telecom, we have always believed in the importance of ensuring every citizen’s fundamental right to be counted,” says UTL Managing Director, Abdulbaset Elazzabi, who adds, “It is for this reason that we agreed to partner with the Registrar General and UNICEF to introduce an automated system that will ensure that every child’s birth in Uganda is registered”. The Mobile Vital Record System (MobileVRS) that has been developed, is being used to gather birth and deaths registration data right at community level and also from hospitals. Instead of using the traditional paper forms, the information is captured and transmitted by mobile phones from the community, and by a web-based application from the hospitals, right into a government server that is centrally located and in real time. How it Works MobileVRS is currently being tested with birth registration trials so far completed in 2 districts with a third under consideration. In all cases, the trials were well-received as registrars embraced the use of the new tool. Looking to the Future By Anne Lydia Sekandi, UNICEF Uganda
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