Birth Certs Issuance To Be Automated

By Stephen Kwabena Effah
Friday, 24 August 2007

The Births and Deaths Registry will start the issuance of electronically-generated birth and deaths certificates this year, says Awudu Yermiah, Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment.

The automation of the registration system, to issue electronic certificates with enhanced security features, is aimed at eliminating the influx of fraudulent registration documents in the system.

Speaking at the launch of the fourth Birth and Death Registration Day in Accra yesterday, Mr.Yermiah said the move also seeks to generate a database of registered events that would facilitate information sharing between the registry and other agencies.

The day is set aside to create awareness among the public about the need to build and sustain a viable civil registration system in the country. A national durbar to start the celebration will be held at Kpetoe in the Volta Region on September1.

This year’s celebration is on the theme: “Universal Births and Deaths Registration-Key to achieving Ghana’s Millennium Development Goals.”

Mr. Yermiah said that several social and civil rights of the individual, especially those of the child are dependent on the registration of births, from the start of life.

“The failure of the parent to fulfil their responsibility on the child’s behalf leads to the child’s existence not being officially recognised and thus overlooked in social development planning,” he said.

He said such children are not considered when essential policy and budget decisions are made and therefore are denied several privileges legitimately due them.

On deaths registration, he expressed concern about the reluctance on the part of family members to register the death of their relatives.

“Non registration of deaths and the indiscriminate interment of human bodies is a practice that should be discouraged and checked with the force of legislation available to us,” he said and explained that not only does that contribute to the loss of information on deaths but also has a serious effect on health and issues affecting the environment.

He therefore urged the various districts assemblies to ensure that all burial grounds, whether private or public, are registered and controlled in order to check these shortfalls.

Mr. Yermia said vital registration data remains an indispensable tool for national development planning and policy formulation and it is therefore unacceptable that such a registration system in Ghana is performing below expectation.

He said during the third Births and Deaths Registration Day launched last year, it was noted that births registration coverage had improved from 51 per cent to 67 per cent, though death registration coverage was still around 24 per cent.

He said expectations were that the situation would improve further but unfortunately, it slipped to 54 per cent coverage for births and 23 per cent for deaths due to lack of registration centres, adequate logistics, and motivational packages for volunteers.

The deputy minister said the ministry is considering the possibility of enlisting volunteers of the National Youth Employment Programme to undertake the registration this year while efforts are being made to address the other constraints.

He urged Ghanaians to report births and deaths that occur in their communities for registration in order to guarantee civic rights and relevant demographic parameters for national development.