UNITED Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has called for synergy among stakeholders to enhance childbirth registration in the 44 local government areas of Kano state.
Mrs Sharon Oladiji, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Abuja, made the call at a forum organised for Birth Registrars, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and traditional rulers in Kano, on Friday.
According to her, “there was an urgent need to unite and change the indicators for the benefit of our children’s well being and give them access to good health and social services.”
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Oladiji revealed that birth registration is a universal phenomenon which has been considered to be a legally valid document.
“Birth registration is key in human endeavours because age determines everything we do and it provides room for proper planning, implementation and allocation of resources.”
She noted that there were many children living hopelessly on the streets, due to failure to register their birth and so their lives were unplanned for.
The Specialist then highlighted the reasons why many births were not registered, amongst which were, attitudes of the registration staff, cultural issues and lack of synergy between the bodies of registration.
Oladipo, however, appealed to all stakeholders to identify their roles and support other sectors, in order to work towards the same goal, instead of having a parallel aim.
The UNICEF focal person at the National Population Commission, Hajiya Hafsat Hussaini, also tasked the registrars on building a cordial relationship with communities, to enable them to register childbirths.
She explained that the National Population Commission had been saddled with the responsibility of registration and certification.
NAN reports that UNICEF had organised a series of sessions with various stakeholders on birth registration, in order to sensitise them on the need for collaboration.
The sessions were held on Wednesday and Thursdays respectively and had drawn participants from registration officers, Civil Society Organisations and Community leaders respectively.
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