The programme brings registration closer to the community by establishing registration points at existing health facilities and at the community ward executive offices. This will enable parents in these two regions to have access to more than 700 registration points. Moreover, there will be more than 1,500 Registration assistants equipped with 800 mobile phones donated by Tigo to support the registration process.
Tigo has been partnering with Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA) and UNICEF in scaling up this project in Njombe and Iringa regions following success registered in Mbeya and Mwanza regions where more than 400,000 under-five children have been registered and provided with birth certificates from 2013 to date.
Speaking after the launch of the project in Iringa and Njombe regions, Tigo GM, Diego Gutierrez said, “Through innovative mobile technology application, which ensures that birth registration data is uploaded and sent to a central database at RITA in real-time, we have been able to demonstrate our strong commitment to building a societal ecosystem that brings the promise of technology to life in the communities where we operate.”
The under-five birth registration initiative marks a significant shift in accelerating birth registration in Tanzania, after years of stagnation.
“We are transforming the system to make it easier for children and their families to access the entitlement of a birth certificate,” said Emmy Hudson, acting CEO of RITA, responsible for the programme.
UNICEF representative in Tanzania, Maniza Zaman, noted, “Improving birth registration for under-five children will help Tanzania make rapid progress in ensuring its children are on the path to attain their rights. It will also help the government to put in place the basic legislative framework necessary to position its 23 million children under the age of 18 at the top of its development agenda.”
The initiative will cover an additional eight regions to facilitate the establishment of a sustainable model of birth registration targeting 3.5 million girls and boys under the age of five. According to the Tanzania Demographic Health Survey (DHS) 2010, civil authorities have registered only 16% of children under the age of five, with the worst challenge being in the rural areas.
