Messy birth certificates

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Author Godfrey Chitalu

WHEN I was born at Arthur Davison Hospital in Ndola, I was welcomed into this world with a quality secured Nestle branded birth certificate. It had names of my parents, my weight, sex, birth day, time and was signed by the doctor who delivered me.

Over the years, records of birth for newly born babies, have become as rare as rhino horns. At most the ante-natal card, which in itself is not a birth certificate, is the only semblance of recognition at birth.

What citizenship guarantees are there for children who grow up without birth certificates? We know that it is the duty of any country to ensure that its citizens are given adequate and valid documentation to prove their citizenship at birth.  Recording of birth and having an assurance of such paperwork at birth help reduce statelessness in future.

When my sons were going to university abroad, I struggled to navigate the system to acquire their birth certificates. At one point I was told to send their under 5 cards to Lundazi General and Mphanshya Mission hospitals for verification. I went through the rigmarole of securing their confirmations from hospitals that were also dogged by poor record keeping. In the ensuring process, we were tossed left right and center by a system that had long shot itself in the foot.

Yes, as a country we are advancing and I hear that every provincial center has an entity that prints birth certificates. This is my actual bone of contention; printing birth certificates at provincial level is not good enough. We need to embrace a new system of verifying birth and printing certificates simultaneously at health center level. If facilities do not allow, government can print centrally and avail them to mentioned facilities.

Although the process of birth is quite complicated, with some children born away from health facilities, we can start from somewhere. Registering births and ensuring each child has a personal birth record is not rocket science. Our country has not put resources where it matters most. Every child born in our country must be recorded and provided a certificate at birth.

Although most churches record births, since we are a multi religious country, records are better generated from health centers, clinics and hospitals. We should compel every expectant mother to link with the nearest health facility and be rewarded with a birth certificate when delivering. Infact certificates could best be given in maternity wards, where the foot prints of infants can be captured, if we decide to go the digital way

Government has capacity to serialize birth certificates, with local authorities providing oversight. My proposal is to wrestle issuance of birth certificates from the underfunded Ministry off Home Affairs to the overly funded National Health Insurance Management Authority – NHIMA.

It is better placed to ensure that each health facility has adequate stocks of birth certificates. The NHIMA levy has done wonders but it can also add this next wonder!

The author is a social commentator who writes for pleasure.

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