By Julius Mugaga Tukacungurwa/Umoja Standard.
Kampala, Uganda: On Tuesday, 16th April, 2024, the Coalition for Health Promotion and Social Development (HEPS) Uganda engaged the media during a breakfast dialogue meeting on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) with an aim of them learn more about the importance of CRVS data for the national development agenda as well seeking their partnership in communication and advocacy of the concept.
A ccording to World Health Organization, a well-functioning Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) system registers all births and deaths, issues birth and death certificates, divorce, marriage and adoption and compiles and disseminates vital statistics, including cause of death information and in Uganda, the mandate of executing these services fall under National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA). However the authoring is facing a great challenge of limited funding ad human resource to reach these services to Uganda.
It should be noted that the Coalition for Health Promotion and Social Development (HEPS-Uganda) with support from the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) is implementing a project titled: Voices for Sustained Funding, Systems Strengthening, Legal Reform and Reaching Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Services to all Ugandans (VOICES Project) that aims at improving the registration of citizens and alien identification, strengthen the legal framework on CRVS, and enhance vital statistics for informed policy-making in Uganda
Robert Offiti, Regional Manager for HEPS-Uganda told this websit that it is essential that the vital statistics of every Ugandan are registered by the National Identification and Registration Authority and so, it is important for CSOs but even non state actors to support the ongoing efforts to ensure that Ugandans get involved and participate in registration processes.
He however showed concerns that even when this is so essential, the authority is underfunded to take on this cause successfully thereby seeking government to prioritize enough funding for this service.
He emphasized that parents should ensure their children atre registered at birth, but also when they grow, they get an ID and they get birth certificates.
“The reason we are promoting this is because there are benefits for example, In education, when a child has a learner’s identification number, it is easier for them to participate through the educational curriculum from primary up to university level. You have seen senior six leavers who want to join university and they are getting a loan from government to join University, how they suffer to get credible evidence approving them to be Ugandans.” He highlighted.
“……so it is important that you get registered, get IDs, get IDs renewed, but also ensure that you keep them safe. The other importance for CRVS to us is that in terms of health, it is a right for you to have a name, to have identification, to have nationality, to have parenthood, then care comes in, social protection comes in, it informs the health sector to plan and allocate resources to where they are needed most but also when characteristics of the population are well captured by NIRA and shared with UBOS and Ministry, it facilitates surveillance of Disease-causing factors but also response. In pandemics, you saw what happened.” He added in a statement.
Speaking at the Media Dialogue meeting, Stephen Robert Kasumba, the Manager Monitoring and Evaluation at National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) indicated they still have capacity gaps in terms of personel to cover the whole country. He stressed that given the constrained environment in terms of personnel and resources to cover the whole country, they are advocating for more resources, not only from government, but even from their implementing partners so that they can reach everywhere.
Kasumba said, “As I am speaking, the best that can be done by government is to ensure that we have staffing at a district level but still it becomes very difficult to ensure that we register all the events because the cost of registering that event . For example, if I’m talking about a district like Lyantonde, having staff at the district headquarters. One of the heads faceted 70 kilometers away from the headquarters., that means for a person to come to move 70 kilometers from one of the villages or one of the sub-counties, it will cost him a lot of money just to register an event.
“We are saying that let us advocate, let us streamline the system, let us have personnel at almost every parish level as it is happening in some countries, that can only happen when you have sufficient funding for some of these CRVS activities in the country.” He sought.
He stressed that CRVS is important not only in the country but internationally because of legal identification and for proper government planning since it budgets for the people it knows. He added, it is also important for our children, when it comes to children trafficking, one can determine whether somebody is a minor or already mature so that one can always help in crime free zone at all levels.’ Of course, even in terms of accessing some of the social services, education, health, international, Schools, they have to know your birth.’
“It is provided by the international protocols. We are saying that by the year 2030, we should leave no one behind, everybody should be legally recognized and should be part of the planning framework for the country., when it comes to sustainable development goals, where 15 out of the 17 goals, they have to be fed by the CRVS data.” He highlighted.
“…..that is the only way you can know the level of poverty, the level of gender disparity, all those about 15 of them must have a well-functioning CRVS system in the country, If it is not functioning, then it will be very difficult for the country to be assessed on over 45 SDG indicators and a number of targets.” He added in a statement.
He revealed that Uganda, on average is still badlyoff when it comes to the registration of birth and death but envisions that the status should change through collaborations with all the institutions, all the agencies and departments of government and the non state actors, including the fourth estate, that is the media to create awareness of the importance of having vital events registered to every Ugandan.
Counsel Moses Talibita, the Legal and Compliance Officer Uganda National Health Consumer’s Organisation (UNHCO) is grateful that the government is now coming up with different categories of identification including CRVS so that they leave no room for manipulation or exploitation of people’s identity. He said, for children, it is important because it is their right and it is inherent, It is also speaking about citizenship and statehood and nationality, so it is important that all these rights are enjoyed.
“We have also realized that Ugandans, regardless of where they are in the world, all to enjoy their right to citizenship, their rights to registration, their rights to identification and this speaks for people who are in incarceration, people who are in their diaspora, for as long as they can identify themselves as citizens of Uganda, let them enjoy that particular service.” He emphasized.
He however urged that the government directly invest resources to consistently and sustainably enable NIRA officials empower and reach out to the citizens as and when they need this service. The human resources for NIRA needs to be increased but also government needs to consistently fund Cival Registration and Vital Statistics because that makes us have a system that is beyond. These services too should be extended nearest to the citizens.
The Coalition for Health Promotion and Social Development (HEPS) Uganda will go on tomorrow Thursday, 18th April, 2024 to engage Civil Society Organizations in the bid to intensfy advocacy of having Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) prioritized and well funded to impact government palnning for its citizens.