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Ethiopia: Only Country in Continent Without Functional Registration
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The Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa)
6 April 2008
Posted to the web 7 April 2008
Menase Kifle
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia is the only country in Africa without a functional registration system, despite the crucial role information can play in development of a nation and the respect of human rights.
The reason for the absence of the system was said to be lack coordinated flaw of data and the necessary communication network between and among health lawyers, health professionals, priests and other offices in the chamber of the government.
This was known at a half day workshop organized at the UNCC in Addis Ababa on Thursday attended by the Commissioner of Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the State Minister of Women's Affairs Ubah Mohammed, UNICEF Country Representative Mr. Bjorn Ljungqvist, Chairman of the Legal and Administration Standing Committee of the House of Peoples Representative Ato Asmelash Woldesillasie.
Speaking on the occasion EHRC Commissioner Ambassador Kassa Gebrehiwot said registration of vital personal information about citizens was so important that it can determine the level of not only the country's development but also may help or prevent the rights of people, including children.
The Commissioner emphasized the vitality of functional registration as essential source of information and the crucial role it can play in respecting the rights of citizens and development of a nation.
He said :"We need to encourage registration system for it is a source of information and nothing can be achieved without a source of precise information." Country representative of UNICEF Mr. Bjorn Ljungqvist said on his pat that the need for vital registration was fundamental for anyone to benefit on exercising their rights.
He said lack of formal recognition will impede any one of their fundamental rights.
" It is not a luxury but a fundamental right to have a birth certificate" Ljungqvist observed.
He added that vital events registration systems are initiated with the primary objective of producing documents that could be of use to individuals, communities, governments in safe guarding the rights and fulfilling their obligations.
Registration of vital events serves as a data for, among others, national and regional demographic and health data requirements.
It also has far reaching implications in addressing issues of national concern and curbing harmful traditional practices such as early marriage and juvenile delinquencies which could not be carried out effectively without legal and official vital events registration records.
In January 2005, a model vital events registration project was designed to register birth, death, marriage and divorce for a limited period of time.
The general objective of the model project was to demonstrate the operation and maintenance of civil registration and vital events statistics system in Ethiopia.
A total of 61 kebeles in three regions of Tigray, Amhara, SNNPR were selected to implement the model project. Out of the 61 kebeles 55 kebeles were financed by UNICEF and 6 by Tigray regional administration.
The findings of the assessment indicated that the model project has achieved its different objectives to varying degrees.
Although there are variations on the way the model project was conducted in the different regions, the model project has been operational and the majority of the registration sites were maintained throughout the duration of the project.
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In SNNPR, it was estimated that 75 % of the total birth,death and marriage cases were registered and in Tigray and the Amhara regions, the proportion of the registered events is estimated to be between 80-100 % of the actual events that occurred in the model Kebeles with an exception of Enjibara in the amhara region where only 50-70 % are estimated to have registered
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