THE Government has signed a grant agreement of Euros 410,000 equivalent to1bn/- with Italy to strengthen the statistical systems and support civil registration in the country.
The fund will support implementation of the civil registration and vital statistics by decentralising birth registration in 245 wards, 405 health centres and hospitals.
Speaking during the agreement signing ceremony in Dar es Salaam on Friday, the Ministry of Finance and Planning Permanent Secretary, Dr Natu Mwamba, said an approximate number of 348,391 children are expected to be registered in 11 District Councils of Tanga Region.
Dr Mwamba said the activities to be supported under the grants include high level advocacy meetings to Senior, Regional, Local Government officials and religious leaders by the beneficiary management team to create awareness to the community.
Other activities is procurement of registration forms, training of trainers for the beneficiary officers at the beneficiary headquarters in Dar es Salaam, training and capacity building for District Council Officers.
In the list included provision of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment to regional and district data registration centres, testing and installation of mobile and printing systems in Tanga Region.
A baseline survey by the beneficiary staff and Local Government focal persons will be created to collect initial data in 11 target councils as well as monitoring and actual registration by the beneficiary.
Dr Mwamba said evaluation meetings will involve regional and district senior officials, the beneficiary management team, religious leaders, and Local Government focal persons.
Moreover, he said the two countries have an outstanding friendly relationship which are reflected by the support received, where again recently, the two governments also signed a concessional loan agreement of Euro 19.7 million mixed with 0.2 million grant to support technical colleges.
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The targeted colleges are Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT), the Mbeya University of Science (MUST), Karume Institute of Science and Technology and Arusha Technical College (ATC).
On his part, the resident Italian Ambassador, Marco Lombardi said the grant was a signal that the two countries have a strong economic relation cemented on mutual benefits.
He said Italy will continue to support and work closely with the government.
Commenting, the Registration Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA) Board Chairperson, Amina Msengwa said that the grant is to ensure the services it offers are brought closer to the people.
She said the milestone achieved by RITA will ensure that all children under the age of five are registered and birth certificates are issued.
