Maputo province to run door-to-door school enrolment campaign
UNICEF Mozambique (File photo)
The Canadian government has pledged to disburse 19.5 million Canadian dollars (about 15.2 million US dollars) to support, over a five year period, the programme of the Mozambican government in the area of Civil Registration and Life Statistics.
The agreement was signed by the head of cooperation at the Canadian High Commission, Mhairi Petersen, and the representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Maputo, Marcoluigi Corsi, and was witnessed by Mozambican Justice Minister Isaque Chande.
Corsi said this funding will help strengthen the legislation on child registration, advocate for registration, and create an environment favourable for civil registration. This environment includes establishing a legislative and regulatory framework to support the new civil registration system, with tasks and responsibilities clearly defined for each of the institutions involved.
The initiative also covers the registration of life events, through a simple and decentralized civil registration system, which will allow the registration of all births and deaths. Citizens will be able to obtain their certificates of these events free of charge.
“Civil registration is the official recognition of the vital events in people’s lives, namely birth, death, marriage, divorce and adoption”, said Corsi.
He stressed that UNICEF is committed to supporting the government in setting up an electronic civil registration system. UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are committed to working in this area with the Mozambican Justice and Health Ministries.
Chande stressed the importance of the Canadian support in attaining the objectives of the government’s programme in this area, which involve high costs.
“In Mozambique more than 52 per cent of children have no birth registration document, and in 2013 only 12.1 per cent of deaths were registered”, the Minister added. “The funds from Canada will help fill in these gaps”.
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