Birth And Death Registration Now Computerized

The Births and Death Registry, as part of efforts to facilitate the capture, storage, processing and retrieval of information on birth and deaths, has introduced a computerization system and network.

This was disclosed by Dorothy Onny, Director, Research, Statistics Information Management (RSIM) of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development during the 12^th Birth and Deaths Registration Awareness Creation Day held at the conference room of the ministry.

Ms. Dorothy Onny indicated that a server which holds the database information had been installed at the Registry's headquarters in Accra and regional offices.

She added that registration forms had accordingly been redesigned to make them machine readable.

Ms Dorothy Onny added that printing of certified copies of births and deaths certificates would be done at the national headquarters until such a time that the regional and district offices would be properly equipped and linked to the national server.

The director was happy that UNICEF, Plan Ghana, Ghana Statistical Service and TIGO were supporting the mobile phone application technology to register births and deaths in rural and remote areas of the country.

Ms. Onny indicated that the mobile phone technology had been rolled out in 126 communities in the Central, Brong Ahafo, Eastern, Northern Upper West and East regions of the country.

The birth to death registration ratio, which stands at 60 percent to 24 percent falls below the United Nations Bench mark of 90 percent minimum completeness level.

The director reiterated that birth and death registration in Ghana is governed by the Registration of Births and Deaths Act (Act301, 1965).

If a parent fails to register their child at birth, that child's existence would not be officially recognized and would be excluded from social development planning.

By Solomon Ofori