Right from the Start : Kari Egge

Putting Article 7 of the CRC into practical use in Uganda

By Kari Egge

After close to 6 years in UNICEF Tanzania, I joined UNICEF Uganda as Deputy Representative in April 1999. With Michel Sidibe at the helm, the country program was rocking with ideas, initiatives and challenges. This led to a number of interesting components, such as around HIV/AIDS and alternative breastfeeding practices, the launch of the Girls Education Movement, and the protection of children abducted by the Lord Resistance Army (LRA). There also were challenges within the water sector in Karamoja, including Guinea worm eradication. Collaboration with resident donors and NGOs was strong and there was plenty of room to “experiment” in the field. One of these experiments has had a major impact on the lives of children in Uganda and in many, many other countries in Africa and beyond, at the time and today.

The Dutch embassy, which was based in the same building as UNICEF Uganda, decided on their own to donate a rather small amount of money - 49,500 US dollars - to UNICEF to initiate a pilot project on Birth Registration (BR). In a fully funded country program of nearly 30 million US dollars, we did not think that such a small amount of money would make much of a difference. We hired a consultant and started out with the objective to develop a community-based birth registration system within the new 2001-2005 Human Rights based country program (the first of its kind), which would be implemented in the 26 districts in which UNICEF supported the government.

While we developed an easy-to-understand-and-apply BR system, we soon realized that existing legislation for birth registration in Uganda was thoroughly outdated, and would not, under any circumstances, support the new community-based BR system. The national Birth Registration Law was from 1873, when the country was a Protectorate under British rule, and it served only to register the birth of British, white citizens.

Fortunately, the Ugandan Judiciary said that it was more than willing to change the legislation with immediate effect, if we found a lawyer to assist them. Fortunately, with the professional help from a resident lawyer, we were able to support the development of new birth registration legislation in record time. The Parliament quickly adopted it, with no hesitation.

With legislation in place, we could move forward with developing the system of how to register new born children at village level. This would be done through a simple system of household registration – house to house, or hut to hut, at an administrative unit, called Level 1. Uganda had a system for mobilization from level 1 (village) to level 5 (central level), and an administrative system with regions, counties, sub-counties and villages.

A number of literate villagers were mobilized by the government, trained on how to register households, and given a bicycle, a protocol book, pens and pencils. Many of them were teachers, health workers and administrators. They sent their reports to the sub-county administrative level, which handed them to the county administration where the Birth Certificates would be issued and collected by the heads of the household.

It was one thing to register new-born babies; another was to register girls and boys who had never been registered, and who had the right Birth Certificate just as their siblings. It was decided that girls and boys up to the age of 8 would get their Birth Certificates at county levels, while children above 8 would get an affidavit, with which they could claim their BR certificates from the central government. This might not sound fair. But given the high number of children registered through the pilot program, the counties would otherwise be overwhelmed.

The experts of the Swedish Bureau of Statistics, SBSS, offered support for the development of statistical systems, and helped the UBSS develop the link between the community based, county registration system and the central statistics system. This greatly eased the national registration.

Beyond getting BR underway, the household registration system had many more benefits. Through the collection of names and place of residency, age and sex, it gave the authorities information they would otherwise never have obtained, such as the overall numbers of children and their age, pregnant women, household composition, including multiple-wives’ households, single women households, and elderly people. The local health units suddenly had data on children and pregnant women for immunization, follow up on pregnancy and births.

As the pilot program evolved, Norway, Sweden and Denmark came on board with funds and motorbikes for village health workers.

Kari Egge and Michel Sidibe

At the end of the trial, 600,000 children were registered at community level. Michel convinced President Museveni to integrate community-based Birth Registration in the national planning system, especially for social sectors. The launch took place in Arua, on the border to DRC Congo with all the Ugandan festivities one could dream about. Museveni stated on national TV and in public that he was very happy for the community based BR system, as he did not know how many people lived in “his country”. He continued by encouraging everybody to register their children as this was their right, and the obligation of their families and his government. After the launch, I was invited by the Minister of Finance to present the system and its advantages to his seven ministers.

Later, I was invited to contribute to two Innocenti publications on the importance of Birth Registration. When Martin Mogwanja was representative, UNICEF Uganda arranged a Birth Registration conference for all social ministers in ESARO and WCARO.

Afterwards, I learned from colleagues in Uganda that the African Union adopted Birth Registration as a theme for the Day of the African Child; UNICEF Uganda was honored for its BR initiative at a conference in Geneva.

Even a small amount of money can make a big difference when used in a conducive and supportive environment!

Click here to return to the Table of Content