Accra: Mr. Osama Makkawi Khogali, the UNICEF Country Representative, has urged for a collaborative effort among key sectors, particularly in education and health, to improve the registration of new births. He emphasized that failing to register newborns not only impacts individual children but also risks public health, as interventions may be inadequate due to inaccurate registration data.
According to Ghana News Agency, Mr. Khogali highlighted on a national broadcast that the current national planning and budgeting approaches fail to adequately address the needs of children, particularly those in remote areas. He expressed concern that over 40 percent of children born in the Eastern Region are not included in the national birth registration data for 2024. He shared his personal experience of visiting these areas to understand the challenges in accessing them, asserting that reaching these children is possible.
Mr. Khogali further explained that an unregistered child is essentially invisible in terms of data, which is a violation of their human rights to identity. He urged the government to create strategies to eliminate these disparities and extend services to children in difficult-to-reach locations. He described birth registration as a straightforward task that could be efficiently accomplished with collective effort. He suggested that educators could play a crucial role by identifying unregistered children and ensuring they are registered.
