Ethiopia plans to completely finish the civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) of everyone under the age of 18 in the coming two years.
The country is one of the countries that have weak performance on CRVS in the continent, while the issue has got attention in the past couple of years.
Mujib Jemal, Immigration Nationality and Vital Event Managing Director, told Capital that the government is working strongly to expand the vital registration list which includes birth, death, marriage and divorce.
He said that in the near future the government will undergo massive registration of events. “We have targeted at least to give a birth certificate to everyone in age group under 18 in the coming two years,” he added.
Besides that awareness creation work will be aggressively undertaken, while the society understanding about CRVS is improving compared with the past.
He indicated that in related with the school registration in this academic year that started last month several birth registration accomplished, which indicates how the understanding of the society increased.
“In related with school registration we enabled to attach with birth certificate due to that 1.8 students have registered on birth certificate,” he added.
In relation to the Fifth Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration in Lusaka, FROM October 14 to 18 Ethiopia has shown its experience on CRVS registration of refugees.
Even though the country approved the CRVS proclamation, Registration of Vital Events and National Identity Card Proclamation. No 760/2012, the country was not fully applied until 2016 until Ethiopian Vital Events Registration Agency established which now included under Ministry of Peace. In 2016 the CRVS mainly focus on the citizens has been was commenced that did not include the refugees that the country hosts. The country has also a modern ID system as of 2017, while is not fully applied.
“At the stage we have talked about the refugee civil registration activity. We have understood that the 2012 proclamation has a gap that did not have inclusiveness regarding the civil registration of refuges,” the Immigration Nationality and Vital Event Managing Director said.
Due to that the proclamation was amended in January 2017 and became effective as of October the same year. Zeynu Jemal, State Minister of Peace, explained to participants that more than 13, 000 vital events have been registered in relation to refugees.
Mujib said that more than 10,500 are related with birth registrations in the period going up to August of this year.
It has good solution to integrate the refugee with the society, according to Mujib. Zeynu explained that the process will help those that the country hosts to be part of the economic activity in the country and even allow theme some crucial rights in the economy like to have bank account and get driving license.
Mujib added that the other gap that now the government should improve the proclamation is that it did not also consider the internal displaced people. “We will work on it in the future,” he added.
Ethiopia has also the 10 year development of its strategy to include refugees under the CRVS that allow them to be player on the activity of the country, according Zeynu. He added that further studies are being undertaken to include the refugee in the society.
The proclamation from 2012 established the legal and organizational framework of the vital events registration. The aim is to make civil certificates, which are crucial for any social and economic plans of the country, uniform throughout Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is one of the lowest rates of birth registration in Africa, with only 3 percent of the births of children under the age of five registered with civil authorities, according to 2016 Ethiopia demographic and health survey, which was implemented by the Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency.