Public awareness campaigns should be urgently organised across the country to sensitise citizens about the importance of recording their civil status information with local administrations.

The call was made, yesterday, by Members of Parliament  under the Parliamentarian’s Network for Population and Development, commonly known by its French acronym as RPRPD.

The legislators had met at Parliamentary Buildings in Kimihurura, Kigali, during a consultative meeting about civil status information and its role in promoting the rights of children and their parents.

Senator Gallican Niyongana, the president of RPRPD, said many citizens are still reluctant to register their civil status with local administrations due to negligence.

He said civil status registration services are not accessible enough in certain areas of the country, leaving some citizens unwilling to pursue the registration when the process appears complicated especially when the staff in charge at the sector level are too busy to provide the services.

"There should be urgent awareness campaigns for both local leaders and citizens to understand the importance of recording civil status information. There is also need to ease the process of civil status registration to make it more accessible,” he said.

Civil status information is records such as of births, marriage, death, adoption, or divorce.

People have the obligation to register the information with civil status officials at the sector level but officials say the practice is yet to become an established habit.

After doing a tour of nine districts in different parts of the country last month to examine the practice of civil status registration, members of RPRPD recommended that a national campaign be started to sensitise citizens on the need for the registration.

"Sensitisation should be carried out so that people can understand that civil status registration is in their own interests,” said MP Fortuneé Nyiramadirida.

While registration of births is picking up with about half of newborns being registered at the sector level, official records of death and divorce are still low, the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda said.

Officials say civil status information is crucial for planning purposes for both government and business services.

"Well recorded civil status information is a source of development,” said Justice minister Johnston Busingye.

Pascal Nyamurinda, the director-general of National Identification Agency (NIDA), and Yusuf Murangwa, the director-general of the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, assured the MPs that efforts were underway to modernise the civil status registration process.

The officials said there is hope to improve civil status records through digitalisation of data and integration of data systems.

More use of information and communication technology will ease the process to register civil status information and make it accessible from anywhere in the country, the officials said.

The MPs also called for decentralisation of civil status registration services to enable grassroots leaders who are closer to the people such as community health workers and cell executive secretaries to directly give those services.