The government of Rwanda has set a target of having all babies born in the country to be registered at birth by the end of 2022.

Current figures from the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) show that today, 84.2 per cent of all the babies born in the country are entered into the civil registry.

Birth registration was launched on the civil registration electronic system in 2020 and the strategy was to reach at least 95 per cent by the end of 2022, according to the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) strategy for 2017-2022.

At a minimum, the UN says that birth registration establishes a legal record of where the child was born and who his or her parents are. Birth registration is required for a child to get a birth certificate – his or her first legal proof of identity. It is considered a right.

The information collected from birth registration records helps the government to decide where and how to spend money, and what areas to focus on for development programs, such as education and immunization.

During the celebration of African Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Day celebrated on August, 10 in an event held at Nyagatare District Hospital in Nyagatare, Paula Ingabire, the minister of ICT and Innovation reminded the citizens about the target and that it is vital to do birth registration.

"We have a target to reach 100 per cent of birth registrations in the whole country. Registering children helps them have an identity and facilitates them to access all services in the country with ease,” she said.

African CRVS day is celebrated with the purpose of increasing public awareness around the importance of the timely registration of vital events, particularly births and deaths, through well-functioning civil registration and vital statistics systems and the district of Nyagatare was chosen as the event site because it is not performing well in Civil Registration and Vital Statistics.

A child right

Mireille Batamuliza, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, said that birth registration is a child’s right to avoid service denial to children, and will also favor families if children are recognised and registered by parents.

"When a child is legally recognised he or she is not restricted to anything regarding them in the country, that is why when parents gives birth or decide to adopt it is a must to register the children so that they get their identity,” she said.

Rwanda also marked its 5th African CRVS day with a launch of two other modules that were added to the civil registration electronic system, which are recognition and adoption.

Recognition usually happens when a parent wishes to accept their child as theirs and to have him or her registered with them legally, adoption is when a person wants to be a parent to a child that is not theirs.

Both of these processes need to be registered in the Civil Registration so that a child’s identity is known and kept in Civil Registration and Vital Statistics records. 

Josephine Mukesha, the Director General at the National ID Agency explained that for a parent to recognise their child as theirs he or she is required to go to the sector’s office with two witnesses that know him or her well.