It has been described that the participation of the nation’s health sector is the only way to achieve a robust and comprehensive civil registration and vital statistics system.
This is according to the Director, Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, NPC Headquarters, Abuja, Mathew Temidayo on Sunday while speaking to reporters during a planning and guidance meeting of Operational Plans for Birth Registration, 2023 3 days to extension Mass in Bauchi State held at Hotel Jamil, Bauchi.
Meanwhile, this comes hand in hand with a current trend in the slow progress of birth registration across the country which has caused the National Population Commission (NPC) to integrate the exercise into the health sector to achieve stated targets. .
He said: “Yes, the main gist of coming to Bauchi is to do the macro planning and share what we intend to do with our key partners in Bauchi State and who are these key partners? Why are they our key partners?
“We’re talking about birth registration here, and we’ve figured out where we want to be, in terms of our coverage. We are not there yet. We have selected for the first phase; 22 states that really need more support to improve their coverage. That’s what we’re doing here, developing the macro plan and sharing our experiences on what we’ve done before and what we need to do again so we can move forward.”
When asked about the timing of the exercise, he said, “Yes, the team disaggregation, the participant disaggregation will take place on May 19 and 20, then for 15 days the birth registration exercise will take place in all 20 LGAs in Bauchi State, as well as all political districts. But, what we did to not make everything look clunky, we have divided the LGA into 2 phases, so we are working in two phases of 15 days each.
“We cannot do it alone, to make it more effective we are going to recruit personnel. It will be based on district levels so that the registrars we will use in the field are people we know who live within the districts and who are trusted. That makes it easier for them to get information from the communities,” she emphasized.
Mathew Temidayo added that “other than that, it will solve a lot of logistical problems, we don’t need a lot of transportation, accommodation, because they are already inside the people and they speak the same language with the people.”
“We have developed an app that will be released to the public, everyone will have a level playing field, no one will be talked to because we are not doing any human interview, it is the app, just submit your information and the App will pick it up from that point , it is the App that will make the selections. Everyone has a fair chance.”
He stressed that, “Yes, for any country to have a robust and comprehensive civil registration and vital statistics system, the health sector must be properly involved, NPC cannot do it without the health sector. So NPC and the Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency (BASPHCDA) are working together, not just regarding this exercise, we have been working together for a long time.”
He stressed that, “If you were at the opening ceremony yesterday, the Bauchi State Executive Governor was adequately represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, you cannot poke someone’s head in your absence, the Bauchi State government Bauchi is the main host of every activity here.”
The Director added that, “There is no way we can do without them and we are not limited to just the Bauchi State Government and BASPHCDA, this time we have discovered that we have a strategic and reliable ally in the NYSC, so we are engaging the Corps.” , we are also involving ALGON, that is the reason why you can see the 20 LGA presidents here and with their presence too, you can know that the media is the Vanguard to spread the message for us”.
On the trend across the country, Mathew Temidayo said that, “Yes, we selected 22 states that need immediate support, those are the states that are below 40 percent because the national coverage is 57 percent, but Bauchi here is 38.3 percent, even below that, so if we continue to provide the same care to everyone, some will increase it while others will decrease it.”
According to him, “it is not that we are not going to give attention to those who are performing well, no, but we are going to give more attention to those 22 states, the situation is like you have 2 children at school, one is great , the other one is not, you will definitely pay more attention to the slow one to raise it and make sure that you are speaking in the same language.”
“Yes, as I said, there is no way we can achieve the stated goals without the healthcare sector, before this time, we have been collaborating with the healthcare sector, but now we feel that collaborating is not enough for us, so We are taking a step forward, we are integrating birth registration into the health sector,” he added.
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