PNG eyes 500k birth registrations a year with UNICEF support

Birth registration in Papua New Guinea (PGN) is set to reach a new feat of at least 500,000 enrollments a year, following a recent deployment of 44 modern mobile enrolment kits around the country.

The biometric enrollment kits were handed to state authorities last month in a ceremony in the capital, Port Moresby, attended by heads of concerned ministries and government agencies as well as representatives of partner organizations. It is the fruit of a partnership between the country, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Australian government.

According to a news release from the UN agency, the kits each have the capacity of a thousand enrollments each month, which means birth registration figures will jump tenfold to more than half a million annually. With the potable kits, field officers will be able to easily enroll newborns and children into the national civil registration database, the release mentions.

“Proper birth registration is all about planning ahead. We need data to ensure that also in the future, we can provide adequate services,” said PGN Minister for National Planning Richard Masere.

In her own remarks, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) representative at the event said: “These kits allow for on-the-spot birth registration, ensuring that even in the most isolated communities, people can have their births properly registered.”

The UNICEF country representative in PNG, Vikas Singh, noted the huge importance of the donation and partnership, saying it will have a significant impact on the lives of citizens, notably by “unlocking the potential of children through the vital process of birth registration.”

He emphasized the need for more collective efforts not only to encourage parents to take birth registration seriously, but also to see how to link birth registration with service delivery, introduce more innovative technologies into the birth registration process, and to involve communities and in birth registration advocacy.

Australia, a funding partner of the donation, underscored the necessity of birth registration for children. In a LinkedIn post, the Australian High Commission in PNG said an activity often taken for granted, birth registration is “a vital step that opens doors to education, healthcare and legal rights.”

Per the post, the kits have all the features it takes, including biometric scanners and cameras, to enroll a child into the civil registry in just ten minutes.

The High Commission indicates that last year, it supported the PNG Civil and Identity Registry (CIR) to complete birth registration for over 44,000 children.

PNG hopes to strengthen its foundational identity system with robust birth registration as the country advances its digital transformation endeavours. As it does so, it is also looking to tap experience from other countries that have examples worth emulating in digital public infrastructure projects implementation.

Article Topics

Australia  |  biometric enrollment  |  birth registration  |  children  |  civil registration  |  CRVS  |  digital identity  |  legal identity  |  Papua New Guinea  |  SDG 16.9  |  UNICEF