ICT supported birth registrationin Kwale, Kenya

Enhancing the community-leddecentralized model for birth

registration

Updated 1/12/09Mika Välitalo / Plan Finland

1. Mother gives birth to a child

2. An informant (e.g. parent, relative,community health workers etc.) makesnotification of birth to the CBO (Community BasedOrganisation) or to the Chief.

3. Chief verifies the notificationsand takes them to DCRO (District CivilRegistration Office) approx. monthly.This takes time and money (Chief has topay the expenses from his own pocket)

4. In the DCRO the nofitication vefiried, approved and filed. In case of missing/incorrect information the notification is returned to the community.

5. When the notification processhas been completed, the parentscan apply for the certificate. For this they need to travel all the way to DCRO, usually twice (for application and later to get the certificate once it has beenprocesssed.)

6. Processing the applications for certificates is manual and time-consuming task in the DCRO, thus delaying the services for parents.

1-10 km

0-1 km

up to 100 km

The current birth notification and registration process – an overview

Mobile teams

Kwale’s District Civil Registration Office (DCRO) manages and archivesall the birth notification as well as produces birth certificates. The population in the district area is estimated 590,000.

Kwale district is has a border with Tanzania which creates challenges to registration system. For example itcan be difficult to know if a baby is actually Kenyan or (s)he is brought over the border in order to

obtain the Kenyan citizenship.

The Kwale office is supported by a Civil Registration Officer(CRO), one senior clerical officer, two clerical officers and a typist.

Although the DCRO has twocomputers running a databaseon Microsoft Access, all the records are still handled and stored manually. Due to lowstaffing and problems with the database, old records havenot been digitized. Processing birth notificationsand producing birthcertificates takes a lot of timeand manual work.

Kimadzo CommunityBased Organisation office – located

in Kimadzo about 80 kilometersaway from the DCRO. Chief’s office

is located in the same building. The chief and the assistant chiefs are the official representatives of the

Government of Kenya in each community. They have a legal

mandate to act as local authorities regarding to government's

rules, regulations and policies - such as birth registration in this case.

Community volunteers workingin the premises of Kimazo CBO.

Among other tasks (such as deliveringletters from sponsors) CBO volunteers

are also entitled to receive birthnotifications on behalf

of the Chief. Many people feel it easierto visit the CBO compared to the chief

e.g. due to high and sometimes feared statusof government representatives.

”Has your child beenregistered yet?”

Birth notification that is done at the community level by CBO or Chief. Currently thesenotifications are taken by the Chief to the DCRO every month. Notification does not

yet mean that the child would get a certificate. For that parents need separately to applyand pay.

In Kenya, communities are empowered to report births as the system isdecentralized to allow registration and record keeping at (community and) district level. CBO’s can also

have mobile teams that visit remote parts of the community and receive birth notifications to be sent forward. At the moment mobile teams rely on paper forms.

By law, the birth certificates need to be produced in the districtlevel. Travelling to DCRO can be an expensive and long journey hindering parentsto apply for the cerfiticate. The cerfiticate itself costs approx. 60 Kenyan shillings,

which is a lot of money for many.

Community meeting on birth registration. Enhancing the birth registrationprocess has been a community initiated and owned process supported by Plan Kenya.

Stakeholders in the ICT supported UBR project:Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland: funding

Plan Kenya: implementation with local partnersNokia: support and contribution in utilizing mobile technology

Plan Finland: ICT and programmatic support & stakeholder coordination

Focal problem: only 4 out of 10 children are registered

• Why?

• Poor accessibility of government staff and offices– due to a) distances b) unvailable chiefs c) fear of gov. representatives d) bribes and corruption

• Slow processing of birth notifications– due to a) shortages of registration stationary (forms) b) the transportation to DCRO is manual c) no information

channel to notify when possible to apply for the certificate and when to fetch it. • Slow processing of birth certificates

– due to a) low human resources at DCRO compared to amount of (manual) work b) the payment process is toocentralized c) the demand for the parents to travel to DCRO

• Disjoint administratives structures– due to a) the delink between birth notification and certificate process b) manual records management c) no means to

cross checking the data during verification.• Lack of incentives for parents to register their children

– due to a) low awareness on birth registration benefits b) disconnect between the government departments dealing withregistration of persons c) no perceived need for certificates before secondary school d) child marriage is a hinderance(those practising it do not want to contact officials).

• High costs– due to a) distance to DCRO b) the cost of the certificate c) movement between government offices (e.g. one needs to

visit a separate office for payment in addition DCRO). • Manual analysis and storage of data

– leading to poor tracking of records and difficulties to utilize data for e.g. planning and statistics.

How will the project addressthe identified problems in a holistic way?

Objective 6: Advocate and promote replication of decentralised model of birth registration 1. Air programs that advocate and promote the universal birth registration through the Children’s Community Radio in Kwale.2. Lobby for the integration of policies that revolve around the registration of persons.3. Conduct stakeholder mapping for community structures that can be engaged in decentralized birth registration process4. Support networking forums for cross learning.

Objective 5: Document decentralised model of birth registration 1. Support documentation of birth registration best practices – in print, audio-visual

Objective 4: Lower costs1. Lobby for the waiver of charges levied on birth certificates

Objective 3: Increase the incentives to register children1. Prior meeting with CBOs/Assistant Chief to gauge their willingness use technology, and to make the birth registration process accessible

to all.2. To lobby for the birth certificates to be a mandatory requirement when joining school i.e. ECCD3. Support intergenerational dialogues at the villages to bridge the gap between the communities and GOK4. Support awareness meetings on Child rights5. Support awareness meeting on Laws protecting children.6. Strengthen community structures that promote decentralised birth registration – peer learning trainings, through exposure visit,

recognition of best performing registration assistants.

Objective 2: Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the birth registration process1. Train CBOs/Assistant Chief/DCRO office staff 2. Computerise CBOs /DCRO office. Suggestion to adopt a community resource model3. Use of mobile phones by the mobile teams to gather birth information4. Batch BC application through CBOs5. Streamline administrative processes through adoption of a favourable payment system, i.e. trusted persons6. Tracking of Process (BC application) through SMS7. Design / Develop data export / import routines (CBOs to DCRO)8. Data entry and automation of current and important historical records at the DCRO

Objective 1: Enhance the accessibility of GOK staff and offices1. Support GOK/DCRO to conduct Awareness in the villages2. Strengthen role of CBOs in birth registration

Overall project purposeContribute to the increase of the number of children accessing the right to an identity.

From the ICT point of view, e.g. increasing the capacity of DCRO to handle the notifications and certificates is clearly worth wile. At the moment the staff spends several hours of their working time just to manually search papers from different folders whereas with a functional database and computer this

could be done in a fraction of that time.

Furthermore, the ability for Chiefs and CBO's to acquire, send and store BR notificationselectronically has several advantages in data accuracy, automatic crosschecking of data, speed of

delivery and further utilization of gathered data (e.g. statistics for planning).

Piloting mobile data gathering has a natural entry point within currently existing mobile teams that from time to time visit the more remote parts of the community. At the moment the notification details are just written on pieces of paper which obviously affects again e.g. data accuracy and duplicates work effort as the same data needs to be manually copied later on. Being able to capture the data

electronically on a mobile device already on the field potentially improves the efficiency of the whole process.

In essence, one of the central ideas of the project is to pilot and test an ICT enhanced model for testing, documentation and replication. Thus, it's also a learning process for all the stakeholders

and based on the experiences from this project we are able to assess the best practices.

1578078612TOTAL

350317458Kikoneni location

637335904Dzombo location

420013235Kinango location

12068886Mangawani location

4983129Lukore location

No. of householdsPopulationLocation

Kwale district civilregistration office

Lukore Mangawani Kinango Dzombo Kikoneni

Ministry of Immigration and Registration of Persons (MIRP)Department of Integration of Population Registration Systems (IPRS)

Nairobi

Scope of the birth registration project

Collaboration

Joint planning, ICT support &capacity building

Five selected communities:Joint planning, ICT support &capacity building, awarenessraising, support to communitygroups.

Civil registration system for births and deaths

Web-based system that can be accessed via web browser (computer/mobile)

DistrictCivil Registration

Office

AssitantChiefs/(CBOs)

Internetconnection

Internetconnection

Birth notifications are directly entered into the national system by assistant chief via web. DCRO will get notifications and can approve them via the same system. No local software neededexcept web browser.

Nokia Data Gathering(NDG)

Computerization of national civilregistration:

In September 2009 the Department of Integration of Population Registration Systems (IPRS) announced that a national web based civil registration system will be established already by February 2010.

This project will support the launching, piloting and incorporating of the new government supported system during CY2010.

There will be no need for Plan Kenya to develop a separate Birth Registration System Model.

IPRS recommended that Plan could support rolling out the new birth and death registration system by enhancing the capacity of DCRO staff, Chiefs and Assistant Chiefs and CBOs to use ICT and internet so that when new web based system becomes available, they can immediately start piloting and benefiting from it. This request is fully aligned with the original project plan.

Next steps:

1.Installation of the computers at 5 CBOs, DCRO office2.Computer training CBO officials for 5 pilot CBOs, Chiefs/assistants/volunteer3.Historical Data Entry4. Piloting mobile data gathering of birth registrations 5.Air programs to promote UBR through FM radio station(continue through to 2010)6.Awareness meeting on Child Rights including laws protecting children in 14 CBOs(continue through to 2010) The software for data entry cannot be available until Feb 2010 when the Government plans to commission the BR project. During this period, the DCR office will be completed with electricity and LAN having been installed.

Thank you!