East Region: 200 children receive birth certificates
According to the 2023 United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), survey in Cameroon, 400,000 Cameroonians do not have birth certificates, because: “some parents see birth registration as an administrative formality and do not perceive the direct interest in registering birth,”.
In order to curb the increased rate of persons living without birth certificates in the country, the Minister of Decentralization and Local Development, George Elanga Obam, has distributed about 200 birth certificates to persons in Batouri, East region of Cameroon.
This was during the ceremony to mark the 12 edition of the African Day of Decentralization and local development and the 6th edition of the African Day of civil status registration and Statistics on August 9, 2023, in Batouri.
This step is the pilot phase of the nationwide campaign to distribute 500,000 birth certificates, the Minister said.
The minister also stated that the heads of decentralized and local collectivities will be fully involved in the special campaign to issue and distribute the 5000 birth certificates initiated by President Paul Biya.
“We are here to show that when you are talking of decentralization as prescribed by the head of state, President Paul Biya, the results are not only decentralization as a process but, it is the end result that we can call local development. It is not the end of the process; we are going to test many other ways and see which one fits better than others,” the Minister said.
The mayor of Batouri council, Auberlin Mbelessa, explained that: “There are parents who do not see the need to come and declare the birth of their children, there are many people who do not have the means to come and pay for it,”.
