The problem with birth certificates
on Mischa in Cameroon (Cameroon), 16/Jan/2010 10:43, 34 days ago
To receive a qualification at the end of primary school in Cameroon, or do to the entrance exams for secondary school, or to have a National Identity Card that will allow you to travel and vote, it is necessary to have a birth certificate. In the Mayo Danay area of the Extreme North Province, where I live, official figures say that fifty percent of children do not have a birth certificate. In the Maga arrondissement, we estimate that the number is probably something more like 70 percent. When I speak about birth certificates at infant vaccination sessions at the clinic its not unusual for about five or six mothers out of forty to have got a birth certificate for their new baby.To get a birth certificate for free a baby is either registered at the hospital where they are born or has to be taken to their local government office, for instance the Commune at Maga, during the month after the birth. However most women don’t go to the hospital at Maga to give birth, as they have to pay 2500 CFA (about £3.20) and there is often no means for them to travel to the hospital; travel to and from the little villages in the bush is either done on foot, or on a bumpy bike or motorbike. The roads get much worse during the rainy season many villages are completely cut off from Maga for months. Even when the baby is born at the hospital there are added difficulties because at Muslim baby cannot be registered at birth, as they don’t receive their names until a naming ceremony seven days after they are born.The new strategy that Tchipounama (my national colleague) and I are trying out in Maga is to sensibilise all the Islamic marabouts and Christian pasteurs who perform naming ceremonies for babies on the importance of birth certificates so that they can pass the message onto parents. This is the best way we can think of for communicating with all parents, especially those in more remote areas, in the crucial thirty day window for getting a birth certificate.In theory it is possible to get a birth certificate after the thirty days have passed, but to do so requires the child to go to a tribunal at the town of Yagoua (a daylong one way trip from Maga for most of the year) for an official judgement with papers signed by two witnesses of the child’s birth, a certificate from the Commune, and a certificate of age signed by a doctor, and to pay out about 20,000 CFA (about £26) for the judgement, transport, witness expenses and bribes. This is an absolute logistical impossibility for practically everyone in Maga.It is (again in theory only) possible for the tribunal to come to Maga, but they have refused, possibly because they’re waiting for a hefty bribe or because Maga is has an opposition party (UNDP) Council and there is a reluctance to let it have a political success. Furthermore, although the Bureau for Social Affairs collected a lot of money from some parents with the promise of using it to get birth certificates this money has now disappeared.To try and solve the problem the Government introduced a new law several years ago authorising certain designated chieftains (although no-one in Maga) to sell birth certificates to children of school leaving age. Several NGOs, including UNICEF, advocate and help fund the purchases of these birth certificates. However as they are not properly registered with the government, although they are sufficient for school exams, they will probably not allow the holders to be registered to vote, hold government jobs, or get a Carte d’Identité.It’s impossible to overestimate the magnitude of the problem with birth certificates. The Extreme North is already the most marginalised area of Cameroon, and now there has been a complete failure to put a system in place to inform parents of the importance of birth certificates and to make it possible for them, in practice rather than in theory, to get them for their children. Most of the generation being born now in Maga will not be recognised as citizens in their own country and will not be able to finish primary school or go to secondary school unless this problem is resolved.