Birth Certificate : First National Mayor’s Forum Opens Today In Yaounde

United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, Country Representative for Cameroon, Nadine Perrault, has announced the holding of the First National Forum of Mayors on the Universal Birth Registration in the country. She was speaking in Yaounde, yesterday, April 25, 2024 during a press breakfast that sought to highlight the importance of a Birth Certificate (BC), which is an essential document to protect every child’s right to a name and an identity. 
The forum which runs from today, April 26 -27, 2024 at the Yaounde Conference Centre, under the theme “One Child, One Birth Certificate, One Identity” will bring together the country’s 374 Mayors and various actors involved in the civil registration system, including the Presidents of the Courts of Appeal of the 10 regions, Civil Registration Status officials, Traditional Leaders, and UNICEF Champions. By joining forces, Nadine Perrault said, “we can address challenges and find innovative solutions to improve birth registration processes and protect the rights of every child in Cameroon.”
In spite measures taken by the government to ensure that each Cameroonian obtains a BC, information revealed that the Strategic Plan for the Rehabilitation of Civil Status Registration still has some lapses; amongst which the difficulties in coordinating civil status registration programmes and activities; weaknesses in the appropriation and application of the law by players; use of unofficial registers as well as the high cost of documents, even though the law stipulates that they should be free of charge. Hence, the Chief Partnership, Advocacy and Communication Expert at UNICEF said; the Forum will bring the commitment of mayors to further support birth registration in their respective councils in order to contribute to a significant increase in the birth registration rate in Cameroon. Also, the Forum is out to mobilise technical and financial partners to promote synergies in implementing the national birth registration agenda, while promoting collaboration between mayors and sectoral services (health, education, justice,...