National Population Commission to Boost Birth Registration in Hard-to-Reach Communities
The National Population Commission (NPC) has announced a strategic move to intensify efforts at registering new births in difficult and hard-to-reach communities in Cross River State, Nigeria. This initiative aims to ensure legal recognition of every child’s existence and address one of the key challenges to charting a comprehensive development path.
Speaking at the flag-off of this year’s World Population Day road walk in Calabar, Federal Commissioner Alex Ukam emphasized the importance of accelerating birth registration. He highlighted that notable progress has been made in birth registration through partnerships with Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) across the state, but there remain noticeable gaps, particularly in hard-to-reach communities and new settlements.
Ukam identified cultural barriers, the low educational status of parents and caregivers in remote areas, and low socioeconomic status as significant constraining factors. He called for sustained efforts to address these challenges, underlining the imperative of total and effective birth registration, civil registration of vital statistics, and regular censuses to generate reliable data.
The NPC chairman emphasized that population issues are crucial to effective development planning, targeted at enhancing resilience and securing an equitable future for all. He recalled that for too long, marginalized and vulnerable populations, particularly those in rural areas or marginalized communities, have been denied access to crucial population services.
To address this critical issue, the NPC has designed all-inclusive strategies in collaboration with the Cross River State Government and other stakeholders. Ukam revealed that a special population outreach programme will be conducted in all nooks and crannies of the state to count everyone.
In his remarks, Dr. Josephat Ogar, State Statistician-General, highlighted the difficulties of accessing hard-to-reach communities for vital registration. He assured that efforts are being made to change this narrative. The UNFPA also expressed support for the initiative, emphasizing that improved data collection has led to significant advancements but there is still much work to be done to ensure uniformity.
This collaborative effort is expected to bridge the data gap and improve the lives of millions, ensuring that everyone counts and deserves to be counted.
