Propagate birth registration, journalists told
The Federal Government has charged journalists in the country to propagate the issue of birth registration for children under age five to assist government at all levels to plan for the kids.
The
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed gave the charge in
Lagos today at a Media Dialogue on Birth Registration organised by the ministry
in collaboration with the United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF).
Represented
by Deputy Director in the Ministry who is also the Head of Advocacy on Child
Rights Information Bureau (CRIB), Mr Olumide Osanyinpeju, the minister urged
the media to work assiduously to develop clear messages that will sensitize and
inspire people to take the desired action on birth registration.
He
tasked the media to intensify their reportage in promoting the issue of
registration of children when and where they are born and within the first year
of their life when parents bring the children for immunization services.
“In
the bid to ensure that this issue is brought to the door step of every
Nigerian, it had become imperative to include a communication component and
give a voice to the programme in order to help tackle the low level of
awareness and poor knowledge that exist amongst our people towards birth
registration.”
“This
process began last year; communication
messages and materials were developed in print and electronic, pretested within
identified participant groups in selected communities in the South, East, West
and North.”
He
said 20 million under-5 children in 18 states and the Federal Capital Territory
are being considered for the integrated Birth Registration uptake approach,
using the 2017 under-five population projections, state peculiarities, funding
window and geo-political zones.
The
minister said the states include Adamawa, kebbi, Niger, Borno, Jigawa, Bauchi,
kaduna, katsina, kano, Sokoto, Ekiti, Enugu, Ondo, Rivers, Oyo, Ogun, Benue,
Lagos and the FCT.
His
words “at the stage we are now, there is need for widespread media campaign to
enlighten and create awareness in our homes, communities and indeed all levels
of government of the need to improve Birth Registration coverage in our
society, especially in the rural areas where a lot of babies are delivered
outside the hospitals.”
“In
this regard, we are calling on the media personnel to use your stories and
reports to create massive awareness and enlighten the people on the need for
registering the birth of their children, with the aim of also tackling the weak
knowledge base on the importance of birth registration, thereby creating the
desired social and behavioural change we expect to see in the manner our people
perceive the intervention.”
“The
general weak knowledge base must be met right from the homes and communities
and through a widespread media campaign aimed at creating awareness and demand
for birth registration services."
“Integrating
birth registration services into health care delivery points must remain an
ongoing basic service programme between National Population Commission and
health care delivery actors.”
“Your
engagement and airing of birth registration messages should be designed to
guarantee outreach to millions of unreached population with weak knowledge base
on the importance of birth registration. You will be expected to employ
multi-use of programme formats during the campaign."
“It
is against this backdrop that we need to develop materials for media campaign
in order to enlighten and create awareness in our homes, communities and all
levels of government on the need to improve birth registration coverage in
Nigeria, especially in rural hard to
reach areas.”
“In
the light of the foregoing, I urge you to bring to bear, as usual, your
technical expertise and experience as you develop story angles that will help
propagate the essence of birth registration, and cause the desired change we
expect to see in our people concerning this intervention”, the Minister stated.
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