Mass mobile registration in Cambodia

A mother registers her baby

During the rule of the Khmer Rouge, which was responsible for mass genocide, the civil registration systems, along with other institutions were destroyed. People lost their documents or destroyed them to hide their identities and escape the cruel regime.

In 2000 the government began to plan a new registration system. Plan Cambodia became involved in piloting a mass mobile registration campaign and in the subsequent rollout of the project nationally.

Rolling out the programme

The nationwide programme, run by the Ministry of Interior was supported by Plan Cambodia and the Asian Development Bank. Plan provided technical assistance for planning, implementing and monitoring the project. This included training and deploying volunteers to assist in local planning and to undertake public information campaigns, and supporting the government to modify civil registration law following lessons learnt from the pilot programme. It was agreed that birth and death certificates would be delivered free of charge to the entire population during the campaign.

The ministry put together 1,621 commune registration teams comprising over 13,000 people, many of them volunteers, and trained them in registration procedures. Thousands of community meetings took place and local people such as teachers, monks and community workers were mobilised to create awareness among the population.

Over 9,500,000 Cambodian adults and children were registered within the first 18 months of the full national mobile registration exercise. An additional 6,500,000 children have been registered since the start of Plan’s global campaign.