Boosting birth registration in Kenya

Mobile devices are helping people in remote areas to register their children's births

November 2011: Birth registration provides children with an official identity, which is the foundation for child rights and a key to accessing essential services such as  health and schooling. 

Today only half of Kenyan children are registered. The process has been paper-based and manual, which has led to long processing times, high costs and inadequate analysis of the registration data.

Other challenges have included poor accessibility to offices and officers, as well as lack of incentives for parents to register their children. 

Mobile registration project

Together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland and Nokia, Plan is running a universal birth registration project in Kwale district that aims to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of birth registration and incentivise parents and guardians to register children. 

In addition to computer-based software, mobile devices and the Nokia Data Gathering* application are used by mobile teams that visit the more remote parts of the community. Along with the training and a streamlined process, the solution will increase data accuracy and improve efficiency.

Accurate and efficient

"The use of ICT including mobile technology has great potential to support communities and governments in civil registration. Right to citizenship and identity are fundamental prerequisites in development. Nokia Data Gathering helps community-based mobile teams to capture and deliver birth notifications electronically in remote rural areas. This improves the efficiency and accuracy of the important civil registration process," says Mika Välitalo, Plan Finland’s ICT for development manager.

Read more on Plan’s partnership with Nokia

Learn about Plan’s work in Kenya

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