Staff members of the Births and Deaths Registry in the Greater Accra Region have undergone training on a new instruction manual aimed at enhancing their capacity for efficient service delivery.
The manual, serving as a standard operating procedure, covers a range of services provided by the registry, including the registration of births, deaths, alterations, searches, sharing of information, and reporting to the government statistician.
Organized with the support of UNICEF, the two-day training in Accra was crucial for staff to familiarize themselves with the manual's contents and guidelines.
According to Henrietta Lamptey, the acting Registrar of the Registry, the development of the manual was mandated by Section 47 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 2020 (Act 1027), which requires the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development to make regulations.
Ms. Lamptey explained that the Births and Deaths Regulations 2021 further mandated the registry to develop an instruction manual, with Section Four allowing the registrar to issue such manuals to staff.
The manual, developed in 2022 with UNICEF's support, was validated by stakeholders in June 2023 and has since been published. The next phase involves nationwide training for all registry staff to ensure uniform implementation of the manual's procedures.
The introduction of the manual has already led to improvements in service delivery at the registry, particularly in areas such as ICT, customer service, and system harmonization with the National Identification Authority (NIA).
Emmanuel Nyarko-Tetteh, a Child Protection Specialist at UNICEF Ghana, emphasized the importance of birth registration for national planning, stating that accurate data is crucial for governments to assess population needs and allocate resources effectively, especially for marginalized families.
Mr. Nyarko-Tetteh highlighted UNICEF Ghana's commitment to working with the registry to achieve universal birth registration in the country, emphasizing that legal documents are essential for all citizens to prove identity, civil status, and family relations.
He stressed that birth registration should be recognized as essential to prevent losing the gains made in recent decades.
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Henrietta Lamptey, the acting Registrar for the Registry