The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern over the low rate of birth registration among children in Cross River State, urging parents, health facilities and community leaders to ensure that every child is registered at birth.
UNICEF Chief of Nutrition, Nemat Hajeebhoy, raised the concern during an engagement with Ward Development Committees (WDCs) at the Primary Health Centre (PHC), Ekpo Abasi, Ward 12, Calabar South.
Hajeebhoy, who is based at UNICEF’s headquarters in Abuja, said birth registration was not merely an administrative requirement but a fundamental right of every child.
She said UNICEF was concerned that Cross River was “lagging a bit behind” in birth registration, urging WDC members and health workers to mobilise parents and ensure that children in their communities were registered.
“Birth certificates are very important. You know, we work for UNICEF, so we talk about the rights of children. So this is the right of every child,” she said.
Hajeebhoy explained that birth registration would become increasingly important as children grow older, particularly in accessing government services and obtaining essential identity documents.
She urged parents, especially fathers, to take responsibility for registering their children, stressing that every child born in Nigeria should have official documentation establishing their identity and birth.
The UNICEF official also called on WDCs to make birth registration a priority at the ward and primary healthcare levels by supporting mothers and fathers to complete the registration process.
She said the National Population Commission (NPC) was already conducting online birth registration, adding that parents could facilitate the process by providing the required identification details.
“Every ward, every PHC needs to do its best,” she said, urging community structures to work with the relevant authorities to close the gap in birth registration.
The UNICEF Chief of Field Office, Enugu Office, Juliet Chiluwe, also identified birth registration as one of the areas requiring greater attention in the state.
Chiluwe said although Cross River had recorded positive progress in child health and nutrition through its collaboration with UNICEF, more needed to be done to ensure that all children were registered.
The officials also raised concerns over declining rates of early and exclusive breastfeeding in Cross River, saying only about half of the state’s children were being fed appropriately.
They urged WDCs to mobilise market women, religious leaders, youths and other community stakeholders to promote early initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life.
During their interactions with WDCs, they called for stronger community oversight of nutrition commodities supplied to health facilities, warning against the diversion and sale of items meant to be distributed free to children.
Responding on behalf of the WDCs, Tony Bassey commended UNICEF for its partnership with Cross River State and appealed for support to upgrade the Ekpo Abasi PHC into a cottage hospital to improve child-friendly healthcare services in Calabar South.
He also requested capacity-building programmes for health workers and WDC members to strengthen their ability to support maternal and child health interventions.
Responding, Hajeebhoy said UNICEF could not undertake the proposed infrastructure upgrade because such projects fell outside its mandate, but promised to convey the request to the state and federal governments.
She, however, pledged UNICEF’s support for training and skills upgrading for health workers and WDC members.
A similar engagement was held at PHC, Ediba, Calabar Municipal, where UNICEF officials urged WDC members to advocate for greater government investment in the scheme, which they said could support the procurement of multiple micronutrient supplements, ready-to-use therapeutic food and other commodities for preventing and treating child malnutrition.
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