Thursday 30 June 2011

UNICEF Canvasses Private Sector Support for Births Registration

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has sought the active involvement of the Nigerian corporate community towards ensuring that every child in the country has a right to a name and identity.

At a briefing session organized by UNICEF for its private sector partners on June 23, 2011 in Lagos, UNICEF said “as a workforce for children and an international advocate for children”, it is, “interested in reaching out to various sectors of society in Nigeria primarily to have an open and dynamic debate on solutions to the problems that Nigerian children and families are faced with – problems of today, as well as challenges likely to arise in the future”.
This, the UN Agency’s Country Representative, Dr. Suomi Sakai explained is because it firmly believes that Nigerian children deserve the best.
She said all existing national data reveal persistent low birth registration coverage of children under the age of five. According to her, about 70 percent of children in Nigeria do not have their births registered going by the National Population Census Report. “In legal terms, these children do not exist and violations of their rights will go unnoticed”, Dr. Sakai added.