Strategies to Enhance Access to Birth Registration Systems in Enugu State , Nigeria

Background: Birth registration is both a fundamental right and an essential means of protecting a child identity. However, birth registration in Nigeria as with most developing countries of the world continue to remain suboptimal due to limited awareness of the agency responsible for birth registration and poor composite knowledge of birth registration systems. There is thus a dire need to reverse this trend to adopt strategies that enhance birth registration systems and to ensure that all children are registered, certified and counted by 2030 in Nigeria.

Objective: The study aims to explore strategies to access to birth registration systems in Enugu, state,, Nigeria.

Methodology: The study adopted mixed research design. The sample size was 1361 mothers aged 15-65 years selected using systematic random sampling technique. Structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Quantitative data were processed using SPSS (version 22) and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics while qualitative data were analysed with thematic content analysis.

Results: The findings show that general awareness of birth registration was high (69.6%), but Access to birth registration was poor (15.56%), Qualitative data showed that CVRS agencies were government centered, detached away from the people and devoid of integration of cultural institutions and structures peculiar to different communities in the study area capable of promoting birth registration practice.

Conclusion: Establishment of Community based Birth registration centres are suggested in this paper to maximize cultural institutions, structures and resources peculiar and available in each community to enhance and promote birth registration systems in Enugu state, Nigeria.