09 Nov 2015

The Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu, says government has disbursed P700 000 to boost the house to house birth registration project in the Okavango region with the support of UNICEF. 

Minister Batshu was speaking at the launch of a birth registration campaign recently. He said birth registration was a critical component of a civil registration and vital statistics system.

Minister Batshu said birth registration had been increasing and 28 per cent of children under five were not registered in 2007.

He said some children remained marginalised, while the most disadvantaged children continued to be orphans, those living in remote areas or belonging to ethnic groups.

However, he applauded government saying Botswana was one of the few countries in Africa with a high number registered at birth.

“We believe that it is possible for Botswana to achieve 100 percent birth registration in the near future, and UNICEF has been providing support to the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs to help accelerate universal birth registration,” he said.

Member of Parliament for Okavango, Mr Bagalatia Arone, thanked government and UNICEF for rolling out the campaign in the Okavango Sub-district. 

He said many times people were not able to access services due to lack of transport caused by bad roads especially in the villages at the other side of the Okavango river. 

He said reaching out to these 22 villages will assist them so that they are able to access government initiatives like other Batswana. He also asked the minister for a mini border near Gudigwa stating that the place is near to Namibia so it will be convenient for those travelling to use it. Ends