GUYANA hopes to achieve Universal Birth Registration (UBR) by 2015 and, in its effort to ensure the continuity of registering, the government, through the Ministry of Home Affairs and the General Register Office (GRO) has established 200 centres.

They can be found within the ten Administrative Regions and at hospitals, as well, since the initiative was taken to ensure effective and efficient registration of births as Guyana moves towards its 100 percent recording by 2015, which is the Millennium Development Goal (MDG).
The Government has also agreed to increase the payment to officers who register births, from $50 a month, payable since 1987, to $10,000 monthly.
All this was related by Home Affairs Minister, Mr. Clement Rohee, yesterday, while addressing health and other workers who play a part in the process.
They were gathered at the Police Officers Mess, Eve Leary, Georgetown, for a workshop which dealt with several related critical issues.
The minister said it is important that those responsible for births registration to meet time and time again as Guyana only has two more years to attain the UBR status. That is to make sure that each person living in this country has been registered or is in possession of a birth certificate by year 2015, to which it committed a few years ago.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Rohee said, while ensuring the objective could be considered the task of the government of the day, each parent, guardian and caregiver also has a social responsibility to assure that children are registered and issued with birth certificates.
He told the gathering that his ministry understands the importance of achieving the goal and, as such, made all the necessary resources available to the GRO for its accomplishment of this very critical task.
Rohee said, without the documentation, people will face a number of challenges in the near or distant future.
He warned against persons who charge money and issue fake certificates and said, when identified, they should be handed over to the police, having committed a criminal offence.
The registrars were told that the government has always made funds available as requested for the work of the GRO and never one day exercised the scissors, knife or any other cutting instrument to starve that office of the funding required to carry out its mandate.
Rohee emphasised that, being in possession of a birth certificate is necessary for the sitting of examinations, enrolment in schools and exercising the franchise of voting at national and regional elections.
He said the GRO staffers are, ever so often, encouraged to visit the hinterland regions and ensure that birth registers are collected and recorded in the central data system.
Rohee said the GRO, usually, has a presence at the annual Toshaos Council which is facilitated by the government and the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs.
He added that all the issues and bugbears which present themselves during the process of Guyana striving to ensure the achievement of its 2015 goal should be addressed forthwith.
According to him, the problem is not seeing and resolving the issues but what comes back to haunt the procedure is when they are proving to be challenging and left unengaged.

BIT GRUMPY
Those are the ones that return to be the problems of the future, he said, advising tolerance and patience on the part of registrars dealing with the public since they, the professionals, are in most cases more intelligent than the ones being served and who will, often, need guidance along the way and tend to be a bit grumpy at times.
Meanwhile, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative to Guyana and Suriname, Dr. Suleiman Braimoh pledged the continued support to this country as it strives to achieve the MDG.
He said the nation has, indeed, come a far way, from 2009 to date, in its quest to achieve the UBR.
The diplomat said one of the issues he noticed was always on the agenda of this government and which invited many discussions at various levels was the striving to achieve the UBR target of 100 percent.
He recalled that it was former President Bharrat Jagdeo who had committed to ensuring that Guyana reaches the targeted level.
Braimoh also pointed out that a child having a birth certificate assists him or her with being identified and prevented from exploitation and underage employment.
He said there are some things that Guyana should do in order to make it to the final mile and they include ensuring all mothers, fathers, children and guardians demand, of the government, that systems be put in place to ensure that birth registrations are done nationwide and that they are perfected.

STRONGER APPROACH
The envoy also mentioned the necessity for increasing the human resources available and a stronger approach to ensure that there is greater efficiency in the registration of births in the hinterland and to guarantee that each child enjoys the same opportunities.
In her welcoming those in attendance at the forum, Registrar General Ms. Greta Mc Donald disclosed that the first set of births were registered in 1869 and, from then to now, there have been several transformations in the process.
She said when Guyana started doing birth registrations, they were only facilitated by the GRO. However, during the changes over the years, it was done in Essequibo, Berbice and Georgetown public hospitals.