Steps underway to align births and deaths information in Ghana

The Births and Deaths Registry (BDR) has organized a two-day stakeholders engagement in Koforidua the Eastern Regional capital, to find ways of improving death registration coverage.

The stakeholders’ engagement was under the Public Sector Reform for Results Project Initiative of the Registry which seeks to develop Administrative Caveat for curbing indiscriminate burials.

During the programme, the Deputy Minister of Local Government Decentralization and Rural Development, Collins Ntim called on the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to collaborate effectively with the Births and Deaths Registry to ensure adherence to the Birth and Death Registration Act 2020.

The death and subsequent internment of a person are part of the certainties of life. As such countries across the globe have designed processes and procedures to guide families and stakeholders in registration and burial of deceased persons.

A strict adherence to these guidelines will ensure that the state obtains reliable and timely data on matters relating to deaths in a given jurisdiction. This ultimately informs the government in its decision making relating to socio-economic planning and development.

In Ghana, the Births and Deaths Registry has consistently been recording below 20 percent of deaths in the country.

This can be attributed to uncontrolled burial grounds especially in rural communities and lack of sensitization on the importance of death registration.

The workshop was to gather views from stakeholders in order to help address the shortfall of indiscriminate burials.

The Deputy Minister of Local Government Decentralization and Rural Development, Collins Ntim, said section 32 (1) of the Births and Deaths Registry Act, Act 1027, states that “a person shall not dispose of the body of a dead person unless the disposition is done in accordance of the Act”.

He called on the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to collaborate effectively with the Births and Deaths Registry to ensure adherence of the Act.

The Chief Director at the Office of the Head of the Local Government Service, James Oppong-Mensah, recommended that the Births and Deaths Registry should consider making death registration simple and accessible so that a lot of people will be encouraged to register the dead relatives.

Acting Registrar of the Births and Deaths Registry, Henrietta Lamptey, in an interview explained the engagement is to brainstorm with shareholders to find the way forward when it comes to death and Births information.

The participants include representatives from the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the Office of the Attorney General, Office of Chief Imam, the Christian Council, Nursing and Midwifery Council among others.