Birth and death registration: Osafo-Maafo touts government's achievements

The Senior Advisor to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, has touted the improvements in the registration of births and deaths under the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government.

According to him, the measures put in place by the government through the National Public Sector Reform Strategy (NPSPS) have improved service delivery in the country's public service, including the registration of births and deaths.

He said that data showed that in 2022, for instance, an unprecedented 93% of births and 38% of deaths were recorded, all due to the implementation of the NPSPS.

Speaking at the handover and launch of the sensitisation campaign for births and deaths registry combined maternal and child health records books, in Accra, Osafo-Maafo, a former senior minister, added that the efforts of the government have led to the revision and publishing of over 2 million existing Maternal and Child Health Record Books.

"Under the implementation of the PSRRP and the enforcement of the new Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 2020 (Act 1027), certain key areas of the service delivery of the Births and Deaths Registry were reviewed and revised... this has led to the deepening of the collaboration between the Births and Deaths Registry and the Ghana Health Service in improving the notification of births and deaths processes, making it more inclusive and culminating in the introduction of this special form into the already existing Maternal and Child Health Record Book.

"The Maternal and Child Health Record Book is a home-based health record for mothers, newborns, and children; and contains essential information to promote and maintain their health and that of their family.

"Today, as we gather here, this health record book has been revised to cater for the notification of births and foetal deaths to ensure we are able to capture such data for national planning and socio-economic development," he said.

He added, "The collaborative effort of the Births and Deaths Registry and the Ghana Health Service, under the Public Sector Reform for Results Project, has produced nearly one million, two hundred thousand copies of the revised booklet.

"This newly revised booklet becomes the new standard that will continue to be produced to serve the original intended purposes of pre- and post-natal documentation, as well as provide for the notification of births and foetal deaths in the country."

BAI/SARA

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