Birth Registration: BUNEC Launches Training Programme, Evaluates World Bank Project

In order to have a better feel of the situation on the ground, Alexandre Marie Yomo, the General Manager of the National Civil Status Registration Office, BUNEC, was recently in Douala, Littoral Region on two occasions. The first trip from April 5, 2019 was to assess the implementation of a World Bank-funded project to tackle challenges with the country’s civil status system.

The priority regions chosen for the project include Littoral (Douala 5 Sub-divisional Council). Alexandre Marie Yomo visited the Littoral regional BUNEC office as well as civil status registration centres in Douala 5 Sub-divisional Council. In effect, the tour was to find out the impact of the project on birth registration and encourage staff to put funds to proper use. In the Mbanya Pays-Bas (at “Sable” near Bonamoussadi), the civil status officer, Joseph Wamba Ngapou, said all was going well. Alexandre Marie Yomo encouraged him to continue to sensitise the public on the need to respect civil status laws. “The project has greatly helped in improving our work,” Joseph Wamba admitted.

The challenges raised by field staff included outstanding office rents, unpaid water and electricity bills, unavailability of registers on time and lack of financial motivation for civil status officers. “I noticed improvements in service delivery, met people who spontaneously request birth, marriage and death certificates. The project has helped in improving our work. It is going on well and we intend to expand it to other councils,” the BUNEC General Manager noted. Alexandre Marie Yomo was also in Douala from May 7-8, 2019 to launch a training programme with support from the German Cooperation, GiZ. The workshops are for staff in some regions in the country selected for the pilot phase of reform of the civil status system.

They are aimed at identifying training needs for civil status stakeholders in order to come up with an appropriate training programme. After Douala, more...