Plan International, Rita sign birth registration contract worth 52m/-

Plan International and the Registration, Insolvency and Trustees Agency (RITA) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding on a pilot project on birth registration in Kibaha District, Coast Region worth 52m/-.

Speaking in Dar es Salaam during the signing ceremony, Rita CEO, Dickson Emaimu said that a total of 39.9m/- had been paid to his agency, adding that 12m/- would be used by Plan Tanzania for the implementation of the same.

He said that the funds would be directed towards staff training and baseline survey.

They would also help to refurbish, purchase office equipment, cover registration related costs, the issuing of birth certificates to children as well as carrying out awareness campaigns.

`One of the most important things in child registration is to enhance the nation through provision of unique numbers to persons from the point of entry (birth to death) where by other systems would utilize this number as reference in various transactions,` he said.

He said that the project should ensure that proper records on births and births registration reduced government expenditure through sharing primary data generated by Rita.

He mentioned some of the areas that the government could reduce the expenditure as national ID exercise, electoral commission, census, health and institutions of Higher Education Students� Loans Board.

Others would be banking and financial institutions, immigration Department, and employment organization.

Emaimu said that the pilot Programme would use 800m/- to cover nine areas of Bagamoyo, Kibaha, Hai, Mtwara, Magu, Temeke, Kinondoni, Ilala and Makete.

`So far we have received 360,000/- from UNICEF, Plan, Rita and UNDP and we urge other organizations to contribute too,` said Emaimu.

For his part, Plan International Country Director David Muthungu said that its mission was to achieve lasting improvements in the quality of life of the deprived people in the developing countries through a process that united people across cultures.

He said that Plan International would ensure that all children in the country were registered and would always fight for their rights.

The organization has so far implemented programmes on water and sanitation, learning live hood and children voice in Ifakara, Geita, Mwanza, Kibaha, Kisarawe and Dar es Salaam.

Plan International fosters relations to increase the understanding among peoples of different cultures and promote their rights and interests.