Japan extends $5 million-aid for birth registration project in Mindanao
Japan is contributing around $5.5 million for a program that will facilitate the birth registration of children in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Endo Kazuya on Tuesday, June 11, signed and exchanged notes for "The Project for Promoting Digital Birth Registration of Populations at Risk of Statelessness in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM)" with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Philippines Head of National Office Maria Ermina Valdeavilla-Gallardo.
The program's aim is to "significantly enhance this project and expand coverage to decommissioned combatants and their families, which is in line with the efforts to contribute to the normalization process under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro," the Japanese embassy said.
According to the embassy, the project will work on the following within a 30-month period:
• Conduct capacity building for local government/Local Civil Registrars
• Provide IT equipment for digitization of the process and the equipment for mobile birth registration caravans
• Conduct birth registration of 30,000 individuals
• Conduct awareness-raising activities in target communities
• Development assistance for communities in the form of a quick impact project
"By establishing the necessary mechanisms and systems, the project will contribute to the overall improvement of birth registration in the region by reaching 92 percent of the estimated one million unregistered individuals, with 130,000 benefitting in the next 30 months and 800,000 more indirectly benefiting in the next 10 years," the embassy said.