Over 5 million Cambodians receive birth certificates

Within 8 months of Plan-supported mobile civil registration campaign, 5.7 million Cambodians (46 percent of the total population) have received their birth certificates.

A Cambodian family being registered and given birth certificates by one of the mobile registration units

The nationwide mobile civil registration started on 1st October 2004 in order to bring the entire population under a uniform civil registration system after the Khymer Rouge. The mobile civil registration is part of the Commune Council Development Project being implemented by the Ministry of Interior with the support of Plan Cambodia and the Asian Development Bank.

Over 13,000 registration officials have been busy registering the Cambodia population under the newly established civil registration system.

Earlier, Shabir Ahmed, Coordinator of the Plan's assistance highlighted the importance of the project: "Mobile registration enables the development of planning and implementation skills at commune level. Plan's role has been that of a facilitator as it is the Ministry of Interior," said Ahmed.

Plan Cambodia's technical assistance has played a decisive role in the success of the campaign. Plan Cambodia provided technical support for the national planning, implementation and monitoring of the project.

Some of the many children benefiting from this project

In order to educate people about the importance of birth registration Plan Cambodia undertook a massive advocacy and public information campaign:

• A large number of posters were displayed all over the country
• A children fair was organised with the participation of 4,000 children and their parents highlighting birth registration as the right of every child
• Plan also organised a photo exhibition with the theme - Birth Registration: Enhancing Opportunities for Children'and was inaugurated by the Deputy Prime Minister

The project is set to achieve that nearly 80 percent of the total population will get their birth certificates by the end of 2005.