SAP Africa has announced the launch of a mobile application prototype to simplify the birth registration process in Kenya, saving costs and time and easing access to education, healthcare and productive employment.
According to Professor Jan Eloff and Elmarie Venter at the SAP Innovation Centre in Pretoria, South Africa, the company hopes to secure the buy-in the the Kenyan government and then roll it out in the country and across the continent in future.
“SAP’s challenge was to develop a simple mobile birth registration application prototype to enable a responsible individual, with the help of a mobile phone, to register the birth of any child within 90 days,” the pair said.
Currently, Sub-Saharan Africa registers two out of three children, with one-third therefore denied their right to an identity and fulfilment of additional rights and protection as citizens.
SAP said registration of Kenyan births is a time-consuming, difficult and expensive manual process which led to long processing times and analysis of the collected data. Moreover, Kenyan Civil Registration Department offices are not always easy to reach and citizens have not always understood the benefits of having a child registered.
The company said the new SAP technology offering brings together a pressing social issue and technological innovation in a hands-on, simple to use fashion that can significantly impact lives in Africa.
“Birth registration is a fundamental right for all children and as such it is contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; thus placing an obligation on states to ensure this right,” said Eloff.
“SAP’s Rural Births Registration application seeks to support these rights and improve the lives of citizens as a result.”
