Senegal: Texting for birth certificates
Published: 9/Aug/2012
Source: IRIN
Only a handful of births are registered in the remote Kolda region of southern Senegal, but a new mobile phone application that allows parents to text the details of a newborn to obtain a birth certificate could cut down school drop-outs when the children are older.
Senegalese law does not make birth declaration mandatory, yet birth certificates are required for enrolling a child in school and registering to write exams. The remoteness of some villages from civil registration centres, combined with poverty, ignorance, and even negligence, have hampered birth registration.
Read further on IRIN website: Texting for birth certificates.