Tanzania has the second-lowest rate of birth registration in the Eastern and Southern African region.

There are many reasons children do not get registered. Sometimes the costs are prohibitive or the birth registration services are too far away for families to access them. Sometimes families are simply unaware of how to register a birth， or of the importance of doing so.

As Birgithe Lund-Henriksen， UNICEF Tanzania’s Chief of Child Protection explains， a child without a birth certificate can face many challenges later in life， such as proving his or her age in a court of law， accessing certain services like opening a bank account or getting a passport， and being able to apply for certain jobs.

“Equally important for the Government of Tanzania， without a functioning birth registration system there is no clear picture at any given time of the number of children by age in Tanzania，” she adds. “This is critical information for provision of basic social services.”

An innovative programme piloted in Tanzania’s Mbeya region uses mobile phone technology to make birth registration simple， affordable and widely accessible. The application is designed to work on all mobile phones and operating systems， and only requires mobile coverage to send and receive data. July 2013 marked the roll-out of the new birth registration system in Mbeya region， using the mobile application.

Before the start of the new birth registration strategy in Mbeya region， there were more than 383，000 children under 5 without a birth certificate – approximately 90 per cent of under‐5s. Six months later， more than 150，000 under‐5s have been registered and issued birth certificates， representing 36 per cent of children under 5.

Following the success in Mbeya， the system is scheduled to be introduced in an additional four regions， with the aim to register more than 1 million children under 5 by 2015. This innovation has come at a time when mobile solutions are critical to ensuring Tanzania’s next generation gets the best start in life.