eGovAfrica

Digital Birth Registration

Giving every child a legal identity — even in active conflict zones.

A clinician at a maternity ward in eastern DRC registers a newborn on the eGov tablet while the mother holds her baby
  • Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
  • Reduced Inequalities
From the field — eGov digital birth registration in eastern DRC (40 sec).

The problem

  • UNICEF estimates that fewer than 40% of Congolese children under five have a registered birth — and the number is far lower in conflict-affected provinces like Nord-Kivu and Sud-Kivu.
  • The traditional paper register sits at the local civil registry, often far from the maternity ward. Many families never make the journey. Many registers are lost, water-damaged, or burned in conflict.
  • When a paper register is destroyed, every name in it disappears with it. There is no backup, no audit trail, no second copy.
  • Without legal identity, an entire generation grows up invisible to the state that is meant to protect them.

Our solution

eGov Africa's civil-registry platform (Etat Civil) puts birth registration on a tablet at the bedside. When a baby is born in one of our 14 partner hospitals, the registrar opens the app, captures the mother's and child's details, and a legal birth certificate is generated within minutes. The data is signed, encrypted, and stored on the tablet — then syncs to the central provincial register whenever connectivity is available. No paper to lose, no journey for the family to make, no bottleneck at the central registry. The certificate the family takes home is a proper legal document, recognised by the provincial authority. Because every record is timestamped and tamper-evident, a destroyed copy can always be re-issued from the central database. We started this work at Hôpital de Keshero. It now runs at 14 hospitals across Nord-Kivu and Sud-Kivu, including Hôpital de Panzi in Bukavu — the hospital founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege.

From Pilot to Programme — the live numbers

12,912

Registrations to date

12,687

Children with a legal identity

14

Hospitals issuing certificates

2

Provinces live (Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu)

Now Operational at Panzi Hospital

The system is now deployed at Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege. Panzi serves thousands of women and children annually, many of whom are survivors of sexual violence.

Scaling Plan

  1. 1.Expand to all major hospitals in South Kivu province.
  2. 2.Deploy in North Kivu when security conditions allow.
  3. 3.Train 500+ frontline health workers on the digital system.
  4. 4.Integrate with national civil registry systems.
  5. 5.Develop community-based registration for births outside hospitals.

Help Us Register Every Child

Every $1 funds one birth registration. Help us give every child a legal identity.

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