Realising the right to an identity in Myanmar
More than one billion people around the world lack an official identity. In Myanmar, nearly one in five children, have not had their births registered. Following the success of its birth registration initiative in Pakistan, Telenor worked with UNICEF and the Government of Myanmar to expand the programme there.
The Mobile Birth and Death Registration (MBDR) initiative, which launched in Mon State in October 2019, enables midwives to enter birth and death registrations on a smartphone. The agreement between Telenor, UNICEF and the Government of Myanmar extends an existing electronic platform and aims to increase birth and death registration coverage, improve data confidentiality and security and reduce the need for paperwork.
Being able to prove one’s identity as a child is crucial – for school, for healthcare and for protection from exploitation. It is Telenor Group’s ambition to use innovative mobile technology to facilitate access to identity for seven million people across its footprint by 2020. In Myanmar, the company aims to reduce the time it takes to receive a birth registration certificate from 3-6 months to around one month.
