How one company is changing how birth certificates are issued

iCivil Africa is a company founded by Adama Sawadogo and Francis Bourrieres in Burkino Faso who have decided to help people living in remote and rural places.

During the first trial of the app, 1500 newborns were registered using the system at 10 different health centers in Burkina Faso's capital city of Ouagadougou between August 2015 and July 2016.

This is a huge step in the right direction as all over Africa a large percentage of newborns do not have their births documented due to many constraints like distance and financial challenges.

It is based on a mobile Application on Android which is used to fill in the details of the newborn after the QR code on the bracelet on the newborn is scanned and then printed to await the signing of necessary of officials.

How does iCivil work?

The birth certificate system involves a smartphone, a bracelet, and encoded text messages to enable ease of documenting the birth of newborns.

The system creates a digital birth certificate using iCivil's Android mobile application and a bracelet with a unique code called a Prooftag Bubble Seal.

Once the bracelet is put on the baby, a midwife scans the code using the app and enters the newborn's details on the mobile interface which automatically sends an encoded text message through iCivil’s platform to the civil registration authorities.

The baby is registered in the system and a birth certificate containing the ID code can be printed and collected from any civil registration center in the country upon presenting the bracelet.

Why did the tech startup conceive this idea?

The company is hoping that the new system will make birth certificates in sub-Saharan Africa more accessible. It has been shown that this is an area where up till now more than half of newborns go unregistered and globally there are an estimated 230 million children under the age of five who are not registered.

In a country like Burkina Faso, proof of the birth must be supplied on the day the baby is born and being able to register the child remotely for those living in rural areas will help get more newborns registered.

In Burkina Faso, which has a population of nearly 17 million, 3 million children were unregistered at the latest census in 2006, with the majority living in rural areas.

Birth registration for children in many rural villages is almost non-existent and the consequences may range from vulnerability to traffickers to difficulties attending school and obtaining a passport.

How one company is changing how birth certificates are issued

An African tech startup has taken it upon themselves the task of registering all newborn babies digitally.

How does iCivil work?

Why did the tech startup conceive this idea?

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