Slide 1

byCornelius Williams, Regional Adviser, Child Protection,UNICEF Regional Office, Nairobi

Income levels and registration rates
No correlation between income and registration levels:

Togo; Comoros; Madagascar, Burundi High registration levels with relatively low GDPs

Botswana, Swaziland higher GDPs, but lower levels of registration.

However,
Statistical analysis show that children under five whose births have not been registered, tend to:be poor, live in rural areas, have limited access to health care, are not attending early childhood education, have higher levels of malnutrition and have higher mortality ratesMost countries show that birth registration is highest among the richest 20% of population.

Globally,
Around 51 million children born in 2007 have not had their births registered.One in four developing countries have less than half of the births of children registeredTwo out of three children in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia not registeredIn some countries disparities growing in registration between rich and poor; urban/rural areas; minority groups

To Recap, Birth Registration is
States first acknowledgement of a childs existence. Claim to privileges and services health, education, access to social assistance; family tracing; inheritanceProtection from Trafficking; Early marriage; Premature enlistment in armed forcesChild labour; Criminal prosecution as an adultProvides accurate data for planningAt national and local levels.

Key mandates
Convention on the Rights of the ChildArticle 7African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the ChildArticle 6Call for Accelerated Action on the Implementation of the Plan of Action Towards Africa fit for Children (2008-2112Priority Action 7 (a)

African initiatives
Kampala meeting in 2002 of 10 Anglophone Countries; September 2005, 21 countries (UNICEF and PLAN)African Day of the Child, 2003 theme of Birth Registration.Dakar meeting of 23 Countries of West and Central Africa in 2004 (UNICEF and PLAN)

Lusophone meeting Angola, 2005

Vicious cycle in birth registration

Government achievements in just one year - 2009
Legal reforms: Malawi; Uganda; DRC. Policy and strategy strengthening: Swaziland and DRCCapacity building & community awareness raising: Cote DIvoire and AngolaIntegration with health services: Sudan, Namibia, MadagascarIntegration with education: Comoros, Madagascar, Swaziland

In Conclusion
Strong mandate from the African Charter, the Call for Accelerated Action and the CRC for action towards Universal Birth RegistrationEvidence from countries in Africa on how progress is possible even with limited resourcesOpportunity to make a strong push to achieve Universal Birth Registration with the focus on reaching the Millennium Development Goals in 2015

An effective system of birth registration is fundamental not only to the fulfillment of child rights but also the rational operation of a humane government in the modern world

- Justice Unity Dow, in UNICEF Progress of Nations, 1998.

Source: Data from DHS and MICS 2009.
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Source: The Rights Start to Life: A Statistical Analysis ofBirth Registration. UNICEF, 2005 data from 48 countries drawn from MICS and DHS.
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Both African Charter and Call for Accelerated Action are distributed to all participants in their kits.
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Speak to Barriers on both Demand Side and Supply Side lack of understanding why BR is needed; Costs of registration including informal costs, time and logistics issues. Problems with Laws and Capacity among implementing agencies; Lack of modern equipment like computers and resources to meet the costs.
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Legal Reform: Malawi National BR Bill; Uganda: Reforms continue on B and Death Regn Act. DRC: time extension for registering birthsPolicy: Swaziland Childrens Policy including BR: DRC 5 Year National BR PlanCap bldg: Training of Registrars in Cote and Theatre in Angola
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February 2010 Unity Dow was sworn in as Justice of the IICDRC (Interim Independent Constitutional Dispute Resolution Court) of Kenya by the Kenyan President to serve implementing the new constitution in Kenya. Unity Dow (born 1959) is a judge, human rights activist, and writer from Botswana. After retiring from the High Court Botswana, after 11 years of service, she opened the Legal Firm "Dow & Associates" in Botswana
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