1. Accelerating Birth Registration in Africa Learning from each other: country experiences in registering births of children by
Cornelius Williams, Regional Adviser, Child Protection,
UNICEF Regional Office, Nairobi

2. Levels of birth registration in Africa
Source: Data from DHS and MICS 2009.

3. 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.

4. 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 rates
Most countries show that birth registration is highest among the richest 20% of population.
Source: The Rights Start to Life: A Statistical Analysis of
Birth Registration. UNICEF, 2005 – data from 48 countries drawn from MICS and DHS.

5. 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 registered
Two out of three children in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia not registered
In some countries – disparities growing in registration between rich and poor; urban/rural areas; minority groups

6. To Recap, Birth Registration is…
State’s first acknowledgement of a child’s existence.
Claim to privileges and services – health, education, access to social assistance; family tracing; inheritance
Protection from
Trafficking; Early marriage; Premature enlistment in armed forces
Child labour; Criminal prosecution as an adult
Provides accurate data for planning
At national and local levels.

7. Key mandates Convention on the Rights of the Child
Article 7
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child
Article 6
Call for Accelerated Action on the Implementation of the Plan of Action Towards Africa fit for Children (
Priority Action 7 (a)
Both African Charter and Call for Accelerated Action are distributed to all participants in their kits.

8. 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
“For children to count they must be counted,”- Harry Belafonte, Dakar, 23rd Feb, 2004

9. Vicious cycle in birth registration…
No registration
No demand
Weak system
No benefits
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.

10. Government achievements in just one year - 2009
Legal reforms: Malawi; Uganda; DRC.
Policy and strategy strengthening: Swaziland and DRC
Capacity building & community awareness raising: Cote D’Ivoire and Angola
Integration with health services: Sudan, Namibia, Madagascar
Integration with education: Comoros, Madagascar, Swaziland
Legal Reform: Malawi – National BR Bill; Uganda: Reforms continue on B and Death Regn Act. DRC: time extension for registering births
Policy: Swaziland – Children’s Policy including BR: DRC 5 Year National BR Plan
Cap bldg: Training of Registrars in Cote and Theatre in Angola

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

12. “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”.
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