Birth Registration for Every Child by 2030: Are we on track?

This United Nations Children’s Fund report on birth registration for children was published in December 2019. A birth certificate, it states, is the basis on which an individual can establish their legal identity and nationality, avoid the risk of statelessness, and seek protection from violence and exploitation.The report analyses countries’ progress on securing birth registration for children as per the 16th goal of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: ‘Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels’.This publication presents the latest available country data and global and regional estimates of the number of unregistered children. It also assesses progress over time and presents evidence for the amount of effort that will be needed – at both global and regional levels – to achieve universal birth registration by 2030.The primary factors that prevent families worldwide from registering their children include long distances to the nearest registration facility, lack of knowledge about how to register a child, high fees required for registering a birth or obtaining a birth certificate and restrictions based on gender and ethnicity.The 44-page report comprises of six parts – Birth registration and sustainable development (part 1); Progress and challenges in data availability and quality (part 2); Where we stand today (part 3); Barriers and disparities (part 4); Assessing progress and looking to 2030 (part 5) and Realizing every child’s right to be registered at birth (part 6).