Publications

‘Known from Birth: Generating and using evidence to strengthen birth registration systems in low- and middle-income countries’ is the evidence component of Strengthening Birth Registration Systems to Protect Every Child from Child Labour, a UNICEF project supported by the Government of Norway. The project focuses on implementing comprehensive programmes in Cote d’Ivoire, Mozambique and Nigeria to accelerate birth registration (BR) for all children – especially children from the most vulnerable communities – starting from birth.

This brief is an evidence gap map created as part of the Known from Birth project, which is producing a series of products developed collaboratively by UNICEF Innocenti and South Africa Centre for Evidence (SACE). These products examine birth registration and its critical importance for child protection. The project is supported by the Government of Norway and focuses on implementing comprehensive programmes in Cote d’Ivoire, Mozambique and Nigeria to accelerate birth registration for all children – especially children from the most vulnerable communities – starting from birth.

UNICEF supports the Government of Ethiopia to implement a pilot Integrated Safety Net Programme (ISNP) in the Amhara Region from 2019 to 2023. The objective of the programme is to harness the potential synergies that can be realized by integrating social protection policies and programmes. It seeks to test the efficacy of combining cash and services to improve nutrition and health outcomes for children and their households.

This report describes the conceptual framework and methodology for an impact evaluation of the ISNP intervention and presents findings from a baseline study. The baseline study confirms the low socio-economic status of PSNP households in the domains of housing conditions, sanitation, schooling, health seeking, food security, women’s agency, subjective wellbeing, sexual and reproductive health, access to social services, child nutrition and child protection. The PSNP clients are found to be generally worse off than the entirety of rural Amhara – confirming the targeting effectiveness of the PSNP. The study highlights the gaps that the ISNP interventions are meant to address and provides concrete action points for successful implementation.

Evidence and objective assessment are needed more than ever to help enhance the rights and well-being of the world’s children. Researching the changing world around us and evaluating progress are two sides of the same coin, both critical to reimagining a better future for children. In recognition of this, UNICEF celebrates and showcases innovative and influential research and evaluations from our offices around the world every year. For 2020, Innocenti and the Evaluation Office joined forces to find the most rigorous UNICEF studies with greatest influence on policies and programmes that benefit children.

Esta investigación, el segundo de dos estudios de caso, explora la coordinación desde el punto de vista del registro civil y las estadísticas vitales, con especial referencia al registro de los nacimientos en el Perú. Se centra en el papel que puede desempeñar la coordinación para lograr que el registro del nacimiento funcione con eficacia. Aunque la cuestión principal de la que se ocupa este trabajo es la capacidad de las administraciones para prestar el servicio de registro del nacimiento, también se examina la importancia que reside en la comprensión de la coordinación para la mejora de los servicios públicos, especialmente los dirigidos a los niños.

The Paper explores coordination through the lens of civil registration and vital statistics, with particular reference to birth registration in Peru. It focuses on the role that coordination can play in making birth registration function effectively. While the capacity of governments to deliver the function of birth registration is central to this paper, the role that understanding coordination can play in improving public services is examined, especially services for children. The capacity to register the births of children is a long-standing function of governments, and can be seen as a test of government effectiveness. In Peru, backward mapping showed that the trails from local and district registrars to the government registration organization (RENIEC) stopped almost immediately. This seems to point towards the centralized structure and top-down approach of RENIEC; to sustain its achievements to date and to reach the final three per cent of unregistered births it should consider incentivizing and empowering local and community administrations.

UNICEF identifies coordination as a determinant of results for children, alongside other governance issues such as budgeting, management and legislation. As part of wider analysis of barriers and bottlenecks impeding results, UNICEF Country Offices are encouraged to identify where significant impediments to coordination exist, and to analyze what can be done to address them. But how does one identify and analyze coordination? What are it various components? How is it achieved? Enhancing and strengthening coordination can seem to be the answer, or at least an answer, to improving the translation of policy into practice, strengthening service delivery and, ultimately, getting results for money spent.

O direito das crianças a serem registadas e o seu direito a um nome e uma identidade estão claramente enunciados na Convenção sobre os Direitos da Criança. O registo de nascimento é instrumental para salvaguardar os direitos humanos, uma vez que constitui a “prova” oficial da existência de uma criança. Essa documentação é crucial, sobretudo em tempos de conflito armado ou de instabilidade. A “invisibilidade” das crianças não-registadas aumenta a sua vulnerabilidade e o risco de as violações dos seus direitos passarem despercebidas. Assegurar o registo de nascimento das crianças que se encontram numa situação de conflito ou subsequente a um conflito é, pois, uma prioridade.

This Digest looks at birth registration, a fundamental human right that opens the door to other rights, including education and health care, participation and protection. It explains why the births of more than 50 million babies go unregistered every year. In legal terms, these children do not exist and their right to an official name and nationality is denied. Their access to basic services may be severely jeopardised and they may find themselves more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. The effects can last a lifetime, with the unregistered adult unable to vote, open a bank account or obtain a marriage licence. Non-registration also has serious implications for the State. Put simply, countries need to know how many people they have and how many there are likely to be in the future, in order to plan effectively. This Digest emphasizes the crucial importance of birth registration, explores the obstacles to universal registration and highlights the actions - including awareness raising, legislative changes, resource allocation and capacity building - that are needed to ensure the registration of every child.

Le présent Digest étudie l’enregistrement de la naissance, un droit humain fondamental, qui est aussi la clé d’autres droits à l’éducation, aux soins de santé, à la participation, à la protection. Il explique comment il se fait que chaque année, plus de 50 millions de naissances ne soient pas enregistrées. Ces nouveau-nés n’existent pas aux yeux de la loi, et ils se voient dénier leur droit à un nom officiel et à une nationalité. Leur accès aux services de santé de base risque de se heurter à de terribles obstacles, et ils sont plus vulnérables aux abus et à l’exploitation. Les effets du non-enregistrement de la naissance peuvent se faire sentir tout au long de la vie, interdisant à l’adulte de voter, d’ouvrir un compte en banque, de se marier légalement. Pour l’Etat aussi, les implications en sont graves. Les pays ont en effet besoin, pour établir une planification efficace, de savoir quelle est leur population actuelle et quelle elle devrait être dans l’avenir. Ce Digest insiste sur l’importance cruciale de l’enregistrement des naissances, examine les obstacles à un enregistrement universel, et met en lumière les actions - sensibilisation, changements dans la législation, allocations de ressources et constitution de capacités - qui devront être prises pour garantir l’enregistrement de tous les enfants.

Este número del Innocenti Digest se está dedicado al tema del registro de nacimiento, un derecho humano fundamental que abre el camino a los demás derechos, como el derecho a la educación y a los cuidados médicos, a la participación y a la protección. Se explica por qué cada año queda sin inscribir en un registro el nacimiento de más de 50 millones de bebés. Jurídicamente hablando, estos niños no existen y se les niega el derecho a tener un nombre y una nacionalidad oficiales. Sus posibilidades concretas de acceder a los servicios básicos pueden verse seriamente comprometidas y los niños mismos pueden encontrarse en una situación de mayor vulnerabilidad frente a los abusos y la explotación.