Allow me to begin by recalling that SDG 16.9 is a commitment towards achieving universal (i.e., 100%) registration of all births of children aged below 5.

Significant progress has been made

Great strides have been made in raising the levels of birth registration in Africa; as of 2019, 20 countries were on track to register the births of all children by 2030. With sustained progress, Africa could continue to see fewer unregistered children in the years to come; with an acceleration of progress, the number of unregistered children in 2030 could be 58 million less than it is today (91 million). In December 2024, UNICEF will release a data driven global Birth Registration report, which will include the most up to date data and trends globally including Africa since 2019.1

Our main priorities

Our policy response must continue to recognize birth registration as a human right and facilitate the realization of this right free of charge for all population groups without discrimination—including vulnerable populations, and the economically and socially marginalized, who are in critical need of such access. Our data shows that children living in remote/rural areas and those in the lowest wealth quintiles in Africa continue to lag behind, with the gap in birth registration between the richest and poorest children widening over two decades, most notably in Central Africa. It is critical that our policy response addresses these disparities, especially by underlining that birth registration is a Human Right and a primary responsibility of a government towards its people.

Our priorities and solutions must be evidence-based—anchored in solid research, and data. With only five years left until 2030, it's crucial to focus on strategies that are proven to work and have yielded results. At UNICEF, our engagement with different countries, and a multi-country evaluation in West and Central Africa on birth registration has pointed us to three core strategies to accelerate Birth Registration i.e., interoperability, decentralization and digitalization.

Interoperability (primarily with health and other social services): We have seen drastic improvements in birth registration when civil registration is integrated into primary health care programs, especially when Ministries of Health are involved in the declaration of births.

• In Cote D'Ivoire, integrating birth registration services with health services—particularly maternity and immunization services—led to a 10% increase in birth registration rates for children under 1, rising from 58% in 2018 to 68% in 2021 and a 7% increase in Chad between 2021 and 2023.

• In Senegal, a policy supported interface between the National Education Management System and the national civil registration system, has enabled the real-time monitoring of the birth registration status of school going children and a mechanism to follow-up to facilitate their registration. Between 2022 and 2024, 50% of unregistered school-going children had their registration regularized.

Decentralization: Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) across various countries have documented that the inaccessibility of birth registration services is a significant barrier to registration. Decentralization, which involves delegating civil registration responsibilities to sub-national authorities, is a key strategy for improving access to registration services.

• In Cameroon, the proportion of birth registered (for children Under 1) increased from 61.9 per cent in 2018 to almost 66 per cent in 2023, a change that is largely attributed to the decentralization of civil registration services to the sub national level and the integration of birth registration into the national health development plan.

Digitalization: We have witnessed the transformative power of digital technology in facilitating access to birth registration in hard-to-reach and remote areas, as well as for disadvantaged populations, while also streamlining the registration processes.

• In Liberia, integrating birth registration into the electronic health system — the District Health Information System (DHIS 2)—has simplified the registration process, improved access to services, and led to better outcomes. The birth registration rate for children under 5 was estimated at 66% in 2021 (DHS 2019-20), a notable increase from the 25% reported in 2013 (DHS 2013).

• In Chad, Tasdjil—a locally developed digital birth registration application —is being utilized to register births in refugee camps along the Chad-Sudan border in the provinces of Ouaddaï, Sila and Wadi Fira.

A cross-cutting approach

Adopt a whole-of-government approach and foster collaboration across various sectors, including local and international development partners. Birth registration and CRVS systems are inherently multi-sectoral, making stakeholder engagement essential for effective implementation. As key beneficiaries of legal identity information, all government entities must actively participate in facilitating the registration of vital events as notifiers, declarants and potential financiers of CRVS systems. The support of local and international development partners is crucial to ensuring that country programs benefit from robust international guidelines, recommendations, and best practices.