Universal Birth Registration

Plan sponsored two short advertisements at the 2007 Pan-African Film Festival highlighting the importance of Universal Birth Registration.

The story of a boy {.wmv, 3.11MB}

The story of a girl {.wmv, 3.06MB}

According to UNICEF, 51 million children under five — more than a third of the world's under-five population — each year are not registered at birth.

How important is a simple piece of paper?

Without a birth certificate, children can be denied many of their rights. They may be denied access to education, health care and inheritance rights. Without a birth certificate to prove their age, many children also fall victim to early marriage, child labor, and use in combat.

The implications of birth registration also extend long into adulthood. A birth certificate is often a prerequisite to the right to vote and be elected, to work, to open a bank account and inherit, to receive welfare benefits, and to move freely within and between countries.

Visit Plan's Count Every Child website to learn more about universal birth registration.

What is Plan doing?

The impact of having a birth certificate is so far-reaching that Plan has joined forces with UNICEF, national and local governments, international organizations and groups around the world to make birth registration accessible to all, free, confidential, safe and simple.

Program initiatives include grassroots networking, building alliances, raising awareness and legal reform. Birth registration initiatives that are underway in several Plan program areas include:

registration workshops for local authorities
training and technical support for registration staff
child-centered awareness activities
mother’s Group meetings discussions
mobile registration projects

As a result, millions of children have already been registered — notably 3.2 million in India’s state of Orissa and more than 4 million in Bangladesh.