Need for speed in removing barriers to birth registration, ID integration in Africa

Speakers on two panels dedicated to birth registration early on Day 3 of the ongoing ID4Africa 2025 AGM in Addis Ababa were convergent in their views about the urgency in clearing away the barriers still standing in the way of effective birth registration on the continent.

In one of the panels that looked at continental progress in Africa and the policies driving it, speakers noted that the birth registration figures in sub-Saharan Africa do not sit well with the goals of the SDG 16.9 target and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 which both call for legal identity for everyone by 2030.

Referencing the latest UNICEF global birth registration report, the institution’s Africa regional Child Protection advisor, Nankali Maksud, regretted that Africa still accounts for at least 90 million unregistered children in the world, with the continent’s birth registration rate standing at just 51 percent. The Eastern Africa region, she said, tails the continent with the lowest registration figures.

Serious concerns that must be addressed

“Globally, more than half of unregistered children live in Sub-Saharan Africa. And this figure will grow if we don’t change course. Eastern Africa, in particular, is home to 43 million unregistered children,” she said.

This, she opined, “is not the worst picture, but it does mean that nearly half of our children remain unregistered, which is a very serious concern we must address.”

According to Maksud, there’s been some progress in birth registration but with less speed than is required, meaning that African countries must accelerate their pace because “every strong national ID system is based on birth registration.”

“It’s true there’s been steady progress in birth registration in Africa in the past 15 years, but the question is how fast are countries doing that?” she asked.

“Unless we accelerate, the number of unregistered children in Sub-Saharan Africa could exceed 100 million after 2030. We need systems that respond to the pace at which children are born. If birth registration is a child’s first form of national ID, then we must do everything we can to ensure every child in Africa is registered,” she appealed.

She warned of the risk of Africa missing the 2030 target of universal birth registration and legal identity for all, but said even if that happens, governments must make sure they “at least align with Agenda 2063” of the African Union.

“But really, if we’re committed to Africa and to our children, we must aim to meet these goals sooner rather than later. The real issue is the pace. We’re on the right path, but not moving fast enough,” she said, emphasizing that “we must also explore opportunities to link birth registration with national ID systems and aim for full coverage, not just for today’s children, but for those of the future.”

Above all, she also remarked that countries must also aim to make the birth registration process inclusive by addressing gaps having to do with “unregistered migrant children or those with disabilities.”

Legal reforms, effective implementation

Taking the cue from Maksud, her colleague from UNICEF, Bhaskar Mishra, equally painted a grim picture, which he said can however be reversed if countries take their responsibility up front, and engage in the kind of reforms that are necessary to get their civil registration systems working more effectively.

Among other things, he called on countries to pay more attention to legal reforms, decentralize birth registration services and implement last-mile measures for countries with huge populations in difficult-to-reach communities.

“Given the legality of civil registration processes, removing discrimination in law, policy, and practice should be a non-negotiable priority and the foundation of other strategies to reach the entire population, everyone, everywhere,” Mishra said.

“Legal identity leads to legal equality. It is a key pillar of the ‘leaving no one behind’ agenda. We need to pay more attention to legal reforms and, more specifically, to their implementation on the ground, particularly in addressing instances of de facto discrimination,” he advised.

He mentioned some figures, stating: “More than 20 countries in Africa have under-5 birth registration rates between 75 and 99 percent, and therefore require last-mile strategies to reach 100 percent. Some of them like South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, and Ghana have been hovering in this range for several years, so they need to step up their game.”

Country experiences

In the second panel, four countries shared their specific experiences in birth registration. Civil registration representatives from the governments of Senegal, Chad, Mali, and Sierra Leone, explained the efforts they are currently engaged in with regard to digitizing their civil registration systems and linking them with health facilities to ease registration of children at the time of their birth.

Senegal talked of efforts to decentralize birth registration process, Chad noted its efforts to take the birth registration activity to hospitals and other health facilities, Mali outlined its efforts to facilitate the process in local councils and remote communities without health facilities as well as the expansion of civil registration centres, while Sierra Leone said is legal reforms and interoperability efforts which are helping the country address issues and reduce gaps.

All presentations showed several challenges still bedevil birth registration in many African countries, but as Mishra and Nankali advised, it is time for these nations to quickly go back to the basics, and ensure that every child is registered at birth or immediately after, and not later than the legally permissible window.

Removing barriers to civil registration-ID integration

Two other related panels later in the afternoon discussed the importance of integrating civil registration and national ID systems as one of the ways of accelerating the attainment of expected results. At least five countries, namely Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, The Gambia, Uganda, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea, all shared their specific country experiences on efforts they are deploying to remove barriers to civil registration-ID integration, and how this can boost birth and death registration.

These factors include integrating information systems and databases, simplifying administrative procedures, ensuring effective involving of all stakeholders, and facilitating access to birth and death registration services, all of them of course driven by strong political will and good governance frameworks.

Another panel later in the day gave updates about the ACSA initiative which has been developed to with the aim of expediting the development of digitized civil registration systems in Africa.

It is an initiative which is owned and led by African countries put in place to ensure that civil registration can effectively support development objectives and improve people’s lives. Discussion participants had the opportunity to share views on creating norms to guide the digitization of civil registration systems under the ACSA framework.

Article Topics

Africa  |  African Union  |  Agenda 2063  |  birth registration  |  civil registration  |  digital identity  |  ID4Africa  |  ID4Africa 2025  |  Identification for Development (ID4D)  |  legal identity  |  SDG 16.9  |  UNICEF