who ask UNHCR about birth registration. Vulnerable families in need of assistance are immediately referred to UNHCR’s legal partners who advise and assist them to complete the various steps of registration at hospitals, municipal offices or civil registry offices. In addition, UNHCR coordinates and works with a variety of national and international partners and community-based actors to ensure that all communities receive support for birth registration. Humanitarian partners, outreach volunteers,33 health personnel and Syrian community groups are all involved in raising awareness and identifying cases that need assistance. èè Working through partnerships to achieve registration of vulnerable individuals and groups Legal and paralegal assistance by UNHCR’s NGO partners is making an important difference in the lives of those seeking to obtain birth documentation and establish their nationality. In addition, UNHCR partners with the private sector, development actors, think tanks, faith-based institutions and others. Examples of such collaboration are discussed below. Collaboration at the national level In April 2012, UNHCR, the Serbian Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, and Serbia’s Ombudsman Office signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to prevent statelessness by strengthening engagement and cooperation. Under the MoU a Technical Group was created, consisting of representatives of the signatories, relevant line ministries (Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Ministry of Health) and civil society organizations. The initiative generated numerous activities on the ground and many regulatory amendments. In particular, an amendment to residency regulations and a new judicial procedure to facilitate late registration made it possible for stateless persons and persons at risk of statelessness to obtain birth documentation. Supported by capacity building initiatives in the Roma community, these changes permitted the Roma minority in Serbia and displaced Roma communities from Kosovo, who have been living in Serbia for generations, to obtain documentation. In parallel, targeted trainings of judges, registrars, the police, and employees of social welfare centres harmonized procedures relating to the registration of births and residency, and the determination and acquisition of nationality. This combined effort by UNHCR, the Government and civil society reduced the number of Roma at risk of statelessness from an estimated 30,000 in 2005 to approximately 2,400 in 2017. UNHCR continues to provide funding to help the Roma minority to register births and obtain birth documents. The ancestral territories of the Ngöbe and Buglé peoples lie across the border between Costa Rica and Panama; their traditional lifestyle was characterized by seasonal farm work. A mix of economic, geographic and institutional barriers made it difficult to register the birth of some Chiriticos (Ngöbe and Buglé children born in Costa Rica to undocumented Panamanian parents), creating a risk of statelessness. In both countries, birth registration provides evidence of birthplace, information that is critical to establishing a person’s entitlement to nationality based on birth in the territory. The lack of birth registration among this indigenous community has in some cases continued for generations because parents lack documentation and are not aware of the issue. In 2011, the Committee on the Rights of the Child drew attention to the birth registration of indigenous children in its concluding observations on Costa Rica.34 To implement the Committee’s recommendations, UNHCR and the Costa Rican Supreme Electoral Tribunal signed a Memorandum of Understanding to assist the Ngöbe and Buglé people with birth registration and confirmation of nationality procedures.35 A series of meetings between the Costa Rican Supreme Electoral Tribunal and Panamanian Electoral Tribunal followed, which led to the creation of a bi-national programme to facilitate and ensure birth and late birth registration of children born in Costa Rica to Panamanian parents. Mobile teams of civil registry officials, indigenous leaders and UNHCR staff travelled to remote coffee farms to identify and register cases. The Electoral Tribunals of both countries 33 Outreach Volunteers are individuals who visit their communities to inform them about assistance, government policies, and access to services, including birth registration. 34 CRC, Concluding observations: Costa Rica, CRC/C/CRI/CO/4, 2011, para. 36, at: http://goo.gl/WQSLej. 35 Memorandum of Understanding between the Costa Rican Supreme Electoral Tribunal and UNHCR (in Spanish, 2013), at: http://www.acnur.org/t3/fileadmin/Documentos/BDL/2014/9977.pdf. 9 CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS