3. Windows of opportunity 3.1 Addressing statelessness through the Sustainable Development Goals The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda offers UNHCR, civil society and the private sector an opportunity to partner with governments to include commitments on universal birth registration in national development plans. In 2017 UNHCR produced a new guidance note on the relevance of the SDGs to its statelessness mandate and the Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024.44 SDG 16 focuses on justice, good governance, and the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies, and draws attention to the situation of marginalized populations. It recognizes that sustainable development can only be achieved if all persons, including those who are stateless, have access to justice and a legal identity, including birth registration. In addition to SDG 16, the achievement of several other goals and targets will also improve birth registration rates, including among persons who are stateless or at risk of statelessness.45 Target 17.18, which seeks to improve and disaggregate data, provides an opportunity to advocate for the inclusion of stateless persons and those of undetermined nationality in States’ CRVS systems. Statistical data that report nationality status will help States to achieve other SDGs and related targets and measure the extent to which stateless persons benefit from public services and investment.46 Full implementation of the SDGs and inclusive development that ‘leaves no one behind’ require States to remove obstacles that stateless persons and those at risk face because they lack legal identity documents (such as birth certificates). Ultimately, they require States to grant stateless persons a nationality and equal rights and development opportunities. A recently adopted HRC resolution emphasizes that stateless children should be included in implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and must enjoy unhindered access to birth registration.47 3.2 Civil Registration and Vital Statistics initiatives in Africa and Asia “  t a practical level, the greatest obstacle to the effective realization of the right to a nationality A in Africa is the lack of functional and universal civil registration systems.” African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child48 Regional initiatives specifically dedicated to strengthening CRVS systems include the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (APAI-CRVS)49 and implementation of the Regional Strategic Plan for the Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Asia and the Pacific.50 In the context of their overall objective to achieve universal and responsive CRVS systems, UNHCR is advising governments to include children born to refugee and stateless parents, and undocumented and at-risk populations, in baseline assessments and national strategic improvement plans. 44 UNHCR, The Sustainable Development Goals and Addressing Statelessness (March 2017), at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/58b6e3364.html. 45 Targets 5.1, 10.3 and 4.1, for example. See footnote 43 for more details. 46 HRC, Strengthening policies and programmes for universal birth registration and vital statistics development (1 July 2016), A/HRC/33/22, at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/57e13b2a4.html. 47 HRC, Rights of the child: protection of the rights of the child in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 21 March 2017, A/HRC/RES/34/L.25, paras. 5 and 13, at: http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/34/L.25. 48 African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, General Comment No. 2 on Article 6 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 16 April 2014, ACERWC/GC/02 (2014), para. 7, at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/54db21734.html. 49 See http://www.apai-crvs.org; and https://www.uneca.org/crvs. 50 ‘Get everyone in the picture’, at: http://www.getinthepicture.org/asia-pacific-crvs-decade-2015-2024. 12 CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS