6 Realizing every child’s right to be registered at birth Every birth should be recorded, and every child should be recognized before the law. Only then can societies worldwide be truly inclusive and equitable. By providing all children with proof of legal identity from day one, their rights can be protected and universal access to social services can be enabled. If we are to fulfil our promise to leave no one behind, we must ensure that every child is registered at birth and receives a passport to lifelong protection – a birth certificate. Numerous barriers, including financial ones, can hinder a child’s right to be registered at birth. However, when governments make birth registration and certification free, the process becomes more accessible to the poorest segments of the population. This, in turn, helps break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. The evidence presented in this report suggests that investments to increase birth registration levels have begun to yield results. But it also shows that much more effort is needed to reach the goal of universal birth registration and to improve civil registries to the point where such gains are irreversible. If commitment is sustained and programmes strengthened, ongoing progress will gain momentum, and the promise of fulfilling every child’s birth right will be achieved. The statistical analyses on the preceding pages show that unregistered children come from the poorest households, live in rural areas and have mothers with no or little formal education. In some countries, certain ethnic or religious groups have lower birth registration levels than the national average. The data also show that many children are registered later in life. But even then, many fail to obtain a birth certificate. All of these findings suggest that interventions to accelerate progress in birth registration should be given priority, especially in rural areas within a country and among socially disadvantaged groups, and targeted action must be taken to ensure that all population groups are covered. Progress in birth registration and certification can be accelerated and coverage expanded through investment in safe and innovative technologies, such as telecommunication networks and digital databases, which bring services closer to families. That said, any technological solutions need to be thoroughly vetted to 34 Birth Registration for Every Child by 2030: Are we on track? protect data and information collected about children and their caregivers. Linked and interoperable systems – both digitized and traditional – must be carefully regulated through monitoring and accountability to ensure their security and confidentiality. Achieving such progress will require engagement and buyin at all levels, from governments to local communities. Governments need to understand that birth registration is a smart investment from both a social and economic point of view, and communities must understand why and how it benefits them. Without community demand for services, there is much less incentive for governments to act and for communities to change their current way of doing things.