I. Introduction
Proof of identity is vital in modern society. Individuals need identity documents to participate in many
aspects of civil, political, and economic life. These include obtaining a job in the formal sector, opening
a bank account, borrowing from a financial institution, and owning a property or a business in addition
to traveling, voting, and gaining access to health and social welfare services. For women and girls, legal
identity is a stepping stone to empowerment, agency, and freedom of movement. Hence, it is a vital
enabler of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and
girls. However, many women and girls do not have access to legal identity. Globally, it is estimated that 1
billion people are unable to prove their identity, and millions more have forms of identification that cannot
be reliably verified or authenticated (World Bank 2015). This gap disproportionately affects women and
girls, as several low-income countries have a gender gap in access to ID (figure 1).
Figure 1. Top 10 countries with gender gaps in ID
100%
94%
90%
86%
46%
79%
80%
70%
14.3%
72%
69%
45.8%
15.5%
65%
63%
60%
50%
19.7%
57%
55%
13.9%
55%
49%
48%
48%
17.8%
25.1%
40%
34.4%
51%
37%
32%
32%
16.6%
32%
30%
21%
20%
20.2%
11%
10%
0%
Afghanistan
Chad
Source: World Bank 2018d.
Niger
South Sudan
Ethiopia
Men with ID (%)
Benin
Togo
Mali
Pakistan
Mozambique
Women with ID (%)
The importance of legal identity starts at birth, as without birth registration and certification, a child has no
recognition before the law.1 Birth registration is essential for a child’s acquisition of a name and nationality
and an important foundation for child protection measures (UNICEF 2013). Globally, only 71 percent of
children under the age of five are registered at birth, which drops to 56 percent in the poorest wealth
quintile of the world (UNICEF 2017a). Obtaining a birth certificate is equally crucial. Birth certificates serve
as ‘foundational documents’, which are necessary to obtain national IDs, passports, social security cards,
or driver licenses. Furthermore, a birth certificate constitutes proof of age and is often a means to enforce
laws designed to protect children, such as juvenile justice proceedings, child labor laws, minimum age of
legal marriage laws, and laws prohibiting conscription of minors into the armed forces. A birth certificate
may also be essential to avoid statelessness, as it provides information needed to prove entitlement to a
nationality, such as place of birth and parents’ information (Apland et al. 2015; Dahan and Hanmer 2015;
Hanmer and Elefante 2016; Save the Children 2013; UNICEF 2013; UNHCR 2017).
1