Engage forcibly displaced and stateless persons in birth registration efforts • Use all opportunities to identify children and adults whose birth has not been registered. This includes UNHCR or government-led refugee/asylum seeker registration and verification exercises, household surveys, rollout of national (digital) identity management systems, and voluntary repatriation processes. Refer identified individuals/ families to birth registration procedures. • Consult with forcibly displaced and stateless persons to identify which groups or categories of children are being “left out” of the birth registration process and for what reasons. Analyse potential barriers, disincentives and enablers to birth registration through community consultations. • Provide information to communities on the importance and procedures for birth registration in languages, formats and media that are appropriate for and accessible to all groups in the community, including procedures for late registration. • Engage key community actors, including traditional, religious and youth leaders along with forcibly displaced and stateless persons, in behaviour change and communication campaigns, to raise awareness regarding the importance of birth registration. • Engage forcibly displaced and stateless persons in the design and implementation of the UNHCR operations approach to birth registration, for instance to jointly advocate for key changes. Partnership and coordination • Build or develop partnerships with key international, national and local organizations experienced in birth registration and legal identity. Integrate birth registration actions into partnerships with organizations led by forcibly displaced and stateless persons wherever possible. • Work with development actors and integrate plans to support access to birth registration for forcibly displaced and stateless persons into national development plans for strengthening legal identity and birth registration. • Link the birth registration of forcibly and stateless displaced persons with their inclusion in the national civil registry system, population register, and other foundational identification systems, where applicable. UNHCR-UNICEF joint collaborative framework highlights birth registration as a key joint priority for our collaboration in the areas of both child protection for refugees, and prevention of and response to statelessness. It outlines the key priorities as well as the roles and responsibilities for both organizations (see below). UNHCR • Assess the barriers preventing refugee and asylum-seeker national birth registration. UNICEF • Advocate for legislation, policies and services inclusive of refugee children with civil registration authorities. • Agree on roles and responsibilities to support national birth registration authorities to register refugee children. • Encourage strengthening linkages between civil registration and health programmes. • Support refugee children’s access to birth registration, as described above. • Agree on roles and responsibilities among the two agencies to support to national birth registration authorities to register refugee children. • Advocate with civil registration authorities for legislation, policies and services to be inclusive of refugee children, in coordination with UNICEF. Birth registration of forcibly displaced and stateless persons 15