Birth Registration in Emergencies: A Review of Best Practices in Humanitarian Action

"Birth registration as part of a functional CRVS [civil registration and vital statistics] system can help build a protective environment for children in many ways....Articles 7 and 8 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) acknowledge the importance of the right to an identity, including name and nationality."

Registering a birth, legal acknowledgement of a child’s existence, may offer a key to human rights protection and aid in emergency situations and possible protection for those children separated from their families or caregivers. "This report brings together the findings of a literature review on birth registration in emergencies, Plan’s own experiences, and experiences from other agencies. In total, 21 interviews were held with a range of humanitarian practitioners worldwide, and seven case studies of birth registration interventions in emergency situations were conducted. The review has led to the identification of several key factors and good practices which help to determine the effectiveness of birth registration." The report offers information on advocacy, analysis to support planning, the role of information campaigns, and participatory planning.

Good practices recognised in the document are outlined in these categories, followed by case study examples:

• Preparing for birth registration in emergencies:
• Work in child protection alliances with UN agencies and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) - "Plan staff in Colombia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Sudan noted that being members of protection and child protection clusters and other alliances, and working in conjunction with UN [agencies and] NGOs not only fosters the sharing of information on birth registration issues, but also promotes the efficient use of scarce financial and human resources in addressing birth registration challenges."
• Conduct a situation analysis or baseline assessment - "For example, the situation analysis conducted in Burkina Faso after the floods, in Sri Lanka after the tsunami and in Niger following the influx of Malian refugees, were aimed at documenting the extent of documentation issues faced by victims of the emergency situations. This included assessing the numbers of people affected, their location, the type of documents currently in their possession, the number and type of documents lost or destroyed and the number and type of documents which had never been applied for or issued."
• Raise community awareness - "Prior to mass registration campaigns or the arrival of mobile birth registration units in remote areas in countries such as Colombia, Burkina Faso and Indonesia, Plan assisted the process by launching awareness community campaigns to highlight the importance of birth registration and to demonstrate that it is more than just expensive bureaucracy or a legal formality."
• Use information to develop action plans - "For example in Burkina Faso, Plan entered into negotiations with the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Security to develop an action plan and to identify roles and responsibilities of stakeholders for effectively responding to the birth registration needs of flood victims in Ouagadougou."
• Involve children and communities in the design of birth registration interventions - "For example in Sri Lanka, specific assessment and awareness campaigns were also developed to target key groups, such as parents of pre-school children to raise their understanding of the challenges they faced in registering their children. The information gathered was used to design messages and interventions to ensure that parents obtained new birth certificates or had the missing documents replaced for their children."
• Conducting birth registration in emergencies:
• Build on (pre-)existing systems to make them accessible to affected populations, including building in mobile registration - "For example, promoting temporary mobile registration teams in Burkina Faso, supporting the establishment of permanent mobile registration units in Colombia, or establishing a regular schedule of visits of civil registrars to refugee camps in Kenya, Niger and IDP [internally displaced persons] transitional shelters in Indonesia." This may include refresher training in mass birth registration procedures.
• Establish systems for issuing birth notifications - "The case studies note that Plan staff have had success in training midwives, community health workers and traditional birth attendants. They have been trained to maintain birth notification registers, to issue notifications to mothers when attending a birth, and submit copies of forms to refugee camp managers, health facilities and district registrars in order to facilitate the birth registration process. Furthermore, they efficiently monitor current data on the number of newborns in an area, which is of particular importance during an emergency situation..."
• Exploit the use of mobile phone technology - “For example, Plan Indonesia described the use of mobile phone technology in capturing and transmitting birth notification data during the aftermath of the tsunami. It proved to be an excellent, if expensive, way of recording real-time information, including GIS coordinates, photographs and bio data to facilitate civil registration."
• Integrate birth registration with primary health care services.- "For example, WHO [World Health Organization] , UNICEF [UN Children's Fund] and Plan Sudan have had great success integrating birth registration with the regular annual schedule of vaccination campaigns currently implemented by the MoH [Ministry of Heath]’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation in Sudan. This collaboration has enabled civil registrars to access high-risk conflict-affected areas, remote rural communities, IDPs and nomadic groups in order to increase the level of birth registration among children in these communities."
• Ensuring sustainability of birth registration systems:
• Adapt or formalise temporary birth registration mechanisms - Plan found that if mobile units added expense to the process, they needed to work quickly and demobilise. If they were kept for the long term, there was a need for proper training and funding.
• Decentralise birth registration down to sub-district level - In Indonesia, the registration process was placed at the sub-district level and uses support of village leaders, school teachers, and midwives.
• Advocate for legal reform, including possibly reviewing and updating existing legislation and passing new regulation governing registration.
• Ensure ongoing monitoring - "For example, in Sri Lanka during the aftermath of the tsunami, Plan held regular meetings with civil registrars to highlight issues and find practical solutions to challenges. Such meetings and relationships help to address bureaucratic obstacles, streamline procedures, provide one-stop decentralized services and reduce processing times as well as to build the technical capacity to issue birth certificates immediately."