Birth Registration in Nigeria
Impact Evaluation Report on Birth Registration in Nigeria from 2012-2016
Highlights
Birth registration – the official recording of a child's birth by the government – establishes the existence of a child under law and provides the foundation for safeguarding many of a child's civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child specifies that every child has the right to be registered at birth, without any discrimination.
Nevertheless, the births of nearly 230 million children under the age of five worldwide have never been officially recorded. In Nigeria, only 30 percent of children under the age of 5 have had their births registered.
Birth registration is part of UNICEF’s four pillars of child rights programming i.e. survival, development, protection and participation. To achieve birth registration for all children in Nigeria, UNICEF has been working with the Government of Nigeria to address systemic bottlenecks with a view to achieving sustainable results for children.
This impact evaluation of UNICEF Nigeria’s Birth Registration Programme was conducted by independent evaluators and objectively assessed UNICEF’s work on birth registration in Nigeria from 2012-2016. The objective of this evaluation was to generate evidence on key successes and lessons learned from UNICEF’s financial and technical support to the National Population Commission for birth registration system strengthening in Nigeria.
This report covers not only key achievements of the programme, but also clearly highlights recommendations, gaps and challenges in programming, and articulates future opportunities for UNICEF to further strengthen this area of work.
