Mother and baby at a birth registration event 

6 May 2009: Five million people in Burkina Faso will receive free birth certificates in the next year following a sustained Plan campaign.

Plan has already provided birth certificates to 250,000 children in the country since 2004 but now a $5,000,000 government programme will allow many more of the 14,000,000 population to claim a legal identity.

Listen to Plan’s Global Advocacy Manager Nadya Kassam talking on the BBC World Service’s ‘The World Today’ show about the benefits of having a birth certificate (3.76 mb, 5.28 mins).

Removing barriers

The programme will remove the $1 registration fee, which has been a major factor in stopping the poorest families from applying. It will particularly help women and children who are often the last to receive documentation because men are given more prominence.

Without these documents children cannot get a place at school and are vulnerable to trafficking, child labour and underage marriage as they do not legally exist and have no proof of their age. Families cannot access social services and many say they have faced police harassment when travelling as they don’t have ID cards.

Reaching remote areas

Andre Dembele, head of the government’s Committee on Birth certificates believes it is a basic human right to be legally registered and he says he will make employees available to deliver birth certificates to even the remotest villages to speed up the process.

Plan has equipped civil registry offices with guides and typewriters and registration rates have already increased from 33% to 44%. Plan has also worked to educate people about the importance of birth registration and the time frame within which to register their children.

Find out more about Plan’s Universal Birth Registration campaign.