Burkina Faso

Impact of the universal birth registration campaign

Before the universal birth registration campaign was launched in 2005 

In April 2004, 33% of children were registered - 2,467,121 under-18s. 

Following the campaign 

According to the last census of December 2006, 60% of under-18s were registered – 4.5 million children and young people.  A survey by MICS in 2007 showed that 63.7% of under-fives were registered

Government policy and practice on birth registration 

The government of Burkina Faso is very engaged in implementing the birth registration project. The project has had a favourable reception because there is a national steering committee and several ministries are involved. 

Universal birth rights campaign strategy

The campaign will run from December 2004 to December 2011.

Aim of campaign 

• To facilitate the birth registration of children between birth and 18 years.
• To inform 100% of the population in 45 provinces of the dangers of not registering children at birth.
• To lobby decision-makers, political leaders and opinion-makers to take up the issue of free and compulsory provision of birth certificates.
• To lead technical and financial partners in mobilising essential resources to implement the action plan. 
• To equip all principal and secondary civil state centres with civil statute and human rights materials on the free and compulsory recording of births. 
• To deliver a birth certificate or a stand-in document (JSAN) to all children up to 18 who do not already have one. 
• To ensure the follow-up, supervision and evaluation of the action plan in achieving its objectives.

Strategy 

• To lobby government for decentralisation of birth registration processes to the district level.
• To raise awareness of the importance of birth registration. 
• To build the capacity of birth registrars for birth registration.
  

Methods

• Information and awareness raising (including activities for children).
• Advocacy.
• Institutional support.
• Training agents of the civil state.
• Training UBR volunteers
• Equipment for civil state centres.
• Support for birth registration campaigns
• Monitoring and evaluation.

Expenditure per year (in FCFA, the unit of currency in West Africa) 

2004 53,622,995

2005 262,482,564

2006 164,210,831

2007 194,039,350

2008 25,992,250

2009 1,800,000,000 (provisional budget of the PTF [spell out] and the government for the free birth registration campaign)

Total 2,500,347,990

Outcomes

Policy and legislation changes 

• Government compliance – an 80% reduction in the cost of a JSAN (stand-in birth certificate) in June 2005.
• Since March 2006, the adoption of new civil statute in accordance with the Code of the People and Family.
• The council of ministers declared in October 2008 that birth registration would be free in 2009.  

Government capacity and practice

Although the government has the political will to make birth registration a priority, it is faced with the challenge of limited resources. 

Monitoring and ensuring the implementation of policy and legislation related to UBR

Since the adoption of new forms and registers, the government has taken care to ensure that the new provisions are effectively applied. However, difficulties persist in certain zones because those who should regularly supervise the civil state centres do not receive their placement allowances. In addition, some mayors are illiterate, which makes the situation more difficult. 

• Creating incentives to increase the demand for birth registration 
• Civil state centres have been supported to organise mass registration operations that issue birth certificates for thousands of children at a time. 
• The UBR Plus strategy in Plan areas encourages parents to register their children within the two-month legal deadline by offering them free insecticide-treated bednets.     

Waiver/reduction of costs

The first copy of a birth certificate is currently free, whether or not it is issued within the legal limit of two months of birth. Previously, there was a charge for this.    

Partnerships, coordination, cooperation, alliances and coalitions

A national piloting committee was formed that included key minsters, such as the ministers of justice, territorial administration, social action, health, primary education, economy and finance and communication. Technical and financing partners included Plan Burkina Faso, UNICEF, UNFPA, Santé Egédio, Œuvre Suisse d’Entraide Ouvrières and the National Institute of Demography and Statistics.    

Community awareness

Awareness-raising activities for parents and community leaders included:

• holding birth registration awareness activities in general assemblies;
• creating theatre forums;
• making and airing radio programmes on the specific theme of birth registration;
• showing films and adverts about birth registration;
• making a TV programme about birth registration.

Ownership and sustainability (Have the duty-bearers, the state, taken responsibility?) 

The state assumes these responsibilities in Burkina Faso, as shown in the political engagement that produced the free birth registration declaration in 2009. However, the number of secondary civil state centres needs to increase to facilitate the population’s access to the resource.   

How have rights-holders, communities, and civil society been involved to ensure sustainability?)

Local NGOs and community organisations, along with village development committees, community leaders, religious leaders, civil servants, teachers, health workers, children and local radio stations, have all been strongly involved in the implementation of this project. This has been especially so in information and awareness-raising activities and facilitating birth certificate provision in cooperation with local town halls and police stations. In Plan areas, community volunteers have registers in which they record all new births and children aged between two months and 18 years.  

The integration of the issue of birth registration with other programmes, such as maternal health

The UBR Plus strategy helped to integrate maternal health through providing mothers with insecticide-treated mosquito nets so they can fight effectively against malaria. 

• Registering the most marginalised and hard to reach communities  (ethnic minorities, nomadic groups, orphans, street children, migrants and refugees etc)

Marginalised groups, such as street children and orphans, are taken into account in our operations. In addition, every 16 June (the Day of the African child), 2,500 orphans and vulnerable children receive their birth certificates.  

Tackling the related issues of migration, nationality and statelessness

The Minister of Territorial Administration has made provisions to facilitate the registration of babies born in Cote d’Ivoire to Burkina Fasoian parents.  The rules and requirements for obtaining Burkina Fasoian nationality are covered in the Code of the People and Family.    

Linking birth registration to other children’s rights, such as increased access to health, education, inheritance rights and protection from trafficking, child labour etc

The government is aware of the advantages that come with having a birth certificate, which is why it is helping to organise not just birth registration but also collective marriages to reinforce child protection. 

Involving children in the UBR campaign

Children were involved primarily through awareness-raising theatre. Radio broadcasts also made their parents aware of the importance of birth certificates.

Good practice

• The strong support of duty bearers (ministers, administrators, religious authorities, civil servants) has led to strong community mobilisation. 
• Childbirth is included in health professional training.
• Secondary centres for health professional training have been created in locations that were very far away from main training centres. 
• Birth registration within the legal time limit has been increased.
• Birth registration has been combined with the fight against malaria through the distribution of insecticide-treated bednets.

Challenges, gaps and barriers

• Ignorance of the importance of birth registration.
• Distance from civil state centres.
• Political constraints (lack of human resources, materials, funds to maintain civil state centres, lack of commitment to creating secondary civil state centres). 
• Legislative constraints (two months after birth, people can only obtain a birth certificate if they have at least two witnesses and a formal “judgment”).
• Economic constraints (some mayors require birth certificate recipients to make at least two or three copies after registering).   

National level recommendations 

• Encourage rural and urban communities to earmark funds in their communal budgets to reinforce the civil state (through equipment, agent recruitment and motivation).
• Encourage women to give birth in maternity wards.
• Create secondary centres to bring the civil state and local populations closer together.
• Reduce the time it takes to issue birth certificates.
• Hold to account village development committees and civil state management advisers for issues that arise. 

Future activities 

• To encourage the creation of secondary centres though activity and advocacy.
• To facilitate the formation of secondary civil state centres and their staff and equip them.
• To encourage rural and urban communities to use their communal funds budget to reinforce the civil state (equipment, staff recruitment and motivation). 
• To continue institutional support to communities until 2014 (the end of the programme cycle). 

Do you have any high-profile supporters of Plan’s UBR campaign? 

Salamata Sawadogo, the Minister of Human Rights Promotions, supports the UBR campaign.