Cambodia

Impact of the universal birth registration campaign

Before the universal birth registration campaign was launched in 2005 

Before the campaign, fewer than 5% of the population were registered – approximately 640,000 people.

Following the campaign 

By June 2008, the number of people registered had increased to 92% of the population – 11.7 million people. Unverified figures form the Ministry of the Interior suggested that the proportion had increased to 95% at December 2008, 12.78 million people. 

Government policy and practice on birth registration 

The legal framework for civil registration system was created in 2000 and enforced in August 2002, with the government aim to bring the entire population under the new and uniform civil registration system by August 2005. However, after two years, fewer then 5% of the population were registered and issued with their civil registration documents (mainly birth certificate). The Ministry of Interior decided to adopt a new strategy and, after a two-month pilot, a mobile civil registration exercise started on 1 October 2004 in all 1,621 communes in the country. The aim was to register the births of the whole population by August 2005, and issue death and marriage certificates. The birth and death certificates were free of charge during the campaign, with a small fee for the marriage certificate. 

Universal birth rights campaign strategy

Aim of campaign 

1) Establish and strengthen a civil registration system. 

2) Clear the backlog of unregistered population (more than 95%).

3) Provide hands-on training to commune registration officials. 

4) Educate the population about the benefits of civil registration documents.

Strategy

Phase I – February-December 2004: laying the groundwork

1) Pilot study focusing on mobile civil registration, leading to the development of national planning and policy. 

2) Induction of United Nations volunteers (UNVs) to provide technical support in provincial planning, implementation, monitoring and public information.

Plan Cambodia and Asian Development worked closely on the implementation of the pilot study. Plan inducted three international UNVs to assist in three selected provinces of the Ministry of Interior's the pilot project.  During the pilot phase (March-May 2004), two out of six communes achieved more than 90% birth registration

In June 2004, 24 more UNVs were inducted. A detailed training manual focusing on civil registration laws was prepared, with clear guidelines on local planning and public information. The UNVs were trained and deployed to the provinces in the first week of July 2004.  They were given transport and language assistants to help facilitate civil registration, and public information and local planning started. 

The nationwide mobile civil registration started on 1 October 2004. Plan provided immediate technical and logistical support to the Ministry of Interior and all the 24 provinces. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior trained around 13,000 registration officials. Plan filled the information gap by printing and displaying 300,000 posters, producing T-shirts for commune officials, organising a fair in Phnom Penh with the participation of 4,000 children, and displaying posters for officials in commune offices on the benefits of birth certificates. 

The first phase ended with the departure of the UNVs in December 2004 – by which time just over 2.3 million people had been registered and issued with birth certificates. Although the Ministry wanted to extend the UNVs' contracts, Plan decided to pull out the UNVs to let the provincial officials take charge of civil registration and manage their affairs. 

Phase-II – 2005: building local ownership

Plan started managing birth registration activities through direct communication and coordination with the provinces. Plan inducted three remaining UNVs as regional coordinators, and extended monitoring support to the districts and provinces.  

After 10 months of the mobile registration, in July 2005 Plan Cambodia undertook a detailed province-wide analysis of the situation. By then, seven million people had already been registered and issued birth certificates. The analysis led to a more realistic projection for completing the registration. Although some provinces needed about six months to complete, others would need more than four years to achieve their target. On the basis of this analysis, Plan began to collate commune-wide data to identify the problems.  

In consultation with the Ministry of Interior, Plan changed the strategy by redirecting resources to the remote communes who did not get the support from the province or the Ministry. This included Mondulkiri and Stung Treng provinces. 

Plan Cambodia marked the launch in 2005 of Plan International's global advocacy campaign for universal birth registration with a photo exhibition, "Birth registration—enhancing opportunities for children" , the launch of its documentary, Cambodia—road to identity, and  a press conference to share the initial results of the campaign with the media. Plan printed and distributed plastic envelops to one million households with the message: "Right of your child; registration within 30 days of birth". 

Plan continued to identify areas that need attention. These included: 

• protection of registration books and other materials;
• exploring the prospects of computerisation of data (Ministry officials were taken to the Philippines to see their computerised system);
• simplification of the registration law to make it more user-friendly;
• free registration of births and free issue of the original certificate.

The first two phases were not without problems, including slow distribution of registration incentives and non-availability of registration books and materials. Lack of transportation and food support for remote communes never got the attention of the Ministry or the provinces, and there was no public information in the minority areas. 

The total registration during this phase—excluding December and part of November—was 6.1 million. 

Phase-III – 1 January 2006-31 December 2007: Building capacity

This phase was more focused on building institutional capacity, as well as supporting the mobile registration, which continued until 31 August 2006. 

After thorough analysis of the remaining problems and detailed discussions with various stakeholders, Plan Cambodia planned to support the Ministry of Interior in the following long- and short-term areas:

• Continuous support to mobile registration—monitoring and technical assistance, as well as transport support to the provinces where it is needed most.
• Training and capacity building— including officials, volunteers and other organisations.
• Computerisation of registration data.
• Legal reforms—removing gaps in existing law and making them more simple.
• Safe keeping of civil registration records (through the supply of cupboards to districts and Public information focusing on children’s issues including birth registration (such as advertising displays).
• Building partnerships with other national and international organisations to make birth registration part of their regular activities.

Plan will also facilitate system design workshops to strengthen the civil registration office at the Ministry of Interior, and clarify roles and responsibilities at different levels of authority. 

Expenditure per year 

Plan injected US$2.7 million into the project, and allocated another US$779,499 until June 2007. The total cost of the project was US$5.1 million (Asian Development Bank US$ 2.4 million, Plan US$ 2.7 million). The cost per issued certificate is $0.46, all inclusive: material, logistics, capacity building, operations, technical support, and public information.  

Outcomes

The project helped to achieve multiple outputs, ranging from the number of people registered to institutional capacity and awareness among the population. 

Policy and legislation changes 

Plan Cambodia provided a correction methodology to the Ministry of Interior to improve quality of civil registration data. The methodology is currently under consideration. 

During the implementation of the legal framework for civil registration in Cambodia, a number of gaps were identified, which were confirmed during a national workshop on civil registration organised by the Ministry of Interior with the support of Plan Cambodia and UNICEF. Based on these findings, the Ministry of Interior asked for Plan's assistance in improving the legislation. Plan identified an international expert to study the present legislation in the light of international standards and harmonise it with other legal instruments, including laws on nationality, marriage and the family, the civil code and the constitution. The study also focused on stateless people, refugees and asylum seekers.  The legal expert provided draft changes, which were submitted to the Ministry of the Interior for discussion. Plan also engaged with other partners, such as UNICEF, UNHCR and JICA to seek more comments. 

After a two-week discussion between a ministry working group, the legal expert and Plan’s legal team, the final draft was prepared for the Ministry of Interior for future action on the law on civil registration.  

Government capacity and practice

The government is willing to amend the legislation on civil registration, and introduce a computerised system. 

Waiver/reduction of costs

The Ministry of the Interior has informed Plan that there will be no fee for birth registration within 30 days of the birth of a child. This is a big step forward, which will contribute to the timely registration of newborn children. 

Partnerships, coordination, cooperation, alliances and coalitions

Mobile civil registration in Cambodia is more than just a birth registration project. It also concerns good governance: building local capacities and developing ownership for a sustainable system. It has provided significant knowledge to commune council officials and those involved at different levels of planning and implementation. An important aspect of the project is the political will displayed by the Ministry of the Interior leadership. The partnership and unity of purpose between the different partners—Ministry of the Interior, Plan International, the Asian Development Bank and UNICEF — has made the project a potentially replicable model in countries with similar problems

Plan International was established as one of the key partners in good governance – focusing on institutional building and the rule of law —an excellent example of NGO-government collaboration. 

Community awareness

Plan’s public information campaign on birth registration carried messages related to better access to jobs, better education, inheritance, etc, covering opportunities and rights connected with birth registration. The protection aspect was also covered. Plastic covers with the slogan Right of your child - registration within 30 days of birth were distributed to one million households to encourage them to protect civil registration documents. Following the success of this, UNICEF developed the partnership with Plan to distribute a further 170,000 plastic covers to families across the country. 

Involving children in the UBR campaign

To mark International Children’s Day, 20 November 2004, Plan organised a children’s fair in Phnom Penh under the theme Birth registration: the right of every child. Over 4,000 children participated and were educated on their fundamental right to have their birth registered. Following this successful event, and to further educate children on their right to be registered and its link with further rights and opportunities, Phnom Penh municipality and Plan Cambodia marked International Children’s Day in 2005 with another children’s fair under the theme Birth registration: participation, opportunities, development. Over 6,000 children participated in the event. 

Young volunteers, supported by Plan, have educated their elders and their friends by displaying thousands of posters about the importance of birth registration. 

Other successes

Technical assistance: national policy on mobile registration, legal amendments, local planning; monitoring of the civil registration process; data compilation; technical advice to office of statistics and civil registration and provincial, district and commune officials.

National workshop on birth registration:  partnership between Plan, UNICEF, Ministry of the Interior, Child Rights Foundation – led to identification of factors affecting birth registration and hampering civil registration, and the need for mobile civil registration. 

National workshop on civil registration system analysis: partnership between Plan, UNICEF and Ministry of the Interior – led to implementing the present law for four years, identified gaps in legislation and the need to computerise the civil registration system. 

National conference on civil registration: partnership between Ministry of the Interior, Plan, UNICEF and Asian Development Bank – led to Prime Minister's commitment to civil registration; planned modernisation of the civil registration system; and assessment of civil registration mobile campaign. 

Data quality control project: partnership between Plan, UNICEF and Ministry of the Interior - improvement in the quality of civil registration data; checking of books and identification of areas for legislation; developed capacity of commune, district, provincial and central officials in data management; protection of registration books.

Feasibility study - computerisation of civil registration system: Plan project.

TV spots on civil registration: partnership between Plan, UNICEF and Ministry of the Interior – awareness raising campaign about civil registration, children's right to an identity and the state's obligation.

1.17 million plastic envelops for registrants: one million by Plan and another 170,000 by Plan -UNICEF jointly.

400,000 posters on birth, marriage and death registration: Plan and the Ministry of the Interior. 

Civil registration awareness bus to create awareness in the areas with low registration: Partnership between Plan and Community of Sant Egidio, Italy. 

100 advertising hoardings to educate parents about registering newborns within 30 days: Plan and Ministry of the Interior.

Two children's fairs involving more than 10,000 children and 24 government ministries and departments, including the Deputy Prime Minister: partnership of Plan, Ministry of the Interior and Phnom Penh municipality. 

Birth registration poetry competitions for students in 2004 and 2005, with a prize from the Prime Minister.

Photo exhibition on birth registration: Plan in partnership with Phnom Penh municipality and Ministry of the Interior. 

Documentary on mobile registration: Cambodia: Road to Identity.

Press conference attended by chief executive officer of Plan: Plan and Ministry of the Interior.

Volunteer Week and Volunteer Day: young volunteers poster campaigns in Phnom Penh.

Three-week TV campaign: Plan and Phnom Penh municipality.

Logistics support: vehicles and financial support to all provinces for monitoring, and transport support to mobile teams in 200 communes with low registration and remote and/or with minorities. 

Good practice

The civil registration awareness project, a joint venture of the community of Sant’Egidio and Plan Cambodia, has been one of the most effective grassroots awareness-raising initiatives. A colourful civil registration awareness bus, with on-board IT technology, travelled to communities to show films about birth registration, engage the community in discussions, and make them aware of the importance of birth, marriage and death documents. The focus is usually on remote provinces where registration is generally low, and communes are asked to help by inviting along concerned parties. The village chief or deputy has frequently been involved, and sometimes the provincial or district official, who usually joins the bus team to travel to the commune. 

National level recommendations 

• Statistical data should be made available to the ministries of health, education, etc, to enable them to plan better.
• The Ministry of the Interior needs to establish a special unit dealing with the considerable number of minorities and vulnerable groups (including children) that need specific protection. This unit should provide extra support to give these groups legal status. 
• As e civil registration is very new and basic, it needs specialised sections and branches, including legal, statistics, administration and finance, logistics and inventories, and an ICT section to manage the computerised system. Roles and responsibilities of the offices and the officials working on civil registration need to be clearly defined. The Ministry of the Interior has already started taking steps in this direction. 
• Civil registration books need to be safeguarded through storage at safer places and computerisation of the data.  Plan Cambodia was not able to secure funding for the computerisation project, but the Asian Development Bank is currently supporting a Ministry of the Interior pilot project in Phnom Penh.
• To sustain the registration process, people must be informed and educated on a massive scale, using traditional and advanced means of communication. 
• A comprehensive analysis of the present legal instruments is needed in the light of Cambodian needs and international standards, and the existing gaps should be filled with new legislation. This should also look into the registration of children whose parents are considered “illegal immigrants”—a birth certificate may not necessarily provide the right to citizenship. The present law also does not cover the methodology of correcting names and other critical information. 
• and capacity building of the relevant officials at central, provincial, district and commune level. 

Future activities

We have phased down the civil registration project since June 2008.  The Ministry of the Interior is taking on the role and is working with the Asian Development Bank in the context of CCDP  Plan is working to ensure that all newborns in our programme unit are registered.