Mali

Impact of the universal birth registration campaign

The median rate of birth registration was 41.72% of the population in 2006 and 62.29% in 2007.

Government policy and practice on birth registration 

The government of Mali is involved in a range of birth registration priorities, including:

• creating the Mission to Support the Consolidation and Modernisation of the Civil State of Mali (MACEC)
• putting in place the National Programme for Citizen Education (PNEC), an information, education and communication  programme to promote the benefits of civil registration  
• starting a magazine, Citizenship is for us, as well as collaboration with local radio stations.

Universal birth rights campaign strategy

Aim of campaign

To increase the rate of birth registration in Mali and register all children at birth.  

Strategy 

• Status of the civil state system.
• Bring civil state services closer to the people by increasing the number of registration centres.
• Train civil state managers.
• Educate people and raise their awareness.
• Equip employees with civil state registration kit (bicycles, tables, chairs, bench, cupboards, declaration registers and birth registers).   

Outcomes

Policy and legislation changes 

• A law governing the civil statute in Mali, adopted on 26 June 2006, made original marriage, birth and death certificates free of charge.

Government capacity and practice 

• Training 395 officers of the civil state.
• Training 377 general secretaries of townships.
• Training 173 under prefects. 
• Training 58 prefects and councillors of administrative and judicial affairs and 90 communal agents. 
• Training 64 press and private communicators. 
• Training 40 traditional communicators.
• Training 127 women leaders/NGO managers/women’s associations. 
• Training and putting in place 6,290 registration centres.
• Distributing registration kits to all registration agents.
• Equipping civil state registration services with birth registers and declaration registers.

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

• Monitoring and control of the functioning of civil state services.

Partnerships, coordination, cooperation, alliances and coalitions 

• A national coordination body has been set up to bring UBR technical partners and financing agencies – Plan Mali, UNICEF, PNUD, Save The Children - together with state structures -Ministry of Territorial Administration and Local Collectives through the MACEC, and the ministries of women, children and the family, health, solidarity and the National Directorate of Statistics and Information – and civil society, through associations and NGOs. 

Community awareness 

• Creating a communication plan and training manuals.
• Producing and disseminating a citizen’s guide (in French, Bamanankan, Fulfulde, Sonrai and Tamasheq), including 11,598 print copies, 1,115 audio copies and 628 video copies 

Ownership and sustainability (Have the duty-bearers, the state, taken responsibility? How have rights-holders, communities, and civil society been involved to ensure sustainability?) 

• There has been progressive realisation by duty-bearers of their responsibility to fulfil the right of all children to birth certificates within the permitted timeframe. 
• Involving rights-holders (though children’s clubs, children’s government and children’s parliament) in censuses of unregistered children, information, education, communication activities, and advocacy.  

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

• There was a study of UBR among nomadic tribes in 2007, financed by UNICEF. 
• There was a workshop on how the civil state engages with nomadic tribes in order to adopt an appropriate strategy for nomadic zones.    

Tackling the related issues of migration, nationality and statelessness 

• RAVEC – a national census to identify citizens of Mali both inside and outside the country.
• A civil society database was created to allow easier production of travel documents (such as national identity cards, passports, drivers' licences).

Good practice 

• Creating a national coordination body for better cooperation between universal birth registration activities led to collaboration between all actors and a harmonisation of national level support. 
• Putting trained and equipped agents in villages and health centres.
• MACEC, with the financial support of UNICEF, put mobile civil state offices in the nomadic zones of northern Mali. 
• We linked child protection committees in Plan communities with birth registration committees (COSEN) in every Plan Mali partner village. These committees work in close cooperation with civil registry agents, and enabled us to register all new births in programme areas.  

Challenges, gaps and barriers

Barriers

• Mali is a vast country geographically.
• The rebellion in north Mali.
• The administrative burden.
• Managers do not take their roles and responsibilities seriously.

Challenges

• Bringing registration centres closer to people to make them available to everyone.
• Making child protection committees operational in communities. 
• To strengthen the birth registration committees.
• Strengthening information, education, communication campaigns to change people's attitudes in favour of universal birth registration in Mali.
• To apply the no-charge for birth certificates law.
• To fight against illiteracy, and encourage women and children to inform themselves about the civil statute.  

National level recommendations 

• Continue the involvement of political and administrative actors.
• Continue to reinforce civil state capacity.
• Continue with information, education, communication activities.
• The Ministry of Health and other partners should continue to take account of birth registration in essential family practices.
• Consolidate early childhood development projects for "educating mothers" training.
• There should be support between sectors for the civil statute coordinating body.
• All civil state centres should be equipped with kit (bicycles, tables, chairs, a bench, cabinets and declaration/birth registers). 
• Follow up the RAVEC (national census).

Future activities 

• Plan Mali will continue to be an active member of the coordination group, even though we have limited our financial participation since the government and civil society took over the process. 
• We will participate in national consideration of the strategy, technical support, advocacy, information, education and communication activities, and monitoring and evaluation.