The Universal Birth Registration (UBR) campaign aims to ensure that every child is registered at birth.

A birth certificate provides children with an official identity, giving them easier access to education and health services; protection against child labour and child marriage, and safety from abuse and child trafficking.

The campaign has been an extraordinary success, with the total number of registered Cambodians increasing from 5% to 92%.

Government partnership    

Working together with the Ministry of Interior, Plan Cambodia has strived to  ensure that civil registration documents are recorded confidentially and that a steady supply of civil registration materials is made available at both national and community levels.

In addition, we have been lending our expertise to district and provincial officials looking for solutions to specific civil registration concerns.

Strengthening legislation

Plan has also engaged in advocacy work, ranging from tackling the problem of overcharging for registration fees at the grass-roots level, to registration procedures and legislation at the national level. Overcharging for registration poses a major barrier to poor families seeking to register newborn babies.

Plan has also advised the Ministry of Interior of changes that have strengthened civil registration legislation, including:

• Keeping civil registration documents at the community level, rather than at the district level, to make it easier for people to access services.
• Closing the books immediately after registration is complete, rather than waiting until the end of the year so they quickly and safely reach district, province and national officials without unauthorised changes being made to them.
• Introducing a Personal Identification Number (PIN) on birth certificates to make population data management easier. The number can also be used with ID cards during elections to avoid the otherwise lengthy document checking process.

Spreading the message

The UBR project has encompassed public awareness activities such as TV and radio broadcasts of civil registration educational clips, the Civil Registration Awareness Bus and the printing of 400,000 information leaflets. The bus, which is funded by the community of Sant’ Egidio and supported by the Council of Ministers of the Government of Italy, has visited 123 communities, raising awareness of the importance of civil registration with 16,230 people, including 7,895 children.

UBR project activities were completed on 30 June 2008. Plan Cambodia continues to promote birth registration by ensuring that all newborns are registered by the local community council in our programme areas.

Learn about Plan’s global Universal Birth Registration campaign.