IDB - Inter-American Development Bank

Published purpose

The purpose of this project is to better protect children and other vulnerable persons in Latin America and the Caribbean by supporting the birth registration of two million children under the age of five, thereby facilitating people’s access to a legal identity. The project reinforces national registrars so they can register 95% of newborns each year and improve service delivery to vulnerable unregistered children in target countries. A birth certificate allows children to access health services and education, giving them the opportunity to achieve their full potential as active and productive citizens. Children are the primary beneficiaries of the project, but some activities are also aimed at vulnerable unregistered adults. Project activities include the following: (1) improving governments’ capacity to design and apply policies to facilitate inclusive civil registration, by developing national work plans, training registrars and providing technical assistance to the selected national governments; (2) improving registrars’ capacity to register unregistered children in a timely and secure manner and to educate unregistered persons about their civil registration rights and responsibilities, by implementing tools to measure the level of service delivery to children, training officials in delivering services to everyone, and modernizing technological equipment to better protect personal information; (3) building governments’ capacity to use international standards in managing civil registries and to recognize identity documents from other countries, by sharing best practices, training employees and translating key documents for dissemination. The project is in keeping with Canada’s priorities for strengthening child protection and supporting maternal, newborn and child health.