Birth registration work in collaboration with UNICEF Cameroon & WCARO
The CHIP team has had the privilege of supporting Cameroon actors through their innovative strategies to ensure that every child has a legal identity – at birth and through catch-up birth registration work – in line with their international commitments.
Following up on the Mayors’ Forum on Universal Birth Registration in Cameroon in April 2024 (https://www.child-identity.org/quest-to-ensure-everychild-is-visible/), a roadmap was developed to outline strategic actions that mayors can implement to make birth registration accessible to all within their municipalities. There is a 97% adhesion rate among Mayors for this roadmap, which focuses on decentralising birth registration services, improving interoperability with health and education sectors, and strengthening local partnerships. In November 2024, a virtual training session was provided to support Mayors in translating the roadmap’s strategic goals into actionable micro plans for birth registration, seamlessly integrated into their Communal or Local Development Plans and Budgets. The training offered a structured framework along with real-world best practices to empower Mayors to address challenges, build partnerships, and improve registration access across their communities. The training was led by the MINDDEVEL and BUNEC in collaboration with UNICEF and CHIP. Concretely, the welcome and closing were provided by Mme Efa from BUNEC, with inputs from the UNICEF Deputy Representative Juliette Haenni; Chief Social Policy Paul-Marie Petroch; Chief Child Protection Casimira Benge and Child Protection Specialist Alexis Mayang. Contributions were also provided by the CHIP team led by Cornelius Williams with support from Mia Dambach.
- Concept note of online training in ENGLISH and FRENCH
- Slide deck in ENGLISH and FRENCH
- Recording of the session in ENGLISH and FRENCH
- Template of micro-plan in ENGLISH and FRENCH
In parallel, catch-up birth registration work through the schools has been led by the Ministry of Basic Education with MINDDEVEL, BUNEC, other relevant Ministries, UNICEF and the World Bank to tackle the over 1.4 million children without a birth certificate. A special operation was launched in 2024 for three months with promising results with 544 mobile court hearings held; 57,244 pupils detected as not having a birth certificate (CM2/6th grade) and 48,232 declaratory judgements pronounced. The CHIP team included Laurence Bordier, Marine Braun, Mia Dambach, Mariama Diallo and Romauld Onah who undertook various tasks including literature reviews, remote meetings and in-country research (November) covering six of the ten regions with over 150 professionals interviewed. This in-country research was invaluable to ensure all perspective were included in identifying potential solutions to the many challenges that the country is facing such as the multiple protracted crises. Preliminary results will be discussed with counterparts in early 2025 with a final report to be published in the first half of 2025 which will identify opportunities to scale up this work.
