LONDON (AlertNet) - Conflict and mass migration in some African states pose huge challenges to efforts to register children at birth, a move seen as key to securing childrenÂ?s rights, UNICEF said on Monday.
In countries like Ethiopia, fighting, famine and issues of land tenure mean huge swathes of the population are constantly on the move and thousands of babies go unregistered because of a lack of basic services in many areas, said UNICEF child protection officer Joanne Dunn.
Ethiopia has one of the world's lowest rates of birth registration, with just 7 percent of children under five registered at birth, according to UNICEF.
"One of the key issues for Ethiopia is not only the lack of basic infrastructure, but also massive population growth and very significant migration," said Dunn, speaking on the sidelines of a birth registration conference in London hosted by Plan International.
Plan organised the conference to mark the release of a report on their five-year universal birth registration campaign. The campaign has helped register some 40 million people, mostly children, in 32 countries, according to the report called 'Count Every Child.'
However, some 51 million children a year are not registered at birth, according to UNICEF and Plan, exposing them to violence and exploitation.
Ethiopia is one of the world's poorest performers in terms of birth registration. Its population has exploded and the lack of a functioning registration process means the central government can only estimate its population levels, said Dunn.
"This is a country thatÂ?s repeatedly in famine, and repeatedly in conflict situations and there is mass movement of people, so the situation is extremely complex," she added.
In Ethiopia and other African states, local culture and superstition are also a block to birth registration. Many families do not want to name their children in the first thirty days because of fears the child will die and if a name is used once, they cannot use it again.
The impact of HIV/AIDS in African countries also means thousands of children are starting out in life as orphans, without any formal documentation, said Dunn.
"There are 10,000 new HIV orphans every month in Kenya, so if those kids have not been registered early on theyÂ?re not going to be registered," she said.
Children will be passed on to extended family or to institutions and it is very difficult for them to get registered after this point.
Increased poverty levels, a lack of investment in services and mass migration into cities are also hindering efforts to register children at birth in Kenya and services are breaking down in areas of conflict, like on the border with Somalia.
Plan's report and birth registration conference coincides with the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, celebrated this week.
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