Project profile — Strengthening Equal and Inclusive Access to Birth Registration in Haiti

• Haiti (100.00%)

• Population Policies/Programmes And Reproductive Health: Population policy and administrative management (13010) (35.00%)
• Legal and judicial development:
Legal and judicial development (15130) (20.00%)
Human rights (15160) (45.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (principal objective)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (significant objective)

The project seeks to improve access to quality birth registration services for all Haitians by strengthening the institutional and legal framework of Haiti’s vital statistics system and of other ministries concerned. The project focuses on the inclusion of women and vulnerable groups and on eliminating differences based on gender, economic condition or place of residence. Acquiring a legal individual identity promotes better inclusion of Haitian women and girls and optimizes their perspectives for personal, economic and social development. The project activities include: (1) legal and policy reforms; (2) strategic planning of vital statistics; (3) capacity building and awareness activities; (4) incorporation of birth registration into other services, such as health and education; (5) registration of births in the communities and social mobilization campaigns for registration. The project uses innovative methods, such as the use of SMS messaging technology, and relies on the development of on-line birth registration systems. The project’s activities focus on the departments of Artibonite (Saint-Marc, Gonaïves, Gros Morne and La Chapelle), Centre (Belladère, Thomonde, Thomassique and Cerca-la-Source) and Grande Anse (Les Irois, Anse-d’Ainault and Dame-Marie).

The expected results of this project include: (1) improvement in the quality of birth registration services; (2) improvement in access to vital statistics services for groups at risk of exclusion from the system, in particular women, girls, rural populations and people in emergencies; (3) increase in the demand for birth registration services through better information and awareness.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (September 2022) include: (1) registered 133,677 children under the age of five (65,026 boys and 68,651 girls) at birth from 2018 to 2021 in 11 target communities; (2) 1133 (549 men and 584 women) out of 1,600 (71%) people expressed satisfaction with birth registration services; (3) 83 rural women's organizations (consisting of 2,490 women) are supporting the project's activities promoting and facilitating birth registration; (4) 100% of trained civil registrars (13) and 100% of trained clerks (91 men and 10 women) demonstrated, through post-training tests, a good understanding of the birth registration rules, including utilizing the legal framework and the process related to the establishment of birth certificates; (5) between 2018 and 2020, 85% (35,975/30,579) of children born at health facilities in the 11 target communities have a birth certificate; (6) 929 community members (452 men and 477 women) have contributed to reporting births outside the health system; and (7) 82 community registration centres, including 13 found in hospitals, are operational in 11 project communities.

• Proactive disclosure