Universal Birth Registration and Gender

Professor Rebecca Wallace was commissioned to conduct, on behalf of Plan International, a children¿s rights organisation, research on the laws and practices surrounding birth registration and whether there is discrimination against women in terms of not allowing them to register children alone and/or not allowing them to pass on their nationality to their children.
The project covered the 50 developing countries in which Plan works. Two Research Assistants collected the data on the current legislative situation in these countries, as well as examining evidence of discriminatory practices that may affect women¿s capacity to register their children, regardless of the legal provisions. It also involved the distribution of a web based survey to targeted respondents identified via Plan, UNICEF Country Offices and other organisations deemed to have this specialised knowledge.
The final report Mother to Child: How Discrimination Prevents Women Registering the Birth of their Child was launched on March 8th 2011, to coincide with International Women¿s Day. Plan intends to use the report as an advocacy tool in one strand of its gender campaigning