Effects of institutional, family and child-specific factors on birth registration in selected African countries

Yohannes Kinfu, University of Canberra
Itismita Mohanty, University of Canberra
Tesfaye Gebremedhin, University of Canberra

Lack of birth certificate has wide ranging implications for child wellbeing. Early in life children who lack an official birth certificate may have difficulty accessing schools and health services, and they are also more likely to face greater risk of illegal adoption and trafficking. At a later stage, the absence of the document may also hinder a person’s right to employment and full integration in the society they live in. This paper examines the effects of individual, household, community and country level factors on probability of birth registration before age 5 in 25 selected African countries using the Demographic and Health Survey data available for the latest period. Given the hierarchical nature of the data a multi-level model with a random effect was applied. Results suggest that birth registration is strongly affected (in order of importance) by community, household and individual level factors but less so by country level factors.