Registration

The challenge

The undocumented in Latin America and the Caribbean officially do not exist, and therefore are excluded from services and opportunities to rise out of poverty. Citizens without papers remain on the margins of society, and have trouble accessing schools, hospitals, formal employment, banking services, and basic rights, such as the right to vote.

Institutions responsible for citizen registration lack resources to offer transparent, efficient services to the entire population. The vast majority of the region’s vital records offices are institutions that still depend on political authority and lack their own institutional and financial capacity.

An inadequate registration system with only partial coverage provides inaccurate information for developing appropriate policies based on the population’s actual needs. Despite this reality, birth registrations are not a priority on countries’ agendas and there are even fewer government leaders thinking about reforms of these systems.