Providing Birth Registration for all in Ghana: An Assessment of Target 16.9 of Sustainable Development Goal 16

Abstract

In an effort to ensure universal access to basic human rights, essential social facilities such as healthcare, education, justice systems and financial institutions, and the planning of an overall development agenda, there is the need to provide official documentation of legal identity for all persons. Identity registration through birth registration and certification is regarded as the first document that serves as a form of legal identity for individuals at birth. As states in the international system make conscious efforts towards attaining the 17 Sustainable Development Goals before 2030, the 16th SDG which calls for Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions through Target 16.9, aims at tackling issues concerned with the provision of legal identity for all. This includes birth registration by identifying the proportion of children under the age of 5years whose births have been registered with civil authority. In Ghana, it is estimated that about 15% of the population remains without a legal identity and hence, their inability to enjoy their rights and benefit from social structures. This study employs the use of the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey to determine the influence of some selected socio-economic and demographic variables such as the level of education of the mother, type of place of residence, wealth index, age and sex of the child on birth registration status within the country. Through univariate analysis, frequencies and percentages were used to describe the characteristics of the respondents. Cross tabulations and chi-square tests were conducted at the bivariate level of analysis to determine the relationships between selected socio-economic and demographic variables and birth registration status. The binary logistic regression model was employed at the multivariate level to examine how socio-economic and demographic variables correlated with birth registration status. Results show that birth registration was dependent on factors like the mother’s education, wealth index, the type of place of residence and mother’s religion.