Every Child Counts: UNICEF Australia gains Ian Potter Foundation grant

UNICEF Australia has been awarded a $456,000 grant over two years to advance the cause of Universal Birth Registration in Australia. 

Birth registration is a child’s passport to protection, establishing their existence under the law and allowing their full participation in society.

While Australia enjoys a high rate of birth registration at 98 per cent for children five years of age and under, children from lower income families, and First Nations children, are typically under registered, along with children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. 

To move this figure, and to work towards a position where every child is counted, UNICEF Australia will use the grant toward researching the true extent of the problem, consulting with communities about barriers (and solutions), register 500 children and run an education campaign to raise public awareness and support for the issue.

The true extent of birth under-registration in Australia is currently unknown. Pockets of data indicate the need – a study in Queensland revealed that 15–18 per cent of births to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers were not registered, compared to 1.8 per cent of births to non-Indigenous mothers. 

Without birth registration, these children and families face significant barriers to obtaining a passport, driver’s license, tax file number or bank account and, therefore, are invisible under the law.

To learn more about the most recent round of grant allocations from the Ian Potter Foundation please see here.