Presentation by Jean-Louis Ville (European Commission) at the High-Level Panel and technical consultations on Making the Invisible Visible: CRVS as a basis to Meeting the 2030 Gender Agenda - Ottawa, 26 February, 2018.

1. The EU: a
responsible
donor
Jean-Louis Ville
European Commission
DG DEVCO

2. Comprehensive CRVS – Leave no one
behind
• Priority for the EU as a matter
of good governance to inform
policies
• EU focuses on providing legal
identity for all, especially
women, children, minorities,
disabled, displaced….
• Support to all aspects of civil
registration, assisting partner
countries to improve birth
registration rates, their
identity systems, and rates of
marriage, divorce and death
declarations.

3. EU Commitments on Gender
• The New European Consensus for Development adopted on 7th
June 2017: gender as core value, mainstreamed in all policies and programmes,
rights-based approach, leave no one behind (LNOB) regardless of ethnicity, gender,
SOGI…. Aligned with Agenda 2030.
• 2nd Gender Action Plan 2016-2020
 Our main tool to contribute to Agenda 2030 SDG 5
 Adopted by the Council of the EU on 26th October 2015
 Mandatory for all external relations of the EU, including MS and EUDs and for all
staff at all levels
 Evidence based (gender analysis is mandatory for all new initiative) and result
oriented (Indicators in line with the SDG and RF)
 Focus on three different thematic areas instead of "one size fits all”
=) Crucial importance of civil registration for all, incl. women
& girls, as prerequisite to ensure implementation of Leave No
One Behind approach and EU Gender Action Plan.

4. GAP II Thematic Priorities
4
Ensuring girls’ and women's physical and psychological
integrity
Promoting the social and economic rights / empowerment
of women and girls
Strengthening girls' and women's voice and participation
Institutional Culture Shift to more effectively deliver on EU
committments (HORIZONTAL goal)

5. EU funding for Civil Registration
entails:
• Support to strengthening administrations'
capacity to manage comprehensive civil
registration systems
• Support to health systems for better birth
registration (best practice)
• Digitalisation and new technologies only in
contexts where they have an added value.

6. EU funding for Civil Registration
• Support for birth registration and civil registration
through partnerships with UNICEF (Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Uganda, Zambia, Yemen)
• Support for capacity building of national
authorities through budget support (Senegal,
Burkina Faso)
• Comprehensive civil registration programmes
with EU Member States development agencies
(Mali)

7. Why is it key to take Gender on
board in EU CRVS programmes ?
7
Even if girls and boys overall equally registered, gender consideration
are often overlooked:
- Women often disadvantaged in ability to register children and benefit
disproportionately,
- Difference between better-off and poor uneducated women,
- In certain cases request for women to be legally married / men consent to
register children.
- Crucial to record girls at birth and marriages (as well as divorces) to fight
against child early and forced marriage (EU priority) and provide with
possibility for legal recourse, protection of property, inheritance, child
recognition, legal ID for bank account….
- Know causes of women's deaths to inform policies,
- Birth registration and legal identity vital for access to better gender-
sensitive services (incl. health, education).
=) WE CAN DO BETTER, IT'S A MATTER OF GOOD
GOVERNANCE to inform gender-sensitive policies