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This Digest looks at birth registration -- a fundamental human right that opens the door to other rights, including education and health care, participation and protection. Unregistered children are often the children of the poor and excluded, such as refugees or particular indigenous groups. Lack of registration exacerbates their poverty and underscores their marginalisation. Non-registration also has serious implications for national goverments. Countries need to know how many people they have and how many there are likely to be in the future, in order to plan effectively. This Digest emphasizes the crucial importance of birth registration, explores the obstacles to universal registration and highlights the actions -- including awareness raising, legislative changes, resource allocation and capacity building -- that are needed to ensure the registration of every child