In Niger, one of the larger countries in West Africa, it is difficult to get an exact figure for the population size, estimated at more than 20 million. This is mainly due to parents not registering children at birth. Four out of ten children in the country are not officially registered. Several reasons are behind this, such as a lack of knowledge of the process for obtaining birth certificates, or the parents’ negligence in declaring births. As Ibrahim Malangoni, National Director of Niger’s Register Office, explained to Tv5monde Info: La population ne se fait pas encore systématiquement enregistrer dès que des événements d'état civil surviennent dans leur famille. Elle attend toujours que le besoin s'en fasse sentir. Par exemple, pour l'école, pour la justice, que le besoin se fasse sentir pour d'autres circonstances de la vie, pour bénéficier d'une bourse, pour ouvrir un compte à la banque, et donc c'est à ce moment-là que les gens se rendent compte qu'ils doivent faire l'acte d'état civil, alors qu'ils auraient dû le faire plus tôt quand c'était gratuit. Members of the public still do not systematically register such events as soon as they happen. People often wait until they feel it is necessary to do it. For example, for school, for court matters, or in other situations such as to benefit from a scholarship or to open a bank account, and it is only at that moment that people realize they need to officially register themselves, when they should have done it previously when it was free. However, slow administration and a lack of infrastructure are also part of the problem. The state has less presence in more remote areas. Residents of these villages are also often unable to afford trips to towns to get their children’s documents. The Moroccan website Le360 illustrated this problem with a real-life example: Nadia Salou […] comme sa soeur Zeneba, 9 ans, et le petit Abdoulkarim, 4 ans […]n’existent que par leur prénom. Leur maman Aïchata Hassan, originaire du petit village rural d’Alzou dans une zone reculée de la région de Tillabéri (ouest), a accouché à son domicile et aucun agent de l’Etat n’a pu inscrire les naissances au registre. Elle disposait de soixante jours pour aller déclarer chaque enfant. Mais ses faibles revenus, l’éloignement de la ville et les coûts de transport l’en ont dissuadée. Et surtout au village, ce bout de papier, l’acte de naissance, « ne sert pas à grand-chose », dit-elle. Nadia Salou […] like her sister Zeneba, 9 years old, and little Abdoulkarim, 4 years old […] exist only through their first names. Their mother Aichata Hassan, originally from the small rural village of Alzou in a remote area of the Western Tillabéri region, gave birth at her home and no civil servant was available to officially register the births. She had sixty days to go and register each child. But her low income, remoteness from the city and the transport costs dissuaded her from doing it. And especially in her village, this piece of paper, the birth certificate, “is not of much use,” she said. In the same article Idrissa Illiassou, an educational advisor, lamented: Beaucoup d’enfants de l’école sont dans cette situation. Des jeunes sans acte de naissance, ça va donner des adultes sans papier d’identité, ils seront exclus . Many children at school are in this situation. Young people without a birth certificate, who will become adults without identity papers, they will be excluded. Since over five years ago, various initiatives have been launched in the country to deal with this serious problem. International organizations have held more and more group sessions (where birth certificates are issued en masse in the community) and awareness-raising events, digitalized the sector, and conducted campaigns alongside local NGOs. This is, for example, what the NGO Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is doing, as highlighted by this tweet.. “Si vous voulez vous déplacer, vous devez avoir ce document. Quand j'aurai mon acte de naissance, je pourrai rendre visite à mon oncle à Niamey.” -Fati ​ ​Au #Niger nous assistons les personnes déplacées à obtenir des documents civils tels que des actes de naissance. pic.twitter.com/X0XYFisdMW — NRC Central and West Africa (@NRC_CWA) December 22, 2021 If you want to travel around, you must have this document. When I have my birth certificate, I’ll be able to visit my uncle in Niamey. -Fati ​ ​In #Niger we assist displaced people in obtaining official documents such as birth certificates. In this video from Tv5monde Info, Jan Egeland, secretary general of NRC, points out that: “Avec un investissement mineur de l’État et des partenaires, vous pouvez procurer à ces garçons et ces filles du pays le plus jeune du monde de l’espoir”.