Nearly 40 percent of the 128 million babies born worldwide every year are not officially registered, and two thirds of deaths also go undocumented, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.
The UN agency said incomplete birth and death registries in many developing countries "means they cannot count how many people are born and how many die, and they cannot record how long they live or what kills them".
"When deaths go uncounted and causes of death are not documented, governments are unable to design effective health policies, measure their impact or know whether health budgets are being well-spent," it said in a statement.
Only 31 of the WHO's 193 member states are believed to have reliable cause-of-death statistics.
The Health Metrics Network - which is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the British, US and Danish governments - is helping Cambodia, Sierra Leone and Syria improve their civil registration systems.
Sally Stansfield, executive secretary of the WHO-hosted network, said surveys and surveillance projects have helped fill in the gaps in some countries though serious problems remained.
Children whose births are not registered are less likely to benefit from basic human rights, social, political, civic and economic, the WHO said.
（英语点津 Celene 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Marc Checkley is a freelance journalist and media producer from Auckland, New Zealand. Marc has an eclectic career in the media/arts, most recently working as a radio journalist for NewstalkZB, New Zealand’s leading news radio network, as a feature writer for Travel Inc, New Nutrition Business (UK) and contributor for Mana Magazine and the Sunday Star Times. Marc is also a passionate arts educator and is involved in various media/theatre projects in his native New Zealand and Singapore where he is currently based. Marc joins the China Daily with support from the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
