WEBVTT

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So, when I was 14,

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my family was in the process of adopting
my little brothers from Ethiopia.

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And one day my mom asked,

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"What day should we put
for their birthday?"

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"Uh, the day they were born, obviously?"

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Ridiculous question.

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And then my mom said,

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"Well, Kristen,

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neither of your little brothers
have a birth certificate,

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so how do you suggest
we find out when that was?"

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Mind blown.

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Now, 20 years later,
I'm still working on it,

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except instead of trying
to solve the mystery

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of my brothers' missing
birth certificates,

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I try to solve this problem globally.

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So what do birth certificates have to do
with international development?

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To answer that, we have to look back
at the original development agenda,

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the human rights agenda.

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So in 1948, the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights,

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for the first time,

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set a shared vision of basic
human rights and dignities

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that apply to all people in all nations:

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Article 6, the right to be recognized
as a person before the law.

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Or, a legal identity.

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For children, this is a birth certificate.

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And despite this being
a universal human right,

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one billion people today
have no record they exist,

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making it one of the greatest
human rights violations of our time,

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yet nobody seems to know about it.

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In the face of world poverty and hunger,

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making sure everyone in the world
has a legal identity

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doesn't really seem important,

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but in reality it is.

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See, early in my career,

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I was working with a social worker
in a slum community in Mumbai,

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and we were following up
on a case with this little girl

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who had contracted polio as a baby
and was paralyzed from the waist down.

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When we arrived at the home,

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we found her on the floor.

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Her legs were badly scarred and infected,

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she was malnourished,

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she had never gone to school,

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and she had spent most of her life
confined to this small, dark room.

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When we left, I asked the social worker
what the case plan was,

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and she said, "Well first, we have
to get her a birth certificate."

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I was a little taken aback.

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I said, "Well, don't you think we need
to get her some social assistance

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and a safe place to live
and into a school?"

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She goes, "Exactly, which is why
we need to get her a birth certificate."

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See, without a legal identity,

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you are not recognized
as a person by the government.

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And a person who doesn't officially exist
can't access government services,

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and the government
can only provide services

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for the number of people they know about.

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Hence, people are overlooked, for example,
by routine immunization services.

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People without a legal identity
are both uncounted and unprotected.

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They're among the poorest
members of society

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from the most marginalized communities.

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They're victims of trafficking.

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Human traffickers know that
it's nearly impossible to find someone

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if there was never a record
they existed in the first place.

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They're victims of exploitation,
such as child marriage and child labor.

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Without a birth certificate,
how do you prove a child is still a child?

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They're among the stateless;

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birth certificates provide proof
of who your parents are

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and where you were born,

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the two main factors
for acquiring nationality.

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Of the one billion people in the world
without a legal identity,

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the vast majority are children
who were never registered at birth.

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In the least developed nations,

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the births of over 60 percent of children
have never been recorded.

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A study across 17 countries
in sub-Saharan Africa

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found that 80 percent of children
did not have a birth certificate.

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Out of the countries
that have not yet achieved

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universal birth registration coverage,

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in 26 countries, a birth certificate
is required to access health care,

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including vaccines.

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In 37 countries, it's required
to access social assistance

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intended to bring people out of poverty.

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And in 59 countries,
a birth certificate is required

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for a child to be enrolled
or complete school.

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A birth certificate is also often required
for other forms of legal identity,

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like a national ID or a passport.

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And some form of legal identity
in almost every country is required

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to vote, get a SIM card,
or open a bank account.

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In fact, of the 1.7 billion people
in the world who are unbanked,

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20 percent is due to not having
a legal identity document.

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Now, you don't have to be an expert
to see that this, times a billion,

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is a big problem.

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So it's not surprising
that evidence shows

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that improved birth registration
coverage goes hand in hand

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with improved development outcomes,

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from poverty alleviation

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to better health, nutrition, education,

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economic improvement

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and safe and orderly migration.

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In 2015, world leaders came together

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and promised that they would
uphold human rights of all people

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and leave no one behind

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in efforts to end poverty,

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hunger,

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and reduce inequalities.

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But how are they going
to uphold human rights

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and how do they know
if anyone is being left behind

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if they do not know who they are
or where they are

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in the first place?

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So what can countries do about this?

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Now, there's no one-size-fits-all model,

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because every country context is unique.

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There are five proven interventions
that can be applied to any system.

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Number one, reduce the distance.

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Two, remove the cost.

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Three, simplify the process.

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Four, remove discrimination.

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Five, increase demand.

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Gender discrimination
remains a hidden problem,

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because statistically,
there's no difference

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between registration rates
of boys and girls.

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But the discrimination
isn't against the child --

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it's against the mother.

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Angola was one of 35 countries
that required a father's name

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or to be present in order
for the child's birth to be registered.

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So in situations where the father
is unknown, unwilling,

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or unable to claim paternity,

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the mothers are legally prevented
from registering the births

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of their own children.

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So to address this,
Angola put a policy in place

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allowing mothers to register
their children as a single parent.

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In Tanzania, in 2012,

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only 13 percent of children
had a birth certificate.

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So the government
came up with a new system.

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They put registration centers
in existing infrastructure

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such as community wards

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and in health facilities.

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So they brought the services closer
to the people who needed them.

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They removed the fee.

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They simplified the process
and automated it

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so the birth certificate
could be issued on the spot.

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To increase demand, they rolled out
a public awareness campaign,

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letting people know
that there's a new process

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and why it was important to register
the births of their children.

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In just a few years in the districts
where the new system was put in place,

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83 percent of children
now have birth certificates,

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and they're in the process
of rolling this out nationwide.

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So what can you do?

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See, I believe we are all united
by our humanity.

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We live on the same earth.
We breathe the same air.

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And while none of us chose to be born
or the situation we were born into,

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we do get to choose how we live.

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Change occurs when a moment of awareness

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or a moment of compassion

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inspires a person to act.

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And through our collective action,

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we become the most powerful
agents of change.

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And when the cost of inaction is
innocent children are left unprotected,

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unvaccinated, unable to go to school,

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growing up to be adults who are unable
to find decent work or vote,

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trapped in a cycle of poverty,
exclusion and invisibility,

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it comes down to us

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to take this issue out of the darkness

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and into the light.

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Because it's not every day you get
the opportunity to change the world,

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but today

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you do.

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Thanks.

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(Applause)