News In Brief

Cabo Verde Reaches Near-Universal Birth Registration

Civil registration is the cornerstone of legal identity and the first step in ensuring every person is recognised in law. It creates the official record of a child’s existence, supports access to health, education and social protection as well as providing governments with the population data needed for planning and accountability.

Cabo Verde has now lifted birth registration to 99% within five years, following a programme that linked civil registration and national identity systems through a wider digital identity modernisation effort. According to reporting from ID4Africa 2026, the reforms were built around interoperability, governance reform, institutional alignment and digital trust infrastructure, rather than simply adding new technology to existing processes ¹.

The result is significant for a small island state with a population of just over half a million. Cabo Verde is reported to have launched the Autentika interoperability platform which, in addition to reaching 99% birth registration, achieved 100% registration of deaths occurring in health facilities and ensured that every child born is issued a unique identification number at birth.