A/HRC/39/30 registration systems is the most secure approach to protect children from the loss of their data, particularly due to conflict or humanitarian crisis. V. International and regional cooperation 78. International cooperation on birth registration will be critical to the realization of this right for children in all countries, and to fulfilling the 2030 Agenda commitment to do so under target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals. Technical cooperation and the provision of development finance are essential to bolster resources at key moments of progress, such as the digitization of civil registration systems, alongside cooperation in the sharing of good practices between countries in similar circumstances. While each country is unique and there can be no “one size fits all” approach, practices that have demonstrably been effective in expanding children’s access to birth registration should be adapted to be made relevant and replicable in different contexts. 79. A new set of global principles, the Principles on Identification for Sustainable Development, have been developed, which are aimed at strengthening identification systems and supporting the implementation of target 16.9, in the context of the World Bank’s Identification for Development initiative. The Principles, the first of which is “inclusion”, highlight the imperative of leaving no child behind and call for the prioritization of programmes to strengthen civil registration and vital statistics in national development plans. 80. Regional organizations are key to strengthening cooperation and the sharing of good practices. A range of regional platforms and initiatives have been established to facilitate cooperation in this respect, including the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems, and the Regional Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Steering Group for Asia and the Pacific, among others. The progress made through these and other regional efforts shows that collaboration at this level is essential in order to bring about peer-to-peer learning and support among governments. 57 VI. Conclusions and recommendations 81. Millions of children are still being born without leaving a trace in civil registration systems, and risk remaining invisible and uncounted by governments throughout their lives. Providing birth registration and legal identity to all children immediately they are born is a human right, and a crucial step towards protecting them from violence, abuse, exploitation and other rights violations. Whether or not a child is registered at birth has implications for realizing all rights throughout his or her life. 82. Yet it is the children who are the most marginalized and living in vulnerable situations who continue to miss out on birth registration, such as children living in situations of conflict, poverty or emergency, children belonging to minority groups, children with disabilities, indigenous children, and children of migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons. Achieving universal birth registration and legal identity by 2030 means reaching these children effectively, and reaching them first through targeted measures. 83. To this end, international and regional cooperation, as well as cooperation between stakeholders at the national level, is crucial. A human rights approach should be applied throughout the birth registration process, and in monitoring and the management of data. While there is no “one size fits all” solution, certain practices summarized in the present report have been effective and can be adapted and applied to support the achievement of universal birth registration in all countries. In this respect, States should: 57 16 Submission from Plan International; and UNHCR, “Ensuring birth registration for the prevention of statelessness”.