Understanding Civil Registration and Vital Statistics

Basic concepts and principles of civil registration and vital statistics Workshop on Improving storage and archival of civil registration records and documents Dates: 1-3rdOctober 2018 Suva, Fiji

Outline 1. What is civil registration, what is vital statistics and why do we care? 2. Regional and international commitments towards CRVS 3. The Brisbane Accord Group, Pacific vital statistics action plan 4. Emerging country needs and important resources 5. The future

What is Civil registration and why is it important ? Civil registration is the continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events in accordance to the law of a country. Civil registration is carried out for two main purposes: 1. Establishing the legal documents provided for by law- [ Establishing Legal identity] 2. Provide a source of national sources of population [Vital statistics] Vital events: Live births, deaths, foetal deaths, marriage, separation, divorce, annulment of marriage, adoption, legitimation and recognition

Legal identity Identity: A unique set of features and characteristics that individualize a person, including the name, surname, date of birth, gender and nationality of the individual. Legal identity can simply be defined as who you are before the law or the official status of ones identity as recognised by the govt Having an identity is a fundamental human right which enables an individual ability to enjoy all other rights. Legal identity is established at first at birth, through birth registration and ends at death though not its legal effects.

Legal identity continued Legal identity and legal identity documents enable an individual to establish a name and important affiliations which are critical in claiming fundamental human and civil rights. Example right to a nationality. From birth, the child also has the right to a nationality. Nationality can be obtained in two different ways: i.e. Jus sanguinis (By blood) and Jus soli (By birth) : The child will have the nationality of the territory on which he was born. Though not conferred, nationality is confirmed through the issuing of a birth certificate At an aggregate level legal identity records are central to critical government functions and services such as electoral processes, taxation, education

Civil Registration based Vital Statistics (CRVS) The Civil Registration System creates a data source for Vital Statistics Civil Registration System Legal records Health records (HIS) Vital Statistics Census, Surveys, Civil Registration is recognised by the UN as the most important and most reliable source of vital statistics

Pacific Country commitment towards CRVS : (i) SDG agenda 1. Commitments towards the global Sustainable Development Goals a. Target 16.9 :16.9 By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration b. More than 90 % of the SDGs targets are linked to international human rights and labour standards these are based on the 1st right to identity c. Population data and hence statistics for monitoring the global SDG agenda are ideally sourced from Civil registration systems

Pacific Country commitment towards CRVS : (i) Asia and Pacific decade for CRVS

(ii)The Asia-Pacific Regional Action Framework GOALS for the CRVS decade

Brisbane Accord Group (BAG) and the Pacific Vital Statistics Action Plan (PVSAP) The Brisbane Accord Group (BAG) was established in 2010 with the aim of supporting countries to improve their vital statistics and to improve coordination between development partners The work of the group is coordinated through the Pacific Vital Statistics Action plan (PVSAP), which sits under the Pacific Ten Year Statistics Strategy, The primary focus of the programme is to support all countries amd territories in the region to improve: (i) registration of key vital events and (ii) accessibility, quality and use of vital statistics

BAG Implementing the PVSAP at a country level Committee Formalize a committee, identify key stakeholders, and develop TORs Bring all stakeholders together to complete a comprehensive assessment of current CRVS Assessment Based on the results of the assessment set agreed-upon national priorities Prioritize Develop a national country improvement plan with stakeholder buy-in and agreed-upon responsibilities Plan Share the plan so development partners can focus their support in a coordinated manner to meet countries technical assistance needs Share Plan Obtain high-level endorsement for improvement plans Political endorse- ment Ensure CRVS is embedded in the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics CRVS in NSDS Produce vital statistics for policy planning Update NMDIs

Pacific countries are at different stages through this journey There is still a lot yet to be done to improve the performance of the systems, especially in ensuring: 1. Universal registration and certification of the critical vital events: timely registration of all vital events 2. Routine production and dissemination of high quality vital statistics related to the events recorded 3. High quality certification of causes of death with complete elimination of ill- defined causes, improved coding practices 4. Routine monitoring of performance of systems including publication of completeness estimates

Emerging country needs/ challenges 1. Establishment of robust IT solutions to support civil registration functions 2. Increasing interest among governments to establish national identification systems 3. Increasing need for cross border information sharing especially for deaths, name- changes and marriages 4. Limited capacity for coding of causes of death

Important resources ; CRVS 1. Pacific Best practice legislation guidelines Pacific Best practices legistlation guidelines: cihttp://www.pacific-crvs.org/docs?view=download&format=raw&fileId=115 Handbook on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems: Management, Operation and Maintenance, Revision 2018): https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/Standards-and- Methods/files/Handbooks/crvs/crvs-mgt-E.pdf Principles and Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System, Revision 3 (2014) https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/Standards-and- Methods/files/Principles_and_Recommendations/CRVS/M19Rev3-E.pdf Handbook on Training in Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems (2002) https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/Standards-and- Methods/files/Handbooks/crvs/Series_F84-E.pdf Handbook on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System: Developing Information, Education and Communication (1998) https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/Standards-and- Methods/files/Handbooks/crvs/SeriesF_69-E.pdf Handbook on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems: Preparation of a Legal Framework (1998) https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/Standards-and- Methods/files/Handbooks/crvs/SeriesF_71-E.pdf 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Important resources; National ID 1. Principles on identification for development http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/21358148637818435 7/Principles-on-identification-for-sustainable-development-toward- the-digital-age 2. Integration unique identification numbers into civil registration: http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/795091518546134883/27385- Integrating-Unique-Identification-NEW-FINAL-0221.pdf