This is the report of the Pacific Civil Registrars Network Disaster Preparation and Response Workshop, organized on 2 to 4 October 2017, in Suva, Fiji.  The focus of the workshops was to discuss the role of civil registration and vital statistics systems in planning and responding to natural disasters and other emergencies. CRVS systems provide important information on the population for planning an appropriate response, and play a key role in replacing key identity documents following and event while ensuring the ongoing registration of vital events such as births and deaths especially when populations may be displaced or accessing government services through alternative locations. Registrars from 14 countries shared their experiences and looked at national and regional opportunities to improve system resilience and response in the event of a disaster. The PCRN fosters coordination and integration of Civil Registrars’ input and ideas into the implementation of the Pacific Vital Statistics Action Plan (PVSAP) and the Regional Action Framework for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Asia and the Pacific. The meeting gave recommendations to countries and partners for progressing this important work, including how regional partners can contribute to improving the CRVS systems in countries and was organized by the Pacific Civil Registrars’ Network (PCRN), the support of the Brisbane Accord Group, UNICEF, New Zealand Foreign Affairs and Trade Programme (NZ MFAT), and the Pacific Community with support from private partners, ESCAP, Plan International, UNISDR, NZ High Commissioner, UNHCR, and the World Bank.

The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) defines civil registration as the continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events pertaining to the population, as provided through decree or regulation in accordance with the legal requirements in each country. Civil registration is the best source of vital statistics since it constitutes the collection of statistics on vital events in a lifetime of a person as well as relevant characteristics of the events themselves and of the person and persons concerned. A well-functioning Civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system can significantly improve governance at national and subnational levels and can provide legal and protective advantages to individuals. CRVS system also has statistical advantages over censuses and sample surveys because it provides reliable disaggregated data at any geographical or administrative level, at a relatively low cost. To monitor and measure progress, the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) was tasked with developing a global indicator framework. In addition to directly measuring the development and improvement of CRVS, data from complete and accurate CRVS systems can also provide information used to monitor other targets and indicators. CRVS systems in countries also play an important role in effecting progress in other SDG targets and indicators.

This is one of the advocacy documents of the Fourth Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration held from 4 to 8 December 2017 in Nouakchott, Mauritania.

The fact sheet is one of the advocacy documents of the Fourth Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration held from 4 to 8 December 2017 in Nouakchott, Mauritania.   

The practical guide on improving death registration and collecting cause of death information is one of the background documents of the Fourth Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration held from 4 to 8 December 2017 in Nouakchott, Mauritania. It was developed to help tackle the above-mentioned challenges. It is intended to help countries design and implement the processes best suited for them with regard to death registration starting with notification of death and ending in the compilation and dissemination of death statistics. The guide is expected to help countries systematically take steps to improve their death registration and cause of death information as a part of death registration systems covering both institutional and non-institutional deaths. This document – Practical Guide on the Improvement of Death Registration and Causes of Death Processes within a civil registration and vital statistics – covers the following topics: An introduction to civil registration and vital statistics systems (chapter 1); Legal, organizational and infrastructural requirements for efficient death registration and cause of death systems (chapter 2); Innovations and novel approaches to improve death registration and cause of death registration processes (chapter 3); Business process re-engineering (chapter 4); Strategies for improving death registration and collection of cause of death information (chapter 5); Monitoring and evaluation (chapter 6).  

This document features nine recent innovations and lessons learned from UNICEF programmes which are illustrative examples of some of our work on equity and reaching the most marginalized. They are presented here to share the experience of UNICEF and its country-level partners in working to reach the most marginalized in order to share lessons we have learned and the good practices we have identified. The cases highlighted in this publication are highly diverse examples – from women’s participation to deliver messages on immunization in Afghanistan to Brazil’s effort to achieve universal birth registration, lessons learned from community engagement in a rural neglected area in Uganda, and the experience from a child-friendly programme implemented in one of the poorest provinces in Vietnam.

This research, the second of two case studies, explores coordination through the lens of civil registration and vital statistics, with particular reference to birth registration in Peru. It focuses on the role that coordination can play in making birth registration function effectively. While the capacity of governments to deliver the function of birth registration is central to this paper, the role that understanding coordination can play in improving public services is examined, especially services for children. The capacity to register the births of children is a long-standing function of governments, and can be seen as a test of government effectiveness. In Peru, backward mapping showed that the trails from local and district registrars to the government registration organization (RENIEC) stopped almost immediately. This seems to point towards the centralized structure and top-down approach of RENIEC; to sustain its achievements to date and to reach the final three per cent of unregistered births it should consider incentivizing and empowering local and community administrations.

This report, commissioned by the Rights of the Child Commission (RCC) and United Nations Children‟s Fund (UNICEF), presents the findings of a two-month research project to examine the situation of birth registration among children in Guyana. The study included a detailed desk review and field research in four of ten administrative regions of Guyana (Regions 1, 2, 7 and 10). The study engaged both Duty Bearers and Rights Holders at the national, regional and community levels. In total 618 households were interviewed and data for 1,770 children were recorded. In addition, the study engaged a wide range of stakeholders at the national level including leading experts and professionals within the government and non-governmental sectors. These include the Ministry of Home Affairs, which has responsibility for birth registration, the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, the Ministry of Health; Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security; Children‟s Legal Aid and regional officials. The study examined various aspects of a child‟s identity rights including: an assessment of (i) legislation, (ii) policy and practice and (iii) attitudes and behaviors of care givers (parents and/or health workers). The major findings are grouped into three key categories; policy, prevalence and practice.