7th Africa Symposium on Statistical Development January 2012

Cornelius Williams Regional Adviser UNICEF ESARO

Civil Registration and Linkages to Other SystemsHow Do We Bring Civil Registration

Into the 21st Century?

Africa: Headline Data for Civil Registration Infrastructure

• Crude birth rate 36/1000• Crude death rate 12/1000• Vital events (birth and death only) 48/1000,

i.e. 48m/annually• Number of registration offices needed within

5KM-walking distance: 350,000• Number of vital events/office/year: 140, i.e.

less than 1 per work day

There Was Paper…..

1. “People first had to develop confidence in written records before it could supplant familiar oral and symbolic forms of record.” (in Europe..)

2. “Thus in England, for example, by the second half of the 13th century it was imprudent for anybody to wander far from his village without some form of identification in writing”

….Paper

Paper: What if Obama Had Been Registered Here?

Then There Were Bits and Bytes:Computers, Mobile Phones, Internet and Mobile

Phone Networks

The First I-Word: ICTInformation and Communication Technology

Hard No need to stock and replenish, need for office space only at regional level (much fewer offices)

Records hard easy to keep Prone to erroneous data entry (hard to control) Controlled data entry Hard Easy to share and consolidate Hard Easy to retrieve individual records Hard Easy to access for statistical purposes While people migrate, records stay put, are accessible from

anywhere Hard Easy to audit office performance, and take corrective

action Office cost limits outreach All people reached by civil registration

service High Low operational cost effectively borne by citizens can be

largely borne by government

The 2nd I-Word: Inter- Linkages

1. Health, given its role in people’s birth and death. The accuracy and cost-efficiency of establishing a new person’s identity at birth is 2nd to none

2. National ID, from competing services to an integrated government service

3. Social protection, which provides the entitlements targeting people who are the least likely to be registered

The 3rd I-Word: Inter- Linkages

1. Health:1. Placing civil registrars within the health system2. Health professionals mandated as civil registrars 3. Engaging community health officers as outreach registrars4. Inclusion of birth registration components in public health

campaigns

2. Common Database:a. National ID process b. Social protection programmes c. PIN/identity numbers

The 4th I-Word: Incentives

“Effectively, the impetus and much of the cost must come from the people. Many don’t co-operate unless they see a positive need or advantage.”

The 4th I-Word: Incentives through Social Protection Programs

There is a two-way relationship:

1. For allocation of social benefits and services to target beneficiaries reliable identity systems are essential

2. The incentive for potential beneficiaries to register their identity is strong when there is a tangible return

2008 2009 2010 20110

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

160000

# Registered in Hospital# Registered excluding HospitalChild Welfare Grant Bene-ficiaries

Annual Beneficiary Grant Scale up:2008-2009: 8010 2009-2010: 105892010 – 2011: 21911

The 4th I-Word: Incentives Birth Registration & Child Welfare Grant Scale Up

Source MGECW & MHAI Programme Data 2011

The 4th I-Word: Incentivesthrough Development (a Two-Way Process)

Complementing Elements

• Law reform to adjust to the electronic age, e-government and globalization

• Harness political will. Ministers (also those responsible for national IDs), Parliamentarians (IPU) and Civil Society

• Monitoring and evaluation of reform and restructuring programs and program elements, e.g. through randomized control trial