SHARING EXPERIENCE- COUNTRY LEVEL CRVS &ASSD KENYA TUNIS 2-4TH NOVEMBER 2016

OUTLINE BACKGROUND ACHIEVEMENTS CHALLENGES WAY FOWARD

BACKGROUND Despite Kenya’s registration of Vital events dating back to 1960, Compiling of Vital statistics remained undone till 2010, after Dares Salaam ASSD meeting. Although it was well know that the CRVS systems were weak, nobody knew the current status Ministers in charge of CRVS had no legal commitment to changing the situation CRVS stakeholders had weak collaboration Existed no report to show any information on vital events CRVS documents had no demand to the public There existed no legal framework to compile Vital Statistics CRVS operations were all manual Cause of death certification all depended on lay-reporting

ACHIEVEMENTS THROUGH ASSD Conducted a Comprehensive CRVS Assessment Survey provided information to enabling the Civil Registration Department (CRD) align its Strategic Plan (2013-2017) with identified focus areas provide the government with information regarding the status of CRVS in the country as part of the African Ministers responsible for civil registration effort to improve civil registration Formed a CRVS Technical Working Group Improved collaboration of stakeholders Developed the 2013-17 CRVS strategic plan highlighting all the areas to be improved.

Achievements cont’ Started the production of Annual Vital Statistics Report Produced in every February each year One source of vital statistics Providing the recommended methodology of compiling CRVS Sensitized the Ministers in charge of CR on importance of CRVS

CHALLENGES Lack of learning experience from other countries Lack of collaborative efforts Manual operation of the system at County Registration offices Vital registration events handled by different Ministries e.g Births and deaths in Ministry of Interior while Marriages in Attorney General’s Chamber Strong cultural beliefs against vital registration Limited Government budgetary allocations to vital registration

SUGESTED STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING CRVS Establish and strengthen the M&E system Improve registration through Modern Technology e.g use of mobile registration Benchmarking of best practices on CR from other Countries To build capacity of the registration agents on the importance of data capture of all prescribed particulars in the birth and death registers To institute mechanisms to review quality of data at various levels

SUGESTED STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING CRVS CONT’D Partnership and networking Engagement with the county government Digitization of manual records and automation of processes Sensitization campaigns and awareness on the re- registration exercise Enhance civil registrars’ capacity to monitor data collection and submission To build capacity for certification and coding of cause of death To improve reporting of cause of death occurring within the community

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