KIRIBATI COUNTRY REPORT October 1 – 3, 2018, Fiji MAURI MAI KIRIBATI HELLO FROM KIRIBATI Presenters: Temaava K Lilipa & Rutiane Teekana

status of civil registration office BACKGROUND INFORMATION: This office has been set up and recently administrated under the new Ministry – the Ministry of Justice (since 2016). Previous Ministries – 1. Ministry of Finance & Economic Development (1989 – 1998) 2. Ministry of Environment & Social Development (1998 – 2003) 3. Ministry of Internal & Social Affairs (2003 – 2014) 4. Ministry of Women, Youths & Social Affairs (2014 – 2016) Legislative provisions – regulated under the Kiribati Ordinance Acts (Cap 5 & Cap 54) - being revised and ammended from time to time, most of which from 1977.

Record management system INFORMATION BACKGROUND: Being organized manually and electronically (first electronic records in 1990 and 1991 at the Ministry of Finance); Paper work (forms designed) for work process (including adoption and divorce certificates) and are being filed for official backups and references; Complete Access Database electronic system done in 1995 – 1997, but unable to print out on BDM certificates; Improvement on electronic issuance of certificates – 2007 up to date; Other sources – At the National Archives, through the microfilm system; Quarterly updates from outer-islands still on manual system – return forms. Old records – manual register books are being stored and archived in a separate container storeroom (see as depicted).

Picture of manual registers storage

Status of civil registration system Year No. of Births registered within 1 year of occurrence No. of late registration cases No. of deaths registered Estimated completeness for births Estimated completeness for deaths 2017 2554 1139 681 11 97.8% 2016 2376 1426 687 20 89.2% 2015 2464 1018 769 88 90.7% 2014 2520 872 682 82 91% 2013 2331 939 665 109 82.5% Estimated completeness for Births = No. of Births registered within 1 year of occurrence / No. of Births estimated by most recent census *100. Estimated completeness for Deaths = Births = No. of Deaths registered within 1 year of occurrence / No. of Deaths estimated by most recent census *100.

Recent developments Birth registration: several projects have been applied to target respective areas in collecting births such as 0-5 years age groups on South Tarawa & Betio and some outer-islands; MOU agreement between Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Health to process Birth Notification during new born deliveries at hospitals; 2 recruited staff on South Tarawa Main Hospital and Betio Main Hospital to focus their work on new born registration at Maternity Wards during delivery; Forms and certificates are being scanned, entered and filed. Dream: Developing and upgrading of CRO Database to link data of BDM (underway) plus developing website for overseas services especially enquiries – http://kiribaticro.webs.com

Recent developments – cont’d Production of Vital Statistics: Through the CRO database the Data analyst disseminates and produces statistics which can be utilized by the students (Form 6 & Form 7 esp.), researchers (esp. those who need them for projects) and National Statistics Office.

Recent developments – cont’d Collection of Death data: The reporting of deaths is based on vital deaths at the Main Hospitals in South Tarawa and Betio – being certified by doctors; Other deaths are solely reported by families, but are not certified by doctors; Death notification is recently introduced where families report vital deaths through notification forms signed by doctors - 3 copies are produced : 1 for families, 1 for CRO and 1 for statistical record at TCH Nawerewere.

Upcoming projects & priorities Provision of computers to outer-islands for easy searches and assisting the public at local and remote areas; Prioritizing the training of related personnels (in hospitals) and local registrars in outer-islands especially; Delivering mobile birth registration campaigns in remote areas – free of charge; & Prioritizing and increasing advocacies on the importance of registering births;

recommendations If regular activities on birth and death registration be urged for implementation on outer-islands as some are most remote (ie. Islets); If focus more on collection of vital events (births and deaths) from all villages in each island (eg. Nurses at clinics); If IT be recruited at CRO main Office and to be specifically funded for one or two years for improvement and development of electronic systems; & Such recommendations challenge the BAG’s support if possible.

KAM BATI N RABWA AO “TEKERAOI” THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND WISH YOU “LUCK”