LESOTHO Civil Registration & Vital statistics System Prepared by M. Likoti & M. Makoa

Introduction Vital events are regulated under the following Legal frameworks;  Births and death Act 1973  Marriage Act 1974  Statistics Act 2001  Local Government Act 1997  Policies – orphaned and vulnerable children 2006  UN Convention on the rights of the child  The MDGs  The African charter on the rights of the child

Partnerships & linkages Implementing & supporting institutions are;  Ministry of Local Government (Department of Births and deaths)  Ministry of Finance and development Planning ( Bureau of Statistics)  Ministry of Health & Social Welfare ( Department of Social Welfare)  Other agencies (Development partners & private sectors)

Background  Civil registration is coordinated in the Office of Registrar of births and deaths.  Production of Vital statistics report is the responsibility of DLSS division at BOS.  Information on the occurrence of births, deaths, marriages and divorces, as well as relevant characteristics of the events and of the persons concerned is collected from the districts.  The information is manually entered, compiled, analyzed, and disseminated in a statistical form by the BOS.

Procedure  Early registration- event reported within a year of occurrence ( no fees paid)  Late registration – event reported after a year of occurrence (penalty fee of M4.00)  Orphan registration- 0 – 18 years

Procedure cont’  Report an event to the village Chief where notification forms will be filled in triplicate.  The forms should be transmitted to the DA’s office for authorization and issuance of certificate.  Orphan are registered with the village chief or community councilor

Information derived from the forms BIRTHS Name, District, village, ward, sex, date of birth & where it occurred, occupation and nationality of the father, age of the mother, number of children ever born and their survival status etc DEATHS Name, District, village, ward, sex, date of death, occupation and nationality of the father, age at death and cause of death etc.

Information derived from the forms cont’ Marriages Name of parties, District of solemnization, age sex & marital status of the bride and groom, date of solemnization, type of marriage and marriage banns Divorces Name of parties, Age, sex, educational level, place of residence & occupation of the plaintiff & defendant, type, date & duration of marriage, date when divorce was granted & reasons for divorce

Information derived from the forms cont’ Orphans & vulnerable children District, village, Age, sex, educational and residential status of the child, survival status of parents and socio-economic background characteristics of the parents.

Current status  The MoLGC is the custodian of civil registration system.  BOS collects, compiles, analyses and disseminates statistics on births and deaths only, but have just started collecting information on marriages & divorces.  DSW is the custodian of orphaned and vulnerable children registration.

How the forms reach the BOS The forms are filled in triplicate by the Chiefs in the villages. The forms are then sent to the District Administrator’s (DA’s) in the district for authorization, production and issuance of certificates and the chief remains with one form. One of the forms from the DA’s office is sent to the BOS for manual data entry.

Challenges Accessibility-Services are provided in the administrative centres only. Some forms reach the DA’s office only when the chief has some official matter to attend to at the DA’s office. The BOS method of retrieval of the forms not systematic. Focus mainly on agric statistics Codes to be imputed for causes of death remains a big challenge. Under coverage-Reporting rate still very low, hence information can hardly be used for population estimates.

Challenges cont’ Understaffed offices both at headquarters and district offices. Non reporting on early registration Inadequate financial resources. Dependence on ITPD division for production of tables also hinders progress

Achievements Computerized system as of Decentralized services as of 2000.

FUTURE PLANS To develop a comprehensive partnership strategy of improving reporting of these vital events. Start analyzing information on marriages and divorces. Start collecting information on OVC’s. Publish the reports on a yearly basis. Strengthen advocacy and mobilization Capacity building of statisticians Chiefs and community councilors Enactment of the CPW Bill

Thank You for your Attention !!! P.O Box 455 Maseru (BOS) (MOLGC ) Web site: