1. Pacific Regional Workshop on Legal Identity and Identity Security 8-10th July 2019
Perspectives on accelerating progress on universal legal identity and monitoring progress
Gloria Mathenge (SPC)

2. Universal civil registration
Our Goals: (i) Universal civil registration > universal Legal Identity
Universal civil registration
Legal documents on vital events (Births and deaths) for all
Foundation for national ID , other govt programmes Health, Migration, Education, taxation….
Most reliable source of vital statistics

3. Our Goals: (ii) Identity Security
Identity security: the degree to which an individuals personal information, data and identity credentials resist to or protected from harm in the form of theft, fraud and any other form of inappropriate access or use.
Every identity record created is accurate and true
Every legal document issued is secure and trusted

4. Key challenges against the set goals
Key challenges in achieving universal civil registration and secure legal documents:
Registering all events especially deaths
Achieving accuracy (reliability of records)
Achieving timeliness of reporting
Underlying problem: The burden of registration as set out by legislation and the organisation of our system s

5. Informant and Notifier
An informant: is the individual or institution whose responsibility, designated by law, is to report to the registrar the fact of the occurrence of a vital event and to provide all the information on and all the characteristics of the event. On the basis of such a report, the event may be legally registered by the registrar.
A notifier is the individual appointed by the local registrar to act as intermediary between the local registrar and the informant in providing all the information on and all the characteristics of an event that is to be legally registered by the local registrar.13

6. Examples of legislation: (i)

7. Parents or family are the key informants
Birth or death
Ministry of Health
(Hospital)
Event record created
Proof of event record provided to family
Event record is filed at Hospital
Civil Registrar’s Office (Ministry of Justice)
National Statistics Office
Parent/family to visit registration office
No guarantee of a single trip
Has to pay for certificate
National Planning Office / Process
Scenario 1:
Parents or family are the key informants
Birth or death notification and registration

8. Scenario 2: Is the more common practice MoH is a notifier
Birth or death
Ministry of Health
(Hospital)
Event record created
Proof of Event record provided to family
Event record is filed at Hospital
Civil Registrar’s Office (Ministry of Justice)
National Statistics Office
Parent to visit registration office
No guarantee of a single trip
Has to pay for certificate
National Planning Office / Process
Scenario 2: Is the more common practice
MoH is a notifier
Parents or family are the key informants
Birth or death notification and registration

9. Scenario 3: Emerging best practice MoH is an Informant
Birth or death
Ministry of Health
(Hospital)
Event record created
Proof of event record provided to family
Event record is filed at Hospital
Civil Registrar’s Office (Ministry of Justice)
National Statistics Office
Parent or family has no direct relationship with registration office in terms of reporting, may do so for a certificate
Individual or aggregate records are sent by MOH to civil registration office within a defined timeline
National Planning Office / Process
Scenario 3: Emerging best practice
MoH is an Informant
Advantages: Improved data quality, completeness of records, efficiency, easing the burden of the public
Birth or death notification and registration

10. Examples of legislation (ii)
(f) “Institution” means any establishment, public or private, which provides in-patient or out-patient medical, surgical, or diagnostic care or treatment or nursing, custodial, or domiciliary care, or to which persons are committed by law.

11. Providing a civil registration service desk at the hospital(s)
Other approaches
Providing a civil registration service desk at the hospital(s)
Tagging birth registration to immunisation days
Annual, quarterly, or monthly reconciliation of data between both Ministries with follow up done with families
Positioning the registration office within MoH

12. Immunisation coverage vs birth registration
DPT comprises a series of immunizations to prevent diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus. To be fully immunized, children must receive three doses of the vaccine before their first birthday.
Immunisation data source: UNICEF
Registration completeness, collated by SPC from 2017 PCRN workshop
Period of data: Year 2018 except for Papua New Guinea

13. Recommendations
Adopt a regional model in which there is an established data sharing arrangement between health and civil registration departments, with the latter acting as an informant6, of vital events occurrences.
Build integrated systems, whereby the health information system provides input to the civil registration system, and the civil registration system provides input into the national identification system