1. Civil Registration and Linkages to Other Systems
How Do We Bring Civil Registration
Into the 21st Century?
7th Africa Symposium on Statistical Development
January 2012
Cornelius Williams Regional Adviser UNICEF ESARO

2. 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
Because first registration is the main activity of registration offices in Africa, because of its level of development - there is a “Catch-22” in Africa: registration services need to be brought close to where the people are, but when you do their work-load will be negligible. It is then hard for civil registrars to learn by doing or to train them (as there will be too many of them all doing too little). Breaking out of this Catch-22 requires giving up the paradigm that offices are needed to improve the service. The office needs to be replaced by a handheld device.

3. There Was Paper…..
“People first had to develop confidence in written records before it could supplant familiar oral and symbolic forms of record.” (in Europe..)
“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”
Quotes from Jane Caplan and John Torpey, Documenting Individual Identity, The Development of State Practices in the Modern World, Princeton The quotes show the early history of identity papers – even before the printing press was invented. It was only in 1538 that Cromwell introduced the nationwide registration system for births, deaths and marriages in England and Wales – 300 years later. So the ID preceded CR, but for the purpose here: paper has a very long history in CR and identity management, about 800 years in the western world. Another parallel: government, civil registrars and the people also need to develop confidence in ICT first, before it will be applied.

4. ….Paper
One of 360 main civil registration offices in Cameroon, Maroua II, capital city of the Extreme North region. The lady is one of about 3,000 civil registrars in the country. There are an additional 2,000 centres speciaux – which of course will generally be even simpler.

5. Paper: What if Obama Had Been Registered Here?
Obama would not have been a president if Hawaii would not have had its civil registration house in order. Not only the certificate is important. The register is more important. What does a birth registration rate of 70% mean when the registers are in this condition? How long will these registers last in an office without air conditioning and open to the elements? And how do these registers combine to a national register?

6. Then There Were Bits and Bytes: Computers, Mobile Phones, Internet and Mobile Phone Networks
CNI stands for the Carte Nationale d’Identite. INS for the national statistics office. The picture shows the frontline registration office replaced by a frontline officer: a “civil registration agent” whose task it is to notify vital events and distribute birth- and death certificates. The agents need to visit the registration office on a regular basis, e.g. once in a fortnight or a month. Travel time could be up to a day one-way. The ideal situation – as found in Latin America but also in Asia (Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia) is that CR and ID are in one and the same office of government. The “civil registration agent” can also perform other functions through other apps on her/his handheld device – “m-government”.

7. The First I-Word: ICT Information 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
This is the long list of the 180-degree changes that ICT brings in comparison to a paper-based system. Because it is low-cost and customer-friendly completeness of registration is within “easy” reach. Now civil registration data will also become useful to generate demographic data and vital statistics and virtuous process sets in. People’s trust in the system improves. The budget for civil registration can be directed towards adequate registrar pay rather than wasteful office construction and maintenance and high communication/logistics cost.

8. The 2nd I-Word: Inter- Linkages
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
National ID, from competing services to an integrated government service
Social protection, which provides the entitlements targeting people who are the least likely to be registered
Civil registration in the industrialized countries is part of a whole package of services to citizens, not stand-alone. That is a situation that needs to be achieved in the long-run, in cities first and then in the rural areas. In the interim strong collaboration between some key government functions can be mutually beneficial. It is important that the interface is efficient. The Ministry of Health has a stake in better vital statistics. The ministries and police forces often running the ID service do benefit from reliable breeder documents which a good functioning CR service can supply. CR can help to take IDs of deceased out of circulation (example Kenya). A good functioning “social welfare” system requires reliable identities of beneficiaries, while in return the entitlement to social welfare will be a strong incentive for people to be registered, or to have their offspring registered. But as a general, overarching rule: the government has a duty towards to the taxpayer to work efficiently and effectively, and therefore interdepartmental collaboration is not an option but a duty.

9. The 3rd I-Word: Inter- Linkages
Health:
Placing civil registrars within the health system
Health professionals mandated as civil registrars
Engaging community health officers as outreach registrars
Inclusion of birth registration components in public health campaigns
Common Database:
National ID process
Social protection programmes
PIN/identity numbers
Civil registration in the industrialized countries is part of a whole package of services to citizens, not stand-alone. That is a situation that needs to be achieved in the long-run, in cities first and then in the rural areas. In the interim strong collaboration between some key government functions can be mutually beneficial. It is important that the interface is efficient. The Ministry of Health has a stake in better vital statistics. The ministries and police forces often running the ID service do benefit from reliable breeder documents which a good functioning CR service can supply. CR can help to take IDs of deceased out of circulation (example Kenya). A good functioning “social welfare” system requires reliable identities of beneficiaries, while in return the entitlement to social welfare will be a strong incentive for people to be registered, or to have their offspring registered. But as a general, overarching rule: the government has a duty towards to the taxpayer to work efficiently and effectively, and therefore interdepartmental collaboration is not an option but a duty.
Health
40-60% institutional births; 80-98% in contact with immunization outreach
Dispensary outreach – linking Community Health Workers?
Child Health Days?
Mobile Technology to also capture perinatal data?
Mulago National Referral Hospital, Kampala3,000 Births a month
17,000 Visitors a day
All records manual
Data assistants and “capture by interception”
Outdated computers
A joint response with WHO linking with HMIS strengthening?
Education
Late Registration – role of School Head Teachers
Child participation for reaching every child
Reaching the most vulnerable
Social Protection and Cash Transfers
Facilitating targeting: Complete CR = Required public outcome
Legal identity = required individual outcome (cf. UNDP Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor)

10. 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.”
This from a 1996 article by John Cleland in Population Studies. He is also one of the authors of the 2007 Lancet “Who Counts” series.

11. The 4th I-Word: Incentives through Social Protection Programs
There is a two-way relationship:
For allocation of social benefits and services to target beneficiaries reliable identity systems are essential
The incentive for potential beneficiaries to register their identity is strong when there is a tangible return
We know examples of government services, like public health care and education, for which we have reservations with regards to demanding that people can identify themselves. So there is a degree of caution required here. In Francophone Africa in many countries the judgments suppletif has developed into a cottage industry for the legal sector. E.g. in Cameroon where this is required for late registration to sit the primary school final exam. But a good example is Mauritius where a one-time voucher of about $7 is given for birth registration.
Facilitating targeting: Complete CR = Required public outcome

12. The 4th I-Word: Incentives Birth Registration & Child Welfare Grant Scale Up
Annual Beneficiary Grant Scale up:
: 8010 :
2010 – 2011:
This graph illustrates the increase in birth registration rates, following the implementation of the triple prong approach. This includes:
introduction of birth registration facilities into 23 hospitals through the Ministry of Health and Social Services, and Home Affairs and Immigration partnership – in 2010 over 23,000 babies, and in babies were registered in the hospital facilities
Combined with mobile campaigns in hard to reach areas (2008/2009 campaign reached 18,000 children, and 2009 campaign reached children)
and the expansion and strengthening of regional and sub-regional offices (expanded from 8 in 2008 to 22 offices in 2010)
Child Welfare Grants scaled up from in end 2008 to approximately 140,000 in December This scale up is in part due to the increased availability of birth certificates.
Source MGECW & MHAI Programme Data 2011

13. The 4th I-Word: Incentives through Development (a Two-Way Process)
This graph shows 1) that is very rare for a developed country to have an incomplete civil registration system, 2) that the leap from low registration to complete registration is made at GNI pc below $5,000, and 3) that there are relatively poor countries that have very good coverage. In Africa some of the economically successful countries are also improving their registration substantially, e.g. Ghana and Rwanda. Why two-way? When people have a legal identity the can come out of the shadow economy and become more productive, they can borrow, and save, money “above board” etc. This is the De Soto line of thinking: the UNDP Commission on the Legal Identity of the Poor. Through trustworthy identities individuals and countries become more reliable parties in business, contracts. The economic unions within Africa stress the importance of ID-systems for a reason, and the Rabat process as well as donor aid to curb documentary fraud and illegal immigration are all interlinked.
Example Industrial Revolution and civil registration in England and Wales (cf. Simon Szreter)

14. 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
It is important to state that very few countries in Africa still have colonial civil registration law. Incremental changes have been made. But the application of ICT and strengthening of interoperability, e.g. with national IDs and health, require a full review and reformulation of law. In Latin America the IADB (equivalent of AfDB) actually helps countries with models and templates – which we also have suggested in the concept paper for EU funding. The ministerial and parliamentary track can be egged towards working together and cost-sharing for the introduction of new law and ICT.