Some Observations on Civil Registration in French-Speaking Africa

Technical Papers Number 39 I II February 1990

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON CIVIL REGISTRATION IN

FR ENCH-S PEAKING AFR ICA

I International Institute for Vital Registration and Statistics 9650 Rockville Pike Bethesda, Maryland 20814 U.S.A. TABLE OF CONTENTS . Foreword...... i...... i 1. Introduction ...... 1 2. Vital Registration Situation in the Countries of Black Africa ..... 2 3. Obstacles and Observation Difficulties ...... 4 4. General Principles and Characteristics of a System of Registration amd Vital Statistics in Africa ...... 7 5. The Difficult Vital Registration Experiment in UDEAC ...... 9 6. Conditions Inherent to the Development of Vital Registration .....&,. 11 7. Conclusions ...... '. 12

*******

FOREWORD .

This paper is an English trans stion of Chaoter 9 of the book De 'Homme au Chiffre: Rdflexions sur 1'observation demographique en Afrique edited by Louis Lohle-Tart and Remy Clairin with the collaboration of Michel Franqois and Francis Gendreau. Les Etudes du CEPED No. 1. Paris, 1988. English translation by Mrs. Ellen Jamison. We are grateful to CEPED (Centre Francais sur la Population et le Developpement 1 for permission to publish this translation.

This article traces the history of development of civil registration in the Francophone countries of Africa and gives an account of the major problems facing these countries. There are references to the important efforts of the regional organizations to establish registration systems in these countries. Finally, it is suggested that priority be given to the improvement of civil registration for administrative and demographic purposes. It is suggested that the project be approached with realism, but there is need now to get on with the task of making civil registration a part of the national tradition.

The views expressed in this report are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of the International Institute for Vital Registration and Statistics. There are no restrictions on the use of material published by IIVRS.

i SOME OBSERVATIONS ON CIVIL REGISTRATION IN FRENCH-SPEAKING AFRICA

Michel Francois Statistician and Demographer Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques/ Centre Francais sur la Population et le Developpement

In this article, we consider vital regis- But, in general, none of the three proce- tration as a unique concept and, above all, as a dures is able, even today, to furnish the neces- goal to be achieved, whereas the expression sary information for the annual calculation of "system of registration and of vital statistics" the population size: designates original national solutions enabling the achievement of the goal. 'to: In most cases, only &e results of crude, costly, and rake operations Bearing in mind the vital registration sit- (general population censuses are uation in sub-saharan Africa, emphasis is placed available to substitute for the ad- primarily on rural areas on the one hand, and on ministrative census. births and deaths on the other. B-D : Vital registration, of ten defective and incomplete, does not furnish the Very little consideration is given to na- crude natural increase; hence, cen- tional statistics and official coverage rates of suses and demographic surveys are the vital registration due to the very dispar- large only sources of information on births ities existing between rural areas and urban and deaths, but without providing areas, and often among regions of the same coun- current data. Vital a (L. try. registration is tradition" I-E: International migration is, in gen- Henry) : therefore, it should always be clear eral, poorly known. that it is a task whose results are so far in the future that we can never verify them--if the In countries where vital registration func- goal is achieved. tions normally, processing of the data is of interest especially to demographers. Thus, it is 1 Introduction . the principal source of data concerning natural increase of the population. and of the establish- 1 .l. Basic principle of vital registration ment of various parameters measuring, for example, fertility, mortality and nuptiality. The countries of black Francophone Africa generally have available three administrative But only the reporting of the event, ren- sources of information on their population: dered obligatory by law, and registration, reg- --the administrative census allowing the enumer- ulated by official codes within the framework of ation of certain population types (taxable per- an institution--vital registration--will furnish sons, subjects, voters,. ); .. the necessary elements for data processing. --the register of external migratory movements to enumerate persons who enter and leave the national territory; 1.2. Historical roots of vital registration --vi tal registration, which allows the identifi- The registration of births and deaths sinks cation and specifies the administrative status of each individual. its roots into the remotest antiquity (Pharaonic Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Japan, the Inca Empire 1. If these three procedures functioned normally, every country would be able, at any time In western societies, the origin of modern t, to know the actual size of its population in vital registration was mainly religious, by the relation to an earlier estimate made at time to: keeping of parish registers in which the sacra- P t =Pto + (B - D) + (I- E) where: ments were recorded in relation to demographic Pt is the population at time t; event's (baptisms, marriages, burials 1 ; the first known registers date back to the 15th century. 'to is the population at time to; B-D is the crude natural increase (births It is only since the 17th century, and ac- minus deaths) for the period t to to; cording to diverse approaches in Europe, that and I the generalized lay practice of registration of I-E is the migratory balance (immigrants vital events progressively took root. It was minus emigrants) for the period t to to. still necessary to wait a long time to have available data appropriate for statistical pro- very least for live births and deaths. However, cessing. The origin of vital statistics in a large number of countries still remain where Europe concerning mortality, for example, dates the institution does not function well and where back only to 1751 for Sweden, to 1801 for Norway, data processing is nonexistent, except for some to 1802 for Denmark, to 1817 for France, to 1838 capitals for which one knows the births fairly for England, to 1840 for the Netherlands, to 1866 well and the deaths less well. for Finland, to 1871 for Germany, and to 1876 for Italy and Switzerland. 2. Vital Registration Situation in the Countries of Black Africa Public interest in civil and legal rights of individuals and vital registration became solidi- Historically, in countries of sub-saharan fied with the adoption of the Napoleonic Code in Africa, some systems for the registration of vi- France in 1804. That was to have a great influ- tal events were able to exist at the level of ence on the countries of Western Europe, Latin cities or political entities; however, there is America, and the Middle East. practically no written evidence of this.

h However, vital registration was to be parti- ttModern*l vital registration was introduced cularly lagging in the United States, a country by the colonizers most often in the 19th century characterized by religious pluralism and a fed- or early in the 20th century. At first, its ob- eral. political system, and where it was to be jectives were in direct relation to the needs of truly generalized and unified only around 1930. the colonial government, that is, they hardly concerned the African population, at least out- Knowledge of the number (and characteris- side the urban centers. tics) of births, marriages and dea.ths is now satisfactory in the majority of countries of Europe In 1959, official vital registration in and North America. However, one must be fully Francophone Africa yielded a very incomplete aware that this is the result of a long, con- registration of births and a totally unusable tinuous process--more than a century--and not the registration of deaths. This situation prevail- "immediate" result of an administrative organiza- ed equally in urban and rural areas. tion set up by decree. 1 In 1965, the reporting centers were very Vital registration exists today in these unequally visited, perhaps satisfactorily in countries as a legal instrument that allows the some large agglomerations--mainly for births-- public authority to record the identity of per- but most often sporadically in rural areas. sons with a view to satisfying the practical needs of society. Its aim is the registration of In 1970, the system improved, but mainly in biological or social events, called vital events, the large agglomerations (in Senegal, for pertaining to physical persons (births, deaths, example, coverage is estimated at 5 percent in marriages, divorces, and various behaviors that rural areas but as almost complete in Dakar). have a direct or indirect effect on the identity At the national level, coverage in several coun- of the individuals themselves or on that of an- tries is estimated at 50 percent for births, 30 other person). percent for deaths, and 10 percent for marriages. Beyond the fact that these estimates have prac- A vital event is defined by legislative tically never been verified, such national code, its reporting is rendered obligatory by ttaverageslt mask very large disparities among law, its registration regulated, in the working areas or regions within countries. of the records, by the official codes within the framework of the law. Thus it is that civil reg- To our knowledge, two countries are excep- istration records place a person in time and tions: Mauritius, where the first important characterize him; they are a means of proof, au- regulation establishing vital registration was a-, thentic records set up in special registers by a royal ordinance of April 1667, and Madagascar, registrar acting in his official capacity. where vital registration was established by royal decree in July 1878. Currently, in Mauri- Thus, for industrialized countries, it seems tius, formerly Ile de France, coverage is satis- that the fundamental objective of vital registra- factory for births and deaths; in Madagascar, tion is to permit the government to identify its coverage approaches 80 percent for the country citizens and individuals to prove their identity as a whole for births and exceeds 50 percent for and legal status. Registration has first and deaths. foremost an administrative goal, but its statistical role remains quite essential- in these Concerning Cape Verde, independent since countries. I 1975, registers have existed since 1803, but there is no data processing of the records. It Outside the industrialized countries, most is estimated that nearly 100 percent of births countries have promulgated laws rendering obliga- are registered. tory the registration of vital events, at the 2 In 1970, of 16 Francophone countries of West One notes that most of the initial legisla- and Central Africa, only 7 published any vital tive codes have been modified over time with a registration statistics in their Bulletin, new feature: a unique and obligatory vital reg- and these were limited to distributions by age istration for everyone at the national level. and sex. These "new" codes regulate vital registration and specify the events that are to be captured. With regard to deaths, the United Nations Often, only births, deaths, and marriage must be considers as ffcompleteffa registration system in reported obligatorily and registered. which the rate of underreporting is officially under 10 percent. In spite of the laxity of this In a general way, vital .registration ap- criterion, the only African countries having pears to be an institution with dual features: "complete" registration are Egypt and six small social and legal. Because of that, the guard- island nations or territories (Cape Verde, ianship of vital registration is almost always ' Mauritius, Reunion, Saint Helena, Sao Tome, and taken up by the Department of the Interior for Seychelles), or less than a tenth of the total administrative management, with legal authority population of the African continent. Therefore, under the responsibility of th Justice Depart- one might ask whether the necessary conditions ment to confer authenticity on*tthee vital regis- for the proper operation of vital registration tration records. The Statistical Office is are present in many countries--and even whether rarely called upon for vital registration, a all countries really are concerned about the de- fortiori for processing of the .registrations. velopment of a vital registration system. The OCAM study underscores the huge dispar- The general secretariat of the Organisation ities that can exist among countries and within Commune Africaine Malgache et Mauricienne pub- countries with regard to the number of vital lished a study on this subject in 1974, entitled, registration centers--with or without secondary "The Situation pf Vital Registration in the Coun- centers--and to the numerical size of the popu- tries-_ of OCAM. If lations served by the centers and the geographic area covered. The placing of the centers gener- The table presented below is taken from a ally corresponds to exact administrative sub- larger table of the study, to which we have added divisions and is very often insufficient in some countries with available information. rural areas and, also very often, is only a

Date of reference Date of code in Country of first code effect in 1977

Benin 1939 1950 Burkina Faso 1939 1950

Cameroon 1917 1965 e Cape Verde 1803 (?I Central African Republic 1894 1969 Chad 1939 1961 Congo 1889 1958 Gabon 1912 1963 Ivory Coast 1950 1964 Madagascar 1878 1961 Mauritius 1667 1830 Niger 1939 1950 Rwanda 1963 1969 Senegal 1916 1972 Tog9 1909 1962 Zaire 1939 1958

Nevertheless, the fact remains that it is not marginal activity of the rural administrative easy to determine the year of creation of vital center. registration in each country and that we do not have available information on the codes in effect The ffregistrar, who has administrative today, but only on those that Prevailed 10 Years responsibility for the records, is usually the ago, in 1977. local representative of the central office. Nevertheless, enforcement is the duty of agents t

'OCAM in 1974: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Dahomey (now Benin), Gabon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, and Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). 3 responsible for the tasks of inscription, regis- --the legislation regulating the institution; tration, bookkeeping, maintaining files,. . ., but --the system for registration; they usually are also secretaries or communal --the staff to carry it out; agents with other tasks to carry out, often more --the population. demanding ones than vital registration. After that, we will deal with some particu- Training for vital registration usually lar problems concerning observation difficulties. takes place on the job: there is rarely any specific training, much less any retraining. 3.1. The government Two systems of registration are practiced: --a sedentary vital registration in most coun- Even today, in many countries, the govern- tries; ment considers that there are more important --A sedentary/i tinerant arrangement for some tasks than vital registration; thus, it is not countries, with or without use of a village motivated to take the necessary measures con- record book. cerning the institution. This fttitude often provides an easy alibi for putting ,the responsi- It appears that where the method is adapted bility for thhe mediocrity of th6 institution to the area, sedentary in urban areas, sedentary back on the informants. If, "tomorrow," all and itinerant in rural areas, the results are vital events were reported on time, in most relatively better. cases the vital registration staff would be hard put to register all the events. For all the countries studied by OCAM, five types of principal documents were identified for In another connection, the government is the inscription and registration of vital often compartmentalized in its own routine and events: does not always understand the appropriate mea- --certificates (documents prepared prior to es- sures in a realistic way. While a network does tablishing a record); exist, it is just poorly used. --records (single-sheet or mu1 tiple-entry registers, eventually existing in several copies 1 ; The question to be asked, then, is this: --duplicates, copies, sworn affidavits; Vital registration, why do it?" The African --summary statements of the records drawn up in reality points out that there are several possi- a center and/or indexes of the records; ble flnecessitiesff for a vital registration --various other documents (burial permits, systern : family records...). --social necessity (the proof of the existence of an individual ; The time limits for reporting set by law --purely administrative necessity; attempt to strengthen the obligation to report. --fiscal necessity ; They vary by country. --planning necessity; 3 --statistical necessity. Usually, registration of all vital events is free of charge. However, registration taxes None of these seem to be well understood in do exist, not always officially, and these may most countries, since the government is satis- vary in both cases from one region to another fied with short-term solutions; in addition, the within a country. compartmentalization of responsibilities and of ministerial departments generally impedes the The OCAM study shows that the development existence of a central lfplaceft where all needs of vital registration encounters four categories ' are perceived. of obstacles : --the administrative system put in place; The utility of a system of vital registra- --the staff used ; tion spread throughout the country is not ob- --the network of transmission; vious to the majority of leaders (the statisti- --almost always, an insufficient motivation of cian and the planner in certain sectors--public the authorities and of the population. health in particular--are the most sensitive to the importance of the systern 1. Adminis trative The assessment of OCAM thus is not very op- censuses-- though of very uneven quality--of ten timistic, but it allows one to draw up this in- seem to satisfy the principal need for Voughtt ventory of obstacles, which will be elaborated estimates of global trends of a population or upon in the following section. for a general estimate of the per capita tax base, where it exists. 3. Obstacles and Observation Difficylties As for the demand for demographic data by We will distinguish in this section five ministries such as Planning, Development, Econ- sources of obstacles: omy, Urbanism, one notes that this is satisfied --the government: vital registration, why do it? by means of various studies, either direct (ad 4 hoc surveys), indirect (cross-checking, remote centers is insufficient, the procedures too com- sensing), or secondary (more refined processing plicated, the controls nonexistent. They also of a census, for example), because a national underscore the extreme isolation in which system of vital registration is very difficult to each center vegetates and the absence of super- establish in terms of both financial and human vision and the absence of historical information resources; thus, it is considered outside the that enclose the center in such isolation in needs expressed by the said ministers. Moreover, rural areas. the achievement of a satisfactory system is well beyond the horizons of those who could "imposeft The sedentary nature of the centers, the the introduction of an operational institution. marginalized activity of vital registration in relation to other administrative activities, a The time factor is often wrongly brought up renovation of of ten deficient registers--and the as the major obstacle, for only time, when re- utilization of up to three copies of the same sources are lacking, will permit a favorable out- register--the nonpreservation of files, etc. , come. are so many additional obstacles.

3.2 Legislation The scale of official fek, (and of those that are less so), the need forxa client to re- Current legislation regulating vital regis- turn several times before receiving an official tration in Africa is not, for the most part, paper recording his report, are still other adapted to reality, but that is not what impedes obstacles. a system from functioning: whatever the legislation, the system works if someone who is moti- In industrialized countries, the only docu- vated takes charge of it. ment proving the existence or the death of a person is a medical report. There is no vital If one acknowledges that the "product"--the registration record without the medical record vital registration data--has a reason to exist furnished by the doctor. It is the doctor who for various users but that the "mode of produc- makes the decision to identify a stillbirth or a tion" should not necessarily be the same as done death prior to birth. In Africa, it seems that elsewhere, in France for example, then one should medical units are the best collectors of infor- ponder the alternatives, without preconceived mation on births and deaths and have the best ideas, according to the country that actually infrastructure; moreover, they are generally the poses the problem. most esteemed. Their coverage rate, however, is of ten quite inadequate, especially in rural If the principle of an adapted national vi- areas. tal registration is acknowledged, vital registration being a legal instrument adequate for es- 3.4. Staff tablishing the identity of persons, the political authority should, before any 9-eform," carry It is certain that many vital registration out an in-depth study on the customary law still -centers in Africa do not have a qualified staff: in effect and its impact on the events pertinent --a deficient recruitmen t standard ; to vital registration: marriages, kinship ties --training on the job and without much direction. and alliances are good subjects to explore; births, with respect to the time limits for re- If one adds to that the insufficient size porting (which, currently, are often too short in of staff (more because of their other activities traditional circles in relation to local customs) than of their number), one has the second great is another. alibi vis-a-vis the poor operation of vital registration: the staff. It is also necessary to convince the legal writers to be less fastidious about form because To agents occupied with other "more engros- that weighs down the system and burdens the cost. sing" tasks, often without clear and precise in- It is not necessary for the records to be too struction for filling in the records, establish- detailed. ing summary registers, transmitting them to the supervisor, receiving informants, ..., it becomes Finally, to reform the codes, it is neces- illusory to explain that their work is important sary to set up a real collaboration among the and of national usefulness, and even more illu- principal departments concerned: Justice, Inter- sory when the pay and status of the employee--of ior, and Statistics. the commune, of the subprefecture--are absurdly low. 3.3. The registration system It should not be forgotten that the obsta- All the studies undertaken'on the subject cles of deficient recruitment standard and underscore the weaknesses of the registration training would be overcome more easily with system, especially in rural areas. The number of "simplifiedff registration, sufficient only for

5 the establishment of. a proper record and a mini- little by little, from its fear of the system, a mum of data processing. fear which arose in part from certain colonial practices. 3.5. Population Universal inscription of persons in the vi- At the international center for the applica- tal registration system is a good thing but car- tion of demographic statistics of Bangui, in ries the risk of losing much of its effective- 1959, the participants were asked to preserve in ness if it is possible to obtain or to borrow spirit, when working in Africa, three main traits another person's identity. The solution of the of traditional societies: affidavit has as its goal to alleviate an exist- --the existence of a socioeconomic organization ing lack, it is not the cause of it. However, that is carefully hierarchical, but often (in certain procedures for acquiring it constitute a central Africa) at the most restricted level, the large obstacle to the awareness of the popula- clan; 1 tion of the value of vital registration, of the --the complete effacement of the individual be- duty, for example, of parents to declare the fore the group, the scjciolegal form of which does birth of an infant: a sworn af idavit will be not go below the extended family; established when the child's educf tion begins if --The importance of religion, which permeates it is required. One can acknowlchge in certain everry act, every thought, every organization. cases that the sworn affidavit, when it is ef- fectively used, has become one of the major ob- Since 1959, many African traits have been stacles to the development of vital registration. turned upside down by the "modern world." Never- theless, the fact remains that everyone has a 3.6. Observation difficulties horror of practices that overturn their customs, their traditions, their beliefs, their interests, Certain difficulties in observation can be their taboos. recalled here; they concern: --the identification of an individual and the The Department of Public and Administrative question of names; Affairs of Niger wrote in a report about vital --marriage; registration for the period 1970-73: --the reporting of deaths and causes of death; --civil status and migration. "This institution has not yet returned to tradition. The operation of vital registration So that an individual can be identified, he is in general very defective. The deficiency in should have a well-defined name that he will rural areas is a result of the lack of adaptation keep for life and which is known both to the of the institution to the traditional society-- government and to private persons with whom he one does not prove his paternity or his right to deals. The rules for passing on the name should succession by producing a birth record. Reform be well defined. is imperative. This is not always the case in Africa: it Actually, many people live without an offi- occurs that a neighbor or a friend does not give cial record to sanction their birth, or their the "official name!' of an absent person. There marriage. Are they then unknown in the society may be an official or public name and other var- to which they belong? Of course not, for the so- iant names according to the speaker; a name can ciety knows their kinship and their alliances and also vary in time and space, often, moreover, to customarily takes them into account when it is a reflect changes in social status or change of matter of choosing a spouse, of paternity, or of group. This problem of names fortunately is not distributing the estate of the deceased. too frequent, but one must be able to identify it when it exists. The 9nodern world" also implies the development of the means of communication, the means of Enough attention will never be drawn to the transport, and related public safety. Individ- registration of marriages, renunciations, and uals are pulled by urban and economic poles of divorces: they pose an extremely complex prob- attraction; people move--at first alone, and la- lem in black Africa due to a large conjugal var- ter the family may rejoin the traveler--and iability in certain population groups and to the for this it is necessary to own a document that diversity and confusion of customs, traditions, vouches for one's identity; but in many countries and religions. These problems should be ap- no campaign of sensitization and of information proached by a study of customary law in relation concerning the value and utility of the institu- to a system of vital registration, especially to tion is undertaken in that regard. It is here clearly define the situations encountered. that education can play a major role, with the need for knowing one's age. I One may be interested in reporting a death to remove the person from the tax rolls and cut It is also necessary to free the. population, off the charge to the village of the deceased, 6 for example. One may also be interested in not in Africa, we draw some conclusions, some gen- reporting--for reasons of pension or retirement-- eral principles and characteristics of a system and cases of exceptional longevity are thus found of registration and vital statistics. We will in Africa..., but, also in the United States. propose here not an implementation model but a quick synthesis intended for countries to use In rural areas in Africa, it is still fre- when considering research on an appropriate na- quent for deaths to preserve a strictly custo- tional system of registration and statistics on mary- and traditional nature, without any tie to births and deaths, and also marriage. vital registration. 4.1 . Legislation Causes of death are a very important element in Africa, and vital registration could play a Life in society is organized according to role in recording causes of death. rules of conduct set by law; and the rules that are enforced have their origin mainly in the law. Some countries have put into place a popula- Law is a bill passed by legislative power that tion register with obligatory reporting of determiness, for example, a un'que vital regis- changes of residence, which can pose problems in tration system for all citize.a,k but that can terms of individual and democratic freedom. This also set limits on the temporaPy methods of en- is usually not the case in Africa; but a popula- f orcement . tion register is not desirable under certain political regimes. Orders and decrees are not laws but regula- tions that determine the means for enforcement In a certain way, the administrative census of the law, enforcement matched on principle to constitutes a rough population register. It a sanction. could not replace vital registration but could assist the expansion of vital registration and The individual is a physical person enti- permit a checking of the data. tled to rights and obligations within the nation. Measures of standardization are likely to come up against some resistance for some time yet The approach to legislation among Anglo- or even to be purely and simply unknown to the Saxons is very different: it is a customary population without an information campaign. right based on the declaration of the event and not on a set of laws and rules, very often com- One notices the preponderance of knowledge pelling, especially in terms of the time limits of the habitat and the land in the search for so- for registration. lutions for demographic knowledge of the population of Africa. However, it is not necessary 4.2. A definition of the frame of reference that "knowledge of the habitat" be an excuse for (food for thought) only abstract discussion. A system of registration and vital statis- One must identify, then understand, the ob- tics has two complementary bases: stacles and seek solutions, beginning with the --obligatory, continuous, and permanent report- way things are, in order to make things as they ing of the principal vital events--births, should be, instead of striving to transpose and deaths (eventually marriages )--and of their copy what is being done elsewhere under different characteristics, allowing the establishment of traditions. official documents conforming to current legislation, destined to furnish proof of the event, The size of the task to be accomplished in and called vital registration records. The the face of all these obstacles can cause dis- records are written up in registers devised es- couragement at the start. Certain demands for pecially for each type of event; success in too short a time, and without prelim- --the establishment, at the time of registration inary study, will lead to failure. It is neces- of vital events, of a Statistical Bulletin pre- sary to develop a dynamic vital registration, senting the basic relevant characteristics of progressively, taking one's ' time and adapting it the events themselves and of the persons to whom to the evolution of populations confronted with they pertain; the transmission of these bulle- the penetration of a so-called "modern" system tins, their assembly and their processing for into their traditional societies. the elaboration, analysis, evaluation, presentation and distribution of the vital statistics 4. General Principles and Characteristics of a gathered. System of Registration and Vital Statistics in Africa I 2The establishment of a Statistical Bulletin may be the of From the analysis of studies and research objective of a second phase in the establishment the undertaken on the problem of vital registration system, but from the beginning the registration necessary to the establishment of the record should have a double 7 role: legal and statistical. 4.3. The administrative system 4.5. Registration

Vital registration depends: The law designates in a precise manner the --administratively on the tutelage ministry: personnel, administration, and authority re- Minis try of the Interior; quired to report a vital event to the qualified --legally on the Ministry of Justice, which con- authorities, the place where the declaration fers authenticity on each record by the number- should take place, and the time limits set for ing and initialing of the registers. registration; the law likewise designates the form and content of the records and the regis- For its part, the National Statistical Of- ters, as well as their number and their use for fice processes and distributes the vital statis- statistical purposes (summary statements or 'Sta- tics. The creation of a national technical or- tistical Bulletins1. ganization seems to be necessary: --to ensure the required coordination between 4.6. Controls the tutelage ministry, the Justice Department, and the Statistical Office, beginning with the The justice authorities oY ersee the en- development phase of the system; forcement of the law. The gov9nnment ensures --to ensure the responsibility for all aspects the management controls (buildings, property, of the organization, administration, and opera- materials, personnel, equipment, documents tion of vital registration; files, ...1. The control of transmissions --to satisfy one of the main conditions of the (copies, receipts, time limits) and the editing undertaking: the continuity of the operation of statistics (processing stages, coverage 1 are until the perpetuity of the system is assured also essential parts of the system. and national coverage is satisfactory. 4.7. Remarks But it is not by creating this organization ' that the problem of vital registration is re- One should not surmise that an elaborate solved, for it is only a tool. In a country decentralization will run into the problem of that is relatively spread out, there will be a the qualification of the staff. In fact, the further need, for example, for decentralization raw data collected in the field are from the at the regional level. start very rudimentary: the existence of the event (birth or death) and a rather limited There is no other solution--especially in minimum number of characteristics, the accuracy rural areas--than a very strong decentralization of which depends little, if at all, on the in the distribution of registration offices, de- qualifications of the person who records them. pending on a defined, concise, and rather fine administrative subdivision, including the adop- The "collection" rests essentially on a re- tion of different solutions by the regions and cognized social structure and the existence populations concerned. The time factor remains within this structure of a respected, permanent, essential for carrying out a progressive geogra- and literate (not necessarily in the official phic coverage on a par with the available re- language of national communication) person. sources: it is advisable to start with on1.y one "There are no secrets" in a small community region or a fraction of a region to achieve, in (village or group of villages) so there is no the long run, a verified national coverage, and statutory pressure on individuals to report the in the longer term still, the continuity of a events, as the person in charge of the system sufficiently effective system . records them himself.

4.4. Vital registration staff The decentralized collection--and this is the main point--operates with an absurdly small The registrar is the representative of the material investment and budget. Yet, it has public authority. He is trained to guarantee the meaning only if the passing on of information is execution of the law and ensure the transmission assured and if one gives the people reasons to of the data. He is assisted in his task by the provide the information (administrative and sta- operational agents who have a particular status tistical reasons are rarely convincing to the and who, like him, have received theoretical and villagers). From whence comes the interest in practical training to ensure the continuity and integrating the system into another decentral- permanence of registration. ized structure (village committee or village health committee .4

One cannot blindly apply the same rules to city dwellers, 4This type of integrated "collection" in a village health more or less itinerant farmers (in camps)., itinerant gra- system was tested in a field operation in an area of Lower zers, and groups such as Saharan nomads or Pygmies of the Zaire in 1976; if the experiment was cut short in the end, forest. it was due precisely to the absence of the flow of information. One problem still remains, and not the least Why continuous observation and Vital regis- of them: how to link the reporting posts with tration? After the adoption of the initial pro- the registration center, convert the declaration gram in 1970, two trends were delineated within and registration into a vital record, and get it UDEAC : back to the informant? To link the collection --the need to have available as soon as possible system to the institution, a statistical tech- data on demographic change (mu1 ti-round surveys nique to an administrative obligation--this is or continuous observation 1 ; vital registration the most difficult obstacle to overcome: but, was another field to study and deal with in the it can be overcome in several steps in rural long term; areas and can be dealt with directly in urban --the need for a rapid improvement in the system areas. of registration and vital statistics, even to the ,detriment of an immediate knowledge of data 5. The Difficult Vital Registration Experiment in on change at the national level. UDEAC These positions resulted in different ideas So as not to confine ourselves to general- worked out in the countries: ities, we have chosen to present as an example --the improvement of vital regtstration1, at the the approach of five countries of UDEAC5 to de- national level would require a long period of velop a strategy to improve vital registration. time--one or several generations ; during this long period of time, could censuses and surveys 5.1. Point of .departure also be financed? --the pilot continuous observation operations, Starting out, the four countries of UDEAC initial operations of the program, were more-or- found a more or less comparable situation in the less a failure, depending on the country.' demographicknowledge of their populations, which can be characterized as follows: The Libreville conference posed the follow- --insufficiency of official administrative proce- ing question: ltHow to have both demographic dures (administrative census and vital registra- data and the improvement of vital registration?" tion1 ; --too great an expense for a periodic general The general secretariat of UDEAC proposed census; a response 4 years later in 1978, at the time of --lack of continuity in the effort for a better an ad hoc commission on vital registration at demographic knowledge in spite of some good Libreville. This proposition was the result of "classictt or "experimental" surveys, the latter an in-depth study of CREP' on all the work car- often limited to a single subject. ried out in the region and elsewhere.

With this beginning, the Council of the 5.3. The CREP Project Chiefs of State adopted on 18 December 1970 (in association with Chad) a common program of obser- Emphasizing the 0perationa.l aspect, that vation of demographic events to be carried out is, the administrative side of vital registra- 6 over a period of 10 years. tion, the general secretariat of UDEAC proposed a project for the improvement of the system of Very quickly, the Council realized the need registration and statistics of vital events as a for a more precise aspect of the program, a ne- basis for study, not as a model, in order to cessary complement to the censuses and surveys, plan a national strategy, followed by a national called system of registration and vital statis- project in each country, adapted to local condi- tics, and the general secretariat of UDEAC pro- tions. The CREP Project comprises four princi- posed a conference on continuous observation and pal studies: vital registration which was held in Libreville, Gabon in 1974. (a) the requirement for preliminary studies: --an exact inventory of existing centers and 5.2. Objectives of the project their personnel ; evaluation of the budget of vital registration; --detailed cartography for an d optimal administrative subdivision; 'UOEAC: Union Douaniere et Economique de 1'Afrique Centrale. 7 It comprised four countries (Cameroon, Central African Re- Incomplete operations, resources insufficient or not res- public, Congo, and Gabon), to which Equatorial Guinea was pected, evaluations planned but not carried out, experi- added later. However, with regard to the demographic pro- ments with village record-books abandoned or not carried jects, Chad was added to the group as a fifth participant out, insufficient motivation at all levels, lack of support (UOEAC-Chad) . from "outside" organizations. 61n 1970, it was not yet a question of vi(a1 registration but 'CREP: Centre Regional d'Etude de la Population. of an institution to develop it.

9 --study of a consistent, rapid, and realistic Thus, the project takes the following posi- network for transmitting the data; tion: the improvement of vital registration has --sensitization of the local authorities; priority and has dual objectives, administrative --in-depth analysis of existing legislative codes and demographic. on vital registration and of customary laws and traditions; However, there remain three other possible --evaluation of the quality of the forms used and options: of their eventual simplification; --obtainment of vital statistics data does not --study of the role and the necessary and suffi- have high priority and the existing system should cient tasks for each agent in the hierarchy. be left as best as possible in the hope that it will improve with time; (b) study of the reporting offices and of the --rapid obtainment of vital statistics data does registers to be used: have high priority and data should be obtained by --increase in rural offices; means other than vital registration; --register in triplicate: original, copy for the --rapid obtainment of vital statistics data and central office, and receipt. the improvement of vital regist ation both have high priority; thus, both a deLraphic survey (c) study on the training of operational person- and actions to improve vital rkgistration are nel (theoretical and practical training): needed. --training of trainers; --manual of basic training (a collaboration of 5.4. Simplified presentation of the "working CEA/OCAM/UDEAC); model" --operations guide for vital registration agents (a collaboration of CEA/OCAM/UDEAC); On the one hand, there is a very important --a study of indirect sensitivity training for effort to ruralize the system with collection at vital registration: law faculty, national school two levels: of administration, school of judges, faculty of --the reporting office; medicine, schools for nurses, paramedics, social --the vital registration center. scientists, teachers, etc. ; civic instruction in all institutions of learning, in the army, etc.; On the other hand, there is a national De- --periodic retraining of staff. partment of Vital Registration and a Department of Statistics. (d) study of the financial strategy of national projects: From one end to the other in the chain, --how to free up funds and better distribute ex- there are persons to convince, including the op- isting funds; erations staff who must also be trained, checked --how to restrict outside financial aid; on, and retrained. --how to relay outside financial aid if it occurs. 5.4.1 . The reporting office This project--the studies carried out in the framework of the project--comes under three prin- The idea is to set up an office for a vil- cipal ideas: lage or a group of villages--it is a question of --a political will of the countries expressed by the size of the corresponding population--which a continuing moral and financial commitment vis- has available a medical, social, or rural infra- a-vis the national project; structure or in which one can create a village --the registration of births and deaths satisfies committee. In fact, it is doubtless less diffi- administrative and statistical needs. It is ne- cult to attack the problem at the elementary col- cessary to place at the disposition of the popu- lective level than to think only in terms of in- lation an easily accessible administrative sys- dividuals. tem, operating properly and served by a competent staff; It is also a problem of density (low density --it is necessary to work in the short term if but large distances to travel), of the nature of one desires eventually to find a national solu- the settlement (grouped or dispersed) and of ac- tion--in the long term. In other words, the cessibility in all seasons. national project should be put into place in one region, even in a part pf a region in rural A part-time vital registration agent with areas, and In just one agglomeration in urban fixed remuneration has available only one report- areas. This objective permits a maximum reduc- ing register, with triplicate copies: the origi- tion in cost, for obvious reasons of existing re- nal, the copy intended for the vital registration sources, but also allom one to "limit the center, and the reporting receipt (which is not a damage" in case of failure. 9 record 1. This agent periodically submits the I

91n 1975, IDRC (Canada) estimated the cost of 3 years of operation among 600,000 inhabitants, of which 100,000 in urban areas, at 55 million FCFA. This population corresponds to about 45,000 births per year. After the first 3 years, cost of the sub- sequent phases would be, also according to IDRC, from 30 to 40 percent less. 10 appropriate copy to the center, retrieves the development approach that was put into place by completed records, and distributes them upon his the countries of UDEAC in the period 1970-1980: return. He is under the control of the regis- the village committee. Of course, active parti- trar at the vital registration center. cipation of the population is necessary for the creation and effective functioning of these com- 5.4.2. The vital registration center mittees, which prepare the eventual permanent administrative structures within the framework The idea is to have a center in all the of integrated rural development. This willing- rural communes and urban divisions, operating ness for community development was real in 1978 full time. However, in regions of low adminis- in UDEAC: success of the village health commit- trative density, one can anticipate a larger tees in the prefecture of Guham in Central Afri- number of. vital registration centers than the can Republic, and village committees established number of rural communes. since 1974 in the Congo.

It receives the declarations, retrieves Concerning vital registration, one should them from the local offices, draws up the re- return tq the ideas of reporting offices and of cords, makes up the summary reports--or Statis- village record-books in the desire to verify or tical Bulletin--and transmits the information; recall that "these have alreaby worked else- it controls the local offices under its author- where. Ir10 .1 ity. It is under the control of the next higher administrative level and of the procurator of The village record-book is a memorandum, a the lower court. written testimony of births and deaths; it can have a pedagogic value. But it is of use only 5.4.3. The national vital registration office if it is coherent, verified, and processed, and works only if it registers a minimum of informa- The central agency to be created, it is tion; a simplified reporting form for a birth, responsible for the organization, administra- for example, might be as follows: ,.tion, and operation of vital registration. It has a department charged with sensitization programs. Name Control stamp of vital registration 5.4.4. The National Statistical Office was born register: of It processes the information that it re- son, daughter ceives and publishes the vital registration statistics. It ensures, together with the National Vital Registration Office, the verification of the quality of the summaries, down to the reporting offices, and. conducts periodic sample at surveys to evaluate the coverage of the system. I

5.5. The village record-book Thus it is a "basic register," but it can A particular document prepared by CREP be made in triplicate as already discussed. deals with village commi ttees and record-books. It is the result of a thought process carried For the general secretariat of UDEAC, the out during several years in the field and of an components of a new system are to be determined understanding df the area. It concerns rural according to the particular needs and conditions areas. of each country. It would be interesting for the four countries to make known the situation It is probable that, in time, small rural of their vital registrion today in relation to villages will disappear to the benefit of larger the approach to the problem proposed by the gen- villages having basic management and operational eral secretariat between 1970 and 1980. infrastructures: government, agriculture, health, markets,. .. and vital registration. 6. Conditions Inherent to the Development of Vital Registration These basic infrastructures are possible if one utilizes the least expensive techniques 1 ) Patience and time. supportable by the local budget, simple techniques that are easily controllable by a moti- of vated local government. "The existence a village record-book is not necessarily linked to the existence of a village committee, provided that the village has a capable person motivated to use it. These techniques are thus the basis for the basic administrative infrastructure and a

11 -\

2)(a)Absence of social, religious, or ethnic institution apart, on the margin, and the ques- discrimination. tion will not be resolved in isolation. (b) Need, from the start, for a strong, cen- tralized authority, for: Everywhere outside of Africa, one has ob- --the definition of concepts; served a very slow evolution of what exists --the enforcement of the law and the today, of needs that cannot always be ignored, institutions ; of a compromise between customs and insti tu tions, --the utilization of resources. of a narrow articulation between the population (c) Conviction on the part of managers regard- and the institution. ing the utility of vital registration. (d) Public safety and adequate means of Therefore, it is not a question of quickly communication. creating a monster, nor of duplicating what (e) Adequate number of rural centers. exists elsewhere, but of promoting a tradition: (f) Staffing adequate in number and competence the major obstacle, in this situation, is time. (training, instructions1. How does one engage the politician, who loves (g) Definition, quality, and free-of-charge what can be seen, and seen rapiqly, in an effort registration (at the outset, basic data). whose results he will not see? i' (h) Operational and rapid means of transmission of information. One must not impose vital registration but (i)Ensured data processing in a regular manner, create the conditions of a dynamic, show the with periodic publications. population little by little the value of it, un- (j) Controls: an appropriate system in place, til the demand comes from them. and a staff responsive to the controls. The role of the statistician and the demo- 3) A program of sensitization and motivation of grapher is thus to suggest, to prompt, to the population: push the authorities to find the capability to (a) Explain what vital registration is, what conceive along with them this long and slow pro- the records are used for. cess of official, obligatory, continuous, and (b) Present information on the advantages of permanent registration of births and deaths, and having records, and the disadvantages of not then of other events, such as marriage, when the having them. time comes. The statistician and the demogra- (c) Motivate the reporting of events. pher must be patient and imaginative, patience (d) Familiarize the public with reporting and imagination being the principal traits of procedures. the organizations in which they work. (e) Present information on the government's efforts to improve vital registration. They should not attach importance to crude (f) Convince the public to cooperate. results, but assist in a continuous improvement (g) Establish programs targeted by population in the number of declarations of vital events, type. which represents the rapidity of progression. (h) Utilize all means of communication. The statistician, like the demographer, knows (i)Take into account the literacy rate of that changes in a population are generally very targeted population. slow. They should think the same way about vital registration, being careful to assist in 4 1 There are five steps for adopting a new idea putting it in place and not utilizing it as if (vital registration) : it were already complete--or favoring the spec- (a1 Perception. tacular. They should also look into one or more (b) Interest. extremely isolated or little-known centers where (c) Testing. there has been good registration.. .perhaps for a (d) Evaluation. number of years, and for which it would be in- (e1 Adoption. teresting to understand the reasons for their good operation:" At the same time, if they have 7. Conclusions the means, they should also try to furnish demographic data that the "provisionally" deficient Is it not paradoxical that some countries, systern cannot yet provide. having available today entire sectors of government and the most modern tools (public finance, It has been stated that a real effort of customs, ...data processing, macro-economic model- thought and search for solutions has been ing), do not make the effort necessary for the undertaken by varied and numerous organizations, development of vital registration and do not pay more attention to the demographic aspect of economic planning, while in most of them their "For example, a group of villages to the northeast of Abid- rate of population growth comprofiises a little jan have been noted, in a forested area, where a vital more every day their development efforts? registration system instituted by missionaries has func- Nevertheless, vital registration is not an tioned satisfactorily among some 8,000 inhabitants since 1952. 12 such as UDEAC, OCAM, or United Nations,..., at Let us not be like the parents who do not INSEE, ORSTOM, INED, IUSSP, VISTIM,.,., in var- report a birth and discover happily, at the time ious cooperative agencies, IDRC, (France); has their child enters school, the means to es- this effort been continued, pursued, amplified? tablish an affidavit. Let us assist in the Cooperation among countries can only be' benefi- creation of the habit of reporting an event in cial, as opposed to isolation, which is often order to create, with time, a tradition: sterile. vital registration.

On the other hand, one must discontinue We have lost 25 years; let's make vital those projects where recurrent expenditures-- registration a part of tradition as soon as operation, continuity, growth--will not be car- possible. ,, ried out in a satisfactory manner.

13 PUBLICATIONS OF THE IlVRS TECHNICAL PAPERS

1. A Programme for Measurement of Life and 22. The Operation of the Vital Statistics'System of Death in Ghana, D.C. Mehta and J.B. Assie, the United States of America, Anders S. June 1979 Lunde, April 1983 2. Vital Statistics System of Japan, Kozo Ueda 23. Demographic Information from Vital Registra- and Masasuke Omori, August 1979 tion Offices in Mexico, 1982, Juan Carlos 3. System of Identity Numbers in the Swedish Padilla, Jose Garcia Nuiiez and Jaime Luis Population Register, Karl-Johan Nilsson, Padilla, June 1983 September 1975 24. General Description of Population Registration 4 Vital Registration and Marriage in England in Finland, Hannu Tulkki, July 1983 and Wales, Office of Population Censuses 25. The National Importance of Civil Registration and Surveys, London, October 1979 and the Urgency of Its Adaptation to a Modern 5 Civil Registration in the Republic of Argentina, 'Society, Committee on Legal and Organiza- Jorge P. Seara and Marcelo E. Martin, Novem- tional Requirements for a Civil Registration Sys- ber 1979 tem in Latin America, August 1983 & 6 Coordinating Role of National Committees on 26. Study of A Civil Registration System of$irths Vital and Health Statistics, World Health Or- and Deaths- An Experiment in Afghanistan, ganization, Geneva, January 1980 B.L. Bhan, October 1983 7. Human Rights and Registration of Vital Events, 27. Actions for the Improvement of Civil Registra- Nora P. Powell, March 1980 tion and Vital Statistics, IIVRS, December 1983 8. The Organization of the Civil Registration Sys- 28. Urgently Needed Reforms in Civil Registration tem of the United States, Anders S. Lunde, in Asian Countries, IIVRS, October 1986 May 1980 29. Organization and Status of Civil Registration 9. Organization of Civil Registration and Vital and Vital Statistics in Various Countries of the Statistics System in India, P. Padmanabha, July World, IIVRS, December 1986 1980 30. The Status of Civil Registration and the Col- 10. Registration of Vital Events in Iraq, Adnan ,S. .lection of Vital Statistics through Alternative AI-Rabie, September 1980 Sources in Papua New Guinea, M.L. Bakker, July 1987 11. Generation of Vital Statistics in MBxico, General Bureau of Statistics, MBxico, Novem- 31. Organization and Status of Civil Registration ber 1980 in Africa and Recommendations for Improve- ment, IIVRS, April 1988 12. Age Estimation Committee in Qatar, Sayed A. Taj El Din, December 1980 32. Registration of Vital Events in the English- speaking Caribbean, G. W. Roberts, June 13. The Development of the Vital Statistics Sys- 1988 tem in Egypt, Gama1 Askar, January 1981 33. Organization and Status of Civil Registration 14. Vital Statistics Data Collection and Compila- and Vital Statistics in Arab Countries, IIVRS, tion System: Hong Kong, Donna Shum, March' 1981 October 1988 15. Major Obstacles in Achieving Satisfactory 34. Recommendations from Regional Confer- Registration Practices and Vital Events and the ences and Seminars on Civil Registration and Compilation of Reliable Vital Statistics, IIVRS, Vital Statistics: An Update, IIVRS, November May 1981 1988 16. Methods and Problems of Civil Registration' 35. Health Data Issues for Primary Health Care Practices and Vital Statistics Collection in Delivery Systems in Developing Countries, Africa, Toma J. Makannah, July 1981 Vito M. Logrillo, N.Y. State Department of Health, May 1989 17. Status of Civil Registration and Vital'Statistics in El Salvador, Enrique Olmado Sosa, July 1982 36. Considerations in the Organization of Na- tional Civil Registration and Vital Statistics 18. Recommendations from Regional Conferences Systems, lwao M. Moriyama, July 1989 and Seminars on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, IIVRS, September 1982 37. Approaches to Data Collection on'Fertility and Mortality for the .Estimation of Vital Rates, 19. Potentials of Records and Statistics from Civil United Nations Statistical Office, December Registration Systems for Health Administration 1985 and Research, lwao M. Moriyama, September, 1982 38. Publicity Plans for Registration Promotion, K. K. Rastogi, Office of Registrar General, 20. Improving Civil Registration Systems in De- India, November 1989 veloping Countries, Forrest E. Linder, October 1982 39. Some Observations on Civil Registration in French-speaking Africa, Michel Francois, In- 21. Social Indicators Derived from Vital Statistics, stitut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Nora P. Powell, November 1982 Economiques/Centre Francais sur la Popula- I tion et le Developpement, February 1990