World Bank | WHO Global Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Scaling up Investment Plan 2015–2024 May 28, 2014 Global Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Scaling up Investment Plan 2015–2024 May 28, 2014 World Bank WHO Acknowledgements his Global Scaling Up Investment Plan was pre- The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and pared by the World Bank Group and the World Development is gratefully acknowledged for the financial THealth Organization with input from several support it provided in developing the Global CRVS Scal- agencies and countries. The UN Economic Commis- ing Up Investment Plan 2015–2024. sion for Africa (UNECA), WHO, and the World Bank co-hosted a global consultative meeting on Civil Regis- Overall guidance was provided by Timothy Evans (Se- tration And Vital Statistics (CRVS) in Addis Ababa on nior Director, Health, Nutrition, and Population), Ni- April 28–29, 2014 to discuss and obtain input on a draft cole Klingen (Sector Manager, Health, Nutrition, and investment plan. The following agencies, together with Population) and Haishan Fu (Director, DECDG). The experts in the field of CRVS, contributed to the invest- ment plan through participation in the consultation1 or by providing separate contributions: 1 A list of participants is provided in Annex 9. African Development Bank (AfDB) Partnerships in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) African Union Commission (AUC) Plan International Asian Development Bank (ADB) Secretariat of the Pacific Community Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) Statistics Norway Cambridge Economic Policy Associates (CEPA) United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and The Pacific (ESCAP) Center for Global Development (CGD) United Nations Economic and Social Commission For Western Asia (ESCWA) Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) United Nations Every Woman and Every Child Government Representatives and Experts from: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) • Bangladesh United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) • Burkina Faso United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) • Ethiopia United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) • Mozambique World Health Organization (WHO) • Philippines World Bank Open Data Watch iv CRVS Scaling-up Investment Plan 2015–2024 World Bank’s CRVS Working Group was led by Samuel The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed Mills (Senior Health Specialist, HDNHE) and composed in this Global CRVS Scaling Up Investment Plan do of Amparo Gordillo-Tobar (Senior Economist, LCSHH), not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Direc- Ana Milena Aguilar Rivera (Health Economist, HDN- tors of the World Bank or the governments they repre- HE), Bob Fryatt (Consultant, HDNHE), David Satola sent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy (Lead Counsel, ICOIO), François Marius Lefebvre (Se- of the data included in this work. the boundaries, col- nior Financial Officer, CFPMI), James Neumann (Se- ors, denominations, and other information shown on nior Counsel, LEGPS), Mariana Dahan (Consultant, any map in this work do not imply any judgment on TWICT), Miyuki Parris (Operations Analyst, HDNHE), the part of the World Bank concerning the legal status Robert Palacios (Team Leader, HDNSP), Samia Melhem of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of (Lead Policy Specialist, Transform Practice, TWICT), such boundaries. For more information contact, Sam- and Victoriano Arias (Program Assistant, HDNHE). uel Mills, email: [email protected]. The full Glob- Several World Bank management and staff provided in- al CRVS Scaling Up Plan is available on the following valuable inputs. The WHO team comprised Ties Boerma website: http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/health/ (Director, Department of Health Statistics and Informa- publication/global-civil-registration-vital-statistics-scal- tion Systems) and Anneke Schmider (Technical Officer ing-up-investment CRVS, Health Statistics and Information Systems). Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. iii Acronyms ................................................................................................................................ ix Overview ................................................................................................................................. xi Section 1: The Strategic Case ................................................................................................... 1 What is Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS)? ...................................................................1 Why does CRVS matter? ................................................................................................................2 Identification ............................................................................................................................2 Health information and vital statistics ......................................................................................2 Birth registration ......................................................................................................................2 Registration of death and cause of death ..................................................................................3 Why CRVS will matter even more in the future ..............................................................................3 The “Grand Convergence” in health .........................................................................................3 Gender dimensions of civil registration and identification ........................................................4 Civil registration and data in times of crisis ..............................................................................4 Harnessing new technology ......................................................................................................4 Section 2: The Poor Performance of National CRVS Systems .................................................. 7 Current state of CRVS ....................................................................................................................7 Birth registration ......................................................................................................................7 Death and cause of death .........................................................................................................7 Why are CRVS systems in such poor shape? ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������8 Demand-side: lack of awareness and barriers to registration .....................................................8 Supply-side problems and the CRVS “ orphan” ........................................................................8 Lack of integration and coordination .......................................................................................9 What progress has been made to strengthen CRVS? ����������������������������������������������������������������������10 Success stories .........................................................................................................................10 Public-private collaborations ...................................................................................................10 Statistical capacity ...................................................................................................................11 Privacy and personal information ............................................................................................11 vi CRVS Scaling-up Investment Plan 2015–2024 Section 3: The Opportunity to Transform CRVS ................................................................... 13 Start with women and children �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������13 Registration through maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) services ..............................13 Harness the data revolution ...........................................................................................................14 Build on regional leadership and global coordination ....................................................................15 African Program for Accelerated Improvement of CRVS (APAI-CRVS) ..................................15 Regional initiative to improve CRVS in Asia and the Pacific ...................................................15 Eastern Mediterranean Regional Strategy for the improvement of civil registration and vital statistics systems ..................................................................................................15 Pan-American Health Organization Regional Plan of Action for Strengthening Vital and Health Statistics .........................................................................................................15 Global coordination ................................................................................................................16 Key enabling factors for effective CRVS systems ............................................................................16 CRVS as a public good ..........................................................................................................16 Unique identifiers ...................................................................................................................16