Civil registration and vital statistics: progress in the data revolution for counting and accountability

Summary

New momentum for civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) is building, driven by the confluence of growing demands for accountability and results in health, improved equity, and rights-based approaches to development challenges, and by the immense potential of innovation and new technologies to accelerate CRVS improvement. Examples of country successes in strengthening of hitherto weak systems are emerging. The key to success has been to build collaborative partnerships involving local ownership by several sectors that span registration, justice, health, statistics, and civil society. Regional partners can be important to raise awareness, set regional goals and targets, foster country-to-country exchange and mutual learning, and build high-level political commitment. These regional partners continue to provide a platform through which country stakeholders, development partners, and technical experts can share experiences, develop and document good practices, and propose innovative approaches to tackle CRVS challenges. This country and regional momentum would benefit from global leadership, commitment, and support.

Introduction

In 2007, a Lancet series—Who counts?—drew attention to a global issue of invisibility in which the poorest and most vulnerable people in society are unregistered and uncounted owing to weak civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems.1, 2, 3, 4, 5 The low level of investment to improve CRVS was characterised as “the single most critical development failure over the past 30 years.”¹ When CRVS systems are dysfunctional, decision makers and planners do not have the most basic information they need—about changes in population size, distribution, fertility, and mortality patterns—to inform and formulate economic, social, and health policies and respond adequately to people's needs for current and future services.⁶

This Series provides new evidence to support the rationale for strengthening of CRVS as a human rights, governance, and development imperative. This first paper describes developments in countries, regionally and globally, and positions CRVS as part of the data revolution called for in the report of the UN Secretary-General's High-level Panel of Eminent Persons.⁷ The second paper presents compelling evidence that strengthening of CRVS is not only important from a statistical perspective, but is a previously underappreciated health and development intervention in its own right.⁸ The third paper provides a comparative overview of CRVS system performance in almost 150 counties and territories on the basis of a new Vital Statistics Performance Index, and shows its use for systematic and objective monitoring of CRVS progress worldwide.⁹ The final paper makes the case for implementation research and documentation of country experiences to bolster the evidence base for CRVS, and calls for bold global leadership to overcome fragmentation and inefficiency in support of development partners to countries.¹⁰ Together, these papers show that CRVS is at the cusp of a revolutionary move forwards for individual rights and equity, population and health data, and improved accountability.