Civil Registration under a microscope

Civil registration is the way by which countries keep track of births, deaths and marital status of their people. These systems are the best way to produce vital statistics – counts of births and deaths and causes of death. Such statistics are needed to show whether health programmes are working. They are also essential to assess whether development aid is well spent.

The lack of civil registration systems means that every year, almost 40% (48 million) of 128 million births worldwide go unregistered. The situation is even worse for death registration. Globally, two-thirds (38 million) of 57 million deaths a year are not registered. WHO receives reliable cause-of-death statistics from only 31 of its 193 Member States.

• Accurate Civil Registration allows state planners make crucial decisions about development issues such as the building of schools , hospitals and road networks
• Accurate civil data is also an indices for development
• Civil data also allows the country to adequately provide social programmes for the less fortunate in the society
• Accurate Civil Registration allows state planners make crucial decisions about development issues such as the building of schools , hospitals and road networks

Impact of Civil Registration on the Social Services

• The success of a country’s social services is dependent on the on the accuracy of its civil registration data
• One of the key documents of from civil registration is a birth certificate this  is child’s first contact with the state by the child
• Civil data allows the country to map its diseases and allows the health providers to develop programmes to tackle certain lifestyle related diseases
• From civil data planners glean a good indication of family life based on the number of marriages conducted.