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IPS164 Sam N.
identity documents such as health passports are not accepted as proof of
identity; requiring a birth certificate for issuance of national ID card; etc.
Changes to registration law can be addressed through a formal review of all
laws and regulations affecting birth registration, and involving civil registration
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authorities and others in the review. Donors may be best placed to finance
this activity, typically bringing in legal experts to work with local legal experts
on the review, followed by a workshop for local authorities to discuss the
results. Amending registration law is a slow process however, requiring
parliamentary approval. .
Eliminate requirement for family member to declare birth at civil
registration office. There are various ways to accomplish this, including
amending the registration law to accept notifications from health facility
personnel as the basis for registration. This would have the greatest impact on
birth registration, eliminating the need for the family to send a member to an
often-distant civil registration office. This would ensure facility births are
registered, and if enlarged to include other health personnel such as
immunization personnel, this change could expand coverage of non-facility
births as well. Immunization personnel could also ensure delivery of birth
certificates, as schedules for certain immunizations require repeat visits to the
immunization center. The use of immunization personnel would not be
advisable under certain circumstances, such as during mass immunization
campaigns. A disadvantage of involving immunization personnel in the
registration process is the potential for fraudulent birth registration.
A related solution has been to assign volunteer community health workers
or village leaders to report births to civil registration authorities. This
approach has been tried in several countries, with mixed results. Community
health workers often are overloaded with tasks related to assistance projects
and as a result may fail to report recent births. Requiring village leaders to
maintain paper village registers, as was done in Malawi, has not been
8
successful. A demonstration project in Kenya using community health
workers with mobile devices succeeded in transmitting birth registration
information to a central location. The project did not succeed in increasing
birth registration however, as the reports were not accepted by the
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registration system as the legal basis for registration. In addition, using
community health workers or village leaders as informants also runs the risk
of fraudulent birth registration.

7 Schwid A, Federes A, Bronson G, et al. Civil Registration and Vital Statistics. Legal and
Regulatory Review: Tools and Methodology. Vital Strategies, New York, 2017.
8 Singogo E, Kanike E, van Lettow M, et al. Village registers for vital registration in rural
Malawi. Tropical Medicine and International Health, 18(8):1021-4, 2013.
9 World Health Organization. Move it: Report on Monitoring of Vital Events using Information
Technology. WHO, Geneva, 2013.
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