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Unregistered marriages – time to register calls for law reform?
[International Family Law Group]This article discusses religious marriages and the legal implications of registration practices. -
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Socioeconomic determinants of birth registration in Ghana
[BMC International Health and Human Rights 2015]This paper examines the chances of a child born in Ghana between 2001 and 2006 obtaining legal status of identity. -
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A snapshot of Civil Registration in Sub-Saharan Africa
[United Nations Children's Fund]A brief overview of the situation of civil registration in Sub-Saharan Africa, outlining the challenges to reach universal birth registration. -
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Colombia: A strategy to improve the registration and certification of vital events in rural and ethnic communities
[Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative]The report provides an overview of experiences from Colombia on working with communities to improve birth and eath registration. -
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Estimating the completeness of death registration: An empirical method
[PLOS one]This paper presents a novel empirical method to estimate completeness of death registration at the national and subnational levels. -
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History of the birth certificate: from inception to the future of electronic data
[Journal of Perinatology 32 (407-411)]A look at the evolution of birth certificates in the USA. As birth registration has moved from paper to electronic, the birth certificate's potential utility has broadened, yet issues with updating -
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Civil registration systems and vital statistics: Successes and missed opportunities
[The Lancet]This paper is a comprehensive and practical framework for assessment of the quality of vital statistics. With use of routine reports to the UN and cause-of-death data reported to WHO, we review the -
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“No Mother Wants Her Child to Migrate” Vulnerability of Children on the Move in the Horn of Africa
[Innocenti Research Report UNICEF Office of Research]The report provide and insight into how migration and especially children's movement is driven by different motivation, exposes children to different forms of harm, an presents multiple barriers to -
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Governance and Policy Coordination: The Case of Birth Registration in Peru
[Innocenti Research Report UNICEF Office of Research]This report discusses how coordination among entities in the public sector Peru can play an important role for promoting birth registration and in improving public services, especially services for -
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Status of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in South Asia Countries 2018
[United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund]This report provides an overview and analysis of the status of the policies, systems and procedures in place for the registration of birth, death and marriage in South Asia. The report covers the -
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Compendium of Good Practices in Linking Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) and Identity Management Systems
[Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems]The compendium explores how countries can adopt a holistic approach to CRVS and identity management, as well as the benefits of doing so. The six countries that are presented in the compendium are -
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Technological and Social Innovation in Mechanisms for timely Declaration of Births and Deaths of Populations in Nawa Region (Cote d’Ivore)
[European Scientific Journal]This paper focuses on new mechanisms for the timely registration of births and deaths in Côte d'Ivoire. Through the practical case of the Nawa people's region in the southwest of the country, this -
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Incentives for Improving Birth Registration Coverage: A Review of the Literature
[World Bank Group]This paper describes a framework of supply and demand factors that could affect birth registration coverage rates, particularly in the context of social transfers. Within this framework, a review of -
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Achieving Universal to ID:Access Gender-based Legal Barriers Against Women and Good Practice Reforms
[World Bank Group]For women and girls, legal identity is a stepping stone to empowerment, agency, and freedom of movement. This study explores how gender-based legal differences and nationality laws limit women’s -
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Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) systems in low- and middle-income countries
[Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition]This supplement covers various aspects of how to strengthen civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems in low- and middle-income countries. Eight peer-reviewed manuscripts included in this -
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Thai Civil Registration and Vital Statistics and Unique Identification Number Systems for Universal Health Coverage: A Case Study
[World Bank Group]The Thai civil registration (CR) system was established two centuries ago. Over the past four decades, the system has changed from a manual, paper-based registration system to a centralized -
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Endline Assessment: Improving Birth Registration Using the Existing Community Structures and Immunization Processes
[World Bank Group]This report summarizes key findings from the endline assessment of a pilot project in Ethiopia. The project was undertaken in Yilmana Densa and Goji Qolela woredas (districts); Hintalo Wajirat and -
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Options for Digital Birth Certificates
[World Bank Group]This paper discusses options for for the issuance of more secure birth certificates through the adoption of technology. The certificates are the cornerstone for establishing legal identity around the -
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Achieving Health Outcomes in Colombia: Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System, Unique Personal Identification Number, and Unified Beneficiary Registry System for Births and Deaths
[World Bank Group]This case study on Colombia describes how the civil registration and national identification system and the health information system have facilitated progress toward universal health coverage. This -
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Birth registration and access to health care: an assessment of Ghana’s campaign success
[Bulletin of the World Health Organization]Incorporation of birth registration into community health care, health campaigns and mobile registration activities can reduce the indirect costs of birth registration, especially in poorer -
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Better Data for a Better World
[Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems]This animated video explains why CRVS systems are important for ensuring legal identity for all and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Recording vital life events such as birth, marriage -
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Boundless Potential
[Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems]This animated video explains why well-functioning civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems are important for achieving gender equality. Recording vital life events such as birth -
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What if you didn’t have a birth certificate?
[Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems]CRVS systems give people proof of their legal identity, age, and social relationships and enable access to essential public services including healthcare, education and social protection. -
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Improving birth registration in Tanzania: The initiative that registered 220,000 children in four weeks
[Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems]Tanzania’s Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA) launched an initiative in partnership with UNICEF and the telecommunications company Tigo to lower some of the barriers to birth -
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Improving birth registration for an inclusive Africa
[Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems]“Most people in Africa and Asia are born and die without leaving a trace in any legal record or official statistic,” stated an article in a 2007 edition of The Lancet. The author referred to this fact
Our Resource Library provides access to curated resources related to CRVS systems, including research, tools, publications, CRVS eLearning course, our Expert Talks video series, and a glossary of terms and definitions.
A CRVS system is one that connects relevant data from the civil registry and the health information system for the purpose of producing vital statistics. In order to function well, CRVS systems depend on common elements. These are featured under a unique section of our library. Examples include resources that focus on training, assessments and evaluations, identity management, data security and privacy, information and communications technology, and more.