Workshop on developing implementation guidelines to improve civil registration and vital statistics systems

The secretariat of the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems, based in the Economic Commission for Africa, in collaboration with Vital Strategies, is organizing a regional workshop on the development of technical implementation guidelines for civil registration and vital statistics. The workshop will be held in Nairobi from 29 January to 02 February 2024.

The workshop will bring together regional civil registration and vital statistics experts, including registrars general and directors general of civil registration in Africa and partners of the regional core group on civil registration and vital statistics.

The purpose of the workshop is to follow up on the discussions that took place and the decisions that were made at the expert segment of the sixth session oLegal reformf the Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration, held in October 2022, at which participants identified common and cross-cutting challenges obstructing the development of civil registration and vital statistics among African countries and recommended the adaptation of existing global guidelines to the African context.

In the first part of the workshop, participants will review the availability of existing global civil registration and vital statistics guidelines and their suitability for implementation in Africa. They will create a framework for the development of new guidelines, where needed, and develop a road map for the dissemination of both the new and the existing guidelines. Where new guidelines are needed, experts will work towards developing annotated outlines of the guidelines, identifying, in particular, the main questions that the guidelines should address across various topics. The second part of the workshop will be dedicated to reviewing a draft technical implementation guide for digitalization that was developed by the working group on digitalization of the Africa Programme.

Meetings of the working group and the regional core group will be held on the margins of the workshop. For more information about the workshop, please contact the secretariat at: muhawava@un.org.

1.	Information Note
2.	Concept note  En  Fr
3	Programme of Work
4	Detailed programme of work
5	Workshop resources
	Subject	Resource
	Legal reform of civil registration and vital statistics	Aaron Schwid and others, Civil Registration Vital Statistics and Identity Management (CRVISD): Legal and Regulatory Review Toolkit (Global Health Advocacy Incubator).
	Harnessing technology to enable efficient civil registration and vital statistics systems	Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems, Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Digitisation Guidebook, version 0.10. United Nations Children’s Fund, CRVS Platforms: Key Findings for Practitioners (2023).
	Producing vital statistics	Economic Commission for Africa and others, Technical Guidance for Strengthening the Vital Statistics Production Process: Implementing the Vital Statistics Business Process Model for the Production and Dissemination of Vital Statistics from Civil Registration (2023). Vital Strategies and others, Production of a Vital Statistics Report: Guide with Accompanying Template and Workbook (New York, Vital Strategies, 2020). UNSD, Toolkit for the assessment of admin data quality UNSD, A guide and template for improving coordination and cooperation within the national statistical system and increasing access to administrative data for statistics production
	Estimating the completeness of civil registration and vital statistics systems	Chalapati Rao and others, Estimating Completeness of Birth and Death Registration: Methods and Options for Estimating Completeness of Civil Registration (New York, Vital Strategies, 2020). Assessment of Birth Registration Completeness: An Overview of Data and Methods Assessment of Death Registration Completeness: An Overview of Data and Methods
	Health sector support for civil registration	Lynn Sferrazza and others, “The health sector in civil registration: options and methods to increase registration of live births, stillbirths and deaths – an addendum to the WHO/UNICEF guidance Health Sector Contributions towards Improving the Civil Registration of Births and Deaths in Low-income Countries”, Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative, 2022. The World Bank Group, Promising Legal Practices to Strengthen The Link Between Health And Civil Registration Services, And The Production Of Vital Statistics The Experiences Of Eight Gff Partner Countries (2023).
	Implementing integrated civil registration, vital statistics and identity management systems	Zoran Djoković, Implementation of the United Nations Legal Identity Agenda: United Nations Country Team Operational Guidelines (United Nations Development Programme, United Nations and United Nations Children’s Fund, 2020).
	Population registers	Raj Gautam Mitra, Martin Bratschi and Gloria Mathenge, “Population registers: definitions and conceptual framework”, Knowledge Series 1 (Nouméa, New Caledonia, Pacific Community and Vital Strategies, 2021). Gloria Mathenge, Petra Nahmias, Tanja Sejersen and Afsaneh Yazdani Population registers : a key resource for producing vital statistics, UNESCAP, 2020.
	Improving civil registration and vital statistics business processes	Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems, CRVS Systems Improvement Framework, version 1.0 (2021). E-learning course for the civil registration and vital statistics systems improvement framework, developed by Vital Strategies and others. Vital Strategies, “Quick reference guide and checklist for CRVS & ID systems improvement framework”, version 1.0, 2023. Martin Bratschi and others, “Implementing civil registration of births and deaths in the CRVS system”, Strengthening Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Systems, Guide 1, version 1.0, Vital Strategies, 2023.
	Strengthening death registration and the production of high-quality cause-of-death information	Vital Strategies, Strengthening Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Systems, series of guides: Martin Bratschi and others, “Implementing medical certification of cause of death in the CRVS system”, Guide 2, version 1.0, 2021. Martin Bratschi and others, “Implementing ICD mortality coding in the CRVS system”, Guide 3, version 1.0, 2021. Martin Bratschi and others, “Implementing verbal autopsy in the CRVS system”, Guide 4, version 1.0, 2021.
	Civil registration and vital statistics governance	United Nations, Economic Commission for Africa, African Union Commission and African Development Bank, “Guidelines on the drafting of memorandums of understanding for better coordination among national stakeholders of civil registration and vital statistics systems at the country level” (CRMC5/2019/12). United Nations, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, “National multi-sectoral CRVS coordination mechanisms”, information note. Martin Bratschi and Joan Sara Thomas, “Guidance for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Governance Mechanisms”, Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Programme, Vital Strategies.
6	Draft Practitioners Guide for Digital CRVS Systems: Principles, functional requirements, licensing, service and hosting options and considerations for procurement of Digital CRVS systems
7	Presentations	Presentation 0_Synthesis of findings on major barriers to universal vital events registration in Africa Presentation 1.1 Organisation Management and Goverance of CRVS systems Presentation 1.2 Organisation Management and Goverance of CRVS systems Presentation 2.1 _Improving births and deaths registration Presentation  2.2 Improving registration of births and deaths Presentation 2.3_Improviding registration of marriages and divorces Presentation 2.4 _Strengthening of CRVS systems in Humanitarian and emergency context Presentation 2.5 _Strengthening of CRVS systems in Humanitarian and emergency context Presentation 3.1_Production of vital statistics and strengthening of vital statistics systems Presentation 3.2 _Production of vital statistics and strengthening of vital statistics systems Presentation 3.3_Strengthening collection of Cause of death information Presentation 4.1_ Practitioners Guide for Digital CRVS Systems Presentation 4.2_ APAI-CRVS Digitalisation Guidebook Presentation 4.3_ Digital CRVS Landscape analysis_UNICEF Presentation 4.4_ Digitization of CRVS systems in Africa Statistics