Strengthening national CRVS systems using public health campaigns

Описание: How can a country strengthen civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems in innovative ways? Nadya Kassam, formerly with the United Nations Children’s Fund, describes how linking birth registration with immunization or nutrition campaigns can dramatically improve birth registration coverage.

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Video transcript
Strengthening national CRVS systems using public health campaigns: Nadya Kassam


(Screen displays text: “Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems/Le Centre d’excellence sur les systèmes ESEC – Expert Talks: Understanding civil registration and vital statistics systems.” Slide transitions to new screen with the title: “Strengthening national CRVS systems using public health campaigns: Nadya Kassam.” Ms Kassam appears on screen with title: “Nadya Kassam, formerly with the United Nations Children’s Fund.”)

In the course of my work at UNICEF, what I found is that sometimes, in a country, birth registration rates (which is my area of speciality), are quite low. We don’t really know the numbers of children that have been born or, in fact, die. What’s been a really interesting way of increasing the number of children that have been registered has been to run registration campaigns by the government in tandem with other initiatives, such as health.

For example, immunization campaigns that happen on a regular basis will actually create an infrastructure to reach the majority of children in a country. Some immunization rates are 100 percent, 98 percent, in any country. And that innovation of doing birth registration at the same time as an immunization campaign, or a nutrition campaign, has been a really interesting and innovative way to join those two systems up and make sure that we reach a larger number of children, and make sure they get registered.

When we’re running these campaigns in tandem, for example, immunization and registration, it’s always the government’s responsibility to run – the civil registry’s responsibility, specifically – to make sure that children are registered and receive a certificate. It’s not the Health Department's responsibility. It will be whichever ministry is responsible for civil registry. They will make sure, using the infrastructure of the immunization campaign, for example, that the children who they’re made aware of get registered and receive their certificate. The health sector is extremely important in making sure that we are notified of births, but the civil registry has the mandate to make sure that they are registered and receive a birth certificate.

(Image is replaced with the following text: “This interview was recorded in Ottawa, Canada in July 2016. Funded by Global Affairs Canada and the International Development Research Centre, the Centre of Excellence for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems contributes directly to the work of the Global Financing Facility.” Logos for the following organizations appear at the bottom of the screen: Global Affairs Canada/Affaires mondiales Canada, IDRC/CRDI, Government of Canada, along with We support Global Financing Facility.)

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