News Release

Countries need to invest long-term in civil registration

Peer-Reviewed Publication

The Lancet_DELETED

Civil registration is a long-term investment, and countries first need to get the right legislation in place, making it a requirement to register births and deaths. These are the conclusions of Professor Alan Lopez, School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia and colleagues, authors of a Comment which accompanies the Who Counts? Series in The Lancet.

The authors say: “Unrepresentative, biased, incomplete and often out-of-date, the world’s vital statistics compare poorly with the detailed information available on every country’s economy…with the sole exception of child mortality, mortality statistics for the developing world are in a deplorable state.”

They call on global development partners, civil society, the media, parliamentarians, and health and development advocacy groups to call for legislative change, adding that if sectoral responsibilities for civil registration and vital statistics are sensibly co-ordinated, the effort as a whole costs less. They say: “Many governments remain to be convinced that is in their interest to know who they govern, how their populations are changing, and the nature and extent of the health threats that they face; and that civil registration is an indicator of effective governance.” Further, they say all countries need to train their physicians in applying the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, to reliably certify the underlying cause of death.

The United Nations and development banks must make a case for civil registration, backed by commensurate resources, while recognising that they cannot carry these systems for countries. But they can provide advice on how to improve the situation in any particular country. The authors say:” For example, some countries might be best advised to initially strengthen their urban cause of death information, gradually extending coverage to more rural or remote populations.”

They conclude: “The health sector is best placed to promote the benefits of civil registration for all sectors of society, and to lead intersectoral collaboration in establishing routine mechanisms for gathering population and health data. These measures permit the health sector to function, and provide evidence for evaluating global efforts to accelerate health development.”

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Professor Alan Lopez, School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia T) +61 400 115 231 E) a.lopez@sph.uq.edu.au


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