Civil registration in Farajaland
Provides details of how civil registration is organised and administered in Farajaland
Detailed below is an explanation of the current state and operations of civil registration in Farajaland.
The Civil Registration Authority (CRA) has the mandate to register all births and deaths in Farajaland, as per the Births and Deaths Registration Act, last amended in 2021.
The Births and Deaths Registration Act of 2021 includes a number of provisions for electronic civil registration processes, including the use of electronic signatures and the storage of vital event records in electronic format.
The Executive Chairman of the CRA and person with overall accountability for civil registration in Farajaland is the Registrar General. At the National level the CRA has its HQ Office in Isamba District. In this office there are a number of management positions, including a National Operations Manager and a National System Administrator.
Civil registration in Farajaland is administered at the District level and there is a Civil Registration Office in each of the 16 districts. In each office there is a Registrar, who is responsible for formally registering vital events and issuing certificates in the district. Supporting the Registrar are 2-3 Registration Officers and a number of community leaders that have a formal role to notify births and deaths in the community.
There is also a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the CRA and the Ministry of Health to integrate health and civil registration systems, such that details of vital events captured electronically within hospitals and health facilities can be shared digitally with the Civil Registration Office.
Until recently Farajaland has been using manual, paper-based processes and the performance of the CRVS system has been poor:
Completeness rates (within 1 year of event) are at 40% (births) and 15% (deaths).
There are low levels of data quality and large numbers of duplicate entries in the civil registry.
Customer service is also poor, with many families complaining that they have to visit the Civil Registration Office a number of times to get vital events registered, which proves time consuming and expensive.
The CRA developed the CRVS National Strategic Plan in 2021, which lays out a number of strategic goals to achieve by 2025:
>90% completeness rates for both birth and death registration.
>95 certification rates for both birth and death registration.
Fully digitised and searchable civil registration archive containing all historical records of births and deaths in Farajaland.
Increase the efficiency of civil registration staff.
Increase the quality of vital events data.
Increase the value of vital events data by ensuring eGov systems are interoperable and data is safely shared (e.g. with Foundational ID systems, health systems and National Bureau of Statistics).
Improve the cost-effectiveness of civil registration service delivery.
Improve the customer experience, including the time taken, cost and number of visits required to register vital events.
A number of strategies have been employed to achieve these strategic goals:
Deploy digitally enabled service delivery models that bring registration services closer to the community.
Reduce the number of duplicate records through automated validation against records already in the system.
Implement performance management procedures to monitor poor performing areas and to take quick remediation measures.
Automate a number of the manual and time-consuming registration steps.
Digitise the paper records and make them available in the system for quick search and action.
Implementation of OpenCRVS
The CRA has recently implemented OpenCRVS as part of a digital transformation programme in Farajaland, in order to respond to the current CRVS performance challenges and to contribute to the strategic goals of the CRVS National Strategic Plan.
The CRA has invested in the necessary infrastructure and connectivity at the District Registration Offices, which now have a stable broadband service.