Why OpenCRVS?

1. Introduction

Civil registration is the foundation of legal identity and rights-based service delivery. A Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) system records the details of all major life events, such as births, deaths, marriage, and divorce. It is an essential component of the "leave no one behind" agenda, and without it working effectively, it is virtually impossible to ensure inclusive growth.

2. The civil registration challenge

Unfortunately, in many countries CRVS systems are broken:

• 1 in 4 children under the age of 5 have not had their birth registered and hence do not officially exist

• As a result, they struggle to access basic rights like education, healthcare, and social protection

• Two thirds of the world's deaths are not recorded, meaning governments cannot design effective public health policies or measure their impact

3. Common challenges faced by users

Through extensive research of CRVS systems around the world, we understand many of the specific challenges experienced by civil registration staff and families trying to register vital events:

For families and informants:

• Civil registration processes are bureaucratic and time-consuming, with requests for supporting documents that family members do not possess and unofficial payments

• Family members need to travel long distances to register vital events, with several trips often required before the registration process is complete and a certificate is obtained

• Systems are not integrated, so birth registration does not lead to automatic access to other rights such as vaccination programmes or enrolment in social protection schemes

For civil registration staff:

• Manual, paper-based processes are prone to errors, delays, and loss of records

• Limited visibility into registration backlogs, performance metrics, or data quality issues

• Fragmented systems that do not communicate with each other, requiring duplicate data entry and reconciliation