PHA-Exch> REGISTERING BIRTHS AND DEATHS : "THE JOB THAT NO ONE WANTS"

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Vern Weitzel <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au>
cross posted from: "[health-vn discussion group]" <
health-vn at cairo.anu.edu.au>
From:   Judy Ladinsky jlladins at wisc.edu

*Registering births and deaths : "the job that no one wants" ...and a human
right forgotten.
*

29 October 2007 - BEIJING/GENEVA - The Health Metrics Network
launches a drive today to encourage countries to count all births and
deaths through civil registration.

The Health Metrics Network is a global partnership – hosted by the
World Health Organization (WHO) – established to address the lack of
reliable health information in developing countries.

Civil registration is the way by which countries keep track of births,
deaths and marital status of their people. These systems are the best
way to produce vital statistics – counts of births and deaths and
causes of death. Such statistics are needed to show whether health
programmes are working. They are also essential to assess whether
development aid is well spent.

The lack of civil registration systems means that every year, almost
40% (48 million) of 128 million global births go unregistered. The
situation is even worse for death registration. Globally, two-thirds
(38 million) of 57 million annual deaths are not registered. WHO
receives reliable cause-of-death statistics from only 31 of its 193
Member States.

The absence of civil registration has other implications. When
children's births are not registered they are less likely to benefit
from basic human rights – social, political, civic or economic.

At the other end of the lifespan, when deaths go uncounted and causes
of death are not documented, governments are unable to design
effective health policies, measure their impact or know whether health
budgets are being well-spent.

"No single UN agency is responsible for ensuring that births and
deaths are registered, so it has fallen between the cracks. That is
why we have failed to establish, support, and sustain civil
registration systems over the past 30 years in the developing world,"
WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan said today at the Global Forum
for Health Research in Beijing.

"Without the statistics that these systems produce, we can only have a
partial view of the impact of 120 billion dollars spent annually in
official development aid."

The drive to encourage countries to improve civil registration is
launched today with a series of papers published in the medical
journal/ The Lancet/, entitled "Who counts?" This series shows that
most developing countries have rudimentary or non-existent civil
registration systems. This means that they cannot count how many
people are born and how many die, and they cannot record how long they
live or what kills them. The papers also underscore the challenges of
establishing civil registration, including new legislation and
governance structures.

The drive marks the start of intensive work to help six countries most
in need to improve civil registration. The Health Metrics Network has
already started working with Cambodia, Sierra Leone and Syria. By the
end of the year, three other countries will have been identified for
assistance.

"The lack of civil registration systems has been partially compensated
by surveys, sample registration and surveillance sites," says Dr Sally
Stansfield, Executive Secretary of the Health Metrics Network. "These
provide some useful information, but they give an incomplete picture
of population size and needs. And they certainly cannot give
individuals the basic human right to a legal identity that comes from
civil registration. It's a major challenge to build civil registration
systems: this is the job no one wants."

As part of this drive, the Health Metrics Network is releasing today
a/ Monitoring vital events resource kit/ CD-ROM. This kit contains the
tools and reference texts that countries can use to guide them in
their work towards full civil registration.
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