Legal and Regulatory Review Toolkit for Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Identity Management

A systematic guide to analyzing a country’s Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Identity Management (CRVSID) legal framework based on international guidance, standards and practice.

About the Toolkit

The Legal and Regulatory Review Toolkit for CRVSID is designed to provide a methodological and systematic approach to analyzing a country’s CRVSID legal framework based on international guidance, standards and practice. The principal sources for the toolkit are:

UN Principles and Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System, Revision 3 (2014)
UN Guidelines for Legislative Frameworks on CRVSID (2023)
UN Handbook on CRVS Systems: Management, Operation , and Maintenance Revision 1 (2021)

The Toolkit consists of thirteen chapters that address different aspects of CRVSID systems. Legal reviewers should complete the chapters that are relevant to government stakeholders.

Many of the chapters will be applicable to all countries. These chapters include: Chapter 2 (Structure of the Civil Registration Agency), Chapter 3 (Registration of Birth and Death), Chapter 4 (Stillbirth Reporting and Registration), Chapter 5 (Certifying Cause of Death), Chapter 8 (Inclusion of Women and Children), and Chapter 9 (Vital Statistics).

Other chapters, such as Chapter 10 on national ID systems and Chapter 12 on population registers, will only be relevant in those countries that have such systems. Some chapters, including Chapter 6 (Medicolegal Death Investigation), Chapter 7 (Marriage and Divorce Registration), Chapter 11 (Equal Access for LGBTI Individuals) and Chapter 13 (Personal Privacy and Data Protection), may be completed in those countries where these are topics of interest.

Why are CRVS laws important?

Civil registration and the production of vital statistics based on comprehensive civil registration data is a basic function of good governance. The data from a CRVS system is critical for making informed decisions on public health priorities and resource allocations, along with other areas of development planning across the whole of government. Birth registration is the principle means of establishing a person’s legal identity and an effective civil registration system should be the basis for a country’s national identity management. Increasingly, countries are integrating digital systems to share personal and statistical data in their efforts to achieve universal civil registration.

The legal framework for civil registration, vital statistics and ID management (CRVSID) systems is the essential foundation for ensuring the system is universal, continuous and permanent, compulsory and based on personal and data privacy principles.

The laws should:

Establish the principle of universality
Strengthen governance and clarify roles and responsibilities
Specify standardization and consistency of processes
Remove barriers, increase incentives and improve marginalized communities’ access to civil registration services
Enable digitalization of the system
Provide for interoperability and data sharing with other government agencies and systems
Ensure personal data privacy and security

The Toolkit was developed by GHAI in collaboration with Vital Strategies, and with support from the Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems and other Data for Health partners, and with funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

For technical assistance and training on using the Toolkit, please contact Robert Eckford, Director of Data for Health Programs: reckford@advocacyincubator.org.