Birth and death certificates are critical to planning
The 2024World Statistics Day was commemorated yesterday with the theme, ‘Connecting the world with data we can trust’. Although there was not much awareness about it in Nigeria, we must recommit totheideaof an effective birthregistrationsystem that is compulsory, universal, permanent and continuous and one that also guaranteestheconfidentialityofpersonal data.This is important considering disclosure by the National Population Commission (NPC) that many Nigerians are yet to be registered under the CivilRegistrationand Vital Statistics (CRVS) database.The CRVS, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) is a system that registers allbirths and deaths, and compiles and disseminates vital statistics, including causeofdeath information. It also records marriages and divorces.
Ahead of the 2024 World Statistics Day, the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres enjoined stakeholders in all countries to “spotlight the role of statistics in advancing sustainable development for all.” That is difficult in an environment like ours where many people die without leaving a trace in any legal record orofficial statistics, such asbirths, deaths and other vital events. This lackofrecords renders manyNigerians invisible and marginalised, exposingthem to exploitations and human rights violations which in turn limitstheir access to socio-economic benefits. And totheextent that suchregistrationis good both fortheidentityofevery citizen and national planning, this is a call to action as we urgetherelevant authorities to intensify efforts onthebirthregistrationofchildren in the country without whichthere can be no real plan fortheir healthcare and education.
All over the world,birthand death certificates are critical to planning and developmentofdata integral totheformulationofprogrammes relating to maternal andchildhealth in any country. But what we have at our hands in Nigeria is an entrenched culture wherebirthsand deaths are under reported or unregistered. It is estimated that no fewer than 29 millionchildren undertheageoffive in the country lackbirthrecords. In a similar vein, that deaths are hardly recorded has led to a situation in which many financial crimes have been committed inthecountry inthenamesofdeceased persons.
In most developing countries, according totheUnited Nations Development Programme (UNDP), “theonus is entirely onthefamily to register abirthor death. Even assumingthey are awareofthis obligation, itoften requires substantial effort and expense and can take several weeks. This in part explains why so manybirths and deaths go unrecorded.”Thesituation is worse in Nigeria, yettheUNDP argues that “abirthcertificate is a basic legal document that gives identity to achild, and automatically bestows a numberofrights such astheright to health care, nationality, schooling, passport, property ownership, voting, formal employment, or access to banking services.”
Meanwhile,theaccuracyofbirthrecords in our country is also a problem, especially inthepublic service.This arises basically because manychildren are born at home whilethehospitals that are supposed to be registering newbirths are not living up totheir responsibility.Government can resolve this anomaly by designating local governmentofficials to monitor and registerbirths and deaths, especially intherural area. Beyond this,there should be a campaign to shore up support forbirthregistrationand dissuade people from givingbirthat home and for refusing to report newbirths. A reliable data generated onbirths providesthekey indicators that will guide any country to provide robust health care service, allocate resources and universal education for its population.