Overview

The WHO CRVS Strategic Implementation Plan 2021-2025 aims to empower Member States to more effectively mobilize their health sector to lead, or contribute to, CRVS system strengthening efforts in order to ensure maximum benefit from routine data systems for policy and development. The Implementation Plan avails detailed guidelines that outline how this might happen in practice and what Member States need to consider when implementing health-related CRVS strengthening activities.

Overview

This guidance aims to support health-related programme managers and civil registrars as they define strategies to strengthen CRVS systems and leverage global and regional initiatives aiming to achieve universal registration of births, deaths and stillbirths. The guidance is based on the premise that the health sector can play a proactive role in ensuring that births and deaths are officially registered by national civil registration systems. This follows because vital events such as births and deaths often take place within a health institution; health workers are in contact with people at key moments in the life course – at the time of birth and at the moment of death.

The guidance describes the mutual benefits that would accrue to individuals and societies from enhanced collaboration between civil registrars, health entities and other stakeholders with a role in vital statistics. It describes some common scenarios in which births and deaths occur and outlines key steps that health workers can take to enable them to be registered.

MOVE-IT was implemented in 2011 and aimed at improving monitoring of vital events – births, deaths and causes of death – through innovation and the use of information technologies in innovative country projects.

The three reports listed below were commissioned on the MOVE-IT initiative and have been published to share the progress and results of these country projects and the lessons for future monitoring of vital events.