Handbook on Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Identity Management Systems: Communication for Development

The present Handbook on Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Identity Management Systems: Communication for Development provides guidance and assistance to countries to help them to strategically design and carry out evidence-based and measurable communication for development activities in support of a comprehensive improvement programme of civil registration, vital statistics and identity management systems. It is the first revision of the Handbook on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems: Developing Information, Education and Communication, issued in 1998.

The revision reflects a restructuring in the contents that is conceptually consistent with the Principles and Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System, Revision 3, adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission at its forty-fifth session in 2014. It incorporates contemporary approaches, good practices, lessons learned and recent developments in the field of communication for development, to support programmes’ capacity to change behaviour and social norms in concerned societies in order to increase the levels of civil registration of main life events.

A communication for development programme has an important role to play in the improvement of civil registration, vital statistics and identity management systems and should be an integral part of the design and implementation of such a programme. The present Handbook provides a step-by-step guide to national statistical offices, civil registration and identity management authorities for undertaking a series of actions, activities, methods, and techniques to develop a successful communication for development programme as a part of a civil registration, vital statistics and identity management systems improvement programme. The actions and strategies suggested in the present Handbook should be regarded as guidelines that may be adapted to suit a wide variety of conditions and circumstances in countries undertaking such a programme.