Every unregistered birth and every unrecorded death leaves someone invisible, not only to the state, but to the rights, protections, and opportunities that legal identity makes possible.
On 10 August 2026 African governments will mark Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Day under the theme: consolidating the gains of the last decade and securing the next through integration, decentralisation, and digitalisation.
This year’s commemoration marks the close of the Africa Programme for Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (APAI-CRVS) decade and the beginning of a new phase for 2027–2036.
Over the past decade, African countries enacted legal reforms, expanded digitisation, strengthened coordination, and elevated CRVS within national and regional development priorities.
Through APAI-CRVS, civil registration has increasingly been recognised not only as a stand-alone administrative function, but also as foundational Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for legal identity, governance, health systems, and sustainable development.
The first decade answered an important question: could Africa build political commitment around CRVS?
The next must answer a more demanding one: can those commitments be translated into institutions capable of delivering reliable registration services for every person, every day?
The New CRVS Decade is therefore about constructing an architecture of visibility: a system in which every vital event is not merely recorded but connected to the institutions and services through which legal identity, protection, and opportunity are realised.
The task ahead is to consolidate existing gains and secure the future of CRVS by moving from commitments and strategies toward effective implementation.
This requires resilient institutions, stronger digital systems, and the people and processes needed to ensure that every vital event is registered accurately, promptly, and equitably.
Decentralisation is rightly prioritised because effective civil registration systems must be accessible and responsive to the communities they serve.
Bringing registration closer to where people live, reduces geographic barriers, improves equity of access, and increases the likelihood that births, deaths, marriages and divorces are registered accurately and on time.
Ghana’s rollout of the Harmonised Births and Deaths Registry Portal (HBDRP) illustrates both the opportunities and operational realities of decentralisation.
Digital tools can expand reach, improve efficiency, and strengthen oversight, but they do not automatically create effective local registration systems.
Building a robust operational architecture requires more than devolving responsibility.
Local autonomy must be matched by national standards, supportive supervision, workforce development, sustainable financing, and continuous quality assurance.
Decentralisation cannot succeed if responsibilities are transferred without the resources needed to deliver them.
Subnational civil registration offices require adequate budgets, reliable infrastructure, trained personnel, and contingency arrangements that allow services to continue during disruptions.
Decentralisation becomes a structural advantage only when local institutions are empowered, resourced, and accountable for registration performance and data quality.
CRVS as digital public infrastructure
Digitalisation is a central pillar of the new decade, but digital CRVS platforms must be approached strategically.
Too often, these systems are treated as isolated software projects rather than as foundational DPI. DPI comprises shared digital building blocks that enable trusted, interoperable, and citizen-centred public services at scale.
Within this ecosystem, CRVS provides the authoritative record of vital events on which identity systems, health services, education, social protection, and official statistics depend.
Fragmented digital procurement weakens national digital infrastructure.
When countries or government departments develop platforms without coordination, costs are duplicated, interoperability falters, and technical debt accumulates.
A sustainable path lies in shared standards and regional collaboration, reducing dependence on fragmented solutions and enabling countries to maintain and evolve their systems over time.
ne promising example is the African eCRVS Shared Asset (ACSA).
As a continental digital public good, ACSA provides a shared framework and standard for modern, interoperable CRVS systems.
It enables countries to evaluate platforms, guide designs, and make more strategic technology investments while reducing the risk of incompatible systems.
This approach allows scarce resources to be directed toward service delivery, data quality, and workforce strengthening rather than repeated technology procurement.
Integration beyond interoperability
To consolidate the gains of APAI-CRVS, integration must be understood as more than technical interoperability. Ensuring that databases communicate is necessary, but insufficient.
A truly integrated CRVS system is a whole-of-government and whole-of-society endeavour.
Birth and death registration must connect with health services, national identity systems, social protection, and justice institutions so that registration translates into meaningful access to rights.
Integration must also recognise that many people encounter governance through community institutions before formal bureaucracies.
Traditional authorities, faith leaders, and community health workers, where appropriately integrated within national legal frameworks, are institutional assets that can strengthen vital event notification, build trust, and extend registration reach.
From aspirations to shared institutional architecture
As Africa enters the 2027–2036 CRVS decade, the challenge is no longer to demonstrate why CRVS matters, but to build institutions capable of delivering it consistently.
Political commitment must now translate into operational capability through integrated, decentralised, and digital systems that are adequately financed, interoperable, and responsive to communities.
Building this architecture of visibility is ultimately not about software, legislation, or organisational charts in isolation.
It is about creating institutions capable of ensuring that every life is recognised and every vital event counts.
If the last decade demonstrated that Africa could mobilise political commitment, the next must demonstrate that Africa can translate that commitment into integrated, people-centred, and resilient CRVS systems.
Visibility is not created by declarations; it is built through institutions capable of reaching every citizen, everywhere, every day.
The writers are both CRVS experts
