Civil Registration and Vital Statistics
According to the World Health Organization, a country should have registration of births and deaths coverage above 80 percent for its data to be considered complete and reliable. In Kenya, the coverage rate is only 58 percent for births and 46 percent for deaths – putting it well below the international standard.
This low coverage hampers population forecasting, which impacts planning for investments in health, geographic coverage, and health programs – gaps that contribute to inequities in access to health care and poor health outcomes.
MEASURE Evaluation PIMA (MEval-PIMA) works closely with Kenya’s Civil Registration Department to build its capacity and strengthen the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) system so they are comprehensive and accurate throughout the country, allowing public services to be effectively administered and public policies to be targeted and informed.
Key areas of focus:
Using baseline assessments and county forums, MEval-PIMA identified three intervention areas for CRVS strengthening: coverage, quality and data use. The areas of focus to respond to the identified need include:
- Providing assistance to the department and county staff by building their capacity in data collection, data processing and analysis, and additional M&E activities (strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, and development and implementation of data use plans);
- Working with the Ministry of Health to improve cause-of-death data capture and lay the foundation for reliable mortality statistics for the country; and
- Support for a digital registration system security assessment, along with improvements to support functionality and deployment of the system to county level, including training, connectivity, and performance monitoring.
