Presentation by Anir Chowdhury (a2i) at the international conference on innovations in Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) systems - Ottawa on 27-28 February 2018. See more at http://crvsinnovations.net

1. CRVS: Gender and Emergencies
Anir Chowdhury
Policy Advisor, a2i, Prime Minister’s Office, Bangladesh
Advisor to National CRVS Steering Committee
Cabinet Focal Point for Bloomberg D4H Initiative
IDRC CRVS Innovations Conference
February 28, 2018

2. Citizen’s Lifecycle with Government
SOCIAL SAEFTY NET SERVICES
The
citizen is
born
A citizen
is
coming
The citizen
is
immunized
Enrolled in
school
Becoming a
voter
Completes
exams
Marrying
another
citizen
Migration
HEALTH SYSTEM
EDUCATION SYSTEM
VOTER ID SYSTEM
CRVS: BIRTH, DEATH, CoD, MARRIAGE, DIVORCE, ADOPTION,
MIGRATION IN/OUT, INTERNAL MOVEMENT
BIRTH
REGISTRATION
MARRIAGE
REGISTRATION
DEATH
REGISTRAT
IONMIGRATION
Whose lens?
Citizen’s? Government’s? DP’s?

3. Gender and Emergencies:
Bangladesh 6th Climate Vulnerable Nation +
Recent Rohingya Influx
 Women and children largest victims of emergencies
whether natural or man-made
 Less likely to move – men migrate more quickly
 Women harder to reach with emergency response
 CR documents lost
 CR information often not enough to determine the kind of
response (income, land ownership, disability, family structure)
 Head of household usually men – when men have migrated to
earn income, who represents the household?
 Gender-based violence and trafficking rampant during and after
emergencies
CR is Critical!

4. Innovations That Have Helped Tremendously
 131 years 1873-2004: 8%
 13 years 2004-2017: 90+%
 How
1. Electronic birth / death registration system
(permanent storage – ability to reissue new docs)
2. Creation of 4,500 rural Digital Centres run by
entrepreneurs (solving unavailability of tech HR in
govt.)
3. Linking to service delivery (80% registration during
primary school enrolment)
4. Recent linking to biometrically verified National ID
system (document not needed)

5. Recent Innovations
* Perform de-
duplication
based on
parents’ ID
* Assign NID
* Queue NID
for future bio-
metric data
collection and
de-
duplication
NID Authority /
Bangladesh Election
Commission
* Generate
birth
certificate
* Notify NID
Authority
Local
Government
* Register the
event during
household
visit
* Assign
Unique ID
* Notify BRIS
with parents’
NID
Health/Family
Planning
MCCoD in facilities and VA in
communities for Death Registration

6. Result: Increased Birth Registration
within 45 Days
690 753
5108
14981
14316
15142
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
2014-15 2015-16 2016-17
< 45 days Total

7. Result: Increased Death Registration
within 45 Days
6 7
1728
1861 1799 1875
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
2014-15 2015-16 2016-17
< 45 days

8. Result: Availability of Intl. Standard
Underlying Cause of Death Data: Adult

9. Result: Availability of Intl. Standard
Underlying Cause of Death Data: Child

10. CRVS in Bangladesh  CRVS+ISDP
A database of all
population with UID and
relationship structure A set of technical and
interoperability
standards
A platform connected
to all registrars,
service delivery
agencies and
statistics offices
Central
authentication
Convergence of
all ID systems
123456789
Data visualization
for policy makers
and operational
management

11. Moving to CR-based Service Delivery
 13M school stipends to mother’s mobile financial
accounts
 Universal electronic payment system for money
transfers during emergencies
 Digitizing land records and transfer of ownership
linked to National ID
 Checking women’s age with mobile phone during
marriage
 Improved targeting during emergencies plannedCR information is not sufficient to target properly.
Need nuanced information such as income,
asset ownership, livestock ownership, disability,
female-headed household, etc.

12. Forced Displacement – Rohingya
Migration from Myanmar
 4 decades of Rohingya crisis
 1970s-1990s: 250K in Bangladesh. All but 20K repatriated against
their will.
 1990s: 250K migrated to Bangladesh.
 Starting August 2017: 600K more.
 February 2018 Total: 1,076,521 (about 50-50 male/female, underage
37%)
 Registration
 Conducted by Department of Immigration and Passports with
Biometric with 10 fingerprints. Sex-disaggregated. Age difficult to
ascertain – no original CR docs.
 No deduplication yet, so full benefits of biometric not exploited
 Multiple registration done by organization in silo databases (UNHCR,
WFP, UN Women, UNFPA, UNICEF, BRAC, and more)

13. Displaced Population: Results of Electronic Registration
 Much better targeting
 Identification of female-headed households which
are more vulnerable (but demarcation of households
vs. family difficult)
 Movement can’t be tracked  can’t help prevent
trafficking
 300K have SIMs through family members already
living in Bangladesh. Newly entered Rohingyas can’t
have SIMs.
Incentive for registration
Positive: food, NFI, health services
Negative: targeted for repatriation

14. A Forgotten Displacement Story: Biharis
 People who migrated from UP, Bihar, Rajasthan pre-
1970
 600K linguistic minorities in 116 camps, very high
illiteracy
 May 2008 ruling: 150K born in independent
Bangladesh are eligible, but lack of “address” in the
camp slowing down CR
 After ruling, improved access to education, health,
local and overseas employment, finances, safety nets,
reduced sexual harassment
 Similar results for people living in Indian-Bangladesh
border enclaves who recently got moved to
Bangladesh/India
Need to think practically about Rohingyas
in addition to repatriation

15. Upcoming Innovations in Bangladesh
Blockchain ID
SmartPhone for
the Illiterate
Mobile
Identit
y
Account Financial
Biometric
Communication
Merged ID

16. Needs of
Individuals
in Emergency
 Food and NFI
 Health
services
 Education and
Skills
 Movement
 Protection
against human
trafficking
 Protection
against GBV,
early marriage
 Financial
inclusion
CRVS Response
1. What responses are most appropriate in the
short term?
2. What resilience do we need to build for long
term?
3. What data do we need to capture?
4. Who should capture this data?
5. Where should we store this data and in what
format to ensure interoperability?
6. How should we share this data through
interoperable platforms, including cross-border?
7. How should we set up organizational
coordination before and during emergencies?
Human-Centred Design for CRVS in Emergencies
CR should by specific use cases in emergencies.
Data interoperability is key!