The document discusses Botswana's efforts to establish an integrated national population register through organically linking birth, death, and national identity records. It notes that 72% of births are currently registered, but some groups like orphans and those in remote/rural areas face barriers. Initiatives aim to reach the remaining 28% through campaigns, mobile registration, and registering births directly in hospitals. The ultimate goal is a secure, universal digital identity system supported by complete civil registration.

2. Republic of Botswana
ORGANIC LINK OF BIRTHS, DEATHS AND NATIONAL
IDENTITY MANAGEMENT: TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED
NATIONAL POPULATION REGISTER
MS NEO CORNELIAH LEPANG
DIRECTOR
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND NATIONAL REGISTRATION
MINISTRY OF LABOUR AND HOME AFFAIRS
CIVIL REGISTRATION WORLD SUMMIT , BANGKOK THAILAND : “MAKE EVERY LIFE COUNT”

3. BOTSWANA: THE
BACKGROUND
Population – 2.06 million; Pop Density – 3.6/Km2
Birth rate: 22.02/1000; Death rate: 12/1000
Births registered: 72% BFHS; Deaths registered:
??
Institutional deliveries: 94%
Ante Natal contact (at least one): 95%
Mobile phones per capita: 0.91
Registration infrastructure: all 12 districts and 21
sub districts and 7 on site registration at health
facilities – open to citizens and non citizens

4. BOTSWANA: THE
LEGAL FRAMEWORK
 Births and Deaths Registration Act :
 Free, Compulsory , Time-Bound registration
(births: 60 days; deaths 30 days)
 Register both citizens and noncitizens
 Late registration Fees (USD 0.75 p/m in default - USD 13 maximum
 USD 25 for failure to register - due to negligence and or imprisonment term
not exceeding 6 months
 Children’s Act:
 Birth registration a right for every child
 Biological parents details a must on birth certificate
 Nationality indicated on birth certificate
 National Registration Act: Limited to citizens, free, compulsory and time
bound
(within 30 days of turning 16 years or becoming a citizen)
 Failure to register an offence under law; Late registration fine USD 65 ,
imprisonment not exceeding 6 months

5. ORGANIC LINK:BIRTHS, DEATHS
AND NATIONAL REGISTRATION
 A robust and reliable Civil Registration and Vital
Statistics data base is a basic foundation for
any sustainable and secure identity
management system
 BDRS requests National unique ID number from
NIS to register every birth.
 Unique number continues in use for all
purposes from cradle to grave –education,
employment, pension,
elections, passport and boarder control etc.
 When person dies‟, BDRS updates NIS on the
new status from „‟live‟‟ to “dead” online and
NIS update other interfaced Government
systems real time.
 Separate Birth Registration numbers provided
for non citizens
 Organic link between Birth, Death and National
Registration through Unique number allocated
at birth ensures trust and secures the identity
chain in the registration processes.
Hospital based Birth Registration

6. BOTSWANA: CENTRAL ISSUES
Reaching the remaining 28% of population in a
sparsely populated country (Source BFHS 2007)
Reaching hard to reach and vulnerable groups –
focusing on orphans, rural areas, children of low
income and less educated parent
22% of hospital births not registered due to poor
coordination
Scaling up death registration
Weak stakeholder collaboration/partnership

7. REACHING THE
UNREACHED
 BFHS 2007 :72 % National Birth
registration coverage
 2010: Country wide campaign for
Universal Births & Deaths
Registration in partnership with
unicef . Theme: “Don’t let
your child be a “Nobody”;
Register your child’s birth
Today! – on going
 Motivation of Registration
demand
 2011: Special Project on
Registration of Remote Area
Dwellers in partnership with local
leadership, unicef, unfpa – on
going

8. REACHING THE UNREACHED
 2012: On site Hospital Based Births and Deaths
Registration - ongoing
 2013 May: Skills and Capacity building Training on
Assessment of CRVS completeness and development
of time-bound, costed Action Plan supported by
UNECA
 2013 July : Assessment of Completeness of
Botswana CRVS and development of Plan of Action –
requires support
 2013 October : Implementation of Plan of Action –
requires support
 Improve stakeholder collaboration: Home Affairs,
Health, Statistics – systems link – requires support

9.  Security and data integrity - central to building credible and trusted
crvs databases and national registration systems
 value of person identity and;
 crvs role in national development planning and programming.
 Prevention of identity Fraud
 Fraud more prevalent at enrolment stage, issue is to be sure of identity of the
applicant: is the person who he says he is;
 Fraud has shifted from document forgery to use of false breeder documents
 Risk is with use of fake or stolen breeder documents and false identity claims
 Personnel integrity crucial to close out corrupt practices risk
 More secure breeder documents crucial : affidavits, birth certificates ( minimum
standards; ICAO)
 Fraud accelerating factors
 Human mobility
 Digitalization
 Global networks
 Economic crisis
BUILDING TRUSTED DATABASES AND IDENTITIES

10. IMPACT OF INSECURE IDENTITIES
Household
 Impersonation : false wedding, criminal registry
 Asset fraud: account takeover, credit in your name
Governments/corporate
 Unreliable data bases : insecure claims of rights such as
citizenship, land, old age pensions etc.
 Improper development planning processes
 Data losses
 Unstable democracy due to unreliable voters rolls
 Financial fraud: economic and financial losses

11. CONCLUSION: KEY MESSAGE
 The integrity of the person data, enrolment and issuance processes
and documents as well as integrity of the personnel involved is key
to a sustainable, secure and trusted identity management system
and stabilized person identity
 Identity chain is secured by complete births and deaths registers
as a basis for a robust national registration system. Such is central
to data integrity.
 Need for automated & more intelligent and secure systems that are
easy to operate to optimise efficiency and effectiveness
 An optimization ratio for convenience crucial (number of enrolment
sites and percentage of citizens to be reached)
 Free and compulsory registration with penalties crucial for
universality
 Data protection and privacy, electronic signature legislative
frameworks underpin a secure Identity Management System

12. Secure,
Resilient,
Seamless
People Hub
Birth &
Death
Marriage
Imm &
Citizenship
Visa &
Migration
Work &
Resident
Permits
National
ID
Need to create interoperable universal identity repository with biometric

13. Percentage of children not registered
by orphan status
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Non
Orphans
Single
Orphans
Double
Orphans
% Children not registered
% Children not registered
Source: UNICEF Secondary Analysis of BFHS IV 2007

14. Percentage of children not registered
by wealth quintile
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
(richest) 10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
(poorest) 1
% Children not registered
% Children not registered
Source: UNICEF secondary analysis of BFHS IV 2007

15. Percentage of children not registered
by education of household head
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
% of children not registered
% of children not
registered
Source:UNICEF Secondary analysis of BFHS IV 2007

16. Percentage of children not registered
by geographical location 2007
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
City/Town Urban/village Rural
% of children not registered
% of children not
registered
Source: UNICEF Secondary analysis of BFHS IV 2007

17. Partnering with the health sector