The Role of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in the Attainment of Selected Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria

Abstract

One of the weaknesses that led to adequate assessment of the Millennium Development Goals was the inability to have accurate and reliable registered information. Given the Importance of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) as stated by the United Nations (UN), this study seeks to explore the role CRVS in the attainment of selected Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria. The study mainly made use of secondary data in its analysis of civil registration and vital statistics pertaining to birth, death and stillbirth registration in Nigeria from the National Population Commission. The study revealed that despite the slow pace of progress being made by Nigeria in CRVS, it is far from meeting up with the UN Standard. Hence, this has several implications in the recording and providing data for the on-going SDGs in Nigeria. Factors attributable to the poor CRVS in Nigeria include; Bureaucratic Bottleneck, Shortage of human resources, poor budgeting. It was recommended however, that itinerant registrars could solve the problem of human resources, adequate budget provision to solve the finance problem, long term plan with continuous and sustained implementation to have a non-stop registration process etc.

Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals, Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, Birth Registration, Death Registration

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