CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE LE CENTRE D’EXCELLENCE

for CRVS Systems sur les systèmes ESEC

SNAPSHOT
OF CIVIL REGISTRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS SYSTEMS OF

ETHIOPIA
ii SNAPSHOT OF CIVIL REGISTRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS SYSTEMS OF

Program Information
About the Centre of Excellence for About the International
CRVS Systems Development Research Centre
(IDRC)
Housed at the International Development Research
Centre (IDRC), the Centre of Excellence for Civil Part of Canada’s foreign affairs and development
Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Systems is efforts, the IDRC invests in knowledge, innovation
a global knowledge and resource hub that actively and solutions to improve the lives of people in
supports national efforts to develop, strengthen, the developing world. IDRC works with many
and scale CRVS systems. It collaborates with stakeholders including civil society organizations,
organizations and experts to broker access think tanks, regional organizations and government
to information and expertise, including global departments in the developing world to promote
standards, tools, research evidence, and relevant growth, reduce poverty, and drive large-scale
good practice. positive change.

The Centre of Excellence was established with

funding from Global Affairs Canada and IDRC
and contributes directly to the work of the Global
Financing Facility, a key financing platform of
the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for
Women’s, Children’s, and adolescents’ health.

Published by the Centre of Excellence for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Systems
in partnership with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

This publication was authored by Yacob Zewoldi, a consultant for the Centre of Excellence
for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems.

International Development Research Centre

PO Box 8500,
Ottawa, ON Canada Tel 1 613-236-61613
Email: crvs@idrc.ca
www.CRVSsystems.ca

© International Development Research Centre 2019

The research presented in this publication was carried out with financial and technical assistance from the
Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems. Housed at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC),
it is jointly funded by Global Affairs Canada and IDRC. The views expressed herein do not necessarily
represent those of Global Affairs Canada, IDRC, or its Board of Governors.
 ETHIOPIA 1

Contents
Program Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Brief country profile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

CRVS dimensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Civil registration system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Legislative framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Management, organization and operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Interface with other sectors and operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Vital statistics system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Vital statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Causes of death. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Digitization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Computerization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Mobile technology application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Improvement initiatives and external support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Improvement plan and budget. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Support from development partners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Proposals to improve coordination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Websites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Additional materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Annex 1: Organizational chart of the Federal Vital Events Registration Agency15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Endnotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2 SNAPSHOT OF CIVIL REGISTRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS SYSTEMS OF

Ethiopia’s regional states and

Introduction city administrations
The purpose of this report is to provide a
brief introduction to the civil registration and Tigray
vital statistics (CRVS) systems in Ethiopia.
The information was collected through a Afar
questionnaire completed by the Federal Vital Benishangul-
Amhara
Gumuz
Events Registration Agency in December Dire Dawa
2018, desk research and interviews conducted Addis Harari
Ababa
with key stakeholders in the country. The
report presents country background, selected
indicators relevant for CRVS improvement Oromia
Gambela Somali
processes, stakeholders’ activities and resources SNNP
available and needed to strengthen CRVS
systems, coordination, among others.

Brief country profile Disclaimer: The boundaries and names shown and
the designations used on this map do not imply official
Ethiopia is a landlocked country in East Africa endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
with a total surface area of 1.104 million square
kilometres. It is bordered by Eritrea, Djibouti,
Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan, and Sudan.
The country’s topographic features range TT Civil registration agency: Federal Vital Events
from 110 metres below sea level in the Afar Registartion Agency (FVERA)
Depression to the highest peak, the Ras Dashen, TT National statistical office: Central statistics
at 4,550 metres above sea level.1 Agency (CSA)

Ethiopia is the second most populous country in The country is a federated state with nine
Africa, next to Nigeria, with an annual interpolated autonomous regional states and two city
mid-year population of about 108 million in administrations. The regional states, also called
2018 and a 2.43 percent average annual rate of kilils locally, and the city administrations are
population change.2 About 84 percent of the shown on the map. The government follows a
population lives in rural areas. The main occupation decentralized administrative system where the
of most of the rural sedentary population is regional states have legislative, executive and
farming. The population in the semi-arid and arid judicial powers. The organizational arrangement
lowland zones is predominantly pastoralist. for vital events registration systems follows the
TT Capital city: Addis Ababa decentralized administrative structure of the
country. FVERA’s organizational given as Annex 1 is
TT Official working languages: Amharic and English
replicated to a large extent in the regions and city
TT Ministry responsible for civil registration: Ministry administrations.
of Peace.
 ETHIOPIA 3

CRVS dimensions
Births
Completeness of birth registration3 Not available
Children under 5 years of age whose births were reported as registered with a
3 % (2016)4
civil authority
Births attended by skilled health professionals 28 % (2016)4
Women aged 15-49 who received antenatal care from a skilled provider 62 % (2016)4
DPT1 immunization coverage among 1-year-olds5 86 % (2016)6
Crude birth rate (per 1,000 population) 31.8 (2016)6
Total fertility rate (live births per woman) 4.2 (2016)6
Adolescent fertility rate (per 1,000 girls aged 15-19 years) 64.9 (2016)7
Population under age 15 40.6 % (2017)8

Deaths
Completeness of death registration Not available
Crude death rate (per 1,000 population) 6.8 (2016)6
Infant mortality rate (probability of dying by age 1 per 1,000 live births) 41 (2017)9
Under five mortality rate (probability of dying by age 5 per 1,000 live births) 59 (2017)9
Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births) 353 (2015)10
Marriages and divorces
Marriage registration rate Not available
Women aged 20-24 first married or in union before age 15 14 % (2016)4
Women aged 20-24 first married or in union before age 18 40 % (2016)4
Divorce registration rate Not available
Vital statistics including causes of death data
Compilation and dissemination of CR-based statistics Not available
Medically certified causes of death data Not available
4 SNAPSHOT OF CIVIL REGISTRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS SYSTEMS OF

administrations representatives and heads of all

Civil registration system regional vital events registration agencies.

Legislative framework Management Board: Ministry of Peace, Ministry of

In August 2012, the Federal Democratic Republic Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Women
of Ethiopia (FDRE) issued the Registration of Vital and Children Affairs, Central Statistics Agency,
Events and National Identity Card Proclamation Ministry of Communication and Information
No. 760/201211. which was a comprehensive law Technology, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Federal Vital
that made registrations of vital events compulsory. Events Registration Agency, National Identity project
The law states that the vital events to be registered office, Ministry of Finance, and the General Attorney.
are: birth, death, marriage, divorce, adoption,
Technical Working Group: The main function of
recognition and legitimation. It also requires
the Group is to advise the Council and Board on
cause of death to be recorded for both natural
technical and funding matters. It includes the
and unnatural deaths. The law came into force in
Federal Vital Events Registration Agency, Ministry
mid-2016. However, this law was not universal in
of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Women
its coverage because registration was restricted to
and Children Affairs, Central Statistics Agency,
Ethiopian nationals. This was corrected by issuing
Ministry of Communication and Information
an amended Proclamation No 1049/201712 that
Technology, Main department for Immigration
expanded the coverage of registration services
and Nationality Affairs, Information Network
to asylum seekers, refugees and non-nationals
Security Agency, Addis Ababa University School
residing in Ethiopia, among others (FDRE, 2017).
of Public Health, Addis Ababa University Center
Copies of the proclamations are available at
for Population Studies, Addis Ababa University
https://data.unicef.org/country/eth/.
Technology Faculty, United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa (UNECA), United Nations
Management, organization Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Bank, World
and operations Health Organization (WHO), and Plan International.

National CRVS systems coordination Several government ministries and institutions have
mechanisms entered into a bilateral agreement to complement
The civil registration law required the establish­ each other’s initiatives within the CRVS systems
ment of a Vital Events Council and a Civil through formal and time-bound memorandum
Registration Management Board at the national of understanding documents. Such bilateral
level. The Council oversees the improvement and agreements have been entered between FVERA
functioning of the CRVS system while the Board and the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education,
manages its continuous operations. These two Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Central
bodies started functioning in 2013. A coordination Statistics Agency. FVERA finds this to be a useful
Technical Working Group, comprising of federal coordination tool.
ministries and agencies and development partners,
Administration level registration centres
was also set up in the same year. FVERA is the
secretary in the three bodies. The composition of The regional states are administratively divided into
these coordinating bodies are as follows: zones, weredas or districts and the lowest level
administrative units known as kebele. Registration
Federal Vital Events Council: The Council of vital events takes place in Kebeles. In December
comprises all Management Board members 2018, there were 18,617 kebeles of which 16,883
listed below, the nine regions and two city or about 90 percent had started to provide civil
 ETHIOPIA 5

registration service to the public. Out of those 3 hours of walking to cover the distance because of
kebeles that are operational, 92 percent are in rural the rugged terrain. Accessibility to civil registration
areas. Each kebele has a civil status or registration service for the pastoralist population living in arid
officer which is also in most cases the Kebele low lands is poor, mainly because many of the
Manager. kebele territories are vast and require long hours
of walking, in some cases up to 8 hours, to have
Other civil registration sites are the Government occurrence of vital events recorded.
of Ethiopia Administration for Refugees and
Returnees Affairs offices nearest to the refugees’ Registration of vital events
sites; Ethiopian Ships for registration of births and The civil registration law requires that the
deaths occurring at sea; Ethiopian missions for occurrence of a vital event be recorded in a bound
Ethiopian nationals residing in other countries; and booklet with four carbon copies for each vital
the Ministry of National Defense for registration of event. The original copy remains in the kebele office
births and deaths occurring in military camps. where registration took place. The second, third
and fourth copies are transmitted to the regional
Accessibility of civil registration services
office, FVERA and Central Statistical Agency (CSA),
One of the key features of most of the kebele respectively. Paper-based registration of vital
registration offices is that they are accessible by events started in most parts of the country in mid-
foot for the majority of the population living within 2016. The vital events currently covered by the civil
their boundaries in terms of walking distance, registration system are birth, marriage, divorce,
which is estimated to be less than 10 kilometres. death and adoption. Figure 1 shows registration
The furthest household would be a walking process with in the lowest administrative unit or
distance of about 3 hours from the registration kebele. The civil registration law requires notifiers
office, thus not incurring a high travel cost, if any. and informants report births within 90 days
and the occurrence of other vital events within
It should be noted that in mountainous parts of
30 days. Divorces and amendments have to be first
the country, even if the distance to the nearest
processed through courts.
registration office is short, it usually takes more than

Figure 1. Vital Events Registration Structure at kebele level

KEBELE
Office of Civil Status

Birth Declarants Marriage Declarants Death Declarants Divorce Declarants

Individuals, families, Officer of Civil Status; Individuals, families, Divorcing partners

relatives Bride and bride relatives or one of them
groom

Abandoned babies: Police or other

Police or other relevant government
relevant government organs: Accidents,
organs unknown cases,
identity of deceased

Notifiers supporting vital events registration process

• Health institutions and extension workers – Births and deaths
• Religious institutions, community elders, social network – All vital events

Adopted from FVERA and UNFPA (2013)

6 SNAPSHOT OF CIVIL REGISTRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS SYSTEMS OF

There is no fee for registering vital events. A fee is Interface with other sectors
charged for issuing vital events certificates by each and operations
regional state. The amount varies from one regional
state to another. The available information is given FVERA and FMoH have an agreement to
in Table 1 and shows that certificates are provided complement each other’s work through a time-
for free in Tigrai while the two city administrations bound signed memorandum of understanding.
(Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa) charge higher fees as FMoH provides notifications of occurrence of
compared to regional states. births and deaths that occur in health facilities.
The notification forms were prepared by FMoH in
Backlog of unregistered births consultation with FVERA. The notification provides
As the country-wide conventional registration of the minimum information needed to be recorded in
vital events started only in mid-2016, there are the civil register.
significant backlogs of unregistered current, late
Ethiopia does not have a national identification
and delayed vital events.13 In some areas of the
system. With the Formation of the Ministry
country, stocking out of registers and certificates
of Peace, where FVERA is located, further
happen from time to time due to high demand
administrative restructuring could merge or bring
for delayed registration from those seeking
together civil registration and national identification
documentary evidence of place of birth and proof
management activities.
of age to apply for passports, driver licenses and
other similar services.

Table 1. Fees for obtaining certificates of vital events in some of the regions in US Dollars

No. Regions Birth Marriage Divorce Death

1 Tigrai Free Free Free Free

2 Southern Nations, Nationalities & Peoples 0.69 1.38 2.07 0.34

3 Dire Dawa 1.72 3.45 1.72 0.34

4 Amara 1.21 1.21 0.86 0.34

5 Addis Ababa 1.55 2.76 2.76 1.55

 ETHIOPIA 7

operational, the registration is still slow since it

Vital statistics system started nation-wide in mid-2016, mainly because of
low demand. It plans to expand the vital statistics
Vital statistics
activities in many of its branch offices in the regions
The Central Statistical Agency (CSA) is the main as the registration coverage increases.
agency for collecting, compiling and disseminating
official statistics, including vital statistics from The civil registration law requires that three
population and housing censuses and household detachable copies of the registration forms
surveys. It is also charged by law to coordinate reach the Regional Vital Events Registration
the country’s statistical activities to ensure the Agencies (RVERAs) within 30 days after the date
use of uniform statistical concepts, definitions and of registration. The RVERAs keep one copy and
classifications nation-wide. According to the CR law transmit the remaining two copies of the records
of 2012, the information gathered by the vital events to the federal organ within another 30 days.
registration agencies on births, marriages, divorces The federal agency in turn sends one set of the
and deaths are compiled for statistical purposes registration forms to CSA within 30 days. Taking
and disseminated by CSA. these dates into account, the expected time it
would take the registers to reach CSA, excluding
The Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) is late registers, would be as indicated in Table 2.
responsible for notifying the concerned civil
registration office of births and deaths, including The time it would take for records emanating
cause of death information, occurring in health from Ethiopian embassies, Ethiopian ships, or the
facilities. The kebeles record the events along with Ministry of National Defense to reach CSA is shorter
the particulars of the events in the civil registers. than those indicated above.
CSA is tasked with compiling vital statistics and
In general, it could take up to 6 months for copies
cause-of-death information from the copies
of the birth registration form to reach CSA. For
of registers they receive from the vital events
the paper-based registration, it could take up
registration agencies at federal and regional levels.
to 3 months to code, edit and key-in data into
CSA has setup a Vital Statistics Division in 2017
computers. Compiling and tabulating the data at
with 5 professionals as the core team that would
different administrative levels could take another
process and disseminate vital events information.
3 months. Given this, it is feasible to produce
Although over 18,000 registration centres are
CR‑based vital statistics annually.

Table 2. Maximum number of days it could take for copies of current vital event records to
reach CSA
Kebeles RVERAs VERAs Maximum
Time for transmit transmit transmit number of days
registering records to records to records to it takes to reach
Vital events an event RVERAs VERAs CSA CSA
Birth 90 days 30 days 30 days 30 days 180 days
Death, marriage
30 days 30 days 30 days 30 days 120 days
and divorce
8 SNAPSHOT OF CIVIL REGISTRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS SYSTEMS OF

Causes of death Divorce certificate: https://data.unicef.org/wp-

content/uploads/2017/12/EngDivorcefinal.jpg
Cause-of-death information is currently being
Death certificate: https://data.unicef.org/wp-
collected only for deaths occurring in health
content/uploads/2017/12/Engdeathfinal.jpg
facilities and coded according to the International
Classification of Diseases (ICD) format. The Federal Adoption certificate: https://data.unicef.org/wp-
Ministry of Health is using a customized ICD 10. content/uploads/2017/12/EngAdoption.jpg
Federal and regional health bureaus are working
on the improvement of death and cause-of-death-
notification. Ethiopia has been experimenting with
Improvement initiatives
the application of verbal autopsies for a long time and external support
but there is no formal application to date.
While this section presents plans and budget for
the federal office of the vital events registration
Digitization agency, it is important to note that information was
not readily available for registration agencies in
Computerization the nine regions and two city administrations. The
figure would be much higher if all regions were
Ethiopia is looking into the possibility of automation
included.
using appropriate technology for the management
and maintenance of an effective vital event
registration system. Printing cost and the time
Improvement plan and budget
required to transmit the completed copies of
Strategic plan
registers from the kebele civil status office up to
the federal office and Central Statistical Agency is TT A costed 5-year strategic plan covering
a serious challenge that can be resolved through the period 2014 to 2018 sets the vision,
automation of the CRVS system. Currently, only 100 mission and implementation framework for
kebele civil registration offices in the Addis Ababa the establishment and strengthening of a
City Administration are using computers to register CRVS system.
vital events and issue certificates. TT FVERA has started preparation for the
2019‑2023 plan. It will conduct a comprehensive
Mobile technology application assessment in 2019 with support from UNICEF
and other development partners.
There is intent to introduce mobile phones for
notification purposes. This is being looked at by Budgetary allocations and requirements
FVERA within the general framework of digitization
TT Estimated total cost for the period 2014 to 2018:
of the CRVS system.
US$ 18 million
Sample registration forms TT Budget allocated by government for the period
2014 to 2018: US$ 77,000
Birth certificate: https://data.unicef.org/wp-
content/uploads/2017/12/EngBirthfinal.jpg TT Support provided by development partners:
US$ 2.5 million.
Marriage certificate: https://data.unicef.org/wp-
content/uploads/2017/12/EngMarriagefinal.jpg
 ETHIOPIA 9

Figure 2. Budgetary requirements and allocations, 2014-2018

Federal budget

Development
partners contributions,
Budget gap, 14%
86%

Activities identified as high priorities

Expected
High priority areas in the Estimated government Expected
strategic plan lacking funding cost allocation budget gaps
Automation of CR process 14,074,000 1,407,400 12,666,600
Upgrading skill of staff 2,500,000 250,000 2,250,000
Effective coordination mechanism and
1,300,000 130,000 1,170,000
monitoring and evaluation
Total 17,874,000 1,787,400 16,086,600
Source: Federal Vital Events Registration Agency

Support from development partners

The development partners that provided and continue to support the civil registration and vital statistics
systems improvement initiative are listed below:

Organizations Kind of support

World Bank, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance Build a centralized electronic civil registration system; Procure
(GAVI) and Global Financing Facility (GFF) civil registration office equipment (field vehicle, motor cycles, filing
cabinets); advocacy and awareness campaigns; and capacity
building

UNICEF Financial and technical support

UNECA Technical support (training, advisory service)

The Netherlands (through European Union Financial support

and UNICEF)

UNFPA Drafting of the first strategic plan for the period 2013-2018; Vital
statistics
Source: Federal Vital Events Registration Agency
10 SNAPSHOT OF CIVIL REGISTRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS SYSTEMS OF

Proposals to improve coordination Resources

CRVS systems are multi-sectoral and it is
key that the coordination among the major Websites
stakeholder institutions is effective and efficient. There are not many published research works
The time‑bound memorandum of understanding on CRVS systems. Some of the widely available
document FVERA has signed with major national documents, works which are available in draft form
stakeholders has proved to be a useful instrument and works not for wider circulation are listed below:
for pushing forward the CRVS improvement
TT African Child Policy Forum (n.d). Report of Survey
initiative in a setting where it did not exist before. In
on Perception and Practice of Birth Registration
addition to this, FVERA proposes the following to
in Addis Ababa and the Regional States of
achieve improved coordination within the national
Oromia, Amhara and SNNPR (Draft). Addis
key stakeholders and with development partners.
Ababa. Ethiopia.
National CRVS stakeholders TT Ministry of Women’ Affairs and UNICEF-Ethiopia
(2008). Assessment Report on Model Vital Events
a. Sensitize key stakeholders on the importance of
Registration Pilot Project of SNNP, Amhara and
the civil registration system.
Tigray Regional States. Addis Ababa, April 2008.
b. Continue entering into time-bound bilateral
TT Federal Vital Events Registration Agency and
and multilateral agreements with more key
UNFPA (2013). Towards sustainable vital events
stakeholders.
registration and vital statistics systems of
c. Train the staff of the key stakeholder institutions Ethiopia: Strategy and Action Plan. July 2013-
on the basics of a CRVS system to bring June 2018.

TT The World Bank and Korea Legislation Institute

all on board to a certain desired level of
understanding. Resources permitting, training
(2017). A Comparative Analysis of Laws on Civil
should be conducted for health professionals,
Registration and Vital Statistics Systems: Estonia,
police, judges, religious leaders, etc.
Ethiopia, Vietnam, and South Korea.
National institutes and development http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/
partners en/237491510746694949/pdf/121395-WP-
PUBLIC-ComparativeAnalysisofLawsonCRVSw
a. Build capacity through training of key CRVS eb.pdf
stakeholders.

b. Technical advisory services on the functionality Additional materials

of interoperability of different systems. Additional information may be found on the
c. Mobilize resources training of trainers in CRVS following websites:
stakeholders institutions, regional states and city TT Central Statistics Agency:
administrations. http://www.csa.gov.et/

TT Federal Vital Events Registration Agency

(FVERA): http://www.vera.gov.et

TT Ministry of Health: http://www.moh.gov.et/;

on causes of death http://www.moh.gov.et/
web/guest/mhs_1
 ETHIOPIA 11

TT United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) - The country faces several challenges in the
Ethiopia: https://data.unicef.org/country/eth/ improvement of CRVS systems. Some of the major

TT World Health Organization (WHO) - challenges identified by FVERA were:

https://www.who.int/countries/eth/en/ a. Paper based Registration: Proclamation

TT United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) - 760/2012 requires the registration of vital events
https://www.unfpa.org/news/ethiopian- to be done manually in four copies. A copy to be
women-and-girls-see-remarkable-results- left at the registration centres, a copy at regional
ending-child-marriage level and the remaining two copies to be sent to

TT http://www.dataforalldemo.org/dashboard/ the federal vital events registration agency and

the central statistical agency. The cost of printing
v1/ethioinfo/ethioinfo#/
and the time and cost required to transfer the
filled copies of registers at all hierarchies is a
Conclusion serious challenge requiring the automation of
the system.
In the short period since Ethiopia embarked on
the enormous initiative to establish a functional b. Notification of occurrence of births and deaths:
country wide CRVS system, 85 percent of the The health sector is not yet well organized to
eighteen thousand local service centers or kebeles notify births and deaths in all health facilities.
have started registration, thus ensuring physical c. Lack of awareness of the importance of
accessibility of the centres for the majority of registering vital events: A significant number of
the population. Other major strengths of the the population either have not heard of or do
CRVS system have been the comprehensive not understand the importance of registering
civil registration law of 2012 that is aligned to vital events.
international principles and recommendations,14
d. Backlog of unregistered births -As the
(weaknesses of the law were addressed through
conventional registration of vital events started
an amendment issued in 2017); including
only a year ago, there are significant backlogs for
government commitment expressed through
all vital events. Currently, the request for delayed
issuance of regulations, amendments of laws,
birth registration to get certificates that are
allocation of budget for registration operations and
required for obtaining passports, driving licenses
human resource development; the decentralized
and so on, is straining the young paper-based
administrative arrangement of the country from
system by causing stock outs of registers and
the federal to the lowest administrative level or
certificates.
kebele – which is conducive for geographically
accessible registration service delivery; health e. Lack of field support and transport in rural areas
extension workers ready to be mobilized as for effective monitoring and evaluation of the
notifiers of occurrence of events in each of the performance of the system is a serious problem.
kebeles; and the Central Statistical Agency being
operational for over 60 years. The agency has
the mandate to collect, process and disseminate
civil registration-based vital statistics. The agency
has enough professionals and it is well equipped
to produce vital statistics at least annually on a
continuous basis.
12 SNAPSHOT OF CIVIL REGISTRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS SYSTEMS OF

Annex 1: Organizational chart of the Federal Vital Events

Registration Agency15

Vital Events Registration Council

Board of Management, Vital Events Registration

Director General, Vital Events Registration

Adviser to the General Manager Audit and Inspections Directorate

Legal Services Directorate Gender Affairs Directorate

Public Relations & Communications Change Management Directorate

Affairs Directorate

Ethics and Complaints Handling

Directorate

Deputy Director General Deputy Director General

for Operations for Administrataions

Research Procurement, Planning,

Technological
and System Finance and Programming
Administration
Development Property and Budget
Directorate
Directorate Administration Directorrate

Data Collection, Education Human Resources

Archiving and and Training and Administration
Supply Directorate Directorate Directorrate

Note: Translated from Amharic, the offiial language of Ethiopia

Source: Federal Vital Events Registration Agency
 ETHIOPIA 13

Endnotes
1 Central Statistics Agency. 2009. Ethiopia Census Report 2007 http://www.csa.gov.et
2 United Nations. 2017. World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, Volume I: Comprehensive
Tables. Population Division. https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2017_Volume-I_
Comprehensive-Tables.pdf
3 Birth or death registration completeness means the actual number of registered births or deaths divided by
the estimated number of births or deaths in a particular country or area, in a specified time period usually a
year. For further reading refer to ECA, ESCAP and Statistics Norway (2016).
http://www.getinthepicture.org/system/files/event/documents/
4 Central Statistical Agency (CSA) [Ethiopia] and ICF. 2016. Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey 2016.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Rockville, Maryland, USA: CSA and ICF. http://www.csa.gov.et/survey-report/
category/352-dhs-2016
5 DPT1: Surviving infants who received the first dose of diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus (DPT) vaccine.
6 UNICEF. 2017. The State of World’s Children 2017. https://www.unicef.org/sowc2017/
7 World Bank (2018). Adolescent Fertility Rate. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.ADO.TFRT
8 United Nations. 2017b. World Population Prospects. Volume-II: Demographic Profile. Department of Economic
and Social Affairs, Population Division. https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2017_
Volume-II-Demographic-Profiles.pdf
9 UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. 2018. Levels and Trends in Child Mortality Report. 2018.
http://www.childmortality.org/
10 WHO. 2019. Global Health Observatory country views. https://www.who.int/gho/publications/world_
health_statistics/2016/en/
11 Federal Democratic Government of Ethiopia. 2012. Registration of Vital Events and National Identity Card
Proclamation No. 760/2012, Federal Negarit Gazeta, 18th Year No.58, Addis Ababa, 22nd August 2012.
12 Federal Democratic Government of Ethiopia (FDRE). 2017. A Proclamation to Provide for the Amendement of
Vital Events registration and National ID. No. 1049/2017, Federal Negarit Gazeta, 23rd Year No. 74, Addis Ababa,
7th August 2017.
13 In the Ethiopian context, current registration is registration within 90 days for birth and 30 days for other vital
events and late registration is up to years. Registration after one year is considered delayed which entails
penalty payment.
14 United Nations. 2014. Principles and Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System - Revision 3. Statistics
Division, Statistical Papers, Series M No. 19/Rev.3. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/standmeth/
principles/M19Rev3en.pdf
15 The chart reflects the organizational structure on 15 December 2018. Restructuring of government offices
was going at the time this report was prepared and FVERA’s organigram could be affected by it.
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