IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v134y2017i2d10.1007_s11205-016-1448-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Nigerian Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System: Contexts, Institutions, Operation

Author

Listed:
  • Nnamdi Ifeanyi Maduekwe

    (National Population Commission)

  • Olufunmilayo O. Banjo

    (Obafemi Awolowo University)

  • Mike O. Sangodapo

    (National Population Commission)

Abstract

Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Systems are playing increasing roles in national and global data infrastructure, facilitating the achievement of key developmental goals. The performance of CRVS systems in many developing countries including Nigeria is sub optimal and information on their structure and operations scanty. This paper characterizes the statutory, institutional, and operational elements and social contexts of the Nigerian CRVS System. It includes a context analysis of the system and a review of improvement strategies and interventions. The paper shows that the Nigerian CRVS System is built on viable statutory and institutional platforms—the constitutional enshrinement of: universal, compulsory and continuous civil registration and, a central registration institution—the National Population Commission (NPC). NPC has registration hierarchy and infrastructure deployed at every level of political administration and mechanisms for efficient coordination of registration and production of vital statistics on live-births, deaths and stillbirths amongst other vital events. The major weaknesses of the system include inadequate financing and deployment of registration facilities, conflicting statutes and institutional arrangements for the registration of key events like death and stillbirths. Other weaknesses include intra-organizational conflicts in resource allocation and weak ICT infrastructure within the NPC. These are compounded by overarching contextual issues namely registration unfriendly sociocultural norms, weak national data infrastructure, systemic corruption, poverty and undeveloped civic culture. Domestic initiatives and interventions to improve the system have focused on birth registration, while multilateral interventions have only made a modest impact on the system. Thus, holistic in-country improvement initiatives supported with robust interventions are imperative to overcome weaknesses in the Nigerian CRVS system. However fundamental improvements in CRVS systems in developing countries like Nigeria may likely only follow sustainable solutions to overarching contextual issues especially poor infrastructure, weak institutions, poverty and systemic corruption.

Suggested Citation

  • Nnamdi Ifeanyi Maduekwe & Olufunmilayo O. Banjo & Mike O. Sangodapo, 2017. "The Nigerian Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System: Contexts, Institutions, Operation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 134(2), pages 651-674, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:134:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-016-1448-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-016-1448-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-016-1448-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-016-1448-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James Thurlow & Danielle Resnick & Dumebi Ubogu, 2015. "Matching Concepts With Measurement: Who Belongs to Africa's Middle Class?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(5), pages 588-608, July.
    2. Nkwachukwu Orji, 2015. "The 2015 Nigerian General Elections," Africa Spectrum, Institute of African Affairs, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 50(2), pages 73-85.
    3. Nwudego N Chinwuba, 2013. "Education as a Strategy for Renegotiating the Nigerian Dream," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 56(2), pages 190-201, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Idongesit Eshietand Grace Udoyen, 2023. "Socio-Cultural Context and Civil Registration of Under-Five Children in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(10), pages 836-847, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simplice A Asongu & Sara Le Roux, 2019. "Understanding Sub-Saharan Africa’s Extreme Poverty Tragedy," International Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(6), pages 457-467, April.
    2. Wietzke, Frank-Borge, 2024. "Perceptions of social class in Africa. Results from a conjoint experiment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    3. Simplice A. Asongu & Sara le Roux, 2018. "Understanding Sub-Saharan Africa’s Extreme Poverty Tragedy," Research Africa Network Working Papers 18/012, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    4. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2021. "Income Levels, Governance and Inclusive Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(1), pages 71-103, February.
    5. Jean-Philippe Berrou & Dominique Darbon & Christian Bouquet & Anne Bekelynck & Matthieu Clément & François Combarnous & Eric Rougier, 2018. "Le réveil des classes moyennes ivoiriennes ? Identification, caractérisation et implications pour les politiques publiques," Working Papers hal-02147840, HAL.
    6. Simplice Asongu & Joseph Nnanna, 2020. "Inclusive human development in sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 14(2), pages 183-200, May.
    7. Jean-Philippe BERROU & Matthieu CLÉMENT & François COMBARNOUS & Dominique DARBON & Yves-André FAURE & Éric ROUGIER, 2019. "L’essor des classes moyennes dans les pays en développement et émergents : une étude comparative des enjeux d’identification, de caractérisation et de politiques publiques," Working Paper d25da1cf-d9d8-4336-9930-b, Agence française de développement.
    8. Asongu, Simplice, 2015. "Growth and Institutions in African Development by Augustin K. Fosu," MPRA Paper 68656, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Simplice A. Asongu & Samba Diop, 2022. "Bribing to escape poverty in Africa," Working Papers 22/090, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    10. Jean-Philippe Berrou & Dominique Darbon & Christian Bouquet & Anne Bekelynck & Matthieu Clément & François Combarnous & Eric Rougier, 2018. "Le réveil des classes moyennes ivoiriennes ? Identification, caractérisation et implications pour les politiques publiques," Post-Print hal-02147840, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:134:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-016-1448-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.