United Nations (Department of economic and social affairs) Handbook on Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Identity Management Systems: Communication for Development
The Handbook provides guidance and assistance to countries to help them strategically design and carry out evidence based and measurable communication for development activities in support of a comprehensive improvement programme of civil registration, vital statistics and identity management systems. It incorporates contemporary approaches, good practices, lessons learned and recent developments in this field, to support programmes’ capacity to change behavior and social norms and to increase the levels of civil registration of main life events. It reminds us that “Legal identity is widely acknowledged to be catalytic for achieving at least twelve of the Sustainable Development Goals. Data generated from civil registration and population registers support the measurement of over 60 indicators. As civil registration establishes the existence of a person under law, it has traditionally been the fundamental means of granting legal identity. Legal identity has a critical role to ensure the global community upholds its promise of leaving no one behind as espoused in the 2030 Agenda ».
The Handbook is designed for use with the other Handbooks of the series Handbooks on Civil Registration and Vital Statistic Systems “Handbook on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems: Management, Operation and Maintenance” and the “Guidelines on the Legislative Framework for Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Identity Management”.
The handbook will facilitate the respect of legal identity noting that “it is important, to ensure certainty in legal matters, that individuals be provided with probatory instruments that allow them to prove, with ironclad certainty, the facts relating to their existence, identity, and personal and family situation.”
