Initiative: Publication and dissemination of best practices in Civil Registry and Identity

The project aims to produce and disseminate new and updated information on civil registration and identification that will contribute to the upgrading and standardization of registration procedures.

Activities:
1.) Co-organization and launch of the “Inter-American Identity Week – Mexico 2016”. The Inter-American Identity Week involved three complementary events:
(i) the Third LAC regional conference on the right to an identity and universal civil registration;
(ii) the XIII LAC Council on civil registration, identity and vital statistics (CLARCIEV), and
(iii) the First Council of ministers and government officials about the right to an identity.

The Mexico 2016 edition of the Inter-American Identity Week was co-organized by UNICEF, OEA, PLAN, CLARCIEV, SEGOB and the IDB. The events addressed key topics of the region’s civil registration and legal identity agenda such as:
(i) status of civil registration in LAC and barriers to universal registration;
(ii) developments and challenges in measuring under-registration;
(iii) lessons learned in countries’ strategies to attain timely and universal civil registration;
(iv) innovations and use of digital technologies for civil registration and legal identity services;
(v) immigration and impact on civil registration;
(vi) the right to an identity and the sustainable development goals;
(vii) harmonization of civil registration legal frameworks and policies, and
(viii) identity country systems.

Webpage: http://clarciev.com/es/primer-encuentro-ministerial-y-de-autoridades-nacionales-de-las-americas-sobre-el-derecho-a-la-identidad/

2.) Launch of the “Measuring the quality of public services” Workshop. The workshop objective was to discuss the results of the “Simplificando vidas” project which measures service quality and citizen satisfaction for key services such as birth registration and identity document renewal. The project developed and implemented a methodology to measure service quality (government’s perspective on service management and delivery) and satisfaction with these services (citizen’s perspective on service attributes that matter the most). The methodology was applied in six countries (Chile, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay). Results were discussed in the workshop with the participation of government officials responsible for these services, the academia, and IDB specialists.

Website: http://blogs.iadb.org/gobernarte/2016/06/22/taller-de-medicion-de-la-calidad-de-los-servicios-publicos/


Beneficiaries: (Regional) Latin America and Caribbean countries.

Partnership and financing: Canadian Fund for Universal Legal Identity In Latin America and the Caribbean

Initiative: Technical Management of the Canadian Fund for Universal Legal Identity in Latin America and the Caribbean (RG-T2575)

The project aims at enhancing the impact of CCR-financed activities by:
(i) developing technical knowledge to leverage and support civil registry and legal identity projects;
(ii) disseminating the Fund’s activities and results, and
(iii) identifying and consolidating innovative practices to increase the capacity of civil and legal registries of LAC countries to close the identity gap.



a. Alignment of CCR-funded projects’ results matrices with the CCR Performance Measurement Framework (PMF). In order to further improve alignment of projects’ expected results with the CCR PMF, technical assistance was provided to:
(i) prepare, for all projects in the active portfolio, aligned results matrices-ARM (i.e. matrices aligned with the PMF); and
(ii) assess the expected contribution of these projects to the PMF targets.

b. Identification of benchmarks for key capacity building activities and civil registration and/or legal identity goals. As a complement to the aligned result matrices, technical assistance was provided to:
(i) prepare, for all projects involving country-specific interventions in the active portfolio, work plans (WP) containing timelines and milestones for training/capacity building activities and civil registration and/or legal identity goals; and
(ii) ensure consistency between aligned results matrices and work plans. Both tools (ARMs and WPs) will contribute to assess annual implementation progress and identify corrective measures to enhance this progress. Thus, WPs will allow tracking the results that would be achieved once projects are fully implemented, contingent on the institutional capacity of the respective government counterparts and executing agencies.

c. Publication of “Civil registration and vital statistics as a tool to improve public management”. The discussion paper provides a knowledge base to better understand the links between civil registration and legal identity and public sector management. To this end, the paper
(i) assesses the basic and expanded uses of civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS), and
(ii) explains how developing a comprehensive CRVS information system provides benefits for public planning, policymaking, and more broadly government performance. Thus, the paper provides recommendations for effective CRVS systems as well as issues that governments should consider when expanding the use of CRVS systems.

Website: www.iadb.org/ccr
http://www.iadb.org/en/projects/project-description-title,1303.html?id=RG-T2575

Beneficiaries: (Regional) Latin America and Caribbean countries

Partnership and financing: Canada Fund for Universal Legal Identity in Latin America and the Caribbean

Initiative: Strengthening of the Civil Registry of the state of Coahuila de Zaragoza - Mexico (ME-T1293)

The project aims to strengthen the state civil registry and improve the performance of the oficialías (civilians entrusted by the Civil Registry with the responsibility of delivering registration services at the local level). To reach this goal the project will:
(i) diagnose and map under-registration in the state;
(ii) deploy mobile brigades;
(iii) deploy birth registry electronic kiosks; and
(iv) evaluate the oficialías service model and build capacity based on the evaluation recommendations.

Activities:
Timely registration across the state. The state Dirección Estatal del Registro Civil (DERC) has focused on actions aimed at strengthening timely registration, which recently was legally reduced from six to two months in the state. Project activities were adjusted accordingly to meet this requirement. Thus, since the beginning of project activities, 19,164 children have been timely registered, and the late registration of 3,116 children was addressed. Actions on different fronts lead to these initial results.

(i) The first goal was to maintain the state performance with regards to timely registration under the new deadline of two, instead of six, months. This entailed cross-cutting technical assistance to speed up the provision of registration services through oficialías, hospitals and brigades. This line of action accounts for about 16,740 timely registrations and most late registration results.
(ii) The second goal was to enhance birth registration in hospitals. The DERC recruited skilled professionals to monitor the performance of registration modules and provide technical assistance to officials in charge of registering newborns. Thus, during a period of five months the DERC has registered 2,095 children through registration modules in five hospital of the state. These preliminary outcomes are promising considering that between 2013 and 2015 these facilities registered only 1,487 births on average yearly.
(iii) A complementary goal was the enhancement of birth registration brigades to increase registration in rural and peri-urban areas. By coordinating actions with key partners including DIF, SEDESO and PRONNIF, the project was able to leverage additional equipment and technical assistance for an adequate performance of these brigades. So far, the DERC has deployed brigades that made possible the registration of 329 children and 376 adults.

Webpage: http://www.bid.org.br/en/projects/project-description-title,1303.html?id=ME-T1293

Beneficiaries: Population of Coahuila de Zaragoza - Mexico

Partnerships and Financing: Canadian Fund for Universal Legal Identity in Latin America and the Caribbean

Initiative: Plan for the identification of children and adolescents in border areas in El Salvador (ES-T1248)

The project aims to contribute to reducing late birth registration and improving legal identity in border areas, by gathering registration data of children, teenagers and adults living in five border municipalities with Honduras.

Activities:

1.) Birth registration census: The census was carried out in the border municipalities of Arcatao and San Fermando (Chalatenango Department), and Arambala, Perquín and San Fernando (Morazán Department). The objective of this activity was to collect updated information on the population living in these areas, focusing on variables that can help identify the main causes of under-registration and lack of identification. Approximately 3,900 households were surveyed. Activities and a toolkit to carry out the census included:
(i) training of 26 census takers (58 percent women and 42 percent men);
(ii) a questionnaire and implementation manual; and
(iii) a workshop to train 30 National Registration and Identification office (RNPN) officials on the census implementation, out of which 10 joined the survey takers activities.
Now RNPN officials are able to generate files of unregistered people based on the information captured by the census.

2.) Citizen experience with registration and identification services. The project collected and systematized information on the citizens' experience during the process of registering a birth and getting a legal identification document. To accomplish this objective, approximately 45 personalized interviews were carried out in the five municipalities where the census was implemented, using the design thinking methodology. Preliminary results regarding challenges affecting birth registration point to factors such as cost of services (including late registration fees) and transportation, and parents’ nationality.

3.) Communication campaign. Promotional material to inform urban and rural communities about the census and the importance of sharing information about families’ registration and identity status was prepared. Five audio slots were launched to keep communities informed on the census implementation and progress.

Webpage: http://www.iadb.org/en/projects/project-description-title,1303.html?id=ES-T1248

Beneficiaries: Residents of the municipalities of Arcatao, San Fernando (Chalatenango Departament), Arambala, Perquín y San Fernando (Morazán Departament)

Partnerships and Financing: Canadian Fund for Universal Legal Identity in Latin America and the Caribbean

In 2015 IDB approved loan operations totaling US$ 253 million to support its borrowing countries in their efforts to fight corruption, by strengthening their integrity frameworks and promoting transparency. In addition, in 2015 IDB’s Transparency Fund provided grant resources totaling US$3 million to fund projects to enhance access to information and transparency in 8 countries. IDB also provided technical assistance to 12 countries to conduct national risk assessments, and improve compliance with anti-money laundering recommendations.

During 2015 and early 2016, IDB committed grant resources totaling US$ 4.9 million from the Canadian Fund for Universal Legal identity in Latin America and the Caribbean to finance 8 projects to reduce under-registration and promote legal identity in 6 countries. In addition, to expand knowledge and raise awareness on the topic, IDB has sponsored international events and competitions aimed at improving identity management and recognizing creative approaches to meet the challenges of lack of identity documents and birth registration in the region. Furthermore, IDB authored publications related to universal birth registration and international identity management and launched the online course “Right to an Identity, Civil Registry and Vital statistics” in collaboration with OAS.

In 2015, the IDB supported the implementation of initiatives to promote open government in 6 countries and promoted policy dialogue, knowledge exchange and collaboration among countries by funding the Second Regional Policy Dialogue on Open Government in Paraguay. In 2016, the Bank will fund the Third Regional Policy Dialogue on Open Government in Colombia to discuss how innovation labs, open data and big data can improve efficiency and effectiveness in public management.