Increasing Civil Birth Registrations. A Successful Experience in Mozambique (2023-24)

Maria Castiglioni, University of Padova
Gianpiero Dalla-Zuanna, University of Padova
Chiara Gargiulo, Dept.of Statistical Science - University of Padova
Daniele Girolimetto, Dept.of Statistical Science - University of Padova
Evelina Martelli, Community of Sant'Egidio
Americo Abel Sardinha, Abel Sardinha e Rosa Ernesto

In many countries (including Mozambique) the proportion of registered surviving children aged 0-4 years is very low. In this paper we measure the impact of a project that promotes the registration of newborns directly in health centres in Mozambique. In each District of three of the 11 provinces, a health centre has been identified in which the project provides for the establishment of secondary civil registration offices, with specially trained non-health personnel, in which parents of children aged 0-5 months can carry out all registration procedures free of charge. Using the appropriate time series forecasting methods, we estimate the number of children aged 0-5 months that would have been registered in each of the 11 provinces of Mozambique for the first 8 months after the start of the project (counterfactual). A significant increase in the number of registered children is only observed in the three provinces involved in the project. In addition, the results obtained in the health centers show that the registration rate in the three provinces would have been much higher, 6-7 times higher than the counterfactual. Finally, the analysis of the mothers’ characteristics show a notable recovery of birth registrations of young and poorly educated mothers.

Keywords: Civil Registration and Vital Statistics

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