Vital Statistics and Civil Registration Challenges in Palau
Palau faces challenges in ensuring complete birth and death registrations, with issues such as delayed registrations, reliance on family members for form completion, and lack of proactive information gathering. The country uses a web-based database system for e-registry and digitization, with efforts to improve data quality and prevent duplicate records. Despite these efforts, there is a need for regulations and legislation to enhance the registration process.
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Republic of Palau Allison Idip Sengebau Pacific Civil Registrars Meeting, Suva 2023
COUNTRY OVERVIEW BIRTHS Actual Births Registered Births Pending Registration Completeness 2018 253 248 5 98% 2019 212 198 14 93% 2020 213 198 15 93% 2021 225 204 21 91% 2022 152 120 32 79% DEATHS Actual Deaths Registered Deaths Pending Registration Completeness 2018 159 131 28 82% 2019 191 165 26 86% 2020 146 119 27 82% 2021 168 142 26 85% 2022 196 164 32 84%
Last census conducted 2020, population 17,614. There were 213 births, 198 registered Cause of death from a medical certificate is provided for all deaths Vital statistics is based on actual data transmitted from the Ministry of Health and Human Services There is no vital statistics office in Palau. Birth/Death Certificates are transmitted to the Clerk of Courts for registration Office of Planning and Statistics conducts census and gets information directly from the Ministry of Health and Human Services There is no CRVS Committee in Palau
E-registry and digitisation Palau uses a web based database system called JIS Judiciary Information System. Data is stored in servers located in the Koror Complex and the Ngerulmud Complex. Data is backed up in a backup server in Ngerulmud. Data is also backed up on hard drives every other day. Judiciary maintain both paper and electronic records. Koror maintains current 2 years (2022 2023). Ngerulmud stores all other years. Current system not linked to any identity management (e.g. national ID), health sector, or other government IT systems but that is a goal.
CRVS activities implemented during the last 3 years All birth records currently received are scanned and uploaded. Birth Certificate Project to scan and upload all previous birth certificates. Review all birth certificates to ensure data entry quality. Scan and upload all pertinent name change/adoption decrees. Check for duplicate records
Current challenges Challenge #1 Ensuring birth/death registration completeness: o Some birth registrations don t occur until child is of school age when birth certificate is required for educational purposes o Birth/death registration dependent upon family members to complete forms at Ministry of Health and Human Services Medical Records Office o There needs to be a more pro-active approach to obtaining information for birth/death certificate processing o There needs to be a fixed timeline within which birth/death certificates are transmitted from the Ministry of Health to the Clerk of Courts o Regulations and or legislation needed to improve process.
Current Challenges Challenge #2 Data quality and duplicate records: Ongoing work to review/reconcile paper records with data entry There is no consistency or law regarding last names used so individual can have many variations of name (either using family name or taking father s first name as last name) People referred to by chief titles, children grew up thinking the title was their last name, some titles reflected in birth certificate as last name Some birth certificates don t have name but just Baby #3 Duplicate records of same individual sometimes due to misinformation from parent Customary adoptions occurred without any formal legal paperwork
Help! BAG is on its way . What experience or knowledge can you offer offers? Palau s experience with CRVS is limited but we can share our experience to date. What advice, assistance or funding do you need from others? Ideas or best practices on how others dealt with challenges similar to Palau What are your current priorities for improvement efforts? Completeness of birth and death registration
