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Disclaimer / Limitations
This country’s legal measures were reviewed by our legal staff in consultation with in-country lawyers and/or CRVS legal experts. All efforts were made to ensure the accuracy of the legal analysis, however, if you consider there to be any discrepancies or if there have been changes in the law of the country since our staff last updated the legal analysis, we welcome any additional information or insights. Please contact us via this form.
Civil Registration System
Ghana
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Ghana
Civil Registration System
Coordination and Technology
Coordination and Technology
Data Sharing
Does the law require that the civil registration authority share data with the agency responsible for producing vital statistics, on a regular and timely basis?
No
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
The civil registration agency must submit statistical information collected during registration to the national statistics authority in order for the agency to compile and publish vital statistics. The law should therefore require and enable the regular and timely sharing of data needed for statistical purposes between the civil registration and statistics agency or agencies.
In terms of the Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations, the Registrar must forward a report of each birth, fetal death and death registered in the country to the Government Statistician. These reports are to be treated as confidential. No time frame is specified for the submission of these reports.
Does the law block the use of technology, such as electronic collection, transmission and storage of data, within the civil registration system?
No
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
The use of computers, tablets and other electronic devices should be permitted for the collection of data for vital events, and it should be permitted for these data to be transmitted between government agencies and officials with the use of mobile technology or the Internet. Some older laws block the use of technology by requiring manual forms or processes,. Laws should enable technology. However, laws be technology neutral and not specify the method and mode of collection, transmission and storage of data in any civil registration system, as this may prevent system upgrades overtime.
The wording of most provisions in the Registration of Births and Deaths Act and its accompanying regulations is sufficiently broad enough to encompass electronic record-keeping as well as paper-based records. The Act specifically states that the Registry must ensure that births and deaths are registered electronically, as far as practicable. (No such directive is applied to the registration of fetal deaths.)
In practice, Ghana is in the process of digitizing civil registration records. It alsoinstituted an “m-Birth” initiative in 2015 which enabled computerized registration of infants below 12 months, using mobile technology including tablets, phones, laptops and other mobile equipment. The information captured electronically is transferred directly to a central server at the National Office of the Births & Deaths Registry.
Is there a national coordinating committee to address issues on the functioning of the civil registration system and its integration with other systems, such as the health sector, vital statistics, national identity system, medicolegal death investigation, and others?
Yes
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
To achieve coordination, cooperation, and interoperability amongst various government agencies that govern civil registration, vital statistics compilation and identity management, a stakeholder coordination mechanism should be established. This coordination mechanism can take the form of an inter-agency civil registration, vital statistics and identity management committee, with representatives from each of the stakeholder agencies. Alternatively, a stakeholder coordination mechanism can be a single government agency empowered to coordinate the activities of civil registration, vital statistics and identity management stakeholders and oblige stakeholders to collaborate with the coordinating entity.
The Registration of Births and Deaths Act makes no provision for a national coordinating committee or any similar structure. However, the Statistical Service Act makes provision for a Statistics Advisory Committee consisting of 25 members who have technical competence in the production and use of statistics. It includes a senior representative of the Births and Deaths Registry and the National Identification Authority along with other senior government officials and two academics.
