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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
Zambia
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Zambia
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.
Both the Registration of Persons Act and the Statistics Act are silent on this issue, although the Statistics Act provides for general cooperation between statistical agencies (public bodies that collect, compile or disseminate statistics under a written law) and the Zambia Statistics Agency.
Does the law block the use of technology, such as electronic collection, transmission and storage of data, within the civil registration system?
Yes
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.
Some provisions in the legal framework specify specific modes of communication. The legal framework requires notices for civil events to be submitted by informants to the Registrar in person, with the information on those notices being verified and signed in the presence of the Registrar. This would be a bar to electronic submission of such notices. However, these directions are contained in rules, which could be easily amended.
The Births and Deaths Registration Act requires that notices of birth or death and medical certificates of the cause of death be transmitted from district offices to the Registrar-General “by registered post”and so would require amendment by Parliament to authorize electronic transmission of this data.
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?
No
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 Births and Deaths Registration Act and its subsidiary enactments make no provision for a national coordinating committee or any similar structure, and analysis of other Zambian legal instruments available to the reviewer did not identify any provisions relevant to this question.
