Despite years of reforms and improvements to Namibia’s civil registration systems, only 53% of children in the country have birth certificates, with rural communities continuing to face the biggest obstacles.

This was revealed on Monday during the civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) strategic plan validation workshop, where Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) representative Pauline Enkono presented findings on birth and death registration trends across the country.

Enkono said regions such as Khomas and Erongo recorded higher numbers of children with birth certificates, while Kavango West ranked among the regions with the lowest registration levels.

She said birth registration remains heavily affected by long travel distances, poor road infrastructure, poverty, undocumented parents, absent fathers, paternity disputes and cross-border migration.

“Registration is often reactive when documentation is required for school enrolment, social grant applications or maintenance purposes,” Enkono explained.

She said many parents only register children once official documents become necessary later in life, rather than shortly after birth.

The findings presented at the workshop showed that timely birth registration improved from 53% in 2016 to 61% in 2021, but officials acknowledged that a large percentage of births are still registered late.

Barriers identified

A CRVS strategic plan document discussed at the workshop noted that regional birth registration levels have historically varied between 50% and 90%, particularly in rural and non-institutional births. The document further identified barriers such as “long distances”, “low literacy levels”, “language problems” and “cultural restrictions in naming the child”.

The strategy proposes expanding mobile registration services to remote communities and schools while improving online registration systems and coordination between government institutions.

Enkono said rural communities remain disproportionately affected because some villages are visited by registration officials only sporadically.

While birth registration continues to struggle, death registration statistics showed significantly better performance nationally.

According to the presentation, death registration stands at 93%, while timely death registration has consistently remained above 99%.

Complete death registration reportedly improved from 76% in 2018 to 98% in 2021.

However, officials warned that challenges remain in accurately recording causes of death, particularly in rural areas where many deaths occur outside health facilities.

The workshop also highlighted concerns about weak coordination between health information systems and civil registration databases, shortages of trained personnel, and delays in processing records.

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