For easy reference in the context of a transfer of work from the IDRC’s Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems to the UNFPA, ODW has collected here the Center’s series of knowledge briefs on gender and CRVS.
The Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems launched a knowledge brief series that aims to uncover gender bias and barriers, share case studies and emerging findings, and recommend priority areas and solutions.
This series provides crucial support to CRVS stakeholders – helping inspire action and promote adoption of good practices. It builds on the outcomes of an event held in early 2018 (Making the Invisible Visible: CRVS as a Basis to Meeting the 2030 Gender Agenda) and a side event at the United Nations World Data Forum in October 2018 (Civil Registration as a Tool for Women’s Empowerment).
In partnership with Open Data Watch (ODW), three knowledge briefs (each containing four papers) were released in 2019 and 2020. These were written by subject matter experts and published quarterly. Themes and topics include gender data gaps, social protection, legal frameworks and the protection of women’s and girls’ rights.
Knowledge Brief 1: Why CRVS systems matter for women and girls
The first knowledge brief in the series, containing four papers, sets the stage for a series of discussions within the topic of CRVS for women. The first paper provides an overview of the motivations and objectives of the Knowledge Brief Series. The other three papers serve to then provide a detailed introduction to CRVS for women and its role in the sustainable development agenda specifically, before delving into more detailed topics within the space such as financing, gender related SDGs and capacity-building.
Here are the four papers of the first knowledge brief :
- Making the Invisible Visible: How Strong CRVS Systems Can Empower Women and Girls – Introduces the knowledge series, including its background and objectives.
- Leaving No One Behind: CRVS, Gender, and the SDGs – Offers an overview of why CRVS is important for women and girls and where there are gaps in research.
- Harnessing CRVS Systems for the Gender Related SDGs: Opportunities and Challenges – Examines gender-relevant indicators within the Sustainable Development Goals and their connections to CRVS through a gender lens.
- The Costs and Benefits of CRVS as a Tool for Women’s Empowerment – Explores some of the practical barriers and opportunities to expanding CRVS systems, including costs and investment.
Knowledge Brief 2: Strengthening CRVS Systems, Overcoming Barriers and Empowering Women and Children
The second knowledge brief contains an introductory editorial and four papers authored by experts in the field. It moves beyond the case for strengthening CRVS systems to support gender equality, to discussing specific barriers, solutions and actions. The first paper uses case studies in China, Syria and Morocco to highlight the need for a life-course approach. This involves registering vital events from birth to death, including marriage and divorce, so women and children can be included, protected and provided for. The remaining three papers unpack the structural, political and social factors affecting the registration of women and children. They also propose ways to address these issues, such as: linking national ID registers with CRVS systems, engaging communities to increase registration rates, and coordinating with the health sector to strengthen CRVS systems.
Here is the introductory editorial and the four papers of the second knowledge brief:
- Strengthening CRVS Systems, Overcoming Barriers and Empowering Women and Children – A brief introductory editorial summarising key messages from across the four papers.
- The Life-Course Approach to Civil Registration and Vital Statistics: a Crucial Tool to Advance Gender Equality – Uses three country case studies to demonstrate the importance of registering all vital events from birth through death.
- Gender Equity in Guinea: How Perceptions, Behaviors and Social Norms Affect the Civil Registration of Women and Girls in West Africa – Examines the impact of socio-structural norms and proposes solutions to address them.
- Linking National ID and CRVS Systems: an Imperative for Inclusive Development – Discusses how linking ID and CRVS systems can help ensure no one is left behind.
- Empowering Women and Girls Through Civil Registration Systems – Explores how coordination with the health sector can improve vital event registration for women and children.
Knowledge Brief 3: Moving Beyond Making the Case: Actions Needed to Support CRVS Systems for Women and Children
The third and final brief in the series takes a deep dive into best practices and key challenges for national governments and the international community to improve CRVS systems. A case study from the Philippines offers an example of a strong CRVS system and spells out the key actions that need to be taken to develop something similar in other contexts. Two fictional examples from Kenya and the Philippines highlight the struggles marginalized populations face in navigating CRVS systems due to their unique circumstances.Another explores the gender data gap in mortality reporting systems through CRVS systems worldwide. In each case, authors recommend concrete solutions to the challenges discussed. The final paper concludes the full knowledge brief series by offering summaries of all three briefs and their individual papers (12 in all).
Here are the four papers of the third knowledge brief:
- Making CRVS Systems Work for Women and Children: A Country Perspective – Offers a country case study of the Philippines and documents how the Philippines Statistics Authority ensured its CRVS system worked for women and children.
- From Cradle to Grave: Documenting the Footprints of Vulnerable Women Through Life – Shines a spotlight on interrelated CRVS policy, human rights, and practical issues between gender and CRVS through two fictional profiles of women in Kenya and the Philippines.
- The Dangers of Gender Bias in CRVS and Cause of Death Data: The Path to Health Inequality – Examines how CRVS systems’ death and cause of death reporting highlight significant inequalities and gender biases, even in high-functioning systems.
- Learnings from the Knowledge Brief Series on Gender and CRVS – Concludes the knowledge brief series and shares summaries of each brief including the four papers within them.
